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 |   Theses are my thoughts and ramblings as I forge my way through this thing they call life. |
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These are my thoughts and ramblings as I forge my way through this thing they call Life. I blog with these groups:     "Blogging Circle of Friends "  [E] 
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30 Day Blogging Challenge PROMPT May 23rd What is something you like to do that other people might think is “weird?” As I watch weird ass shows like Married At First Sight - Couple's Cam -- the married couple's living in quarantine I find it odd that people aren't enjoying being stuck in with time to work on hobbies. Being someone who loves to write, I am loving this time in some ways. I can take chunks of time out of my usual working day to write instead of going off or doing the commute thing to work. Sure it means I might be creating something for my students at 10 pm instead of during the school day... but it is my time and I can use it how I want. This does not mean I write all day, but I find I can write in the mornings when I'm my most creative before the 'work day' starts at 9 am. Take, for instance now. It is currently 4:30 in the morning and I am writing with a writing group that usually meets in Paris, France. They are meeting at 10 am, but it is 6 hours earlier here. Their meetings have to be virtual, so for this period of time, I can 'meetup' with them. Once life goes into the new normal and they can return to their usual cafe, I won't be able to join them anymore, but I am loving that I can right now. It does mean getting up at 3:45 am on Saturday and 4:45 am on Sunday, but because I don't have to get up and travel to work Monday to Friday I am okay with getting up this early. I also find that at 7 am, when the group is done, I can either join another group writing in London, England for an hour or go back to bed until noon. The time is open and I don't live with anyone who needs me up and functional at that time. I am lucky that way. This is not something I could sustain for long periods of time, but for now I am loving it. |
30 Day Blogging Challenge PROMPT May 22nd Music often has the ability to remind us of old memories. In your entry today, be inspired by a specific piece of music or a musical instrument. What feelings/emotions does the music or instrument stir in you? Share a specific memory your chosen song or instrument reminds you of. This version of the Highland Cathedral always brings tears to my eyes. I listen to it loud and proud. (The cats are not thrilled with the sound - wind instruments and all). I think I loved this piece before going to Scotland a few years ago, but this particular version really gets me. When I went to Scotland I went with my Mother and my favourite aunt. We represented the Henderson and the Douglas clans. Ancestral roots run deep in our family. Learning about the history and seeing the landscape was spectacular. I thought it funny that they would say something was quite young and then tell us it was 150 years old - Canada had just turned 150 the summer before. The age of our Country was just young to them. It put things into perspective. I forgot to save this last night before I went to bed!! |
30 Day Blogging Challenge PROMPT May 21st Not including your phone, computer, or other Googling device, write about the top five most useful items you own. Coffee mug, indoor toilet, notebook and pen and Library card. One needs a good sized mug to hold a hot beverage of choice. An indoor toilet is great when you can't use public toilet's these days and I always hated my grandparent's outhouse - too many flies and bugs as well as a noxious smell. Notebook and pen go hand in hand. One needs a place to write down ideas and dream. A library card because you can't possibly house all the books you want to read. |
30 Day Blogging Challenge PROMPT May 20th If you were able to live to the age of 90 and retain either the mind or body of a 30-year-old for the last 60 years of your life, which would you choose? That would be a difficult decision. I keep waffling back and forth. If I had been active at thirty, then staying that way would be easier and the need to keep my body fresher and younger would not be a necessity. But keeping the mind sharp... there are some pretty spry 90 year olds - look at Betty White. Besides if the choosing meant ending your life at 90 and not going beyond I would probably go with not taking the choice and living to the natural end of my life - be that 90 or 100. Being a writer, I would think keeping the mind sharp and active would be more my thing, but this getting old thing is beginning to settle in.... I think ultimately, if a choice were required I would say MIND. Blog City - Day 2135 Prompt: Write about a lesson you learned the hard way. Lessons learned the hard way are lessons that stick. Not that I would wish anyone the hard lessons, but I think they go along way toward building a person's character. And as a writer and a person who loves to study human behaviour (a sociology and psychology major) character is paramount. I am still learning from my divorce. I'm sure I have learned to put up walls in some ways, but I am aware of that and try to remain open and positive. I have learned things about myself that I don't like and need to work on. I have come closer to what I want and don't want in my life. I am still continuing to learn. |
30 Day Blogging Challenge PROMPT May 19th If you knew that in one year you would die suddenly, would you change anything about the way you are living now? If so, what would you change and why? I think I would work at getting some of my bucket list items done - like going to Paris and to the writing retreat at the Gladstone Library in Wales. I'd take chances I normally shy away from and with any luck I would get my novel finished and published along with a book of poetry. I may even write a blog / book of daily writings that would be filled with gratitude and inspiration. So what is stopping me? Sudden death or not, each day is precious. Why am I wasting them? |
