Charlapalooza is OPEN FOR VOTES!
The poems are written, and the voting is open...
Now read about the Mind Key member, editor and all-around amazing woman who started this crazy train, then continue scrolling to vote for your favorite poems.
Mother, blogger, cyclist, travel enthusiast, accountant and writer, Charla Dury blogs about her experience in humanity. Whether fact, fiction, poetry or creative nonfiction, Charla’s writing brings out the human experience in each of us.
“We are all part of one big human family and can relate to each other on multiple levels,” Charla said. “It doesn’t have to be only skin deep.”
One of the most profound reasons Charla blogs is to bring back a sense of community and connectedness that is often lost in the world of technology.
“In this day and age when we’re all only a touch/click away, I feel like we lose ‘touch’ with the world around us,” Charla said. “We only post the good on Facebook. My blog can sometimes not be so positive. I try to be real.”
This is perhaps more important now than ever. To keep herself connected, Charla participates in her kids’ activities whenever possible, gets in touch with her environment by bicycling, and builds an connected community online through her blog.
“Connections are an important part of the human experience. Humans crave (and need) to be connected to each other, to the environment and to community.”
To Charla, spirituality is just another connection to the peacefulness inside herself.
“I believe in a higher power. Someone/thing that guides the world. And I believe in doing all we can to be kind now, not because it will get us anywhere now or later, but because that is what’s right.”
Inspired by the global community of the myspace days, Charla’s blog began as a source of balance and introspection.
“Back in ye old Myspace days I had a blog and I connected with so many people. I realized that I wasn’t alone and didn’t have to feel alone in my singularity, in my uniqueness. We can be unique and still connect with people around us. It’s not like we become the same by sharing life experiences.”
Many of her friends have younger children, but not as many with older kids, who have different issues - teenagers, kids that have moved out, and dealing with the balance of being both a parent and an adult at this time, spurring her current blog, Charla’s Neverending Journey, to be about family issues, especially those with older kids.
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| The Dury Family |
“That constant journey of discovery and trying to figure out who the hell you are and what you want to be and what you want to do and I think that’s really hard.”
That difficulty is part of the reason why her blog covers a variety of topics. Perhaps the one undertone that runs through them all is finding time each day, however small, to do something for herself. In her search of a community that understands the difficulties of being a younger parent of older kids, she has created one in her blog.
“I blog so that I and other people won’t feel alone in our circumstance,” Charla said. “A sense of community. Everyone has something that they connect with people about. The blog is about what people get from it, connecting on different planes and different issues. How everybody no matter the circumstance can connect.”
Check out Charla’s brainchild (and baby), Charlapalooza, where the world suggests topics, and Charla and a competitor (in this case, Danielle Rose) write poems about them.
READ MORE ON CHARLAPALOOZA:
Mind Key on Charlapalooza
Charla's blog on Charlapalooza
by Charla Dury
Charla's musings: The origins of Charlapalooza and what it means to me
by Charla Dury
Charlapalooza Memories
by Rebecca Godina
How Charlapalooza Rocked my world
by Danielle Rose
Meet Charla: Charla Dury's Mind Key Introduction
by Danielle Rose
Link to Charlapalooza:
https://fs22.formsite.com/mindkey/form1/index.html
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