Lately when I’m driving, I’ve been telling myself out loud to FOCUS. That turns out to be the theme for today’s post. It’s May 4th so I looked up some Star Wars quotes, and narrowed it down to two:
“Many of the truths that we cling to depend on our point of view.” – Obi-Wan Kenobi
and
“Your focus determines your reality.” – Qui-Gon Jinn
Then I remembered the focus quote on my refrigerator.
That’s my bucket list on the right. Need to add Northern Lights.
May the Force Be with You!
For more one-liners and rule-ish things, visit our host, Linda Hill by clicking HERE.
Today’s prompt for SoCS is: “ow.” Find a word that contains “ow” or use it as a word in your post. Have fun!
Ow. Owie. Ouch. That’s what I feel when I see the photos of the koalas and kangaroos hurt by the fires burning in Australia. I can’t think about it too long, but I can pray for more rains to come and put the fires out.
Mother earth is hurting. Maybe we can send her healing energy. And rain.
Did you realize that WOW upside down is MOM? There’s something to that. Being a mom is WOW.
Bow wow. Did you ever here a real live dog say that? Me neither. Ruff, maybe or Roof. Growl. Owls can be heard at night in my neighborhood at the edge of the city. Where the trees are.
Wow! There was a lot of the Force happening in Star Wars,The Rise of Skywalker. At the end of the movie, I sat there listening to the music and thinking back about how many times I saw A New Hope in the movie theatre in the 70s. At least ten times. It was the first movie of it’s kind.
One of the things I liked about Rise of Skywalker is the strong female characters. The main character, Rey, doesn’t appear to wear a lot of make up or glamorous clothes. Few material possessions. Those things just don’t matter. But she’s strong in the Force and strong in general.
Speaking of general, General Leia’s line, “Nothing is Impossible,” reminded me of my father telling me that very same thing. Leia’s character has come a long way since she realized she was strong in the Force. As an occasional practitioner of Reiki, I was very interested in it’s healing properties which resembled reiki with the laying of hands.
Wow. They made a movie with a dead person in a major role. No disrespect. I have a lot of respect for Carrie Fisher and Princes/General Leia. They used mostly old/extra footage from previous movies. Rise of Skywalker was a spiritual movie. Lots of action of course, but a message of hope and the rise of the people against tyranny. The evil empire wants you to feel alone. That’s how they win. But you are not alone. There are more of us people who want peace and decency…… Wait. I don’t like to get political on my blog, but you know what I mean. There are more of us than the evil empire wants us to think.
There are more of us who are just regular folks. That’s another thing I noticed about the movie. Regular looking people. Yes, they had make up on, especially the aliens with multiple eyes, and the horses with curly fangs. Or maybe they were tusks. But I liked that people’s hair got messed up a lot in the rain and the sweat. Sometimes being in the resistance means messy hair.
I wish we could use the force to bring healing rains to Australia. Imagine that. Make it so.
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For more streams of consciousness and instructions, visit Linda Hill at:
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.
The couch can be a wonderful respite, a therapeutic venue, or a trap that sucks you in and holds you captive. Well, that might be a little dramatic. It’s Friday night, and I’m sitting on the couch with my computer watching Star Wars, The Phantom Menace, as I type, except when I switch to Harry Potter. I wanted to watch Valkyrie, a true story about a nazi who tries to assassinate Hitler, which I’ve never seen, but we don’t get that channel in our package.
I sit on the couch a lot with the computer. Too much because it’s not good for my back. Better to sit at the table. The couch is really a love seat we brought from my parents’ house. Their big gold couch was just too big. We’ve had used furniture as a regular thing for years because of the dogs. It’s odd not to be sharing the couch/love seat with a dog after so many years of doing so. When we had the five pack (my two plus three step dogs) the dogs were on the couch more than the humans. We tried to keep Beep off the couch once by putting stools and chairs up there, but it didn’t stop her. So we gave up and let the dogs have the couch which at that time was a This End Up one from the old days. Maybe the only one I’ve ever bought new.
Beep was tenacious.
