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 |  Day to day stuff....a memoir without order. |
 Imagination is described by Webster as...The act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses in reality. Albert Einstein said "Logic will get you from A to B, but imagination will take you everywhere."  I never realized it until I read it somewhere but there are ways to boost one's imagination: Create a visual journal Draw whatever you see for 15 minutes a day. You don't need to be an artist. Think like an artist Cut out pictures from magazines & piece them together to create an original image. Listen to Bach Close your eyes while playing your favorite music. Or listen to the sounds of nature on a CD or in the great outdoors. Play word games Try thinking of as many words as you can that begin with MAR...or you pick. Daydream Let your mind wander, or focus on a single object & study its characteristics.     Everyone has a story....here's mine.....c   |
| It really does. On bright sunny days I want to get outdoors, work in the yard, take a walk, wash the truck, clean the lawn chairs. I just have to get outside when the sun is shining. The worst thing is being shut indoors on a sunny day with the a/c running. Pooh. But oh I do enjoy a nice rainstorm, too. I curl up with a cozy book, read awhile, and soon I'm snoozing right through the drip drip drip off the rain gutter. So I would have to say weather does affect me, just not in any bad ways. Yesterday was one of those magnificent, stellar, memorable, sunny days. I went to Cedar Key while a lady from Comfort Keepers stayed with Jim....four whole hours. I want to write it down so I can reread and reread...if you're bored, just click away somewhere else, I'll understand. As soon as I got on Newberry Road, it started raining, oh no, then on 122nd, it poured. Should I turn back? Uh uh. The sun came out on Archer Road, and it turned into a beautiful day, rainbow and all  . It took me a teeny bit over an hour, a long ride but worth it. I sang along with Carole King all the way. Through Archer, Bronson, over the Waccassassa Bridge, past Ellzey, Otter Creek, Sumner, Rosewood, then Channel Marker 5, 4, 3 and dahdah, Back Bayou into Cedar Key. The tide was just going out so it was smelling gooood  . You have to remember, I'm from the Delaware coast.I turned left on 2nd from D St. (24) and slid into one vacant spot among many, at Little Shark Park (that's what's good about Tuesdays). Had to pee. Restrooms were clean but nothing to dry hands on. I walked down to the little beach area - some old man was lying on his belly soaking up rays. There were bunches of shorebirds, mostly sandpipers, picking at the little pieces of seaweed that were washing up with each lap of the water. I saw a sailboat anchored off in the hazy distance, and if I could have bottled that breeze, I would have. Condos were to my left and a slew of restaurants to my right, kayak rentals just as I turned the corner from the beach to the sidewalk. I strolled all around past the restaurants and onto the new "concrete" pier, just not the same as the old wooden one but it was destroyed in a storm. A lady and a man in a wheelchair were fishing off one slip (I told Jim he should have come). I got about six feet from a big old brown pelican. He never did fly...I chickened out. I went to the end and looked out at the other litte keys (islands) - not much activity on a Tuesday. Then I walked all the way around and back down to D Street. On 2nd Annie's Cafe was closed for repairs, bah! I went in the Art Coop and looked around, lots of pretty things. The guy working there was from Talbot County in Maryland, been here nine years, lives in Dunnellon. Nothing really appealed to me so I tooka middle street back up to the marina. Oh, the Emporium, where I really wanted to browse, was closed, "gone fishin'" the sign said. There were a lot of shuttered buildings past there, rundown and vacant. Too bad. After I got past the Marina, I got back to the restaurants again, browsed a couple of Cedar Key souvenir shops, then bought a huge chocolate chip mint ice cream cone. Outside in the wind I had a hard time keeping up with the melts. A passer-by remarked it looked like more than I could handle..uh uh. He just wanted some. I sat on a bench in front of the little beach and finished it. One of the tourboats was leaving with a pretty good crowd on board. I slipped off my shoes and walked down to the water again...splashed around and made a few birds fly. A couple of girls paddled back in a kayak - looked easy - like to try that sometime. I walked up to wash off my feet but the water was off so I sat on a bench and brushed off most of the sand and put on my shoes. It was 2:30 and time to leave...  .There was hardly any traffic coming or going. I did get behind a log truck near Otter Creek but he turned north on 19. I took a left in Archer and came back on 241 to Jonesville to pick up spaghetti at O Sole Mia for supper after a perfect day . until next time....c |
