Featured

Simply A Moment | 11.15.24 …

Published on by Honoré8 Comments

On this date, 82 years ago, I made my entrance into the world at 7:46 PM, EST. Today is my birthday – technically my 83rd trip around the sun has come to a conclusion. And I’m off on the next round. I’ve lived a good life, for the most part. Not perfect – whatever that is – just “good enough” and what isn’t/wasn’t is mostly due to my own doings .

I called myself OWAY before I learned to correctly pronounce my name: Honoré. It is French and means honorable and is very common in France. Has been a dream of mine to visit Paris, especially to walk the Rue du Saint Honoré. Or to sit at an outside café with a latté. Earlier today, I thought I might go to Starbucks and get a latté – I need a few items from Whole Foods and there’s a SBUX next door… Then, I recalled my neighborhood coffee shop – Zeke’s – is only about 6-8 blocks North. I could use the walk and exercise and fresh air. Ah yes, I have options …and isn’t that what life is all about? Except, not all of us on this planet earth, do (have options). I am definitely still trying to sort that out. And as I sort, to make decisions and take steps that I pray and trust don’t deprive others of their options. To practice the Golden Rule: “Do onto others what you would have then do unto you.” C’ept we don’t practice such…

At this juncture in my writing and thinking, I have circa 277 words and probably more to come in the next 10 minutes left of Writers’ Hour, the 8 AM Mon-Fri Journaling session I join on Zoom. Outside, I hear the sounds of equipment on the street – for the past month, 5 days a week, my street has been torn up in the morning and resurfaced in the evening. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. They didn’t show up yesterday; I wondered why.

Somewhere among my “files”, I have a list I made of 70+ things when I turned 70…wonder if I still have it? It’s a possibility and perhaps the list fairy will do me a favor and unearth it, if I do.

To Be Continued – hopefully!

376 words

Cheers~

PS. I didn’t make it to the grocery store or a coffee shop. Perhaps tomorrow.

My Creative Journey ~ 2026

Published on by Honoré3 Comments

It’s a cold out, on this partially sunny and mostly cloudy, winter day…no doubt about it! The current temp is 30 degrees, up from this morning’s start at 18 ! I’d thought about going for a walk and definitely decided against that ~ too cold! Besides, I’d also be “called” to clear the snow ~ the perhaps 2 inches plus we received overnight ~. A “dusting” to clean (brighten) up the snowfall we had last week.

Now that it is 2:45 PM and counting, I’ve frittered much of today away doing a bunch of minor mind-less tasks: after my 8 AM – 9 AM Writers’ Hour Zoom: fix, eat breakfast and wash the dishes; join two more zooNs, 10 AM to Noon and Noon to 12:45 or so; read the proverbial emails: daily news; connections with family and friends; the endless ads and requests for money; etc, etc, etc!

Saturday I spent a couple hours at my “local” Barnes & Noble Bookstore ~ a little over 13 miles- in Bowie, MD. There is a store near Howard University, certainly closer , 2.8 miles but inventory is limited for the store primarily serves Howard University students and faculty!

I went to B&N to pick up James Clear’s The Atomic Habits Workbook; I’d read and have had Atomic Habits since its 2018 publication! While there, I discovered Julia Cameron’s new – 2025- book: The Daily Artist’s Way : 366 Meditations for Creative Living. I’m looking forward to spending the balance of 2025 and most of 2026 with this book. My thinking is to share this Artist’s Way Journey via this blog. Should be interesting.

I find it “hard to believe” that Christmas is just 15 days ~ two weeks ~ away! Where DID the time go? And also, there are just 20 minutes left before I switch gears and spend the next two hours, +/-, practicing an embroidery project, new to me is that stitching activity. I rather like it. I think perhaps because I’m reminded of my childhood “artist’s way” creations, made with newsprint and crayolas. Back then – late ‘40s ~ early ‘50s, one could buy a ream -500 sheets – of newsprint for a quarter! Coupled with a fresh box of crayons: I was in seventh heaven!

My plan is to touch base the end of 2025. Do have the very best last 16 days of this year: 2025! Happy Holidays!