(Star Wars is easier to watch than Harry Potter. For me anyway. Maybe cause I’ve been watching star wars since I was about 20. )
Anyway, sometimes I paint small pieces of art sitting on the couch. I like to paint on discarded wood with acrylics. But I can’t paint big stuff sitting on the couch. For the big stuff or something that takes close attention to detail, like one of the mermaids I’m working on, I go to the kitchen and paint on the washing machine that is right under the window. Good light there, and I can stand up.
Speaking of mermaids, I’ve just created a new website for my art. https://angelsmermaidsandwordwork.com/ Building it has been more complicated than when I first started this WP blog. I hope it’s more complicated and not just that my mind is less sharp. They have so many plug ins and things that they’re trying to sell…. I hope the the subscribe button works now. Thank you to Sue Dreamwalker for encouraging me in my art and the website. Sue is an artist, too.
Pretty soon, at least by the next commercial, I’m going to get off this couch/loveseat and stretch. If I don’t, it will be hard to get up, and I’ll be walking funny. Maybe I’ll do a little yoga while watching Jedi, Qui Gon Ginn.
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Today’s prompt was “couch.” For more information on SoCS, visit Linda Hill at:
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.
Our prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “chew/choo.” Is there a train coming? But really, I thought of Chewbacca. You’d think spell check would know who that is and not think it’s a mistake. I thought of the big hairy guy because today, I’m watching the Star Wars marathon from my mountain house. I know it’s a contrast, watching Star Wars on the TV next to my window with the trees off the balcony. (Though I could be on the forest moon of Endor.)
I’m watching the Star Wars marathon because today (I’m writing this on Friday) is my day to relax. After my son’s wedding last Saturday, I took care of my granddaughter for four days by myself. She is 7 and full of energy from the time she wakes up til the time she goes to sleep. My son and his new bride came to stay with us on July 4th after a few days of honeymoon camping. We watched the fireworks across the lake. Fantastic show with 70s music. It was great! The sky threatened to rain all evening, but held off until immediately after the grand finale, then promptly released a downpour as we scurried to the car.
I’m going to do what I can to catch up with the world of WordPress, email, and downloading photos of the river, as long as catching up doesn’t interfere too much with relaxing. I might take a walk, and I will definitely be sitting out on the balcony watching for fireflies. Fireflies are rare in the city. I haven’t seen them in a long time except when I come to the mountains, so they are a real treat. We used to see fireflies in our urban backyard when the kids were little. Too much pesticide from the city spraying for mosquitoes is not a good thing. We still have mosquitoes in the city and other bugs in abundance, but not fireflies. I’m glad they still exist here in the mountains. Twinkling lights to take me away from the Star Wars marathon to look up at the real stars in the sky. As long as it doesn’t rain….
Here are some views from my mountain balcony. It’s still hard to believe.
Rhododendrons Galore!
PS. It did rain, but afterward, I still got to see some fireflies. I’ll be heading back home Saturday morning, so please be patient with my catch up/responses.
Oh, and one more thing. As I was watching Return of the Jedi in the Star Wars Marathon, I found this on Facebook:
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Stream of Consciousness Saturday is brought to you by Linda G. Hill. For more info and more streams, visit Linda G. Hill at:
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.
We got so much rain in July, I almost took the kayak out for a paddle in our backyard.
The monsoons delivered bad news in the form water seeping into our bathroom where the wall meets the tub. I knew we needed a new bathroom floor because of the soft spots. The house was built in the 1940s and is way overdue for some updates. So, I’m going to get a whole new bathroom with a WINDOW which I’ve wanted for a long time – ever since the hurricane when we lost electricity (notice I didn’t write power) for ten days in the summer and had to take candles into the hot bathroom. Now, I’ll have some natural light in the bathroom! We’re also getting a metal roof. That’s the good news.
The bad news is we only have one bathroom. That by itself has not been an issue. I’ve lived most of my life with one bathroom – a condition that teaches patience, planning, and courtesy. But because of the single bathroom, we have to relocate for “6 to 8 weeks.”
