SoCS: In the Elements, Mary Poppins, Wildlife Photos, and Getting Cozy

Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “element.” We can use it any way we want. Who knows what will happen?

It’s not so bad being out in the elements if you are dressed for it, and it’s like for 20 minutes. Last evening, I walked Marley in a chilly rain, well it was more like a drizzle. We just went to the park and back. Having run errands earlier, I was tired, but made myself go to an art show since I had entered some of my and my daughter’s photos with encouragement from my friend, Linda who is a photographer. Now, Friday evening, I’m drinking some hot tea called “Calming.” It contains elements of chamomile and licorice root and others I don’t remember.

The element of surprise is not something I care to be subjected to. Elements of peace and joy, those are nice. There is an element of joy in every day. What’s that song? “In every job that must be done there is an element of fun. You find the fun and SNAP the job’s a game.” How did I end up memorizing those Mary Poppins songs? We must’ve had the album when I was a kid.

Pausing to pet the cat on my lap, I don’t know where to go from here. Feeling thankful to be home and cozy, except I need a blanket on my feet. Next time the cat gets up, I will get the blanket. But my tummy is very warm, with warm tea on the inside and a warm cat on the outside. It’s not even that cold out, just in the upper 50s and rainy. Just enough to make the inside cozy.

Well, must be time for a gallery or something before I start repeating myself more. Maybe I’ll sleep in tomorrow, but I have a dog and a cat to feed by the crack of 9am, or the cat will chastise me for being late with long, loud meows.

“Yes, I will.”

Oh, what a life where sleeping in means 8:30am. I’m glad our host, Linda slept in on prompt day. My older sister’s name was Linda, too. It’s a lovely name.

The gallery shows the photos we put in the show which was about wildlife. The first two are mine, and the second two (Dancing Osprey and Turtle Undercover) were taken by my daughter, Ayla.

Laughing Gull on the Wing

Fuzzy Moth on Red Barn

Dancing Osprey by Ayla

Turtle Undercover by Ayla

Isn’t it amazing how wild animals adapt to the elements? Especially birds. I certainly hope they don’t get as cold as I would.