| I have first hand knowledge of this prompt because someone in this family is know as a "solf touch", and I'm not going to say who. The hardest thing in the world is to turn that around and continue to be likable. Let me amend that...an impossible thing to do is to turn a solf touch into a hard nose and still be likable. Hmmm. My advice...never lend to family or friends, tell them that's what banks are for. And then there are your children. What's a person to do?  until next time...c |
| Every resolution must be followed by many decisions to continue. I read that somewhere and have found it to be very true. My main inspiration for writing stems from a prompt so I guess my muse is the prompt, whatever that prompt may be. If I resolve to write something with the prompt as my inspiration, to get the words from my brain to my screen, I make many decisions to continue to fulfill that decision along the way. So today's prompt, Monday Muse, has sort of flipped over the inspiration to my side of the table. I'm trying to think of things that have happened today, Monday, to inspire me. Just now, outside my window two feisty redbirds inspire me. They chase away finches and aggressively hop toward sparrows They hog the green bird feeder. The plump, round-bellied mama pokes seed into Junior's open beak. Then, she sits on the porch rail wet feathers fluffed outward after a dip in the bath, proudlike. Mother's Day. until next time....c |
| I'm thinking the words "go-to book" is that book you pick up when you're feeling down or blue or just unable to cope, not necessarily your favorite read but the one that makes you feel better just by holding it, rifling the pages, feeling the words, soaking in what is held between the covers. It's the one that holds a special meaning, brings back good memories, takes you out of whatever present situation is getting you down at the moment. I know it may sound stupid and strange to many, but that book for me is what is called a "coffee-table book". It was a birthday present from my daughter many, many years ago and has never lost its allure or newness everytime I open it up. It's titled The Impressionists by Francois Mathey. Sitting in my favorite chair with a good light over my shoulder, I can travel back to the nineteenth century, to the time of the English water-colorists, Turner and Constable, and then to the major impressionists, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Seurat, Cezanne, Manel, Monet, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec. Their works are realistically presented on beautiful paper with historical and biographical information on the opposing pages. I am always lifted up out of my surroundings as I thumb through the pages, noticing things I did not see before. I wonder what Toulouse-Lautrec's Laundress sees as she gazes through the window above her pile of laundry. I can feel her aching back in the deep arch of it as she bends over the clothes. I want to brush away the ringlets of hair falling over her eyes. I see the redness of her hands and the set of her jaw and feel her determination. I make up my own stories. The intensity of my problems are reduced to real size. until next time...c |
| I find my plans change daily so I have found the solution. I don't make plans. Sometimes I mess up and actually think I am going to do something I plan, but another thing always intervenes to thwart my plan. I believe this must happen a lot to people who take care of loved ones. Being a structured, planning, logical person, my hijacked plans used to stress me out, even make me very mad, sarcastic, and antagonistic, I am ashamed to say. But day by day, I am trying very hard to "go with the flow" as Snow says. After all, how important can it be to do certain things at certain times on certain days. It all comes down to losing control and coming to the realization that illness cannot be controlled. Needs of an ill person take priority over everything. Acceptance is the stress-buster. My one plan that is working out so far (even though my entries are normally short) is this blog challenge  .till next time....c |
| My most special movie is "To Kill A Mockingbird". Everytime I watch it, I come away with something new. Jim and I saw it the very first year of our marriage and I'm sure in a way this helps to make it special. I've watched it so many times, the characters feel like people I actually know. It's too bad Harper Lee never had the courage to write another book...she had such a gift. My favorite character is Scout with Boo Radley a close second. There are so many back stories going on, it is mind-boggling. And the fact that the movie was made in black and white intensified the drama. Here's a clip from one of my favories scenes, when Scout saves the day, http://movieclips.com/BNoYt-to-kill-a-mockingbird-movie-the-children-save-atticu... until next time....c |
