SoCS: Antic Words, Intellect + Heart in Jane Goodall’s Book of Hope, A Veteran’s Perspective on Guns, Carly Simon, the Atlantic Ocean, and Pictures from My Hike

Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “antic.” Use it as a word or find a word that contains it. Bonus points if you do both. Enjoy!

I confess to looking up the word, pedantic, because I’ve heard or rather read it a few times, but wasn’t really sure what it meant. Don’t want to use that word, but I might. I further confess to looking up words that rhyme with pedantic. This was not planning, it was just curiosity, BEFORE I even began to write the stream.

Words that rhyme with pedantic…. I’d much rather be romantic than frantic or pedantic. But if one is too romantic, one might end up being frantic about trying to get away from someone pedantic. This might happen because we need both the heart and the brain, working together for the best outcome. “Follow your heart, but take your brain with you,” is a quote I use in my short book about finding a healthy relationship.

Speaking of books, hearts, and brains, I’m reading Jane Goodall’s The Book of HOPE. It’s written as this guy Douglas Abrams interviewing her, but very personal, not at all pedantic. I went to get the book to see if I could find the quote. This is not planning; this was just stepping out of the stream for 30 seconds. Well, I’m not going to look that hard for it. It was in the chapter about the “amazing human intellect” being one of the things that gives her hope. BUT and this is a big but, we need the heart, as in compassion, to work with the intellect and the intellect to work with the heart. We need intelligence and compassion. It reminds me of how we need both knowledge and ethics. But human knowledge is overreaching and sometimes lacking in ethics and compassion.

My intellect says, people do have a right to own guns, though not necessarily automatic assault weapons. Why would anyone need those, unless they are paranoid or watch too many doomsday movies that I’m trying to stay away from so as not to give them power. Compassion for our children and other beings says there need to be limits, boundaries, so that the gun ownership is “well-regulated” as the second amendment states.

I recently read an article by a military veteran who makes a case for implementing strict regulations on guns like they have in the military and apply these regulations to society and guns in general. He wrote that on most military bases, people are not allowed to carry concealed weapons for example. I did not mean to write about guns, but that’s what happens sometimes in the stream of consciousness. Here’s the article from my Goodnewspaper: A Veteran’s Case for Implementing Military Gun Standards in Our Society.

Personally, I’d rather not have anything to do with guns. I’d rather go for a stroll along the Atlantic Ocean or hike in the mountains. Did I share the video of our flight over the Atlantic? I’ll have to check that and come back to it.

Meanwhile, here’s a song with antic in it:

I love Carly Simon.

Okay, in case you’ve been anticipating the flying video… I’m having trouble finding it. Plus, it makes me a little nauseous just to look at it. But here are some of my pictures of the Atlantic ocean: (click to see the whole picture.)

Now for the hike! It had been about two years since I last hiked this rocky trail next to the river. My feet seemed to have wings as I leapt from rock to rock. April Fools! Seemed like I was much nimbler in the past. This time, my feet were hesitant. But I did not get frantic. I heeded the caution sign, took my time and even sat down and butt-scooted over rocks once or twice.

Caution Sign

What’s around the bend?

I might have scooted down here.

Steps

Same steps with pool

Mossy rocks

leaning toward the light

View from between

Anybody home?

Heading back

Worth the view

Imagine the sound

Face in rock

Hill across the river

fungi on tree

(There are a few more photos from my hike I’m saving for a tree love post.)

~~~

I hope you enjoyed this rambling stream of consciousness.

For more streams, rules, and such,

visit our host, Linda Hill

by clicking HERE.

Thursday Tree Love: Between the Pines

“Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world.”

John Muir

I’ve always loved pine trees. Here near the Carolina Coast, we have loblolly pines and long leaf pines. David and I walked among these evergreens with our dog Marley on my December birthday hike at Carolina Beach State Park. If you stand quietly between the pines, you can feel the doorway to a new world.

Path Between the Pines

Pines Overhead

Pines and Grasses

David and Marley on the Pine Trail

…

Thursday Tree Love is hosted by Parul Thakur.

For more tree love, visit Parul at Happiness and Food.

SoCS: Taking the Easy Trail on Thanksgiving Day

Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “on your/my plate.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

You don’t have to eat everything on your plate in one sitting. You can save some for later. Put it in the fridge. Maybe even the freezer. This has been a weight loss strategy for me. Sometimes it works. I tell myself I can still have the rest of the food or a second helping. I will just have it tomorrow. (Unless I go back and get it at 9pm as a bedtime snack.)

The exception may be Thanksgiving dinner which traditionally has been a time when a lot of us overeat. I certainly ate more sweets on Thursday than usual since I usually don’t eat sweets… much.

There have been plenty of times when I’ve had too much on my plate and not always food. Responsibilities taken on due to interest, a sense of obligation, or not saying no, may need to be put in the frig, the back burner, or prioritized. Delegated maybe.

We packed a lot into Thanksgiving Day in the Appalachian Mountains and drove back home to the coast on Friday. Thursday morning, we went to Linville Falls and took the short, easy trail since my knee has been bothering me. I got a stretchy sleeve to put on my knee which helped a lot, though it falls down after a while which is better than being too tight. I also wore my compression socks to help with my heel spurs. I’m very thankful I was able to hike the half mile or so to the falls and decided not to continue on to the uphill climb to get the view further along the falls. That will be next time. That hike will go in the freezer maybe for next year.

That afternoon, my son cooked practically the whole dinner of mostly vegan food, while I helped my granddaughter with a school project on temperate forests. We ate too much and then went for a walk along the nearby river trail. Then we went back to the house and had pumpkin pie, macaroons, and vegan ice cream sandwiches. Everything was delicious! My granddaughter and I set up the nativity stable made by my father many years ago and then decorated the Christmas tree. Whew! It was a busy day. But not too much. I’m thankful to have been with family in the mountains. Still, it’s good to be home!

Now, to see if I can find the photos….

In the fourth photo, do you see the profile in the rock on the right? It has bushy hair.

Linville River

David, Marley and my son

Linville Falls

See the Rock Head?

David, Marley and Me

Blue Ridge Mountains

Mostly Vegan Dinner

After Dinner Walk

My granddaughter arranged the figures in my dad’s stable.

