Felipe Adan Lerma

or can I buy you a coffee? Oh god, it’s starting to rain. That’s okay. I don’t mind getting wet. Paris is the most beautiful in the rain. – Midnight in Paris Movie Quotes

Le Refuge

Le Refuge

Rue Lamarck

Lamarck – Caulaincourt

Lamarck – Caulaincourt

Rue de Beaujolais

Le Palais Royal

I’m sure many readers will resonate with this week’s guest Barbara Carter, living with a burst of creativity inside and not knowing how to express it – life always gets in the way!

BARBARA CARTER was born in Nova Scotia, Canada. She is a visual artist and writer and is currently working on a series of memoirs focusing not only on her personal journey but highlighting important issues such as: anxiety, depression, loss and grief and the not so great ways of dealing with inner pain. Also living with a narcissistic mother. Barbara has an amazing ability to shed light on the sometimes dark subject matter with her ability to use humor. She also instructs art classes and offers guidance in writing memoir. The focus of her work is on examining the past in order to heal and move on.

My story is about learning how to follow my inner voice/intuition/soul.

As a child…

This is a really impressive memoir, in part of what the reader can learn about bi-polarism and how it affects a person; in other parts it shows a writer insightful enough into the psyche of non-affected people to explain his feelings in a manner that grant us eye-opening and aha moments.
I have friends who suffer with the condition who didn’t have the gift to explain things as well as the author. Not following an entirely linear approach we get thrown in at the deep end and unwrap childhood and other ages later. Taking an extreme moment in the author’s young life, being arrested and imprisoned, as the starting point gives us an immediate sense of the volatility of the condition and brings in more than a mere sympathy perspective. How to make the police offers understand, the judge understand, anyone understand the difference between criminal activity and mental health…

GLEANINGS FOUND HERE AND THERE:

“Taz,” courtesy of Jon Ring.

When you suffer because of discrimination, there’s always an urge to speak out. But even if you spend a thousand years speaking out, your suffering won’t be relieved.

Only through deep understanding and liberation from ignorance can you be liberated from your suffering.

When you break through to the truth, compassion springs up like a stream of water. With that compassion, you can embrace even the people who have persecuted you.

When you’re motivated by desire to help those who are victims of ignorance, only then are you free from your suffering and feelings of violation. 

Don’t wait for things to change around you. You have to practice liberating yourself. Then you will be equipped with the power of compassion and understanding, the only kind of power that can help transform an environment full of injustice and discrimination.

You…

Pont Neuf

Pont Neuf

L’arrosoir, Rue Oberkampf

Quai d’Orléans

Le Saint-Régis

Rue Saint-Louis en l’Île

Quai d’Orléans

Rue des Barres