SoCS: What’s in Your Brain?

Today’s prompt is….. “container.” We have lots of latitude as to how we use it.

My brain is a container.

Full of 64 plus years of memories,

knowledge, questions, clutter, images

Formulas, trivia, mistakes, emotions,

Successes, failures, learnings, maps……

The question is, what more shall I add?

Political news can be stressful

But it’s necessary in small and specific doses.

Music is better. Reading for pleasure is better.

Science Fiction can be a good escape,

But not so much shoot em ups

Not so much blood. Not so much cop drama….

Star Trek is always good.

Romantic comedies are warm bread.

Jeopardy is better than news.

Facebook invites stress

if I’m not careful where I go.

We can change the channel

Click the X.

Learn some new dance steps

A new song

A new path through the woods

Or a well treasured trail.

Books are good friends.

Furry friends and funny friends…

Find room for loving conversation

Making new memories to add to the old ones.

Take out the trash.

Make room for good

food for thought.

I was feeling stressed by news and FB and realized I needed to relax. Here’s my current go-to meditation. It’s about 45 minutes. The sleep part doesn’t come in til the very end, so you could watch it in sections: protection, calm, wellness, then the sleep if you want to, or just go on with your day, save the sleep for later. Sometimes I fade in and out, imprinting on Michael’s British accent.

I’m on the road for a short trip to the mountains, so will catch you later. Have a great Saturday!

…

For more streams of consciousness, visit our host, Linda G. Hill at:

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Sept. 26/2020

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!

Find the Precious Moments

“These are precious times.”

“What? Are you crazy? We got hurricanes, wars, divided nations from extreme attention getting radials dividing us. We got all kinds of sh*t going on. Have you watched the news?”

“I try not to.”

“Well you can’t just stick your head in the sand.”

“I watch the news some, or read some things, but if I watch too much news, I just feel too much despair. The news is lopsided you know. There are good things going on they don’t tell you.”

“Right.”

“All that bad stuff is true. Well, maybe not all of it. But there are precious moments intermingled. We just have to look for them, or to see them when they are right there in front of our eyes. Have you noticed how blue the sky is since the last hurricane?

“Yes. And it’s finally cooled off some. That’s nice, but, well, I’ll think about it.”

“I’m going to go look at the sky and feel the cool air. I’m going for a walk. Wanna come?”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“And we’re not going to talk about politics.”

“Okay. I’ll try. What about religion and aliens?”

“Maybe. But lets just look for the flowers, or fall leaves, and notice that the mosquitoes are not attacking as fiercely.”

….

I didn’t know this was going to be a dialog. I think that last part was because I’m planning to go to the mountains to see my son this weekend. He put something on Facebook about having a lot of family come visit and not talking about politics. I’m all for that. But sometimes we like to talk about religion and aliens. Mostly I want to go hiking and see my son and grand kids.

I was bummed out yesterday because I wasn’t feeling well – sinus infection or allergies, maybe a mild cold – lots of things blooming since the hurricane. Plus my daughter was having a crisis, but that seems to be stabilizing a little. Her whole apartment complex, like many in Wilmington, is closing down due to mold and water damage, etc. She has options and a temporary plan, but apartments and hotels are extremely scarce. This will make her stronger, I keep telling myself. God’s got this. Every crisis eventually stabilizes.

Look for the precious moments and patches of blue sky. I’m feeling better today. Rest, vitamins, echinacea, and lots of fluids have helped. It’s going to be okay.

Sending prayers to the people in Florida who’s homes have been destroyed and who have lost family and friends. To people all over the world who face challenges they do not think they can ever recover from. I’m asking angels to comfort you and bring precious moments of peace.

…

Today’s prompt for the Saturday Stream of Consciousness was: “precious.”

For more precious posts, visit our precious host, Linda, at:

https://lindaghill.com/2018/10/12/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-oct-13-18/

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!

Not Gonna Grin and Bear It.

The first thing that popped into my head when I read the Saturday Stream of Consciousness prompt: bear/bare, was that I can’t bear to watch the news anymore. But that’s not true. I can bear it. I just don’t want to. I get my news from the internet, where I have some control over what comes at me. I can bear a lot of things if I have to. Like the critical X boyfriend who constantly talked about what was wrong with the world. I could bear that if I had to, but I didn’t have to, so I stopped.

That boyfriend and the news both focused on what was wrong. They didn’t spend much time looking at the good or giving compliments. Oh, yeah, maybe a small percentage of good news or compliments, not that I need compliments, but I want some balance. I want some good news. And it’s out there. You just have to be willing to see it.

Focusing on what’s wrong in the world makes it seem like the world is a bad place. And yeah, my house needs some work, and our world needs some work. Okay the world needs a lot of work. But what we focus on gets bigger. So if you’re going to criticize, also bear in mind that it helps to make suggestions or look at people who are trying to help.

If the cupboard is bare, what can you do to help? Just don’t put any bear meat in the cupboard. Don’t even want to go there. I don’t want to look at polar bears stranded on ice flows with no where to go. I do need to know about global warming melting the ice, but tell me what to do about it. Give me stories about people who are trying to help. Encourage me to go one day a week without driving my car, like Smilecalm’s latest post did. Can I bear to not drive my car one day a week? I bet I can do that. Maybe I’ll get that bike fixed so I can ride it on my no car day. When the weather is warmer. Until then, I’ll stay home. If I can get someone to feed my feral cats at church, I can stay home now since I’m leaving the job I’ve had for thirty years. I could have stayed that job longer if I’d had to. I could have grinned and beared it for a few more years until medicare kicked in, but I don’t have to, because I have been blessed with the chance to do something different.