Cheers~

simply a moment | 7.15.25 …

Published on by Honoré3 Comments

The interesting thing about digital blogging, note making/taking, etc : One never knows when opening a program, what one will find. My experience is this: I can count on the fact that a CHANGE has occurred when I open WordPress. Were I using the program on a daily basis, I’d probably be more appreciative BUT, since I don’t, it’s just an irritation.

Anyway, it’s the 15th of the month and time for my Simply A Moment post. It’s hotter than Hades in these parts ~ temp is currently 88 degrees Fahrenheit and presumably that’s today’s high! One must be thankful for Mother Nature’s small favors…

This morning, as I stood at the kitchen sink, waiting for my tea water to boil, I stared out the window and was delighted to see this picture:

The pink flowers of the Crepe Myrtle were perfect against the blue sky and white clouds…especially on another H-O-T July morning. I filled my electric kettle with water and turned it on to boil so that I could make tea and prepare to join the London Writers’ Salon 8 AM Writers’ Hour daily, Mon -Fri, session. Some mornings, I’ve drafted a blog post; this morning I didn’t. I instead wrote a To Do list, portions of which I’ll share:

OH! A rowdy opening to Writers’ Hour on this day! T’was fun! Slept well and am ready for another “fun-filled day of purging” and , and, etc. Hopefully I’ll purge first then settle in to tackle: and in no special order –

Junk Journal : Find Tags …

Daily Pages: More “pointillism” ?…

5 P Zoom …

Butterfly Embroidery – start a new hexagon …

Walk ~ maybe. Check forecast for PM possibility; Too hot! …

Paper Purge – a n’er ending process, ALL of MY OWN MAKING! A SUPER BAD HABIT I NEED TO BREAK! STARTING TODAY! And how many days have I said that?! And the HABIT IS: Writing stuff down on any/all available pieces of paper. Think I’ll see if I can find any tips on line! Yeah! …

BLOG POST ~ TODAY!

Read/Begin Abigail Thomas’ A Three Dog Life

A good start for another very hot summer day! Best spent in A/C. Stay Cool!

Oh,BTW: The birds hatched and moved on and now we can enter/leave the house in peace!

Cheers~

Continue reading “simply a moment | 7.15.25 …” →

simply a moment | 6.15. 25 …

Published on by Honoré4 Comments

2:10 PM…I’ve enjoyed a very leisurely morning, punctuated by listening at least 5+ hours to my favorite Sunday Morning WSHU Baroque Music program, all the while, sitting at the table, staring out the windows at greenery that surrounds; trees; grasses; bushes; some roof tops on this grey almost first day of Summer ~ 20 June 2025 ~ just 5 days away.

I can’t stop asking, wondering : Where/When did the Spring season go? Will summer pass by as quickly? And what is the long-range forecast? This Spring, the bushes in front of my house have been selected to house the nest of three mockingbird bird eggs. I’m sure you wonder: “How do you know?”

Well, dear reader, t’is simple, sort of : about three weeks ago, I noticed that there were always several birds that managed to be perching on the bannisters on either side of the steps to the front door … whenever I opened the door to step out, “feel the temp”, pick up a package or check the mailbox. Almost simultaneously, birds, 4-5 – all the same species, would appear and land on the bannisters on either side of the steps leading up to the front door, land on the electric wires that ran to/from the house or perch on tree limbs in the front. Those birds were menacing, noisy, swooping and swarming, doing everything towards keeping me inside or from going outside. Yesterday – Saturday- as I was talking to my lawn service provider – I’m still inside the house and talking through the screen; he’s standing on the same level as the bushes in front; and there are two + birds, perched on tree limbs and electric wires ~ watching. He listens and pulls back the foliage of the bush closest to the steps.

Lo and Behold : There is a nest with THREE sizeable eggs! AHA! The mystery is solved. He lets the bushes go back to their normal state and I shake my head in awe and appreciation: A raison d’être ~ a reason for being.

The birds are still present, ever watchful and waiting whenever someone leaves or comes to the house or a package or mail delivered. My Internet searching suggests that it’s time for the mockingbirds ~ or so they appear ~ to hatch and get on with their timetable. That’s still to be determined.

