Thank You!

First, I want to say thank you to my followers, my supporters, my encouragers. This has been possibly the best year of my life. It’s certainly been a year of transition, and I’m grateful to have the support of so many people on WordPress and beyond. I’m grateful to be approaching 1000 WordPress followers! Officially: 927 WP followers and just over 1000 total blog followers.

When I first started blogging, I couldn’t imagine having 1000 followers, but one day at at time, one post at a a time adds up. It has been so fulfilling to grow here and get to know inspiring people – ordinary folks – I mean that in a good way – working through life’s challenges with grace and learning from each other. I appreciate each one of you, even if I don’t get over to visit as often as I’d like. You are part of my blogging support network, and I am grateful and honored to be part of this community.

2016 has been a year to remember. I took my first steps into retiring from my career as a counselor, and as the year ends, I’m ending the job of 30 years to pursue my creative dreams. And it is because of my first love who is also my last love and, as you probably know, I”m writing a book about that. Almost finished with the writing/revising part and getting ready to send it off to the line editor – one of the last steps in writing this particular book which I started about four years ago. Hard to believe I’ve been working on it so long, but I’ve heard of people taking longer, which is more than okay. It has become a labor of love.

I wish you all abundant blessings in 2017. May the stars shine upon you and may you dance with joy, rest in serenity, and sing your song. I look forward to a lasting, laughing, loving life of creating with you.

And now, my Stream of Consciousness brings us to this song which I dedicate to all those who are lonely. You never know what wonderful surprises are waiting around the corner.  In the mean time, love yourself well and know that you are deeply and profoundly loved by your creator, forever.

 

Today’s Stream of Consciousness prompt was: “first/last,” with instructions to use one or both words, or find words that mean the same. Bonus points if you start your post with “first/beginning/start” etc. and end with “last/end” etc. Enjoy!

The Saturday Stream of Consciousness is brought to you by Linda Hill at:

https://lindaghill.com/2016/12/30/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-3116

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. 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!

 

Anything is Possible Cooking with the Stream of Consciousness

I enjoy cooking when it’s an experiment. That means not following a recipe. With the exception of baking – cookies, pies, cakes which require specific measurements or else you could have a bunch of dog treats on your hands, or Frisbees – I think of a recipe as a general guideline or an idea generator.

My husband, on the other hand, likes to follow a recipe with precision. When I’ve made an experiment that turned out good, he says, “How will you be able to replicate it?” But following a recipe, or writing down what I did, just seems to take the fun out of it.

One exception that we can both have fun with is soup. We’ll throw all our leftovers or last chance veggies in a soup.

I’m making my traditional vegetarian lasagna for Christmas Eve, even though it will probably be just me and my husband, and even though I’m experimenting so it won’t be a traditional recipe, just the tradition of Christmas Eve lasagna. This year, I’m experimenting with vegan cheese. Yeah, it might not melt on top, but, well, we’ll see. I’m also baking ginger cookies, but I’m taking the easy way out with a mix. I’m just adding the vegan butter and one Humane Certified egg. So the cookies will be soft and chewy, a step above the store bought in a bag ginger snaps, but easier than starting from scratch.

Speaking of easy, Christmas day, we’ll go take my dad out for Chinese after church. It’s a new tradition for us since my mom died a few years ago and it works okay for me to not cook.

Here’s a cooking song my dad used to sing to my mom. It’s not my kind of music, but it’s my stream of consciousness, and the words are cute.

“Hey, good lookin’ whatcha got cookin’?”

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE, EVERYONE!

Today’s Stream of Consciousness prompt was: “cook.” Find a word that means “cook,” (or use “cook” itself) and use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

The Saturday Stream of Consciousness is brought to you by Linda Hill at:

 https://lindaghill.com/2016/12/23/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-2316/

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. 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!

Does it Really Need to Be That Complicated?

