Animal Souls

Our prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday was “soul/sole.” Linda said to use one, use both, use ’em any way you like and to Enjoy!

I’m reminded of that kid in high school English class who said, “Animals don’t have souls.”  I have no idea how it came up. Maybe animal souls were in a poem. But it still makes me angry. How the hell does he know?

I thought about this soul issue back then in high school. Being all into science at the time, I developed a theory that the power of the soul corresponds to the conscious awareness of the individual. Or maybe that was in college when I took the psychology of consciousness. Anyway, how do we measure conscious awareness? We can only judge by human standards, unless we can somehow step outside those standards – open up to the possibility that beings who’ve lived in a very different environment, like dolphins and whales, would likely have a very different way of perceiving, or being aware of their own consciousness.

Elephants grieve for their dead. They stand watch for days or longer. I believe elephants have big old souls.  There’s this video of an elephant saluting or waving (human/cultural perspectives) after one of the herd’s young was saved by some humans. I’m going to look for the video. Be right back! The video title is:

“Wild Elephant salutes the men who rescued their baby elephant from a ditch”

There are actually at least two salutes at the end of the video. It’s unmistakable. An expression of gratitude. The humans pushed dirt into the ditch for the baby to stand on and climb out. They’re trying to be careful. Notice the communication between species at the end. At the very least watch the last 2 minutes.

 

 

Quite a reunion! Makes me want to hoot and cheer and maybe get a little teary eyed. But then, I get teary eyed easily sometimes.

So does this mean elephants have souls? What difference does it make? But I believe that if humans have souls, elephants do, too. And dolphins, cats, and dogs. Anyone who doesn’t think dogs have souls can stay away from me to put it nicely.  I bet if we spent a lot of time with elephants, we’d all believe in their souls. I mostly know about dogs. When you look in a dog’s eyes and see them smile, and they sleep on your bed with you, you know they have souls. Crazy souls some of them. But maybe bigger souls than some people. And that’s all I’m going to say about that. Except that it’s a good thing my soulmate loves dogs. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t be my soulmate. And it’s a good thing for him I love dogs because this crazy soul hound is my step-daughter.

And then there’s trees….  But that’s another post.

…

To learn more about Stream of Consciousness Saturday or join in the fun, visit Linda Hill at:

https://lindaghill.com/2019/03/15/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-march-16-19/

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!

 

SoCS: My Deep Dark (Blue) Secret

Directions: Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “abash/a bash/bash.” Use “abash,” or “bash” as a noun or a verb. Bonus points if you manage all three. Have fun!

I was going to write that I don’t like to bash anybody, but then I realized that I do sometimes bash the mainstream media for not so much bashing but putting a spotlight on those who do bash. Oh how they love the bashing. Am I bashing them? The mainstream media? I know they don’t do it all the time, cause I go hunting for good news Tuesday. Just most of the time. They have this mistaken idea we want to see that bashing. It’s okay some of the time, but don’t make a bash out of it. That’s using the word to mean party. Where did that come from? Like a birthday bash.

It’s easy to see the connection between the word abash and bashful. There’s a shame/embarrassment factor in there. I was a bashful child. Not ashamed, but easily embarrassed and not wanting to draw attention to myself. I believe there’s a gene for this bashfulness trait. It can be overridden. In my first years of college I dabbled in drama – the class – but also some with the boyfriend, but let’s not go there. Taking acting class in college helped me become less bashful. I had to learn to project. It was fun! This helped me later in my career where I had to do some public speaking. I could still do it if I had to, but mostly I don’t have to, and I’d rather not.  Just like I’d rather not bash anybody’s head in. No. I wouldn’t. I swear I wouldn’t. Why do I feel the need to repeat that? Is there a hidden desire…. NO! NO! NO! We do not bash heads!

What would I like to bash? OMG. I’m scaring myself. The Stream of Consciousness is treacherous. I’m a PACIFIST. Maybe I’ve been watching too many cop shows. There, the cats’s out of the bag. Not just any cop shows. Not COPS. No way. But NCIS, and lately, I’ve gotten addicted to Blue Bloods reruns. Never woulda believed it. Anyway, it’s made me want to take a self-defense course. This is my deep dark secret. Blue Bloods. I’m going to stop now before I reveal any more secrets. Damn you, Stream of Consciousness. Now look what you’ve gone and made me do!  I don’t care. I’m not abashed at all.

In my senior year of college, the job placement person asked me if I’d be interested in being a cop. I quickly said no to this and that I wasn’t assertive enough. She said, “You could learn to be.” Were they desperate for lady cops? Anyway, becoming an addictions counselor I had to learn to be assertive. Now, I wonder what it would have been like to be a cop. That’s the way of TV drama as I watch Blue Bloods safe on my sofa.