| "In the garden of the heart the jewel of healing love is discovered"...Honshin, from my Zen Cat calendar for the month of May, just wanted to share . Twenty four hours per day is just not enough, but that is all I have to work with so it will have to do. I think I do lots of things I could eliminate and never know the difference. I need to work on that. I have moved some things to the back burner, especially dust bunnies. Who cares anyway? Except that when I start sneezing, I know it's time to dust and vacuum  .Unfortunately, the things that usually get moved to the back burner automatically are those things I enjoy most, and I realize now in my old age , those are the things I really need to find time to do, at least sometimes. That's one reason I'm doing this blogging challenge. If you look at recent months, my blogging has been pathetic. Then look at this month....see, I made time, thanks to Earl.And I'm trying to find a few minutes to draw each day, which I love to do, portraits especially and not just human portraits. Just like writing, drawing is something I can do, put on hold when necessary, and come back to later. So, the flying time really depends on what you want to "make" time or "take" time to do. When you reach the "end" of your time, it's too late. until next "time"....c |
| i do love the blog prompts. It takes a lot of pressure off when I do not have to think up a topic to write on, although I am beginning to miss that a little. So today's "no show" has come at a good time for me. I check out a lot of movies from my county library, and did I get a big surprise yesterday when I received email notices that two movies I had on hold were ready for me to pick up. Two relatively new movies, The Descendants and War Horse. I just watched The Descendants and thoroughly enjoyed it. I especially liked the Hawaian music playing in the background. One of my very favorite songs is Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Izzy (I can't spell his real name). He's Hawaian and sadly, passed away a while back. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1bFr2SWP1I That is so beautiful. What a dilemma George Clooney had in this movie. I think when you watch a movie like this, you can't help but wonder how you would react to similar circumstances...and I guess that is what the author wants. I did think he was little bit of a wimp, but in the end he was a better man for it. I love sad endings that are happy...sounds like an oxymoron...but that is exactly what it was. Now I'm thinking about watching War Horse, but not tonight. Hope it's not as sad as the trailers made out. I can barely watch the Derby anymore after all the accidents that have happened. I can still picture Barbaro breaking his leg on the gate and then later, dying from complications. Thank goodness all went smoothly this year. I'll Have Another, this year's winner, http://www.kentuckyderby.com/news/photos/kentucky-derby-137-winners-circle is already at Pimlico for the Preakness. Good luck! Isn't he pretty? until next time....c  |
| When I wrote that title it felt like my sinuses were plugged, and it reminded me of someone on tv but I can't think who . I've always liked to write, letters, newsletters, essays, but I don't think I ever wrote a fictional story until I found writing. com. Since I've always liked a challenge and never been one to step away, the Cramp prompts fascinated me. The first fictional story I ever wrote was right here in response to a prompt about "a lost ring". It surprised me how quickly I could make up a story, having never tried before  . But, then, I came back down to earth when my reviews came in  . I'm happy to say they did not thwart my enthusiasm  .I hope my "righting has gotten bedder" and I think it has, although I know I will never be another Ernest Hemingway  . I like trying to stretch myself, attempting new things, and as others have said, the friends I have found here are most important.I say, good or bad, continue to write (right) as long as it is enjoyable. Practice may not make perfect, but it can't hurt! until next time....c |
| That "when" happens to be this very moment (How did you know, Cindy?)! Jim's doctor told him early this morning he suspected he would be able to come home today so I have been sitting here waiting for Jim's phone call to pick him up. It just came and even better, his doctor wants to redo his labwork from this morning because he cannot believe how much his numbers have improved! So I am a very happy camper right now. Thank you Cindy for being spot on! until next time....c |
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