Today’s SoCS prompt is, “hairy.” I’m typing on my little phone since my laptop will only tell me it needs a new cooling fan. We ordered one and will take it to Staples for inserting when the fan gets here. So this post might be short, and I’ll likely be slow in responding. Maybe this is God’s way of keeping me from spending so much time on the internet.
I just had to take a breath. It took a long time to type that first paragraph. My laptop will be appreciated when it comes out of hibernation.
But back to the prompt!
“Give me a head with hair, long beautiful hair….” Can I post a link to the musical on my phone? I’ll come back to that.
This could be a hairy time, having to move “everything” out of my house for the re-wiring. Thank you to Joey at Joeyfully Stated for the encouragement to not think too hard about it and that thinking about it is usually more hairy than doing it. We were also discussing hair over there as in women having to shave legs. Sometimes I think that’s a conspiracy like high heels, but let’s not go there. One good thing about menopause is that I don’t have to shave under my arms (my armpits have gone bald) and I rarely care about shaving my legs. I do need to keep an eye on facial hair though which is weird. TMI? Too bad. It’s SoCS.
Something not obviously related but that makes the whole de-cluttering thing less hairy is that I’m really getting into donating stuff now that I’m DONE with estate sales. I got a big rush after taking a big load of stuff to the thrift store that benefits survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. It was a giggly, high-five to myself rush. I got a little rush donating a smaller load a couple days later. This could get addicting – the donating- not the typing on my little phone. My hand hurts and I need to take a break.
Linda’s prompt for today’s Stream of Consciousness is “all or nothing.” We get bonus points if we start and end our post with one (or each) of them.
All or nothing thinking is one of my pet peeves. There are so many possibilities between all and nothing. Just like there are so many beautiful colors between black and white.
As a counselor (and a parent) I encouraged people to watch out for words like always and never because they usually mean someone is not thinking accurately. But it does seem like I always have something to do. I guess that’s better than having nothing to do. But it’s nice to have moments of nothing to do but take a nap or watch the sunset.
Here’s one of my gazillion sunset photos.
I’ve had a busy week getting ready for the Silver Arts competition (part of Senior Games) which includes literary, visual, and performing arts categories. I entered a poem and an essay, and I’m finishing one of two paintings I need to turn in on Monday. All this is happening as my book is getting finished up. There was one final glitch in the typsetting. I say final with some eye rolling because I’ve thought I had a my “final” book cover and “final” PDF to upload more than once.
Gah! When it rains is pours.
Today, working on the painting of angels, which I will share with you next week when it’s done, I got keyed up. I feel emotionally tired after painting for a couple of hours. I want to relax more. But I talk to myself while painting, making comments on whether something is working or not. I spent about an hour on two angel faces trying to get them right.
Do any other artists feel emotionally drained after working on a painting? I don’t feel this from writing, unless I’m writing about something emotional. Which sure did happen writing my memoir.
I asked my gynecologist last week if it’s normal to feel mood swings after menopause that feel hormonal. She said it’s normal, but it’s not necessarily hormonal. She said it’s maturation. I think that’s the word she used. She said as we age, our nervous system doesn’t work quite as well as it used to, so some people get more easily frustrated and some, like me, get weepy. But then the next day, or the next hour, I’m fine. Or better than fine! Plus I realize that I have more time to think now that I’m not working that intense job I did for 30 plus years. Sometimes I have too much time to think, too many conversations in my head. It’s better when I talk to the dog.
So today, I used some mindfulness techniques and rode the old Schwinn I bought for $10 at a yard sale. I rode around my neighborhood with the wind in my hair and finding all the hills I didn’t know existed with my 61 year old knees getting a reminder of the old days. It was a good balance after all that painting and being all up in my head. Balance is something I will continue to seek to stay away from the all or nothing.
I just had to share my “new” bike (and my old dog)
Here are the rules for the Saturday Stream of Consciousness Post:
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.
It was years ago, after the rebound from hell, after stumbling around in purgatory, as I entered my unintenional five years of celibacy, that I was crazy about the girl band, Superchick. Their style was aimed at adolescent girls and had subtle Christian undertones. That must have been what I needed back in those post-divorce years. In some ways, I was like a adolescent girl, approaching menopause, trying to find myself again.
“Beauty for Pain” in particular helped pull me out of darkness and gave me hope.
The chorus is my favorite part:
After all this has passed, I still will remain
After I’ve cried my last, there’ll be beauty from pain
Though it won’t be today, someday I’ll hope again
And there’ll be beauty from pain
You will bring beauty from my pain
Today’s theme for Song Lyric Sunday was, “pain.” For more information, visit Helen at:
The first thing that popped into my head when I read our Stream of Consciousness prompt (“miss”) was that I miss my daughter. She’s 22 and living mostly with her boyfriend. I remember I did the same thing when I was her age….
I don’t miss the yelling matches and drama we had back in the days when she was in puberty and I was in menopause. I knew when I had her so late in life, that those would be challenging times, but we got through it. For most of that time, it was just me and my girl. We were best buddies – most of the time, when we weren’t yelling at each other. We didn’t yell at each other a lot, but definitely when we were hungry and had low blood sugar. We learned to not talk when we were hungry.
I don’t miss her having a meltdown at midnight when I had to go to work the next day, or the messiness of her room.
I do miss us singing together on road trips, and her teaching me songs by Pink and Lady Gaga. I miss her dry sense of humor. I miss the excitement of putting the Christmas tree up together, as hard as it was, just the two of us.
I wonder if my mom felt this way when I was 22.
I miss my mom. She’s an angel now. A zany angel. She used to make “angeled eggs” because she didn’t want to give the devil credit for something so good as what other people called deviled eggs.
Christmas is different when you don’t have kids. But I still love the Christmas lights and singing carols. I still love the memories. And I do enjoy the peace of these days.
Now I understand why people like their grand children, adore their grandchildren, brag about their grandchildren. I’m looking forward to being a grandmother. I do have grandchildren but they are far away. So I look forward to someday having them close at Christmas time. Until then, I will imagine them opening their packages from Grandma.
I think I want to make some gingerbread cookies.
If you’d like to join in the Saturday SOC prompt and post, visit Linda’s blog:
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.
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.
This week’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt is attach/attachment.
Attachment seems to have a negative connotation for me. I’m often talking, reading or thinking about emotional detachment to help people, including me, recover from co-dependency.
But when I try to think of a positive feeling about attachment, I remember my baby girl. She’s 21 years old now, but I can still remember the lovely, warm feeling of her being attached to my breast that summer I got to stay home and just be a mom. I think it was the most peaceful time of my life.
We were always close, my daughter and I. After the divorce, and after I stopped getting into relationships that weren’t right for me and accepted being single, and after my son moved out on his own, it was just me and my girl. And the dogs. For five years.
We didn’t do everything together. We had our own friends and activities, but we did a lot of fun things together, like canoe trips, road trips, and just hanging out. We also had plenty of arguments. After all, we did go through puberty and menopause around the same time. That’s what happens when you have a baby girl at the age of 37. Maybe it was a good thing it was just me and her during that time.
I know she’s felt a little displaced since I got married two years ago. She had me to herself for five years.
She’s a grown up now, technically. But she will always be my baby girl. I guess there will always be some emotional attachment between us. It reminds me of a quote, the origin of which I do not know. So I’ll just stop and look it up. (I can tell you I’m doing that because this is Stream of Consciousness Saturday.) Here it is:
“Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” __Elizabeth Stone
♥
To join in the Saturday Stream of Consciousness prompt/response, visit:
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!
Anything is Possible! 