In the meantime, for the most part I leave and enter the house via the back door! T’is easier for all parties involved!

simply a moment | 5.15.25…

Published on by Honoré4 Comments

~flowers on my walk~

“…the rain in Spain…” and so we are in Day 2 of spring rain and as my late husband always reminded when one – I – began to complain : “…it’s for the earth…” INDEED! Everything’s a brilliant “spring green” and luscious- looking, despite the ever-present grey sky. Hopefully, no doubt, the rain will subside a bit later this afternoon -after 3 PM – when I go for my walk/trek to and through the park.

Lately my walks have been coinciding with the elementary school’s – two blocks down the street – end of day. The same school my youngest grand niece, Kayla, attended, starting at age 4. She was so excited to be going to school and practically walked on air. She is now 25 years old and on Friday, graduates from University of Maryland’s Global College receiving her Bachelor’s Degree in ???

I have begun two new ~ dare I so dub?~ “art practices”. One is “embroidery” and the other, the painting art of “pointillism”. Both fit very well with my 2025 word: JOURNAL …for, of course, I can/do “date my work” ~ an aside: most people who work/ed in the public library (learn to) “date” stuff they write, make, take notes on, etc…a habit for sure!

Today, this AM, since I was in Writers’ Hour, I decided I’d “pen my blog post draft” as I was already on my iPad. So, I did. I wasn’t prepared for the fact that Word Press has “upped” the program and so I am also learning the program’s new features, etc. Give me pen and paper! Yes I know – only too well – there are disadvantages but I’ve been very comfortable using the medium for easily 80 of my 82 years… And as attributed to Michelangelo: “I am still learning!” Indeed I am!

Writers’ Hour has ended. On Wednesday’s we’re invited to join a “mingle” ~ 4-5 people are gathered in a small group and spend about 15 minutes sharing, “getting to know” one another. Always interesting, enlightening and encouraging .

10:41 AM Breakfast consumed and last load of laundry in the dryer. Clean up my breakfast dishes and schlepp my journaling tools back upstairs to my craft room…

The rain has stopped ~ at least for the time being…

Have a great day, whenever you read this!

Cheers~

On the Agenda ~ 2 April 2025

Published on by Honoré4 Comments

2:40 PM ~ ESDST: At the moment, I’m in a “quiet co-working” zoom session ~ we, currently 5, including me, are “memory keepers” or scrapbookers. Occasionally, one of us interrupts the silence to ask a question or share a project. At 1 PM-ish, two hours ago, I started the session planning to write this post. Two hours later, I finally sat down to do so. In a few minutes, we’ll all leave and move on to the other items on our individual agendas. For me, that means “time to take a walk and commune with Mother Nature.

Despite the dismal, cloudy and grey backdrop of the sky, Mother Nature’s bounty accompanies me on my walk, providing more opportunites to capture, with my iPhone camera, newly budding or blooming flowers, interesting cloud formations, and trees, that yesterday were colorful and flowering and today, are breaking forth with leaves in various shades of green.

I am trying to focus my energies on nature journaling, especially appealing this time of year. Mother Nature’s bounty and glory are at their peak . My daily walks to and through the neighborhood – and park, three blocks away, – put me smack dab in the middle of Spring.

AHHH!

March is for …

Published on by Honoré2 Comments

…Journaling, JOURNALING, using all sorts of media and tools: Pen, pencil, photos, digital text, voice recordings, NTS – notes to self; mind maps; sticky notes; calendar appointments: London Writers’ Salon, 8 AM, M -F, EST Writers’ Hour sessions and possibly 2 PM, and with myself as I watch TV – the news- or not; books I read – some fall in the “or not” category; text messages to family and friends; the occasional 2-3 times a month blog post , etc. If I think “it”, I’m prone to jot “it” down on a piece of paper and while that is perhaps an admirable practice, I find that I am often, most likely left with a very disorderly system of notes, ideas, TDLs – to do lists- and literally, rooms filled with this detritus. It is to laugh …and Yes! I do know that there are myriad ways: software programs and AI and products – notebooks, agendas, journals, sticky notes, on the market . Ask me how I know? I’ve tried all. And the major lesson I’ve learned: I’ve created not only a mess – especially for myself and anyone who comes after me and is assigned the task of sorting through these “vaults” to determine what to keep. A secret – to save time and energy: Don’t bother!

