HastyWords's Blog

POET BIO: Claire is a very colorful person. To her living life in “full color” represents emotional richness, diversity, and authenticity. She may seem aloof but only because she gets lost inside the vibrancy of life all around her. Her mind moves like watercolor turning ordinary moments into art. She doesn’t just see color she feels it, dreams it, speaks it.

IN FULL COLOR

She lives inside hues

Where blue feels quiet

And covers her like a blanket

Where yellow feels joyous

Like runaway laughter

And she wonders

At the color of light

How it changes tone

How it speaks fast and slow

And feels excited or calm

All the different colors

Finding their way into sound

Into feelings, into thoughts

She mixes these colors

When she closes her eyes

And dreams them into reality

Once she opens them again

NOTE: This post is part of the Cheer Peppers Blogging month that happens annually. #CheerPeppers2025

NOVEMBER 2025 CHEER PEPPERS BLOGGING TEAM…..

***CHEER PEPPERS DOING 30 POSTS IN 30 DAYS….

Amy at

https://lotusgirl80.wordpress.com/

Ellise at

https://bipolarandmotherhood.ca/

Marley at

https://dailybastardette.com/

Ocean Bream at

https://oceanbream.wordpress.com/?_gl=1%2Avwggoh%2A_gcl_au%2AMTQ2NTc4NTAyLjE3NTk1NzAwNzIuNTA0NjE5NDUyLjE3NjE0ODk3MjMuMTc2MTQ4OTczNw

***CHEER PEPPERS DOING 3 POSTS PER WEEK…..

Jacque at

https://www.jacquestonehocker.com/

Janet at

Sometimes the news gets to me. I mean how could it not? I’m trying to hold onto joy but it’s like a slippery trout trying to jump from my hands into a frying pan.

Some days

I still wake up

Inside the ache

Of remembering

Of something

I’d promised

I’d outgrow

It sits on my eyelids

It climbs into my chest

It crawls under my skin

Like an uninvited cold

Waiting to be noticed

And I notice

Fast these days

And

I feed it coffee

Buy it an omelet

Listen to its fear

Its anxious worry

There was a time

I thought healing meant

Drowning it out

With worship

Or music

Or positive quotes

Burying it deep enough

To forget it exists

But I never could

Erase it for too long

Before it wrote

Its name again

Between every word

Of every thought

So I spend the day

Listening as a friend

And I put it to bed

Tuck it in and

Whisper goodnight

Until it sinks

Into my pillow

And I fall into

The hollow of it

Once again

Summer was born on the hottest day of the year in a field of weeds in the middle of a family reunion. She is like a weed in so many ways. She embodies growth, freedom, and colorful rebellion. She doesn’t wait for permission to belong she just grows into the spaces she wants to be a part of.

She is a beekeeper and is going to school to be a nurse. As some weeds hold the soil together when flowers fade she organizes community events to help her circle coexist in a beautifully diverse world. Diversity isn’t always comfortable. It’s wild. It’s messy. It’s beautiful.

UNDER THE SUMMER SUN

We were never meant

To be the same

Some of us are roses

With a thousand thorns

Some of us are wildflowers

And stubborn as hell

But we still find ways

To twist our roots

Around each other

Sharing the sun

The storms

And the dirt

That grow us

Our beauty was never

About sameness

It was always about

Growing together

Like a garden

Under the summer sun

NOTE: This post is part of the Cheer Peppers Blogging month that happens annually. #CheerPeppers2025

NOVEMBER 2025 CHEER PEPPERS BLOGGING TEAM…..

***CHEER PEPPERS DOING 30 POSTS IN 30 DAYS….

Amy at

https://lotusgirl80.wordpress.com/

Ellise at

https://bipolarandmotherhood.ca/

Marley at

https://dailybastardette.com/

Ocean Bream at

https://oceanbream.wordpress.com/?_gl=1%2Avwggoh%2A_gcl_au%2AMTQ2NTc4NTAyLjE3NTk1NzAwNzIuNTA0NjE5NDUyLjE3NjE0ODk3MjMuMTc2MTQ4OTczNw

***CHEER PEPPERS DOING 3 POSTS PER WEEK…..

Jacque at

https://www.jacquestonehocker.com/

Janet at

POET BIO: Meet Camilla. She is deeply respectful of her heritage. She is the keeper of her roots and a collector of memories. She gathered the stories of strength from the generations before her and carries them each as a whisper in her heart. This respect for her culture is the grounding force that shapes her purpose.