Oh, in case you didn’t know, Blue Bloods is about a family of NY cops and the sister is an  assistant district attorney.  But I really only watch it for the cop romance and the philosophical debates at the Sunday dinner table.  It can be a serious show, so below is a “blooper reel.”

But first, I feel I need to mention that the suicide rate for US police officers is higher than the rate of line of duty deaths as reported in this Huffington Post Article.  Watching Blue Bloods has given me a better appreciation for the police and what they deal with. Yes, it’s just a TV show, but they try to present multiple sides.

 

…

For more about SoCS, visit Linda at

https://lindaghill.com/2019/03/08/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-march-9-19/

But be warned. You never know what will be revealed in the stream.

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!

Celebrating SoCS with Kermit and Kool & the Gang

From Our Fearless Leader Linda G. Hill:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “cele-.” Find a word that starts with or contains “cele” and use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!

Today we are celebrating five years of SoCS! I don’t know if I’ve been here the whole five years, but close it seems. Don’t know if I’ll look it up. I’d rather just celebrate. Time flies when you’re having fun! Or time’s fun when you’re having flies! In which case you might be a frog.

It’s not like I’m having loads of fun. But I’m glad there are not many flies or mosquitoes around right now. Not yet, anyway. But spring is on the way, and that’s something to celebrate. Bugs and all.

One way I like to celebrate, besides going out to eat, is to dance. I don’t dance much in public – rarely do I do that – but I like to dance in my living room. Soon, I will be celebrating back in my own home. I will not say when, but it might be in March. The electrical is done, the walls are up and almost ready to paint, and the bathroom is tiled. I will dance in my own living room. In the meantime, I can dance in the living room that was my parents’ as I listen to the vinyl records on the old turntable. I usually listen to the Moody Blues. That would be slow-ish dancing I guess. Have to find something to dance to….

Congratulations to Linda Hill for five years of hosting the Stream of Consciousness Saturday adventure! You never know where the stream is going to lead. Thank you, Linda for our prompts that bring us together – weaving all the streams together here in Bloglandia at your place.

This is the first “celebrate” song that popped into my head. It’s got a good beat, and it’s easy to dance to.  😉

 

 

That “Happy” song came on after this. I’m dancin’ now….  Dancin in the stream…

PS. You wanna know something cool and surprising? I didn’t realize until this morning when I did some research on Kool & the Gang that they did the song, “Joanna.” I’m pretty sure I sang some of this in the mirror during my lonely years.

Do you have a song you sing to yourself?

 

 

Hey!  Did you know the Muppets have a version of K&G’s “Jungle Boogie?”

 

If you want to join in the stream visit Linda’s link:

https://lindaghill.com/2019/03/01/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-march-2-19/

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!

Critical Issues Around the Globe and at Home in Doodle Land

Today’s prompt for the SoCS is: “critic(al).” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

Thinking of this prompt, not planning mind you, but thinking, I’ve gotten into a somewhat serious mood. I ask whoever wants to be asked, what are the critical issues we face as a species, or as individual nations? How about climate change?

I was listening to the radio in my car yesterday – the local public radio station since I didn’t like the song on the oldies station – and they were talking about how the barrier islands on the east coast of the US would become uninhabitable in the next 30 to 100 years. That’s where most people I know go to the beach. A lot of people live there, not to mention animals, which I am mentioning. The ice at the poles is melting more rapidly than we thought. This is a critical issue. This is, shall we dare say, emergent.

A critical issue in the US is health care. I know plenty of hard working people, working over 40 hours a week to support families, who cannot afford health insurance because the premiums are ridiculously high. And I live in a state that chose not to expand medicaid which some of my friends are going to Raleigh to protest. I can’t leave the dogs that long which I’ll get to in a moment. But my point is that the lack of affordable health care is critical in my country. For some people, it truly is an emergency. A national emergency. Along with education, homelessness…

I know I’m dancing close to the edge of a political rant which I generally or maybe never do on my blog, but that is the risk adventure of venturing into the stream of consciousness.  But let me take another branch of the stream. Maybe a broader branch. Maybe the big, overall critical issue is that we, and by we, I mean the media and popular culture of our culture, oooh that was a little whirlpool, now I’m dizzy. Where was I? Maybe the critical issue is that we’re too critical of others who we believe are so different from us. Maybe we need to focus on our similarities, what we have in common, and solutions for the common good.