As I contemplate words, I think another candidate could be FOCUS ~ but it just doesn’t have the appeal, the siren’s call that accompanies Journal / Journaling.

Presuming I have the time, my plan that comes under the umbrella of my 2025 One Little Word – JOURNAL – is to get my “ducks (quack, quack) in a row. WH is ending; 247 words, thus far. TBC: MSSy 10 AM session…

I wrote the above two parapgraphs on 3 March, with the full intention, I think?, to publish. Dinna happen and here it is 15 March – 3/15/25 – and time for another monthly “Simply A Moment” post. Technically, I try to have those posts capture exactly what is or what’s close to being exactly the moment. So, today’s post should reflect the surrounding events on this day, at approximately 3:15 PM ~ cause there’s no way I was drafting , “penning” any words at 3:15 AM this morning! No way!

However, SAM is at the top of today’s “list of things to do,” along with Fix/eat breakfast; Write /Proof/Publish blog post; Attend Noon Zoom session and Pay property and income taxes …and whatever else undoubtedly will crop up …Ah YES! continue sorting and organizing my current sewing projects and “studio”.

Last year ~ 2024, I discovered “junk journaling”, a world-wide event that takes place January and July, each year. I decided I’d aim to junk journal every day in 2025. This will work ONLY IF and WHEN I truly focus on the doing part! Ya think?! Yep!

4:45 PM ~ Well, I missed my intent/appointment to resume this post by recounting my activity – i.e., whatever I’m doing at 3:15 PM. I was and still am on a zoom call; ostensibly we each are working on a memory keeping project ~ our free form discussion has covered a variety of subjects and are very lively and fun – so in effect, we are making new memories as we are also documenting previous moments of our lives.

And that’s the way it was today, 15 March 2025! How was your day?!

PS. I tried to get a picture of the Full Moon ~ this was the best I could do with my iPhone. Guess I need to reSEARCH how to take moon photos.

March Full Moon

simply a moment | 2.15.25 …

Published on by Honoré1 Comment

I got up this morning to join an all-day zoom – scheduled to run for 12 hours-fully intending to spend a goodly amount of time printing photos: 3 x 4, 4 x6 and/or 5 x7. All totaled, I have about 50 photos …

My next decision: Do I print here at home or send to Walgreens or a photo print service, e.g., Shutterfly, Persnickety, etc… The more I think about this, the more inclined I am to print at home, especially since looking out the window , I am greeted with grey sky and wet surfaces . Not exactly an invitation to go out! And I do have the tools/resources I need: printer; photo paper; and a fresh new ink cartridge. So, one wonders : “What’s the hold up?” And the answer is simple:

INDECISION!!! (Shhh- don’t tell anyone). I remember, when I was about 6 years old, my mother, sister, my mother’s friend, her two daughters and I were in downtown Muskegon, MI! T’was a Saturday, “shopping day” at the department stores. Everyone went to town to shop – both window and “for real.” I’d debated whether I would stay with my mother or go with Catty – my mother’s friend. I chose to stay with my mother … and then: At the last moment, after Catty crossed the street, I changed my mind. I darted across the street, in front of a car driven by a man who had his wife and two children in the car. He stepped on the brakes – hard – just as I appeared in front of his car. Needless to say, the world stopped. I recall hearing shrieks ~ from my mother, Catty, and the man driving. I was wondering what all the hoopla was. Both the man and Catty were “wasted.” He couldn’t drive; his wife had to take over. My mother had to support Catty, who was also wasted.

These days, I don’t dart in front of cars but I am still prone to be a tad indecisive. I think primarily because I am intrigued by a lot of things: ideas; practices; areas to explore; etc. Perhaps “curiosity” is a better word. Worth exploring …

…and in the meantime, I’ve printed not ONE photo, That’s the bad news. The good news; I have about 5 hours left on this day to complete the job! Guess I’ll get a “move on”!