~~~

For more SoCS rules and posts, put Linda’s blog on your plate.

She’s our persevering host.

SoCS: Crocs, Gators, and a Birthday Hike

Our Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “roc.” We are to find a word with “roc” in it or use it as a word all by itself, and enjoy!

Crocodiles are different from alligators. We have alligators here in North Carolina. I’ve seen them at the lake and less often in the creek not far from my house. Alligators are not as aggressive as crocodiles. I have to admit that I researched the differences before starting this stream. I was curious! But I’m still writing in SoCS style and did a minimum of planning. I think that’s the rule.

I used to think there were no crocodiles in the US, but read that southern Florida is the only place where gators and crocs coexist. Crocs have pointier snouts. I guess I thought gator snouts were pointy because that’s how they look in the water. Crocs live in South America and Africa. I’m glad gators aren’t that aggressive, at least to people, but you have to be careful not to let small dogs or cats run around gator territory. Don’t want to think too much about that.

How about this sign?

WARNING: Beware of Alligators

Is that sign just weathered, or did the alligators come up and rub those letters so you couldn’t read them? Why would they do that? Why would I even imagine that? Too much imagination. Let’s move on.

Crocs are a brand of functional shoes. I love my crocs sandals with lots of cushioning. The first pair I had lasted at least two years. Then each pair afterward seemed to last less time. It helps if I don’t wear them to do yoga outside. Seems I need more and more cushioning under my old feet. No more going barefoot. Maybe that’s a good thing. My feet will be a little safer from crocs, gators, and snakes when I go on hikes to the creek or my urban forest.

On Tuesday we went on a birthday hike for my daughter’s 28th birthday to a nature preserve across the bridge in the next county. There were places where alligators might have been hiding. No crocs though. We did see a turtle. (It looked like a turtle, but there was no water nearby so maybe it was a tortoise?) We hiked lots of varied terrain – woods, fields, and swamp. Not many rocks though like up north in the mountains. Glad it was too early for the mosquitoes to be out in force. I’ve only seen a few, but it’s been very dry here lately. It won’t be long…. Anyway, here a few photos from my daughter’s birthday hike.

• 

  The woodsy part

• 

  Field trail

• 

  Turtle or tortoise?

• 

  My granddaughter talking to the turtle

• 

  New growth in an old stump

• 

  Gator Territory

• 

  Cypress trees

• 

  Doesn’t this look primordial?