She believes she is the living continuation of her ancestors’ dreams. She works to honor the hands that built the path she walks on. She believes the past doesn’t hold her back but it lifts her up.

ROOTED

I carry echoes in my pocket

Of those who built my path

Like them I fight for air

For time to dream

For the rhythm of courage

To fortify my bones

I work in their shadow

And I bloom

Rooted in their soil

Grateful

Unfinished

Alive

Because they first were

NOTE: This post is part of the Cheer Peppers Blogging month that happens annually. #CheerPeppers2025

NOVEMBER 2025 CHEER PEPPERS BLOGGING TEAM…..

***CHEER PEPPERS DOING 30 POSTS IN 30 DAYS….

Amy at

https://lotusgirl80.wordpress.com/

Ellise at

https://bipolarandmotherhood.ca/

Marley at

https://dailybastardette.com/

Ocean Bream at

https://oceanbream.wordpress.com/?_gl=1%2Avwggoh%2A_gcl_au%2AMTQ2NTc4NTAyLjE3NTk1NzAwNzIuNTA0NjE5NDUyLjE3NjE0ODk3MjMuMTc2MTQ4OTczNw

***CHEER PEPPERS DOING 3 POSTS PER WEEK…..

Jacque at

https://www.jacquestonehocker.com/

Janet at

POET BIO: Wilma was born in a garden under the soft amber light of the Harvest Moon. She believes everything we feel can be seen in the Earth’s rhythms. The rain reflects our tears, thunder echoes our rage, flowers bloom with our joy, and still water mirrors our peace.

She is steady, nurturing, and quietly powerful. You will often catch her in moments of deep contemplation and reflection. She believes we are the magic that the earth grew.

WE ARE THE MAGIC

People are like the weather, I think

Sometimes cloudy

Or clear and bright

Sometimes like the sunshine

Bright and a bit too cheery

Some sound like thunder

And some drift like snow

Our hearts can bloom

A thousand different colors

Or sit silent inside a storm

We are not separate from nature

We are its moods come to breathe

Our anger is fire, our grief a wave

Our joy a bird dancing in the sky

All of us flowers and trees

Twisting and growing

In the garden of us

NOTE: This post is part of the Cheer Peppers Blogging month that happens annually. #CheerPeppers2025

NOVEMBER 2025 CHEER PEPPERS BLOGGING TEAM…..

***CHEER PEPPERS DOING 30 POSTS IN 30 DAYS….

Amy at

https://lotusgirl80.wordpress.com/

Ellise at

https://bipolarandmotherhood.ca/

Marley at

https://dailybastardette.com/

Ocean Bream at

https://oceanbream.wordpress.com/?_gl=1%2Avwggoh%2A_gcl_au%2AMTQ2NTc4NTAyLjE3NTk1NzAwNzIuNTA0NjE5NDUyLjE3NjE0ODk3MjMuMTc2MTQ4OTczNw

***CHEER PEPPERS DOING 3 POSTS PER WEEK…..

Me

Jacque at

https://www.jacquestonehocker.com/

Janet at

https://substack.com/@janetjonesbann?r=9ogxc&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=profile

It’s that time of year again. I am making the creative commitment to blog with the Cheer Peppers #nanopoblano2025 again as I have for the last several years. This year I am hoping to have three new blog posts each week for the next month.

Over the next four weeks, I’ll be blending my passion for art with my love for people, poetry and mental health. I had been struggling with a way to marry my love of words with my newly found love of art and this might just be a fun way to do that.

Each blog will introduce you to a new character I have drawn for HastywordsArt.com. They will each have their own story with their own poem which I hope will reflect on the beauty of being human. You’ll also have a chance to explore related merchandise if something (or someone) speaks to you. But more than that, I hope these posts are a reminder that we’re all works of art in progress.

So, stay tuned and join me on this little adventure. Let’s discover some magic together!

#CheerPeppers2025 #nanopoblano2025

I haven’t been here much because I’ve been dreaming big. And I don’t mean passive dreaming. I mean the kind that keeps you awake at night. The kind where you’re learning, creating, solving, and staying up late chasing something beautiful that doesn’t quite exist yet.

Trying to bring dreams to life is hard and passionate work. At my age, the learning takes longer, the tech feels overwhelming, and sometimes the puzzle seems impossible. But it’s also the most complete I’ve ever felt.