Cheers~

Simply a Moment| 1.15.25.

Published on by Honoré6 Comments

The sky’s a brilliant blue, nary a cloud. The only white is snow, still very much here, clinging steadfastly to roofs and the ground. Our highs have been in the 20s, since our snowfall a week ago Monday. Even the birds and squirrels are staying put in warmer places. Can’t say I blame them.

I’m contemplating my own venture out “into the nature” as my grand niece Dolly (then age 3 years and now, mid 30s), dubbed going outside In today’s type of weather, her forays “out into the nature” are pretty much relegated to taking her boys to the school bus stop in the AM and meeting them, at said stop, in the PM. If I do venture out, it will be for a quick, brisk walk mid afternoon: today’s high is forecast to be 31 ~ feels like 21 degrees below zero. Brrr!

Fast Forward to today ~ Friday, 17th January:

I left off Wed, 15th Jan, with all good intentions to finish and publish this post – then 142 words, +/-, before the sun set. “Dinna” happen … Spent yesterday with quilting stitchin’ friends, catching up, sharing stories and just enjoying ourselves: good food, good tales, good time. Only one of us – the eldest ~ 82 years ~ is an “old cat lady” (definitely not me!). Psst: Quiet as it’s kept – or maybe not so – I’m second in the age line: only two weeks younger than she)….

I generally start the day’s writing with handwritten journaling on 5 x 8.5 papers, dot grid, disc punched, loose leaf papers. I often use mini sticky notes to plan as well as capture the day.

9:01 AM ~ Another WH ended and I’ve thus far, entered 272 words . I’m not a word counter, i.e., I don’t set a number of words per session goal tho’ perhaps I do aim – somewhat- to reach 500+, and during Jami Attenberg’s 1000 words weeks challenge . My basic goal is to establish the “write daily” habit throughout the day. And especially, to establish the habit of doing an evening writing session. I can do this tho’ it WILL BE A TRUE STRUGGLE ‘cause once the sun sets, so do I. However, the days are going to get longer – DST or not- and there’s no better time than the present to revise and ramp up my writing practices.

So I shall end this post with this quote from W. Timothy Galway:

“There is no need to fight old habits, start new ones instead.”

And for the record, this post, tho’ it’s taken me several days to finish, is a mere, plus or minus, 432 words. Onward!

To be continued!

Cheers~

1 January 2025|

Published on by Honoré6 Comments

Happy New Year!!!

I’m finding it hard to believe that today is the beginning of not just a new month but also, a new year! When did 2024 go? Where? As I look around my office/craft studio, everything looks the same ~ even the December calendars that are still on the wall. Guess I need to do something about that.

This has been a very quiet day; no doubt, people are still recuperating from last night’s festivities…I’d planned to watch the ball drop from NYC and promptly slept through that! C’est la vie. Imagine my surprise this AM when I logged onto my iPhone and found a text message from a long-time-ago – I’m talking easily 50 years – old boyfriend. We had not kept in touch.

Apparently though, t’was much easier than my finding a couple books I’d been reading last night! Somehow they disappeared this morning. I’d searched high and low, several times, to no avail. Really could not figure out where the books were? A real puzzle…

As I started to go downstairs, I turned around and looked at the bed… Was that a hump I eyed under the spread? Hmmm. I walked over to the bed that I’d made up earlier, ran my hand across the section of the bedspread that looked a tad suspect and , Lo and Behold, YES! There were my books, under the spread, patiently waiting for me to discover and retrieve them. I personally think t’was the Time Thieves who’d discovered the error of their ways.

Whatever, I had my books and a story for today’s blog post. Which brings me to my 2025 One Little Word : JOURNAL!

Yes, JOURNAL was also my word a while back…I don’t know exactly when the first time was …I need to research that. But, JOURNAL seems fitting for 2025 – especially since I’m kicking off the year/month with Junk Journal January 2025 and I’ve several other journaling projects underway/or being formulated.

Who knows what other surprises are in store for 2025?

Wishing you your best year ever!

Cheers~