Okay, lest I continue into a rant, let me share a personal critical issue we’ve faced/are facing in our home. I’m somewhat in denial about it. A few weeks ago, we found out that our crazy coon hound Doodle has a mast cell tumor which is malignant. Blood work showed she also has kidney disease. The denial comes from the fact that while Doodle is at least 12 years old, she’s always had a lot of energy. She kinda still does, but has not been as crazy enthusiastic about her walks lately. A couple weeks ago, the tumor spread and swelled her whole right rump, and her right back leg swelled to twice its normal size. The vet said this is a sign it’s probably gone into her lymph system and surgery might not help. Plus she’s 12 and the kidney disease. He put her on prednisone which quickly alleviated the swelling so that now she looks normal. Then she became more obnoxious than usual because steroids can do that. She actually had tremors. So we cut back on the prednisone (cut the dosage in half), and she’s doing okay. We have to watch her closely. Maybe she has a few weeks or even a year. I’m still a little in denial because she’s still crazy-ish. I have been more prepared for our other dog, Marigold, to cross over the bridge because she is almost 17. But Marigold keeps on plodding along.

Well, this is a little bit of a bummer of a post. But Doodle is not currently “critical,” and we are spoiling her rotten. And that’s kinda fun. Dogs. Gotta love ’em. Cats too. They help us get through all the other critical issues.

Doodle when she wasn’t feeling good.

Doodle the Queen

For more information on SoCS, visit Linda at:

https://lindaghill.com/2019/02/22/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-feb-23-19/

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!

Yawns, Sighs, and Sunsets

Our mission for this Saturday’s Stream of Consciousness was:

“… “yawn.” Write about the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the word “yawn,” when you sit down to write your post. Enjoy!”

We think of a yawn as implying boredom, but it’s also a way to reset our breathing or something like that – like a sigh which is somewhat more voluntary than a yawn. Have you ever tried to yawn on purpose? It’s just not the same. I just tried it. And try to suppress a yawn. You can keep your mouth closed, but the yawn is in there. Did they see it? There’s this guy in choir who yawns really loud. He doesn’t really try to suppress it. The choir director says, “No yawning in the choir loft!” (It’s not really a loft.) But it doesn’t matter. We all chuckle.

Now, a sigh is different. A sigh can be voluntary and also a reset. In yoga class we were encouraged to sigh out loud. Or yawn or whatever. Just let it all out.

Yawn rhymes with dawn. Dawn’s early light which I rarely see, because I’m not a morning person. I have nothing against dawn or early mornings, but much prefer sunset when I’m more awake and can take it all in with a sigh instead of a yawn. But yawning and sighing are both okay. Dawn and sunset are both beautiful blessings.

I typed dawn into the search bar for my pictures. Nothing. Then, I typed sunset and got 900 and something items. Really? I probably take more sunset photos than anything else. Let’s see if I can find some of my favorites. Without planning.

(All the photos were taken in North Carolina with the last 2 from Beech Mountain.)

Minimal planning or something like that.  We’ll see below.  I got the “have fun” part right.

For more information on #SoCS, or to jump in the stream, visit our host, Linda G. Hill at

https://lindaghill.com/2019/02/15/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-feb-16-19/

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!

 

Lonely Hearts Healed

Today’s SoCS prompt from Linda is:

“ends with -ly.” Start your post with any adverb (oops) that ends in “-ly.” Bonus points if you end with an adverb too. Have fun!

I choose lonely. It’s not that I choose to be lonely. I’m not lonely anymore. I like to be alone with the dogs, writing and puttering around the house. But I was lonely for a partner, oh, ten or so years ago. Except that I didn’t want a partner who added stress  to my life, so I waited and learned to trust the timing. I’m still learning that with other things in my life and realizing what a gift it is to have this time to work on my parents’ old house while our house gets finished and we get to paint the walls!

I’ve been reading the letters my mother wrote to my father when he was in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba after having served 13 months in Vietnam. Her letters are very enlightening and sometimes uncomfortable since they are personal. She writes about how lonely she is and how much she misses him and how she (and us girls) can’t take more separations. I’m learning about how she would find me up reading at 2 am on a school night and how my sister and I were, “sassy.” We were 10 and 12. I was a big tomboy 12 year old. I know now that most 12 year old girls are sassy.  Sorry mom.