Speaking of cozy, here’s my go to dinner music of cozy jazz:

~~~

For more streams of consciousness, along with rules,

visit our host, Linda Hill, by clicking HERE.

Peaceful Joy

Painting cup and Joy detergent

I know the photo looks like I might have a cup of Joy dishwashing detergent, bleh. It’s really a couple things that bring me joy. The handle broke off the cup, but I keep it for paint brushes. Blue is my favorite color, so I did my kitchen in blue and white, but it was too cold. Yellow brings me peaceful joy, so I’m constantly adding splashes of yellow. As time goes on, I have come to appreciate the little splashes of peaceful joy more than the jump up and down clap your hands joy, but those are nice, too.

Here’s to wishing you many joyful moments!

Daffodils at my parents old house

From my front path

My Art. Alcohol ink on tile

Marley and Dave

Cow from my parents. I made the curtans.

Photo by my granddaughter

Thanks to theindieshe for this joyful prompt and to Linda Hill for Just Jot it January!

For more info visit Linda HERE.

Good Triggers

Today’s Just Jot January prompt is, “trigger.” That’s the name of a character in our host’s interesting story.

When we think of psychological or emotional triggers, we often think of a word, image, smell, etc. that triggers something unpleasant. Maybe it’s an unpleasant memory, reaction, or past trauma. But stop! Don’t go there!

What about triggers that trigger good memories or positive reactions?

I seem to remember positive triggers being created when I was trained to do hypnosis. It was over ten years ago, and while I did some private practice work after completing my training, I haven’t kept up with it, so my memory is a bit fuzzy. Maybe something will trigger my memory of establishing a good trigger!

If someone is in a relaxed state or having a pleasant experience, and puts their hand on their heart, or makes an okay sign with their hand and repeatedly pairs the positive feeling with that gesture, then the idea is that the gesture will trigger the positive feeling. Now, I remember the word, anchor, was also used in our training.

The smell of pine triggers a memory of hiking in the woods. The smell of cloves or cinnamon can trigger the taste of pumpkin pie and Thanksgiving or Christmas memories.

How about a song triggering memories or feelings from long ago? A song that was popular in our formative years can take us back to that time. Dan at No Facilities recently shared some examples in this post “Name that Tune.”

Songs by The Beach Boys trigger memories from the late 1970s driving to the beach in my 69 Dodge Dart with the windows down because there was no AC in that car.

Roberta Flack’s The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face takes me back to 1972 when David and I were dating.

Some songs just trigger funny feelings and images, like The Beatles Yellow Submarine.

Speaking of The Beatles, how about this one?

What are some of your good triggers?

…

For more jottings and Just Jot January info visit Linda at:

#JusJoJan prompt the 24th – “Trigger” | (lindaghill.com)

Good News Tuesday 3/17/20: Benefits of Slowing Down, Compassionate Utility Companies, Nuns Create Urban Wetlands, and Singing in Italy

Seeking Balance One Tuesday at a Time

How the Coronavirus Offers a Chance to Slow Down and Shift Values

“The recent pictures of the air above China showed how two months without production cleared the skies and allowed people to breathe again,” she said, referring to the fact that carbon emissions and pollution from Chinese industry have declined since the virus first hit the country.     Li Edelkoort.

This article explores how the coronavirus provides opportunities for new beginnings.

…

Keeping the Water On

Due to the importance of handwashing, many utility companies are keeping the water on regardless of payment.  My own city announced last week that no one’s water will be shut off due to delinquent fees. Even the electric company is suspending shut offs.

…

Nuns Create Urban Wetlands in New Orleans

The sisters of St. Joseph are turning their New Orleans convent into urban wetlands.

“When complete, the Mirabeau Water Garden will be one of the country’s largest urban wetlands, managing stormwater and easing the workload of the city’s current drainage system. …The Mirabeau Water Garden will have the capacity to store 10 million gallons of water, diverting a deluge of stormwater from hitting the city’s drainage system all at once.”

Here’s the story and photos from Fast Company. 

…

 

When Life Gives You Lemons, Sing!

Italians are singing from balconies during the nationwide “lockdown”. Listen to their beautiful voices and encouragement from people in China.

…

Got good news?

Please share!

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

For my Star Trek friends, it’s Happy St. Patrick Stewart Day on BBC America!

 

De-Cluttering for Christmas (Keeping Music, Candlelight, and Jesus)

Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is…. “musical.”

The first thing that popped into my head was the musical, The Sound of Music. I learned to sing listening to that vinyl record album. Funny that I don’t have a copy of it now. But I hope to watch it on Christmas or around Christmas time. Seems it comes on one Sunday night around Christmas time.

I think know we’ll be in the house that was my parents’ for Christmas and who knows for how long since we have to get the regular house re-wired. Yesterday, my husband informed me that the electricians want everything out of the Wilmington house. Everything? I kept asking that, being overwhelmed to the point of almost tears. I keep telling myself I’m thankful to have the house that was my parents’ to stay in. Many people don’t even have a house.  I don’t want to whine. But I share this to also share my coping strategies. One step at a time. If I think about moving everything – knickknacks, art supplies, papers, books, and random objects saved for some art project some day…..  that’s too overwhelming. But David and I talked about our strategy, and I can just take it one step at a time. We’ll move some things here and rent a storage space. Can you believe the PODS people wanted $400! No way! I’m thankful David has a truck. Plus, I have been saying I want to de-clutter the Wilmington house. Be careful what you say you want. Now there’s going to be some big de-cluttering going on. It’s my life. But not really. There’s Christmas.

