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!

 

 

Dealing with Clutter on the ADD Spectrum. Good thing I’m “retired.”

Do, do, do. I’m supposedly retired, but still have so much to do. I can’t imagine being bored ever again. Except when I go somewhere and do something I don’t really want to do. Trying to not do that so much anymore. I saw a meme the other day that brought back memories of my old job. Let me see if I can find it.

Okay. I’m back. That took longer than I thought because I went to Facebook to find it and got distracted by this guy rescuing an antelope out of a mud pit.

Here’s what I went looking for:

I would never post that when I worked at the forever short staffed place. Now, it’s such a relief not to be in that craziness.

My response: NO.  No, I will NOT work myself to death.

Speaking of getting distracted, when I go to my parents house, which now belongs to me since they are happy together again in heaven, my ADD really kicks in. I’ve never been diagnosed with ADD and probably wouldn’t because it’s usually a mild case, and I’ve compensated well for it. But I think ADD is on a continuum, like the Autism spectrum. Except my continuum/spectrum theory is pretty broad. I know people who are introverts at heart who might be on the the spectrum… have just a tiny touch of autism, but would not be likely to be diagnosed. I might even be one of them.

But back to the ADD. My kids have more of it than I do. We have no H to go with it for hyperactivity. We are those spacey day dreamy types. I only have a tiny touch of it. But when I go to my parents house (my house now though I don’t live there) I get easily distracted. Because they have a lot of clutter. I’m not going to call it hoarding because their living room looks fairly normal. It’s just clutter. Clutter is on the low end of the hoarding spectrum. Or maybe it’s pre-hoarding. Yeah. I like that better. Because, hey, they grew up kinda poor around the “Great Depression” and you don’t through things away. Like my dad put things in his old empty Rx bottles. I found one Rx bottle full of those square, plastic things that you close bread wrappers with. Not the twisty ties, but the square things with the notch. Cause he figured he might have to use them one day for something.

Anyway, my goal yesterday was to clean in their house and porch to get ready for the “estate sale,” as I’m calling it. But I kept getting distracted by trying to organize items to sell. And then there are all the memories and sentimental artifacts. But my goal is to focus on one thing at a time. Cleaning. Then organizing. Then pricing. Good luck with that. I feel a sense of satisfaction when I can throw away a whole trash bag of “trash.” But I’m going to keep the Rx bottle of bread wrapper closers because it’s funny, and it doesn’t take up much room, unlike this typewriter my dad used probably right up until he died.

Its still works! Sort of.

Well, gotta go do stuff. So that’s it.

Thanks to Dan for filling in for Linda and giving us today’s Stream of Consciousness prompt: do/dew/due.

For more streams visit:

https://lindaghill.com/2017/09/29/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-september-30-17/

The rules of Saturday Stream of Consciousness are:

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!

 

 

We Can’t Change the Weather, But…

Today’s Stream of Consciousness prompt is “hot/cold.”

I don’t usually mind the heat, especially with all the shade my trees give off. But last week, I was in the mountains, up around the Blue Ridge, and when I got back home, I thought, Man, it’s really HOT here. Hot and humid. I guess I had gotten used to cooler temps in the mountains. The other thing that happened when I got home is that my allergies hit me in the head, like a face mask monster in the movie, Alien. Okay, I’m exaggerating a little. When I was in the mountains, I was not congested at all. Before I left, I worried I was getting a cold. During my visit to a dryer, cooler climate, I could breathe easy. Then back home, Bam! Sinus headache.  It might help if I go to the beach. It’s usually better at the beach.

I wonder if I move to the mountains, if I’ll miss the beach. Plenty of time to explore options. No hasty moves. I’ll have to research with more trips to the soft, old, green hills of Appalachia.

 

We can’t change the weather, but we can choose who we weather the storm with.

Or maybe we can change the weather. As a species, we’ve made a mess. Maybe we can clean it up. Every little bit helps. We do what we can. Plant more trees, save more trees, turn off the lights, eat lower on the food chain….

Be cool.

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

https://lindaghill.com/2017/09/22/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-2317/

The rules are:

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!

 

 

Mostly Good Motives

Today’s Stream of Consciousness prompt is the word, “motive.”

In certain recovery programs they tell you to check your motives. That can be complicated, especially if you’re not sure of your motives. I recently went to a meeting where the speaker talked about loved ones getting better and she had nothing to do with it. Spoke right to my co-dependent gotta fix this heart. That very same night, I picked my daughter up from work and took her to the home that is no longer with me and found myself trying to figure something out for her – to fix it for her. She didn’t even ask me. It’s  a habit with me. She is 24 years old and she can fix her own problems. I hope. Sometimes she does ask me, like for a ride home from work, and I usually say yes. Is my motive for saying yes because I get to spend time with her? Lately that’s when we spend time together, when I pick her up from work, because she is 24. And yes, she should be self-sufficient with those transportation issues, but she’s moving in that direction. And I’ll be out of town next week, so maybe that will move her along. Letting it go, now. For now.

