Monday! Monday! Mondays! are generally fairly well filled with household chores: laundry; trash out for Tuesday’s collection; planning the week’s agenda…
Today’s list also included going to the post office to mail state income tax return and walking Hazel – or rather I should say, being walked by Hazel – to/thru the park. The weather was delightful: sunshine , warm but not too hot; and the park was filled with children, caregivers – all enjoying this delightful Spring Day – not only a Monday and TAX filing day.
One neighbor delivered a bag of apples and cheeses; another – who likes to bake – a little box filled with very tasty mini-cakes. I made a long overdue list of this week’s “to do”agenda; one item included making an appointment on Friday for a mani/pedi. It’s been way too long for this treat.
We’ve had a delightful Spring day – not too hot and I’m feeling that I “done good.”
Plus, I had 4 Zoom sessions. One’s coming up in a few minutes so I guess I’ll review this post one last time and hit PUBLISH!
My Christmas Cactus has a third bloom; it delights me so – and is a welcome symbol of a spectacular time of year.
Note to Self:
“I am writing this post in the DayONE journal app. Perhaps I can make this DayONE journal entry also the focus of my blog post – it’s the 15th of the month and on this date, each month I try to post to my blog*, this space that you are now reading. Also, every morning, 8 -9 AM, Mon-Fri, for the past two years and 15 or so days, I’ve been writing during Writers’ Hour, with people from all over the world, joined by Zoom and heralded by hosts and hostesses of the fantastic . Covering all the time zones in the world and offered M-F, four times daily, WH provides encouragement, companionship, camaraderie, celebration. The latter, for many people proudly share the advent of publication of their book or play… their writing!
How do I deal with uncertainty?
My aim is not to publish a book, persé; the closest format might be called a photobook tho’ my emphasis is on the words, not the photos.
Today’s DayONE prompt asks and my answer: …with uncertainty – pun intended. Life gets in the way of one’s plans. In my last entry, I shared that I was going to relocate this blog. I am still on that path though a wee bit behind. Determined it will happen; stay tuned!
Whatever. However. I have enough fodder that could/would constitute a goodly sized “book.” My aim is to create a new “publication date” so to speak. My assignment (to self): Get busy proofing the past two years accumulation of words and photos… To Get It Done! To take this habit and platform of focusing on writing nearly every morning that yields the results of my intentions and efforts.
I can do it!
WH is winding down; the music calling us back. I updated my journal entry. A word count is apparently a measure, barometer of progress and persistence. Today, I tallied 274 words. I think that’s a good start for my blog post for today and resumption of my aim to reestablish my goal to “make every day count.” I also added the hashtag #write24in24.
I love this quote’s photo background : sun rising over the mountains as a man climbs upwards on one. The word: CONFIDENCE in capital letters.
I think, wonder, if/that sometimes, perhaps many times, we are thwarted by our own lack of confidence in our abilities to create. I’m sure that relates to me and has all my life of 81 years and counting (hopefully).
To be continued. Stay tuned … and thank you for visiting and your support. Always welcomed and appreciated!
“Vitality shows not only in the ability to persist but in the ability to start over.” This quote, from one of today’s emails, totally resonated with me…fortunately, on the one hand ‘cause I “can” start over – still- not to get too macabre/maudlin but the quote: “Ask not for whom the bell tolls …” does come to mind or my favorite biblical passage from Ecclesiastes : “There is a season…”.
A Twos- Day …
Best laid plans …
Just 9 days are left in this February month of the Leap Year…looking at my calendar, plotted out at the end of January, my intentions and adrenaline and expectations, erroneously high …”this month I WILL:
A, B, C… X, Y, Z…
1…2…3…
Yes, No, Maybe …”
I debated, revisited, tried this, that, rescheduled … This month I will ( I didn’t) and other plans (dreams?) popped up on my agenda, lists and calendar … some done, most transferred to the next day, week, to “someday maybe”lists unless that particular day was the absolute last day ever to DO THAT THING! And April 15 is still nearly two months away and even that date is flexible, even if “at ruinous costs”…
I tried different calendars and ways to make lists… and I’m reminded of the old saying: “best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft a-gley…”
Fortunately I use pencil…and I have any number of calendars, list- making tools, both analog and digital formats. Perhaps therein lies the problem. Less is More? Hmmm…
Since January 15, we’ve had not one but two “significant” (easily described when winterS come and go with nary a flake seen) snow events. The first, January 15 and several days that week included seeing a fox in the back yard! Yep! A fox!
The second, not quite a month later, another measurable “snow fall”. There are still remnants on the deck and other areas where the sun doesn’t shine … but no further sightings of “the fox”.
Instead, this past week my view has been enhanced by the bloomin’ of this :
My Christmas Cactus Blooms!