I don’t want that big old tree anymore. It can be recycled. I don’t think we’ll have a tree this year, but I want music. The sound of music. Christmas songs. I’ll sing them at church and to myself if I want. I was just singing “The Sound of Music” right before I started writing this. And candles. I LOVE candlelight, especially at Christmas. So I’m going to make some candle arrangements with an advent wreath and all sorts of other candles and watch a Christmas movie. It’s a Wonderful Life, maybe. That is enough.

Maybe I’ll even become a minimalist. I’m already there as far as buying presents. Everybody gets one of my mom’s angels or my dad’s ties this year. We never really have been much into buying Christmas presents. I think it was yesterday afternoon, just an hour or two after I heard we were going to have to move “everything” (well, I’m not moving the stuff in the closets. That’s ridiculous) that I heard John Lennon’s “Imagine” come on the radio. “Imagine no possessions,” rang out loud and clear. I’m still going to have plenty of possessions, but imagining no possessions kinda puts things in perspective. It goes back to the old, Christmas is not something you buy in a store. Christmas perhaps means a little bit more. Or a lot more. For me, it means singing Christmas songs and lighting candles and celebrating Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.

“Every who down in whoville, the tall and the small, was singing, without any presents at all.”

 

For more Stream of Consciousness posts and more information, visit Linda’s blog:

https://lindaghill.com/2018/12/07/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-8-18/

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing (typos can be fixed), and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. I will post the prompt here on my blog every Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The,’” or will simply be a single word to get you started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours. Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read all of them! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later or go to the previous week by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!

A Tale of Two Christmas Parties

Our stream of consciousness post for today is, “contrast,” provided by Linda G. Hill at

https://lindaghill.com/2017/12/15/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-16-17/

Where would we be without the darkness that lets us see the stars at night. The heat of the summer is relieved by coolness of falling leaves. Winter’s cold will give way to the warmth of spring. We seek the sunlight in the cold winter, a place away from the wind. Christmas lights and candlelight are so much more beautiful glowing in the darkness.

Last night, I attended two parties. The first one was related to my husband’s work. There were some moving parts to the speeches of gratitude, lots of smiles and laughter, and singing at the end led by yours truly, because I would like everything to end with a song. But the bright lights in the crowded private room at the all you can eat buffet restaurant made this introvert doing her duty ever so much more appreciative of the second party – a small intimate gathering of people from my church, mostly choir members.

The second party was at a historic old house downtown. Soft browns in the rich dark wood beams and trim inside the house glowed with the reflection of candlelight. I don’t recall any light other than candlelight. Though a few were battery operated candles, a candle chandelier hung from the ceiling over the table full of food I couldn’t eat much of since we’d just come from the trough. Oh, yeah, now I remember, it wasn’t just candlelight, there were soft white strings of Christmas lights wrapped in green garland. In case you can’t tell already, I adore soft lighting. I choose restaurants for the soft lighting even more than the food. Plus, there was soft holiday music: “My Grown Up Christmas List,” “White Christmas,” ….soft, mellow, my kind of music, My mind relaxed into drowsiness as I listened to people I felt comfortable with talking, not feeling that I needed to conversate, but interjecting easily when I felt like it. It was wonderful.

I don’t think I have any more “parties” until New Year’s Eve. No, wait there is one the day after Christmas, that “boxing day” leftover thing. But it will be okay. I’ve got lots of excitement coming up next week, going to pick up my grand daughter – driving 5 plus hours each way – for her first overnight visit at grandma’s house! She can be a handful, so it will be an adventure. After she goes to bed, I intend to light some candles and listen to some mellow music, or watch an old movie and recapture the feeling of total relaxation savoring memories of delight sprinkled on dark chocolate frosting.

(Unfortunately, I was so relaxed at the second party, I didn’t think to take pictures. The one above from Pixabay, sort of captures the feeling.)

Here are the rules for the Saturday Stream of Consciousness:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours. Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!

SoCS: Panting in Yoga Class

Today’s Stream of Consciousness prompt is the word, “pant,” brought to you by Linda Hill at:  https://lindaghill.com/2017/08/18/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-aug-1917/