With plenty of help from people I love I have been building something that connects my heart, my art, and now… my daughter’s dreams too.

When I first started painting, it was just a way to bond with her. We spent many hours filled with laughter, brushes, and color. What started as mother-daughter art time became an ambitious journey neither of us expected. She grew up, went off to study graphic design, found the love of her life, got engaged, and I kept painting. I filled rooms with art supplies and dreams that refused to fade.

Now, years later, she’s come full circle — bringing her own creative voice to HastyWordsArt.com. Her new collections give us a small glimpse into who she is. Each piece reflects not just her artistic training, but her heart. She has always seen beauty in the small things, the quiet spaces, the whimsical corners of life.

I’ve always believed art makes life beautiful. And now, watching my daughter’s work come alive beside mine, I realize that sharing that beauty is part of the dream.

This website, our little creative world, isn’t just for us. It’s for other artists too. I want to build a space where dreamers who don’t have the time or tech skills can still share their art with the world. Where creativity feels like community.

So, if you visit our site, I hope you’ll take a moment to explore Audi Bell’s new collections and show her some love. Every comment, every share, every purchase helps a young artist continue to dream. It helps us keep building something that gives other artists a home too.

Dreaming big is never easy. But dreaming together? That’s where the magic happens.

Words are powerful and we should learn to master them for the benefit of the world. When I ran the “bully” series on this blog I’d get private messages that said, “Words are just words. They don’t harm. Only actions harm.”

Words aren’t “just words.” They shape how we think, how we act, and what we believe is possible.

So I want to talk about the word “woke” because social media and politics caused a lightening speed pejorative semantic shift that we dont often get to see happen right before our eyes. Sometimes it takes decades or generations for these types of shifts to happen.

It’s one of those words I don’t use because it doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone. It’s a word that clouds conversation and because it was used in situations that abused its true meaning… it became a word easily weaponized.

The word “woke” at its root simply means being awake to injustice, choosing empathy, and caring about fairness. That’s it.

Over time the word got twisted into an insult. The left unintentionally set the stage by stretching the word beyond its original meaning (in marketing, by virtue signaling, and/or using it as a shorthand word for “morally superior”.) The right capitalized on that by turning it into a punchline. A powerful word that once called people to awareness now often sparks division instead.

I don’t use it because now it’s used to stir fear and fuel division. I have no use for words that turn compassion into a weapon.

I will use my words, sentences, and paragraphs to stay awake to the struggles of others. I will choose to care in the ways I know how and can.

Words do indeed matter so ask yourself when you write or speak what your intentions are because they bring actions to life.

BE MY EYES: A colorful pastel drawing I did of a butterfly

The bleary comes

To meet the weepy

Before sitting down

Next to sleepy

So I try to find

A place to rest

Where peace

And calm exist

But all to often

Moody comes

With sad

To steal

Whatever’s left

There are a few things I’ve learned in my 54 years of life. I feel like I should have learned more but I got a few truths I live by.

1- If someone doesn’t love you or like you don’t spend energy trying to change that. The only exception is if there was once love then fight for it but you really do have to decide if it’s really worth the fight. Sometimes there is still love but it’s changed and that will require new boundaries and new rules of engagement.

2- Don’t sweat the small stuff. There are plenty of big battles to prioritize so don’t waste energy on the little things.

3- There will be lots of people just aching to make you the villain in their story. Trauma will cause them to need you to be the villain. You don’t have to play that character. You can walk away.

4- How you react to someone’s behavior is on you. Stop letting other people pull reactions from you that are out of your character. Too many people climb that ladder of oneupmanship and when that ladder falls all parties are injured. The key is to stay off that ladder.

5- Balance is what makes the universe work. Extremism is the real evil we fight. Within ourselves, on a physical and molecular level. I include political and religious extremism in that. Far right or far left extremism always has the same result and it always involves hate for something or someone.

I had so many nightmares last night. And I spent the morning trying to figure out what was on my mind. Sometimes you just have to reflect on who you are and what you believe because the news, the back biting, the name calling even as a joke can start to gunk up your heart.

Bad stuff is happening. It always has and it seems like it’s getting worse. It is more important than ever to focus on kindness, on exposing the dark with our light. We can’t allow ourselves to get folded into the hate. We must remember to be the balance the world needs.

BE MY EYES: an art piece I did from a ruined canvas. It’s pink and blue with blood shot monster eyes peeking through what looks like a wall of muscle.