Happy Holidays! And here’s to “Best Laid Plans”, Snow, Foxes, Christmas Cactus, and more February happiness surprises.
James Clear, in his/today’s weekly 3-2-1 Thursday email newsletter, invites readers to :
“Think about something you have been trying to make progress on recently. What is a completely different line of attack for solving it or a wildly different approach you can explore?”
I have a laundry list of “things”. I frequently meet ideas that entice…and I’m “on it!” Sadly, most likely will not come to fruition. Rather, I wind up falling deeper into Pandora’s box/hole. I have been around for a long time and this “condition” is not at all novel. In my work life, the “condition” served me well, as the genesis of an idea that was later translated as a grant proposal for federal and/or state funding awarded the library system, thus enabling services to traditionally un or underserved populations. For example: persons with hearing disabilities or those in the county’s detention center or adults who were “functionally illiterate”.
About two dozen years ago, I started blogging. Over the years, I’ve managed to maintain some semblance of presence in the digital world via my blog. I’m coming to the conclusion that 2024 will be my last year in this arena. My plan is to ‘live”, revisit my One Little Words one day each over a month or several. I’m hoping to answer questions, such as : How did the word show up ? What were the significances? Impacts?
Over the years, a former virtual assistant/friend’s husband made wooden replicas of my words…there are a total of 32 words, tho’ not every letter of the alphabet is represented. Since I have 32 wooden words and there are only 12 months in the year, I’m thinking I’ll visit 2-3 words each month. I won’t be sharing in abc order but rather, as a mood or season prevails.
My word to begin this year of “one little word revisit”, is WRITE. In 1976, when I first started working in the library in Prince George’s County MD, I “found” a key. Neither I nor my Admin Aide knew its origin or purpose. I wrote her a note, attached to the key: “File under “lost keyholes.” She did. Every time I recall this story, I laugh out loud, a huge smile on my face. Years later, my friend gave me a key with the word “WRITE” engraved on it. For the past twenty plus years, I’ve begun my day “writing.” It is indeed a habit that is as much a part of me as are my hands, mind, memories, routines and practices of every single day. I begin each day ‘s journey, pen in hand, prepared to write.
” The snow is snowing and the wind it is blowing But I can weather the storm What do I care how much it may storm I’ve got my love to keep me warm… “
… So sang Ella Fitzgerald, one of, if not the most revered female jazz songstress of the 40s, 50s, 60s – of all time. Click to listen to her rendition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldshQfzs6Jw
Today, we have had a weather phenomenon: SNOW! I actually don’t recall when we last had any appreciable snowfall …”snowmaggedon” in 2010 ? 2016? I must admit that the 2016 snow event totally left my memory…
My niece shared this photo of her pooch, Hazel, totally enjoying a romp in the snow – at about the time it first started, earlier this day. Hazel had just had a bath and was outside for a few minutes. “Look! Snow! I think I’ll flounder around in it for a few minutes!” And she did! Ah…simply a moment!
SNOW! Wonderful Snow!
Hope you’re enjoying the day – and SNOW too, if it fell your way.
I started this post on Sunday, 12.30.23, listening, as I have most Sunday mornings, to the wshu radio musical program: Sunday Baroque. I know, feel it in my bones, that I’ve been listening to this radio musical treat for at least 24 years of Sundays… Sometime, earlier in 2023, the program’s start time shifted. It appears to me that streaming took over. I know I can/could figure it out or at least contact the station or consult the website but I haven’t…”Next week,” I tell myself… the good news is this Sunday I get to tell myself “next year”! Solving this puzzle goes on – to the top ?- of my 2024 list…
What happened to Monday?
Today, Tuesday, 2 January 2024, I am writing this post during my daily 8 Am Writers’ Hour zoom session. I started this gig in 2022 ? (date escapes me ) and have been “faithful” to starting each day, M- F and within the 55 minutes circle of time, to writing. Some people do a word count; I haven’t —-yet!
This is the time of the beginning of the New Year when many resolve to make this the “best year ever.” I do not exclude myself. My plan is to “get my life in order” which is no small feat – I’ve been focusing on just that task for decades – and I do mean decades! Some days I win. Some days, I manage to take those three steps forward, backwards…
Many also choose a word of focus – a one word to guide one’s actions throughout the year. In my writer’s room, I am surrounded by my words, gathered since 2009, when I first started this practice of focusing on a single word for 365 days to help guide my thinking and actions. My first word : JOY.
This year, rather than choose a single word, I’ve decided to revisit all my words chosen and incorporated in my daily life these past 14 years. I have almost all those words in wooden form, each made for me by a dear friend’s husband.