Photo compliments of Pixabay. Search word: “frustrated”

Linda’s prompt for this Saturday’s Stream of Consciousness post was: “moot.” I thought I knew what it meant: meaningless, worthless, not worth bothering with. But I’m glad I looked it up, because I was wrong!  Google’s first definition for moot was:

“subject to debate, dispute, or uncertainty, and typically not admitting of a final decision.”

Maybe I was subconsciously thinking of the word, mute. Did anyone else think moot meant meaningless? Anyway, it’s good to get that cleared up. Thanks, Linda.

Moot is a good word to describe my relationship with a certain email marketing system. I spent a lot of time setting this up to send out my monthly newsletter. I like the creative aspects of this kind of work, and I’m not as low-tech as I used to be, but this particular system, the only one I’ve used so far, almost drove me crazy yesterday. Last month I spent more than a couple  hours figuring out about content boxes and where everything was to paste my newsletter parts into the template I’d created. Yesterday, I spent two hours figuring it out, but when I looked at the preview, there was stuff from November in the current template which was a separate template….Anyway, sorry to bore you with this.

I don’t want to deal with it anymore. It shouldn’t be this complicated. Reminds me of the rebound relationships I had after my divorce. Yes, they were good at fixing things around my house, and they seemed confident on the surface, but they were too complicated in ways that were too much work. Fixer uppers. I finally decided it just wasn’t worth the cost to my serenity. I didn’t need that much stress in my life. I could deal with it if I had to, but I didn’t have to.

That’s how I feel right now about the email marketing platform. Too much monkey business for me. So I’m sending out my December newsletter the old-fashioned way, as an attachment from my personal email. Maybe it’s a good thing my list isn’t that long right now. Someday, maybe I’ll try that monkey thing again, or another company. I don’t know. But right now, it’s moot.

Oh, I almost forgot. I believe I removed those pop ups asking if people wanted to sign up for my newsletter. I never really liked pop ups anyway. If you like them, that’s fine. But I felt uncomfortable with them being here. So if you see any pop ups here, please let me know. And if you want to get my monthly newsletter the old-fashioned way, just email me at the address on my contact page.

Thanks for letting me vent.

The Stream of Consciousness can be therapeutic! If you want to read more about “moot,” visit Linda’s blog:

https://lindaghill.com/2016/12/16/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-1716

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. 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!

 

A Pretty Short Stream of Consciousness

There have been some scenes in my life that were not pretty. So un-pretty that I’m not going to write about them. But what is pretty is today. The golden sun on the yellow leaves, the softness of the breeze, the promise of Christmas lights popping up here and there.

 

Things can get pretty ugly and scary sometimes. But things are going to work out. They always do, even if we don’t like how.

And speaking of “pretty” which is today’s prompt, Natalie Scarberry posted a post a couple days ago about pretty. Here it is, take a look!

https://sacredtouches.com/2016/11/24/we-get-so/https://sacredtouches.com/2016/11/24/we-get-so/

Pretty darn cute, Natalie.

To read more pretty posts in the Stream of Consciousness mode, visit Linda Hill’s blog:

https://lindaghill.com/2016/11/25/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-nov-2616/

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. 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!

Yes, to the Stream of Consciousness

Yes, to the Stream of Consciousness!

Yes! It’s time to move forward.

I’ve taken a break and licked my wounds.

Now it’s time to jump back in the stream.

But, but, but….

I have so many streams going on

So many things I want to do.

Irons in fire

Burning, smouldering, steaming…

Here’s the deal:

I will not say yes to anything I have not already said yes to.

That means I have to say no to some things.

Or I can say, not right now, maybe later.

Maybe not.

When the time is right,

Say, yes!

When he asked me to marry him,

Under the full December moon

Of almost four years past,

I said, “You have to get down on one knee.”

Did I see an eye roll

hidden in that smile?

Maybe.

But he did it anyway.

And I said,

“Yes!”

Today’s Stream of Consciousness prompt and post was affirmatively brought to you by

Linda G. Hill. Visit, https://lindaghill.com/2016/11/18/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-nov-1916/ for a treat!