• 

  When did my daughter get taller than me! She must be on her tiptoes.

~~~

Today’s prompt is brought to you by our SoCS post, Linda Hill. You can find rules and more streams of consciousness by clicking the link below:

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS May 22, 2021 | (lindaghill.com)

SoCS: Family Options, Letters from Vietnam, and a Thanksgiving Day Hike

Our Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “opt.” Use it as a word or find a word with “opt” in it and base your post on that. Have fun!

Have fun, because misery is optional.

We opted out of family Thanksgiving with extended family. It was me and David and Mama Cat who slept through dinner. (Mama Cat slept, not David and me.) We made an almost vegan dinner with stuffed acorn squash and a roasted cauliflower. David made an apple pie. There was a little butter somewhere which was not vegan and humane certified hard boiled eggs in the stuffing.

But that is not what I was going to write about. I was going to say that we always have options. But some people have fewer or more options than others. I was going to write about mask wearing options and how it annoys me when people wear a mask below their nose, but maybe they have a chronic respiratory illness….. I don’t know.

I’ve been reading my dad’s letters from Vietnam for NaNoWriMo research which has slowed considerably to a trickle, but has not stopped. And will not stop for more than a day, because I’m rolling slowly along. Gathering no moss so far.

My dad had options in Vietnam, but not many. Most were about attitude and whether to pray. Mom was having nervous breakdowns while he was there. It was an awful year, and we moved a lot that year. My dad did have the (illegal) option of deserting, or “bugging out.” But that option was so distasteful, so full of way worse consequences of shame and dishonor, that it probably felt he had no choice. He chose to make a commitment to the Marine Corps and to honor that commitment, to do his job well. But it was so hard. He had also promised my mom he would come home to her and us kids. He had orders to return fire, not knowing who might be killed. He was the only enlisted Marine (a Gunny, not an officer) in charge of a platoon in his company. He was a natural leader who would be haunted by nightmares for the rest of his life by what happened in Vietnam. I’m so proud of him and my mom who were half a world apart on Thanksgiving and Christmas when Dad was in Vietnam. They did a lot of good service work together after Dad retired.

My dad in Vietnam (1967) He lost about 40 pounds there.

I feel like I’ve spent more time lately with my deceased parents, through Dad’s letters, than other family members living outside of my household. Maybe for now, that’s okay. For now.

What happened to having fun? Fun is different now than it was when I was a kid, or a teenager, or in my twenties or thirties. Fun can be relaxing and watching a movie. Or taking a hike on Thanksgiving Day. Like this one at our neighborhood creek:

A pair of ducks

Graffiti on a drainage pipe

A pair of old hikers

…

For more Streams of Consciousness, rules, and maybe even some options, visit:

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Nov. 28/2020 | (lindaghill.com)

Thursday Tree Love: A Morning Hike in Southern Pines

I’ve been wanting to share the photos from our Christmas morning hike and realized I could do it for Thursday Tree Love  a photo feature hosted by Parul Thakur on 2nd and 4th Thursday of each month. Yes, I know I’m at least three holidays behind, but I do love trees. The Christmas hike was important since we were away from home and I needed to be reminded of the constants in my life, my love for nature, and the grand design of a power greater than myself. It was a beautiful morning to walk the easy winding trail through southern pines with David and Doodle.

 

 

For more on #ThursdayTreeLove visit Parul Thakur  at https://www.happinessandfood.com/thursdaytreelove-57/

Safe with the Trees in Pequot Woods

Our prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: save/safe, brought to us by Jolene Mottern who’s filling in for Linda. Thanks, Joey! You can find the details here:

https://lindaghill.com/2017/10/06/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-oct-617/

Save us from ourselves. From trying to “improve” things that are already great the way they are. Save us from the “developers.” What a strange word that is to me. I like the idea of developing skills, but to “develop” the land often means to pave paradise and put up a parking lot.

I can play that on the guitar without looking at the chords. It’s really easy.

I’m enjoying the trees here in Connecticut where we are visiting family and friends for the weekend, staying in the rural outskirts of the small town my husband refers to as “Hooterville.”  Lots of tree here. No need for a tree museum. I hope we can save them.

Here’s a lovely little piece of woods for hiking. I liked this sign.

Whenever I leave the house, for and errand, and especially when going on a trip out of town, I check the stove more than once. Sometimes more than twice with my ritual of checking each knob: off, off, off, off, off. Safe. Safe. Safe. Safe. Safe. God please keep my house safe. My dogs safe. Safe, safe, safe.  It’s nice to travel, but I also love those days when I don’t have to leave the house at all. Those are rare days. It’s nice to have a balance.

Here are some more pictures from my hike in Pequot Woods:

What do you see?

Thank you for these lovely woods, Miss Lucy. I hope we keep them safe.

…

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!

 

 

Moving from Leftovers to the Joy of Being Alive

Badge by: Doobster @ Mindful Digressions

Today’s Stream of Consciousness prompt is the word: consume.

 

I will not be consumed by guilt about the extra calories I’ve consumed over the holidays.

The beguiling sugar monster flirts with me, again. What harm can come of this seemingly innocent pleasure? A piece of pumpkin pie, a cookie slipped from the plate in the frig…..

I know the seductive nature of sweet things, and of spicy leftover lasagna calling me from the the refrigerator, on the shelf above the apple pie which sits temptingly on top of the kale salad that’s getting old.

My mantra was to only consume things that were healthy and good for me, mindfully, one bite at a time, only what I need….

I will not feel guilty for not being perfect.

 

I want to be consumed by the urge to stretch and hike the wooded trails breathing crisp air.

I want to be consumed by the love of painting and writing and singing.

I want to be consumed by my lover’s scent, by his love for me.

I want to be consumed by the hope of the new year!

Consumed by the joy of being alive!

∞

If you’d like to join the fun of Saturday’s Stream of Consciousness prompt and post, visit:

http://lindaghill.com/2014/12/26/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-december-2714/

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,” or “Begin with the word ‘The’.”

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.

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. Have fun!