What motivates us to help others? Is it to feel good about ourselves? Is it good for the species and planet, so altruism is naturally selected because helping each other increases the survival of the species. I used to like science a lot, so I read stuff like that. What motivates the mainstream media to focus so much on bad news? Yes we need to know that a hurricane is coming and what to do to prepare, but do we have to hear all those dramatic verbs that scare people into being glued to the tube or other electronic devices?

What motivates the pushing of bad news? That was the question. They think that’s what sells. But people are starting to get tired of it. That’s why there are more good news networks and papers emerging now, for balance. I know I’ve written about this before. What motivates me to write about it again? Sanity. Wellness. And the desire for those things.  Here’s what I’d like to see: sandwich the bad news inside good news. Start with a follow up of another story maybe about the progress that’s being made. Then tell us about the murders and wars and mess going on that we must need to know about if you must, and finish up with equal good news. Because it’s out there. 50% good news, that’s all I’m asking for. But instead we gotta look for the places that specialize in good news. Like the Goodnewspaper  and the Good News Network. That’s okay. You’ll see. We are evolving slowly but surely to look for the good. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.

For more Streams of Consciousness responding to the prompt, “motive,” visit Linda’s blog:

https://lindaghill.com/2017/09/08/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-917/

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!

Birth and Re-Birth

Linda says our Stream of Consciousness prompt for today is, birth/berth. Quite appropriate for labor day weekend! Linda’s eldest son was born in September, and he’ll be 23. My eldest son was born in September and he’ll be 32. He’s also my only son. He was born on 9/11, long before 9/11 became associated so heavily with destruction, but also rallying and all kinds of complicated mess. My son is a complicated person, less of a mess than he was, way less. In fact, he’s made me proud of him lately. His daughter was born September 10th. I’m going to see them both in September. Two more weeks! I can hardly wait to see them!

I hope I get to witness a real live birth up close and personal some day. Birth is fascinating! Maybe I’ll get to see my daughter have a baby. But not any time soon. She is 24 and still has some things to work on. (Yeah, I know we all do.) She was born in May when I was 37 years old. A bit old to have a baby, but she kept me young and wore me out sometimes, too. Being born in May, under the sign of Taurus, the bull, she is strong-willed, like my father, also born in May. I hope her strong will pays off as much as his did. I have to remember what I was like when I was 24: a complicated mess, but inching my way toward the adult world. We are late bloomers.

Sometimes I think we have little re-births throughout life, like when we have a major life change. We can be born again finding God, or finding ourselves. My retirement feels like being born again, coming back to myself who was waiting patiently all the time.

I’ve had the feeling of being born again while walking on a deer trail with my dog years ago.  It was just me and Jesse hiking at the state park. We got off the main trail (you’re not supposed to do that, so I’m not recommending it) and went down this trail overgrown with bushes and trees to the point that I had to crouch  down while I walked. It was like a tunnel. Coming out of that tunnel felt like freedom, exhilaration, being born!

John Denver, in Rocky Mountain High, sings about being born again.

“He was born in the summer in his 27th year,

coming home to a place he’d never been before.”

 

The Saturday Stream of Consciousness is born again every Saturday. To learn more, visit:

https://lindaghill.com/2017/09/01/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-217/

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!

When Love is Forever

Toady’s Stream of consciousness prompt is the word, WHEN. We are to start our post with that word. Does that mean it has to be all caps? Does that mean we are emphasizing the word, WHEN? Yelling it? Like, when I would ask my teenagers many years ago (though not that many) WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO CLEAN UP YOUR ROOM?

When I first saw this prompt, the first thing that popped into my head was an old song from many years ago (yes many) by The Lettermen, “When I Fall in Love.” Such a goopy, romantic song that went like this: “When I fall in love, it will be forever, or I’ll never fall in love…”  It was a set up for heartbreak.

I just looked the song up, and it appears it came out in 1962, at least by the harmonic Lettermen. I would have been 7 years old, so it’s not like I was thinking all the time about falling in love, though I did have a “boyfriend,” but that’s another story I might not ever tell. Most likely, my sister, who was 10 years older than me, listened to it on a transistor radio, or on The Ed Sullivan Show. That’s how it got into my head that falling in love would be forever, so when my first true love moved back to Connecticut at the end of 10th grade, after we’d gone steady for just 7 months, I was even more heartbroken because of that song!

Of course, I had another boyfriend by the end of the summer. But not before quite a bit of pining, and crying, and writing letters, because love was supposed to be FOREVER!

There are a few old boyfriends who I never want to see again, a couple I’m curious about, and one I run into now and then. That love was not forever. But my first love, who came back many, many years later, WHEN we were ready, maybe that WAS forever. What I mean is, maybe it was meant to be forever from the beginning.

There are some people I will love forever: my kids, my parents, and my first love, just to name a few. My grand kids, dogs, God, and Jesus have my forever love, too.

Here’s the song. I still like the harmonies. It’s not such a bad song. It’ll take you back if you’ve been there before.

The Saturday Stream of Consciousness is brought to you by Linda G. Hill who blogs at:

https://lindaghill.com/2017/08/25/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-aug-2617/

Where you can see more Stream of Consciousness writing.

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!

 

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!