The good news is that we can stay at the house my parents left me, so I’ll have lots of time to finish sorting and organizing their stuff for donation, sale, recycling, keeping, or the hardest one, disposal. I still think of it as their stuff, but technically, it’s my stuff. Hard to wrap my brain around that…
The bad news is that we’ll be an hour away from “home,” which could be worse, and there is currently no internet or cable at the house that was my parent’s.
The good news is that apparently I can transfer my internet and cable temporarily. We’ll see. I’ll be crossing my fingers.
Going through my parents’ stuff will be my job for the next two months. That’s how I’m going to approach it because I want to get it done. It’s also going to be emotional. The good news is I’m “retired” so I have time. I get to make my own schedule and rest when I need to. My plan is to journal about the experience and cut back on social media and other activities without guilt. I won’t be volunteering at the school on Wednesday mornings, so maybe I’ll get back into One-liner Wednesday because that’s fun and easy.
I’m a little nervous about vacating the house I’ve lived in for 30 years. It’s going to be an adjustment for the dogs, too. But it’s temporary. And when I come back home, I’ll have a new bathroom with a window and new walls painted elfin sage. That means goodbye to the familiar faces in the old paneling. This one looks like Admiral Akbar from Star Wars
It might sound weird, but you get used to these things. The good news is, I’ve put all the faces in my sketch book and will turn them into art that will not be in the bathroom.
“If you pretend something long enough, it comes true.” Carrie Fisher
These quotes about confidence and pretending remind me of the expression, “Fake it til you make it.” When we do that, we’re pretending with a purpose. We’re being brave in spite of our fear.
Being brave is one thing Carrie Fisher and Princess Leia had in common.
In Star Wars, Princess Leia battled the evil empire. In real life, Carrie Fisher battled insecurity, addiction, bipolar disorder, and of course the expectations of Hollywood. At the age of 19, she portrayed a strong, intelligent, no nonsense woman of power in the original Star Wars movie, “A New Hope.” I watched that movie in the theater at least ten times in the late 70s when I was about 21. I was one year older than Carrie who died on Tuesday, December 27th. Like many of my peers, (boomers/sci-fi fans) I thought of her almost like friend, especially after I started watching her interviews.
As she got older Carrie grew wiser. She wrote books which have been on my want-to-read-list for years. I still look forward to reading them. In her interviews, Carrie is hilarious in that feisty, authentic way smart women get when they no longer care so much what people think of them – something I aspire to. I love that she performed her autobiographical play, Wishful Drinking, barefoot.
As Princess Leia and as herself, Carrie Fisher influenced me in ways that I am not even aware of. I do know that she made me braver and still does. As I process my grief (and consider my own mortality) I’m imagining her cracking jokes and exploring life in a galaxy far far away.
I wish her a good voyage.
In the following interview, Carrie started talking about recovery more in the second half if you want to skip the baring all part.
And in this next interview with Oprah, she talked about her family, electroshock therapy, and healing her relationship with her mother who she partially credited for teaching her to be strong.
After writing this, I read that Carrie’s mother, Debbie Reynolds, died the day after her daughter and that she said she wanted to be with Carrie. As a mother, I understand. I understand about the worry, the tension, and the closeness of that complicated bond. I’m glad they were able to talk, to come to a better understanding of each other. Now, I hope they are at peace.
I know we’re not supposed to plan our Saturday Stream of Consciousness Posts, but ever since I saw this picture, I’ve been wanting to post it on Halloween.
I just couldn’t help it when I saw today’s prompt: “strange, stranger, strangest” and thought, it fits! Princess Vader is strange.
Is it strange that in the 70s and 80s I had a crush on Darth Vader? I loved his voice, his swagger. And I knew there was good in him. I felt it, like his son, Luke.
Would I really want to be in a romantic relationship with Darth Vader? NO way! Even Anakin Skywalker was too sullen.
But I love that he turned back to the light in the end.
I love stories where it seems like things are all wrong, and then, in time, they turn out right. Kinda like my story. 🙂
I would want to be Princess Vader for a day, though. Just for pretend.
If you’d like to join in the Stream of Consciousness Saturday fun, just 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,” “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.
Anything is Possible! 