I’ve been getting back into yoga lately, going to a class about once a week. Usually I go to a “gentle” class or something called “flow.” But last week I decided to try something different: kundalini yoga. WP says I didn’t spell it right. Who cares. The class theme for that day was letting go of anger. At one point we were pounding our  fists on blankets and I almost started crying, because that’s what I often do when I’m angry, cry. There was a lot of breath work, too. At another point, the instructor had us panting like dogs with our tongues sticking out.

A photo by my daughter, Ayla, who loves dogs.

I like dogs. No, I love dogs. But I’m not that good at panting. It reminded me of natural childbirth all those eons ago. The childbirth panting helped for a while, but eventually I gave in and had a shot of stadol. With both births. Oh, well. The kundalini panting wasn’t so bad, but for the rest of the day and night, my throat was dry and scratchy. I hope I released lots of anger that I didn’t know I had all bottled up inside me.

The best thing I got out of this class was a chant that went,

“From now on, I send you only love.”

That’s for ourselves and anyone we had the anger at since I guess it’s gone now, right?  I was thinking I’d say that to myself in the mirror. “From now on, I send you only love.” And then maybe I’ll stick my tongue out and pant and laugh at myself. Laughter is the best medicine after all.

This morning I’m going to that same yoga studio (where I plan to stick with gentle and flow classes that my body has come to crave – but not to the point of panting) and I’m facilitating a workshop called, “Finding Your Soulmate While Loving Yourself.” It’s based on what I learned in my life about that, which is all in my book, Trust the Timing. One thing that I’ve clarified as I’ve thought about the workshop is I moved from being cynical to being accepting of whatever God had planned for me as far as a soulmate was concerned. I found a place balanced between cynical and desperate. Because I really did NOT want to be desperate. That gets you in all kinds of trouble, panting after some guy…nope, not for me, not anymore. Never again.

If you’d like me to come to your town and do a workshop on soulmates or loving yourself, I’d be happy to consider it, especially if there is a beach or some mountains near where you live. We can do some guided imagery about loving yourself and/or being happy and cozy with your soulmate, but we will NOT do any panting. I promise.

From now on, I send you only love. Pant, Pant.

Congratulations to J-Dub for our new SoCS Badge!

Here are the rules for the Saturday Stream of Consciousness:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours. Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!

 

Short Years Call for Rain Dancing

 

“The Days are long, but the years are short.”

That’s what came to me when I saw today’s Stream of Consciousness prompt from Linda Hill: the word, “short.”

That little nugget of paradoxical wisdom was offered by a friend when my first child was born. As time went on, I came to realize it’s truth.

Having and caring for children, or any labor intensive work, makes time fly, so that the years go by in a blur. Good thing we have photos!

Ah, but to slow things down a bit. I’ll never forget that summer I stayed home on maternity leave with my second child. I got to take the whole summer off. My favorite memory happens to be in my book. I was sitting in the living room nursing my baby girl. The big kids, including my son, played outside as it started to rain. There’s nothing like a summer rain when the weather is so warm you don’t mind being out in the wetness. The big kids sang silly songs and danced in the rain as I listened through the front screen door. It was like a slice of heaven.

Life is short. Dance in the rain every chance you get.

Watch this. You won’t be sorry. You’ll smile, I bet. 🙂

 

Here are the rules for Stream of Consciousness Saturday:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!

 

I Always Come Back to Blue

Blue was my first favorite color as a child. Then I started liking purple around the time of puberty. In high school, it was green. Everything I wore was green from my ecology T shirt to my green woven Sagittarius purse. I like yellow and amber quite a lot, too. But when all is said and done, blue is still my favorite.

Here are a few attributes of blue that explain why I like it so much. Source: Artist Raetta Parker

• Blue is the color of the sky and sea.
• ¨ It is often associated with depth and stability.
• ¨ It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven.
• ¨ Blue is considered beneficial to the mind and body. It slows human metabolism and produces a calming effect.
• ¨ Blue is strongly associated with tranquility and calmness.
• ¨ In heraldry, blue is used to symbolize piety and sincerity.
• ¨ You can use blue to promote products and services related to cleanliness (water purification filters, cleaning liquids), air and sky (airlines, airports, air conditioners), water and sea (sea voyages, mineral water).
• ¨ Blue is linked to consciousness and intellect.
• ¨ Blue is a masculine color; according to studies, it is highly accepted among males.
• ¨ Dark blue is associated with depth, expertise, and stability; it is a preferred color for corporate America.
• ¨ Avoid using blue when promoting food and cooking, because blue suppresses appetite.
• ¨ When used together with warm colors like yellow or red, blue can create high-impact, vibrant designs; for example, blue-yellow-red is a perfect color scheme for a superhero.

Light blue is associated with health, healing, tranquility, understanding, and softness.
Dark blue represents knowledge, power, integrity, and seriousness.

Sounds good to me, except that I don’t need the corporate part anymore, and I don’t think blue’s necessarily a masculine color by nature. I think the blue/pink dichotomy is a learned thing. But I don’t want to get too serious, that’s where splashes of yellow help.