30 Day Blogging Challenge PROMPT May 18th What chore do you most dislike doing? Tell us a creative story about how you might get out of doing it. I don't like chores. Any chores. But getting them done keeps life relatively sane. Trying to get things done while making the job easier or less arduous is something I am up for. For example, mix up some cupcakes and while they bake run the vacuum around for the twenty minutes that they are baking and cooling. The reward for doing the vacuuming... a cupcake or two ... or three or six... ho, hell eat the whole pan. Then take myself out for a walk to burn off the calories or better yet tackle the weeding in the garden. I am open to any other tricks. |
30 Day Blogging Challenge PROMPT May 17th Write about a fictional road trip where you meet up with your fellow competitors from the 30DBC! Who do you visit first? Do you bring any gifts? Tell us about the crazy blogger shenanigans you all get up to! I love virtual traveling. It is almost as good at the real thing.... only cheaper. Well, I would have to choose Alexi as she is in England and I would love to go there. Meeting her would be a blast. Maybe I could entice her to join me at the Gladstone Library in Wales and take part in Jessica Lourey's Writing Retreat there. Who wouldn't want to stay in a library and spend a week writing with an author like that. I have just ordered a couple of her books this morning - two fiction ones - The Cantalian Book of Secrets and May Day and one writing book - Rewrite Your Life: Discover Your Truth Through the Healing Power of Fiction. I am excited to get reading. I have heard her Ted Talk as well. Interesting lady who is not afraid to share her story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5vSLh3oPXI During this pandemic, I have been taking advantage of writing with various groups in London, England and in Paris, France. Groups I cannot get to because I live in Canada, but because they are virtual right now I have met some really great people. Paris is a bucket list item for me and in my google attempts to explore writing retreats in the area, I ran across Jessica Lourey. She does a retreat in France, an hour outside of Paris, but I noticed she also does retreats in Wales. To write, sleep and eat in a library that is over 125 years old would be fabulous - definitely a bucket list item. https://www.creativewritingretreat.com/ My friend's daughter is getting married next year. She lives in England now. I may just see about going to something like this... if I save my pennies. Maybe I can go and wouldn't it just be fabulous to have a WDC partner in crime!? Anyone else interested? |
30 Day Blogging Challenge PROMPT May 16th Do you believe in ghosts or other supernatural entities? Have you ever experienced something you could not explain? I am open to the possibility. After my father died by mother got a 'call' in her dream telling her it was 7 am and it was time to get up. She had forgotten to set her alarm that day and the dream woke her only to find out that it was in fact 7 am. My friend's brother, Clay, also got a phone call while he was babysitting my cousin. The man on the line asked if his daughter was okay. When Clay said yes, the man hung up. At the time, my aunt was going through colon cancer treatments and her father, my grandfather, had died several months before this. Grandpa was not a man of many words on the phone and he too had died of cancer. Blog City - Day 2131 Discuss this quote in your blog. “It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.” – Charles Spurgeon I agree with this. Some people can have so many things and be overwhelmed by them or take them for granted. While other people may not have much, but appreciate all they do have. This quote brings to mind the happy faces of children who may live in poverty, but still smile because they have their families close. That gets me thinking of the times we are in now as we pull together during this time of pandemic. Being alone with lots of things would be empty if I did not have other human or animal contact. It is the connection that keeps the sanity and brings the happiness. Practicing gratitude and appreciation is important to a happy life. Don't take the small things for granted. A smile can go a long way to making someone's day. |
30 Day Blogging Challenge PROMPT May 15th Write about a time when you or someone you know acted selflessly. What was the motivation and what were the results? I would say when my Grandmother went to work in town for a well to do family so that her older sister could attend teacher's college. Her income went to pay for her sister's schooling. She adored her sister, Jean and would have been only too happy to do this for her. The sad thing is, her sister died of pneumonia while at Teacher's College and never did get to teach. The thing is, Aunt Jean was a favourite to my grandmother's mother. I don't think her mother treated my grandmother all that well and later in life, my grandmother was the only one of her three remaining siblings to take the woman in when she got old. Even though she got the cruddy end of the stick, my grandmother was able to see the good through it all. Even with a physically and emotionally abusive husband, she would have done it all again because it meant having children and grandchildren that absolutely adored her. She was my champion. She was my strong foundation when my own world started to rattle and shake. I could always count on her unconditional love. I still miss my Gramzie. I am better for having had her in my life. |
30 Day Blogging Challenge PROMPT May 14th What was the best/worst letter or email you ever received or wrote? Write about the situation surrounding that letter, and why it was so significant. I am thinking this would be the letters I received when I was accepted into University and Teacher's College. I received two acceptance letters for Teacher's College and decided to go to Western in London instead of York University in Toronto. I jokingly say I accepted Western because I did not want to be driving into the sun both ways when I commuted to school. But the truth was, Western had a better special education program and that is my area of interest. Being accepted meant bettering myself. I come from a family where only two people on my mother's side attended university and none that I know of on my father's side of the family went. My father was an electrician and my mother was a secretary - both admirable professions, but I wanted more education. Going to university had always been a dream of mine. |
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