#TuesdayTreasures Guest Post by Mark Wayne Allen

Good Morning Friends,

It is always a pleasure to bring to you a fellow Bayou Writers Group member and our guest today, Mark Wayne Allen is no stranger to our blog. He's shared treasures and thoughts with us before and we've spotlighted his book. With this in mind, I'll turn the blog over to him.

Welcome back Mark!

Life is not living

I'm an author, yes, but I've lived an unusual life.

Those that know me, well, also know what it is to live a life. You may think that is a redundant statement, but from my point of view, "live", and, "life", are not synonymous. Let's take the terms one at a time, shall we?

By the dictionary:

Life means the state or condition of anything having the capacity to grow, reproduce, functional ability, and continual change until death.

If we take this definition at face value, it seems to encompass everything an entity needs to merit cognitive existence, but now let's define the other term.

By the dictionary:

Live means to be alive.

 Now, those are congruent terms having no real substance. My friends, I've died many deaths, through heart stoppages and being what "The Experts" term as brain dead. Those experts said I would never survive even 12-hours. They've also said that if I did survive that I'd be a mental vegetable the rest of my life.

You don't realize what you have until it's ripped away. I'm telling, you I don't think it's humanly possible to fathom everything that's right about anyone's world until everything they know and think understand has been whisked away.

I was up walking and talking 4-months after my first accident. After the second, I would never walk again. I had to re-learn to breathe, eat, and drink. My definitions of "life", and "live", are drastically different from the norm. I have lived normal only in my youth, but I won't say that I've been through the worst, even with my life tragedies.

If you ever want to see the other side, tour any major rehabilitation center. Don't stop at the rooms. There are intensive care units all over the place. Lives are changes daily due to horrible tragedies. With all due respect to the dictionary, my definitions are below:

Life is when the heart is pumping blood and there is brain activity.

Living is the state when a person shows cognition and can have some positive emotional responses from activities with others.

Simply put, I treasure living.

Wow, Mark, you sure have a way with words. Treasuring life and living is something we all need to do!

Mark Wayne Allen was born in Merryvillle, Louisiana where he now resides, but has lived in many states. Due to life tragedies, he is a quadriplegic.

A love of books inspired him to write down his own stories, which, over the years, has evolved to include all categories. From poetry to short stories to novels, his knowledge of the craft grew over time, and so did his love for it.

He wrote two short stories and several poems that were published in a short-lived e-zine called Dementia. In 2013, he published the science fiction book Star Siege which was written during his years at Louisiana State University. Since then, he has placed in several contests since and even had a first place poem. He writes regularly for The Voice Of Southwest Louisiana Magazine.

Having lived in the North, South, East, and West has given him the opportunity to talk with a diverse group of people as well as an appreciation for different cultures. Currently, he lives with his wife of many years, Kelley, and is an active part of the community. You can keep up with Mark through his Website,Facebook and Twitter.

Mark's book, 3 Lifetimes in 1 is available through Amazon in Paperback, on Kindle and now on Audible!

I hope you enjoyed today's treasure as much as I did and I hope you'll stop by each week for Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlight.

Until next time, take care and God Bless.

PamT