Linda said we get bonus points if we use the prompt:  “yes” at the beginning and the end of our post. Yes! I get bonus points! Can I cash them in, or do I simply celebrate? Yes! Hey, it feels good to say, yes!

Here are the SoCS 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. 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!

 

Remember Who You Are

I was going to write about remembering how I used to draw pictures of horses and dogs when I was barely 10 years old. I loved art in high school. I always had some talent for drawing and painting.

But before I actually started writing, I remembered something from the movie The Lion King.

I hadn’t seen that scene in many years, since children lived in this house, and just now when I watched it, I saw parallels with God telling Jesus, he is the one true king. I know Jesus wasn’t always crazy about being the king. He got tired. Don’t know if this parallel was intended or if it’s just one of those archetype things. Not just, because archetypes are a big deal. The archetype of coming home, if that is an archetype, is one I’m doing as I come back to art.

Today, I’m taking my paintings and prints to our church’s Holiday Artisan Fair. I’ve been painting angels mostly. My mom loves this, even though I can’t see her physically cause she has passed on. OMG, like Mufasa! (except she’s a wispy angel with a soft voice) Because I can feel her sometimes. I’m working on a post about that for next week, so stay tuned (or come back around Thursday.)

But anyway, remembering who I am, is coming home to art after a long, long time of not doing much art. And I’m also writing a memoir about finding my soulmate after a long, long time of being confused, or rather working on me to get ready. You can read more about that on my Work in Progress Page, and the art on My Art page.

Here’s my latest painting done on a piece of scrap wood, my favorite canvas.

Angel of the Waves by JoAnne Silvia

Is there something you used to enjoy, maybe a long time ago, that you want to get back to? Or something you’ve always dreamed of doing? What step might you take in that direction?

PS. Mom says she’s not that wispy.

Linda’s prompt for today’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday post was:

“mem”

Go see what it’s all about at Linda Hill’s “Life in Progress”

https://lindaghill.com/2016/11/11/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-nov-1216/

Here are the SoCS 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. 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!

No NaNo for Me, but….

I’m not doing NaNoWriMo this year. I’ve never done it, yet. But one year, I hope to – when I’m writing a novel. I know you don’t have to write a novel, but it is National Novel Writing Month. I’m sort of doing my own intense memoir-that-reads-like-a-novel fix up this month, which means I’m going through my memoir and looking for places to change some of my telling to showing.

It’s harder with a memoir, because I can’t just make stuff up like I could in a novel. But I’m learning to be more creative in adding scenes and dialog even if I don’t remember the exact words that were said, though sometimes I do.

I have been reading more novels lately. I’m a slow reader, but I recently finished Steele Secrets, a young adult novel about a girl who meets a ghost in a slave cemetery. It’s full of compassion and integrity and a great read for any teenager or young adult.

Right after finishing Steele Secrets, I read Linda’s book, All Good Stories. It was great to follow up an emotionally moving novel about saving a slave cemetery with something lighthearted and funny. Linda’s book is technically a novelette. It was fun and easy, but not too easy. Both books were important to read: Steele Secrets, because we need to honor the enslaved people who suffered and died in America, and All Good Stories, because we need fun and delight in our lives. We need balance.

My memoir does sort of read like a novel, I hope. I have work to do, and I’m sure I can set some goals to intensify my efforts. I imagine there’s more thinking going on in revising and editing than the speed writing of NaNoWriMo. I sort of envy all of you doing that. I bet it’s exhilarating. Hopefully next year, I’ll join you! Dang! I wish I could edit out those sort ofs, sort of. No, really.

Okay. I didn’t mean that NaNoWriMo writers are not thinking. But it’s a different kind of thinking. Maybe the characters are thinking for them, which would be cool. Am I in trouble? I worry too much. Sort of. 🙂 Better to stop now. The stream of consciousness is carrying me away.

Today’s Stream of Consciousness prompt: “novel” was brought to you by Linda G. Hill.

To find out more, visit Linda at:

https://lindaghill.com/2016/11/04/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-nov-516/

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. 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!