I’ve shared the fact that I am also a big fan of Gretchen Rubin, as she often describes herself: “the Happiness Bully.” I first “met” Gretchen via her book, The Happiness Project, a 2009 publication. I have purchased and read all her Happiness -themed books; I listen to her weekly Happier podcasts with her sister, Liz Craft, also a writer, and prior to Covid’19 pandemic, attended her writer’s book tours (also with her sister). This year, 2024, I am participating in the year-long Happiness Project Revisited .
And, for me, a major component of Happiness is staying true to my daily intentions to bring peace, calm, order, via implementing beneficial habits to my daily life. One of those habits, dare I say life long, is writing. Write2024 also happens to be this year’s focus to listeners of Gretchen’s and Liz’s annual challenge. Again, dare I say “ A match made in heaven” ?! (Currently I’m typing this on my iPad and it is being uncooperative with making an Interabang: a combination question and exclamation mark. Grr!)
It is 10 AM. Writers’ Hour has been over an hour and I, distracted trying to make the Interrobang on the iPad, lost track of time as well as my train of thought. I see I shall have to take a photo of my words, A – Z…
To be continued…Do you have a word for 2024? Please share in the comments and a link to a blog post if you wrote/published.
ELEVEN Days til the WINTER SOLSTICE. FOURTEEN days til Christmas. THREE weeks til 2024! Where does the time go?
TODAY, we awoke to 1) below freezing temps and 2) SNOW! YES! SNOW! Not much, just a dusting on slanted roofs, grassy areas and the deck & railings. A small and seasonable surprise.
Off and on, over this autumn season, I’ve been weeding both my book and fabric collections – a part of my goal to enter 2024 with “less is more.”
T’is a quiet 14 days ahead …and I really don’t have much – any?- prep or shopping to do. Just a couple projects to wrap up – pun intended – before holiday festivities kick in…
What’s on your to do list?
Cheers!
PS. This Friday my intention is to return with a “Simply A Moment” post.
Two days (and counting) have passed since I planned and would normally have drafted and hopefully published this monthly post…I kept telling myself: “later”… Well, now IS later.
In the background, my clock, ticks steadily: tick tock, tick tock, tick tock…I don’t remember the last time I changed the battery. I do know it’s been more than a few years. T’is a comforting sound. The clock, designed to replicate three book spines, has faded over the years I’ve had it…at least ten? A quote from Anne Lamott : “It’s good to remember: We are all on borrowed time.”
Wednesday, my birthday – a quite a lovely day it was:
Loads of well wishes from family and old friends, far and near. Beautiful cards plus, a long call from my college days’ friend – we were freshwomen when we first met…that was eons ago…
Kicking off with a Zoom session with friend Kathy, complete with my wearing a paper crown…
A long phone chat with a local friend (too many days had passed since last we spoke) …
My friend Linda sent this absolutely lovely hand painted, stitched quilted piece she made…
As it is November and the month of gratitudes, I have been keenly conscious of my own gratitude list. Each day, during my 8 AM Writers’ Hour session, prompted by a DayONE Gratitude challenge, the theme on my birthday, 15 November: “ a simple delight I have been enjoying lately” and to the above I also add:
Good books – source for another post. Currently, I’m reading a second Maggie Smith title: Keep Moving, after enjoying a Writers’ Hour interview with her last week…
Autumn colors, temps and sky – for the win!..
Decluttering my craft and stitching studios for current and end of 2023 holiday projects…
Thanks for spending a few moments with me. Do have a great week end.
The clock is ticking down, this last day of October. Halloween festivities tonight – no doubt at recreation centers and shopping malls. The boys are NOT going “trick or treating” tonight – Dolly has planned an arts -n- crafts and candy making bonanza plus they’ll dress up, play games, etc. She’s creative that way and I know they’ll have a great time, more than enough treats and fond memories… which brings me to the memory I had of the last time I went “trick or treating”.
I was probably 9 years old. We’d arrived at the last house, occupied by a lone man. He kept his shades drawn all the time. During the day, one of the neighbor’s had spent the day raking and burning leaves…they were smoldering. We knocked and shouted “trick or treat” several times; no response. One last warning and then we did the unspeakable: we soaped the window screens.
The lone man opened the door and shouted at us. We screamed and ran for our lives – so we thought. We of course had opinions of this reclusive man and were scared – mainly because we knew we weren’t supposed to be soaping his window screens. I stepped into the pile of smoldering leaves. Burned my foot “big time”! Threw my Halloween loot in the air – not intentionally; ne’er the less, it landed all over the ground. No time to try to gather, just needed to get the h*** outta dodge.
Limped home; my foot burned and hurting. In those days, there were no “late or all night” drugstores open. My pain was exacerbated by the fact that I also knew I had no recourse but to tell my parents the truth. They, in their wisdom listened and said nothing. My mom just applied a homemade remedy to my burning foot.
T’was the absolute last time I went trick or treating.
Morning Glory Studio 