My mom was sick a lot and so was my little sister. Mom writes about a cough that won’t go away. I’ve gotten through January and part of February 1968, and she’s still coughing to the point of exhaustion. I resented my mother being sick so much with migraines and nervous break downs when dad was in Vietnam and I was 11. These letters are giving me more compassion as I read her inner struggles of taking care of a home and two sassy girls and missing her man. It also dawned on me that the contaminated drinking water at Camp Lejeune/Tarawa Terrace probably didn’t help her get well. There’s a big thing about that now, but I’ve read many claims have been denied. My parent’s died of “natural causes” in their eighties, but I bet that water contributed to some health problems even if it didn’t kill us.

Dad used to talk to me in his later years about Vietnam and GTMO. Awful stuff. Horrible stuff that gave him nightmares for the rest of his life. After Vietnam, he came home for three months, and then they sent him to GTMO for five months. He told me he drank a lot while in Cuba. He had PTSD before they called it that. A chaplain helped him. I wish I knew his name and could thank him if he’s still alive. Thank you anyway, Chaplain who served at GTMO and helped my dad. I think he needed this time in Cuba maybe to begin to process Vietnam – a job that would never be finished. It was so hard on my mom and him. The separations put a lot of pressure on their marriage.  ( I didn’t know this until I started reading mom’s letters.)

And yet they made it through. Their deep love and their strong faith helped them through the maze and mess of PTSD and all the other challenges life threw at them. I did know that they were very much in love. They were married for over 50 years and still got smoochy sometimes. Dad used to sing to mom, “I love you, a bushel and a peck, a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck.”

Love and faith and time overcome loneliness. When we are lonely, God loves us no matter what. And dogs too. 😉  I’m reminded of one of my favorite poems from Mary Oliver, “Wild Geese.”

“Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination….”      Mary Oliver

I’ve probably shared the lonely people song at least a couple of times before on this blog, but it means a lot to me, so here it is again with different pictures.

 

 

 

 

PS: I now realize that I didn’t follow the prompt corrrectly since Linda asked for an adverb and lonely is an adjective.  Letting it be is my goal here. This is progress for a recovering rule follower/people pleaser.

…

To learn more or join in the stream,  visit Linda at:

https://lindaghill.com/2019/02/08/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-feb-9-19/

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!

Words of Affirmation

Affirm. That’s today’s Stream of Consciousness prompt. It’s a good one – that I can affirm. In my counseling career, I was big on affirmations, partly because they felt good to me, but also because I heard so many people putting themselves or others down. The brain makes pathways that are easier to go down the more we go down them, or up them. Negative thoughts repeated enough become ruts hard to get out of. But we CAN get out of them. We can train our brains and our mouths to state positives affirmatively. Whatever we practice, we get better at.

I had a boyfriend a bunch of years ago who said if you give too many affirmations, kids will come to depend on them. I suppose that’s possible since the name of this blog is “Anything is Possible,” I have to affirm that possibility. However, most people don’t get enough affirmation. Most people I know, and certainly myself included, tend to criticize ourselves enough that we need affirmations for balance. It’s like the news, but don’t get me started on the media. To affirm, they are trying to do better and have more good news in some special places.

“Words of affirmation” is one of  The Five Love Languages. It’s one of my favorite. Is it my primary love language? I don’t know. I don’t usually or consciously think of “acts of service” as a way to express love, though I do appreciate it when my husband helps with the housework. I like doing things together as a team. I think that’s “quality time,” another love language. What’s left? “Physical touch” is a good one, especially caresses. I think there must be dialects within each love language. There are probably more than five anyway.  The last one is giving or receiving gifts. If we’re talking about material gifts, this is the least important one to me. But if someone wanted to give me a gift that is material, DARK chocolate would be okay. I can always use some dark chocolate.

It’s been a while since I looked in the mirror and said, “I love you.” I got past the awkwardness of doing that years ago, but I’m out of practice. Here are some I might try:

You are doing a good job on the house.

You will get back to your art and painting.

You can stretch every day. You DO stretch every day!

You deserve to take good care of yourself.

You are worthy of good, healthy love.

You are deeply and profoundly loved by your Creator.

A lot of affirmations start with “I.” “I can…” “I am…”, but if you’re doing the mirror thing, it can be I or you.

I’m in good shape for 63. Maybe that’s not PC, but it helps me, because my weight is up from age 25 or 35 and my muscle tone is down. That’s a fact. But it’s okay. I’m more aware of so many things. Like they say in That 70s Show, “We’re all alright! We’re all okay!” Hello (whoever!)

Oh. It goes, we’re all Aright! We’re all Alright! Well, that’s okay. Here it is from my stream of consciousness to you.

 

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The Stream of Consciousness Saturday post is brought to you by our way more than alright host, Linda Hill. You can find her and more information about SoCS at the link below:

https://lindaghill.com/2019/02/01/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-feb-2-19/

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!