We can bear a lot of things if we have to, if it’s going to do some good to bear witness to pain, but I’d rather focus on doing what good I can in my little corner of the world and look for people to hold up to the light, people bearing gifts.

Now, I’m thinking about those polar bears….  But at least I’m feeding the feral cats I got fixed so they can’t bear anymore feral cats. We do what we can.

Here are some pictures I took yesterday of my Mama Cat and her daughter, Gray, enjoying the sun.

It’s taken a long time for Mama Cat to let me close to her. Food helps.

Is she going to give us more food?

And here’s Gray when she was a kitten this past spring.

Gray’s sister, Patch, had her eye surgery and was adopted by the vet-tech who fell in love with her. That was good news!

Linda G Hill bears the responsibility of hosting the Saturday Stream of Consciousness. You can find out more at her blog:

https://lindaghill.com/2016/12/09/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-1016/https://lindaghill.com/2016/12/09/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-1016/

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!

Good News Deserves Equal Time

I’m so tired of media concentration on the worst news available.

Yes, we need to know about the shootings, the murders of people who should not have died. Yes, we need to see the videos taken by bystanders and loved ones to document what happened. But we also need to know more about the good that happens in the world. We desperately need balance.

I know I’ve written about this before, but it’s important, and this is my blog, so this is  what my Stream of Consciousness is saying today.

Our media, particularly the TV news, tends to add to the polarization and tension in any given situation. They love to concentrate on controversy on the TV news and think that’s what people want. The recent shootings being reported from this focus of controversy tend to divide us in America.

I don’t want concentration on controversy and the worst news. I want to know what’s going on and why, but I want to know what solutions are being considered. I want to know about the ones who help. I want to know about people overcoming challenges and learning to love each other, or respect each other at least, and efforts to understand. Concentrating on the worst news, the killings, the robberies, the corruption in government, while giving 5 minutes of good news at the end of a 30 minute news program,  adds to our despair and creates an atmosphere of doom. The intense concentration on the worst news makes those horrors seem normal. They are not normal.

What would happen if we had 50% positive news, or a combination of positive and neutral/informational and 50% bad news. What if we had a rule that you can’t have more than 50% bad news in any news program. Okay, I know that would be infringing on the Freedom of Speech to make it a rule. But what if?

I think a 50/50 ratio of good to bad news would be good for our mental and physical health. I believe there would be a gradual decrease in crime, if enough people watched the 50/50 news program and more people would get attention for doing good things. We’d sleep better at night. We’d be exposed to more positive role models.

God, help us learn to live in peace. Help us learn to love one another, or at least respect one another. Help us speak words of hope and encourage each other to do better. Help us to heal and to find our common ground. Help us to lift up what is good and right about ourselves, our families, our neighbors, our countries and our planet.

Here are some places you can find good news:

http://www.dailygood.org/

https://writingtofreedom.com/  (see “Awesome Stories”)

https://www.good.is/

Today’s Stream of Consciousness prompt was the word: “Concentration.” To learn more, visit Linda Hill’s blog by clicking the link below:

https://lindaghill.com/2016/07/08/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-july-916/

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.

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!

Expectations of Joaquin

---

I expected this to be  a busier than usual weekend. Right after the Blessing of the Animals on Saint Francis Sunday, I’d be flying to Indiana to see my grand kids. I’ll still be on that plane, and I’m so looking forward to it, because I don’t see my grand kids very often, being on the east coast, but the Blessing of the Animals was cancelled.

Friday, I called Father Macgill to discuss our plans, with Hurricane Joaquin building up energy, and some models coming  to the Carolinas. I shared with him my experience of cancelling events due to impending bad weather, and then having clear skies on the day of the event. He was gracious to let it be my call, so we decided to wait and see what path Joaquin would take.

The decision was made for us, because the county parks department, our venue, decided to close for the weekend. It now appears that Joaquin will be making a turn out toward sea. Sunday afternoon, Saint Francis Feast Day, could be beautiful. Anything is possible of course. At least now I won’t have to rush from the event to the airport. So that’s a good thing. And it’s a good thing if all we get is a lot of rain. Things are already pretty soggy in my neck of the woods.

I do want everyone to be safe. Still, I can’t help but observe that the TV news people get us all hyped up, or try to anyway, by just the tones in the voices of those reporting the forecasts, the predictions of where the storm might go. It could go anywhere! We better get our water, our batteries, our generators, canned goods, and eat all the ice cream in the freezer, pronto! I’ve done that in past hurricanes, but not until I was sure it was coming. I do keep a lot of candles in the house during hurricane season after being without electricity for over a week with Hurricane Fran or Floyd, or maybe it was Bertha, years ago.

My friend commented on Facebook that she and her daughter were having coffee and tea yesterday morning at a local diner and embracing the “pre-storm culture.” It’s good to be prepared for the worst, but to hope for the best. Our  focus needs to be on our hopes more than our fears.

Just remember if you approach what appears to be a deep puddle or flooded road: “Turn around. Don’t drown!”

Everybody stay safe out there!

This week’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt from Linda Hill was: “expect/unexpected.”  If you’d like to join in the fun, visit:

http://lindaghill.com/2015/10/02/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-oct-315/

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.

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!