I didn’t realize that blue suppresses appetite! No wonder so many restaurants use red.

I love all blues: sky blue, blue-green, icy blue, true blue.

Can you imagine the world without blue? Without color? Color is a treasure.

What’s your favorite color? I’d love to know what you like about it and how it affects you.

Just Jot It January is brought to us by Linda at:

https://lindaghill.com/2017/01/30/jusjojan-daily-prompt-jan-30th17/

For today’s prompt, “Blue,” thanks to John Holton at https://thesoundofonehandtyping.wordpress.com/

The rules for Just Jot It January are as follows:

1. It’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honour system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list) counts as a “Jot.” If it makes it to your blog that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!

2. The prompts will be posted every day at 2am my time (GMT -5). You don’t have to follow the prompt word, but this will be where you leave your link for others to see. Make sure you link your post to the correct day’s prompt. There will be a post like this every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday, and Saturday, when you’ll find the prompt on my usual Friday Reminder post for Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS).

3. As long as your blog is on WordPress, you’ll be able to link via pingback. To execute a pingback, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! If you’re participating from another blogging host, just drop a link into the comment section. Note: The newest pingbacks and comments will be at the top.

4. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.

5. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!

6. The prompts are here both to remind you and to inspire you to write. However, you don’t have to use the prompt word of the day. You can link any kind of jot back here. Even your shopping list. Note: If it’s 18+ content, please say so in a comment with your link.

7. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge (above) in your post so that others can find your post more easily.

8. Have fun!

If you’d like to look ahead to see the upcoming prompt words, click this link: https://lindaghill.com/2016/12/31/just-jot-it-january-2017-rules/ You can always write your post ahead of time and schedule it to come out on the appropriate day.

Mercy, maybe it’s not too late.

Thank you to Barb for today’s  Just Jot It January prompt: Mercy. I needed it and still do.

For most of the morning, I felt irritated. I’m not a judgmental person by nature, but I found myself judging, mostly to myself, about various things that are unimportant in the big picture. Maybe it was because I stayed up too late on the computer, again. Or maybe it was the remnants of hormonal fluctuations or eating too much sugar, too likely suspects who take turns getting the blame for moods that don’t seem to belong to me.

At church, the word “mercy” kept jumping out at me from the bulletin, the prayers, the sermon, and I knew “mercy” was today’s prompt. Mercy, Mercy, Me. Jesus knew I needed mercy and help being merciful. So I wasn’t surprised at all when I messed up while singing with the choir, because I wasn’t paying attention being busy with all this thinking about why was I so irritated. It was a minor mess up which will be soon forgotten. But it made me laugh at myself, again.

So here’s my peace offering. Maybe it’s not too late.

 

Have mercy for the birds and mercy for the bees,

Mercy for the whales and mercy for the trees,

Mercy for the animals who want to be free,

Mercy for my enemies and mercy for me.

 

Have mercy for this planet- a gift so rare,

Mercy for the hungry who need a share,

Mercy for the lost who just don’t care,

Mercy for the hope that helps us dare.

 

Have mercy for leaders old and gray,

Mercy for dreamers looking for a way,

Mercy for teachers without much pay,

Mercy for children who bring a new day.

 

 

Just Jot it January is hosted by Linda at:

https://lindaghill.com/2017/01/15/jusjojan-daily-prompt-jan-15th17/

Thanks to Shan Jeniah for filling in for Linda today.

The rules for Just Jot It January are as follows:

1. It’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honour system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list) counts as a “Jot.” If it makes it to your blog that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!

2. The prompts will be posted every day at 2am my time (GMT -5). You don’t have to follow the prompt word, but this will be where you leave your link for others to see. Make sure you link your post to the correct day’s prompt. There will be a post like this every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday, and Saturday, when you’ll find the prompt on my usual Friday Reminder post for Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS).

3. As long as your blog is on WordPress, you’ll be able to link via pingback. To execute a pingback, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! If you’re participating from another blogging host, just drop a link into the comment section. Note: The newest pingbacks and comments will be at the top.

4. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.

5. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!

6. The prompts are here both to remind you and to inspire you to write. However, you don’t have to use the prompt word of the day. You can link any kind of jot back here. Even your shopping list. Note: If it’s 18+ content, please say so in a comment with your link.

7. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge (above) in your post so that others can find your post more easily.

8. Have fun!

If you’d like to look ahead to see the upcoming prompt words, click this link: https://lindaghill.com/2016/12/31/just-jot-it-january-2017-rules/ You can always write your post ahead of time and schedule it to come out on the appropriate day.