My name is Joy, and I love to write.
Why poetry, here? Because poetry uplifts its writer, and if she is lucky enough, her readers, too. Around us, so many objects abound to write about. Once a poet starts with a smallest, most trivial object, he shall discover that his pen will spill out what is most delicate or most majestic hidden inside him. Since the classics sometimes dealt with lofty subjects with a lofty language, a person with poetry in his soul may incline to emulate that. That is understandable. Poetry does that to a person: it enlarges the soul and gives it wings. Yet, to really soar, a poet needs to take off from the ground.
Daily Cascade
Since my old blog "Everyday Canvas " became overfilled, here's a new one. This new blog item will continue answering prompts, the same as the old one.
Cool water cascading to low ground
To spread good will and hope all around.
I refuse to answer calls that I do not recognize (trying to convince my husband of the same). I just immediately hit the silence button, and let it ring away. if they leave a voicemail, I simply delete it.
They still call on Sunday but not as much as they do the other six days. I get bombarded with emails telling me the item I ordered just needs my address confirmed or a contact number, nope not happening.
My ex boss used to say when I came back after a sick day, did you enjoy your play day? I would respond, let me check the school field trip calendar so I can see when you're the busiest and I'll schedule my next play day. He would glare at me but soon learned I wasn't intimidated by him in the least.
Scammers are scum, plain and simple. I wonder who they think they will con. Why do they do it? Imagine what they could accomplish. Divert that effort into something legitimate.
I agree that there are times to let go of some old dreams. It may not be healthy to hold onto them, for many reasons. I also agree that our dreams or aspirations often change as we grow.
I agree that seeking new aspirations are essential to our growth, because stewing over and over on our older aspirations or failed goals makes us stagnant.
I know from my own life circumstances forced change, some were for the better and others not so much but during those times I learned skills I never imagined learning and those skills have opened unexpected doors and opportunities for me.
Ha that is a good answer - sometimes I say "Would you like the real answer or the fake answer" and then they stare at me aghast, look awkwardly, and do not know what to say. Sigh. Sometimes it's just easier to say "fine thanks how are you". I try to use a fake tone....
Jellyfish~Happy New Year 2026 Unfortunately, not only the society you are in but possibly all societies here on earth expect and accept such tiny white lies. There is no escape from that. For such expectations, I try to sidestep them, by saying something like, "Oh, ya?" Then I add something totally unrelated. It feels so weird to ask a person, "How are you?" and then expect them to say, "Fine, thanks." Sometimes I reply to "how are you", with "As you see me," And possibly, they see me the weirdo that I am.
Prompt:
Use the following words to create a story or poem.
Words: dance, castle, onion, grinder, screamer, glamor, cougar, reckless, zebra
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*
Moon Dance
A *zebra met a *cougar
to *dance by the *castle gate,
both twirled with *glamor,
*reckless, laughing at their fate
and at an *onion wearing a crown
while a *grinder was humming down
a tune, and then, the pair-- in stripes
and spots--bowed to a *screamer owl's
applause, howling wildly at their type,
while these two moonwalked, side by side,
making Michael Jackson jealous
and so what, if my poem is too zealous!
I don't normally use a reading list. This means any book I could be interested in could be in the running. But I do buy or download books I could be interested in when I come across them. Making a list is pressuring myself because I'd be uncomfortable about something that says I have to do it. At least, this is the meaning that my mind conjures up. My only real list is a daily one I make in the morning or the night before, to give my everyday life some routine. so I don't forget to do anything important.
When it comes to books, I read a lot, which means one book at a time, without others in the waiting line or maybe one or two if I'm really interested. This is because I tend to rush my reading if there's a long list. Still, at this time I have a few books in mind.
As of today, I am now reading The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates, a hard-cover book gifted to me last month. What I want to read next is Mes amis, mes amours by Marc Levy. Then, in the waiting, comes The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz, which is a three-book series.
This is, if before or in the middle of these books I mentioned, another book pops up and grabs me in its claws.
Prompt:
"It is easy to believe we are each waves and forget we are also the ocean. "
Jon J. Muth
Write about this quote in your Blog entry today.
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For some reason, I love this quote. So, let me explore why I loved it, at first sight. Up front, I saw right away that it had an inkling of Rumi in it, as Rumi said, "You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.” I think Rumi's drop has been converted to a wave in this quote. Either way, both quotes challenge the idea of separation. If the entire ocean can exists in a wave or a drop, that boundary between “self” and “world” is insignificant.
Talking for myself, my life experiences are not disconnected from those of what the entire humanity may have experienced or will experience. Mine is just a tiny bit of it. As such, my joys as well as my griefs are shared, maybe in different and varying forms, but still they tend to unite us all. In other words, what I may feel privately, it may also be deeply universal, although, at this place and time, I may not be aware of it.
I can also detect empowerment in this quote. Seeing myself as just a small wave can lead to passivity. It may make me think, "What difference can I make?" But, on the contrary, if the whole ocean is in me or in anyone else somehow, then our actions, thoughts, and choices carry weight.
Also, I tend to think the quantum theory of today, which connects the entire universe, is heading in that direction. Plus, Alexandre Dumas has in The Three Musketeers. "All for one, one for all." I wouldn't want to mess with any of those three musketeers in any way, would I!
At the end, this quote invites us to direct our attention inward. It means to say, depth already exists within. In the same vein, a search for oneself, to get to know oneself, can mean to touch the infinite, which is what the ocean represents. As such, change may emerge from a single, tiny point of awareness or person who may very well make a huge difference for the entire world.
Prompt:
"The key in letting go is practice. Each time we let go, we disentangle ourselves from our expectations and begin to experience things as they are."
Sharon Salzberg
What do you think about "letting go"? Is it always a good practice?
======== In all my years here on this earth, I learned one thing: In the long run, nothing is unconditional. In my mind this also applies to letting go, as letting go is a discipline I think I have taught to my "self."
As such, I've let go of many things, like wrong opinions about me, false friendships, unkind words and gestures, etc. Was my letting go unconditional? I don't think so. I let go of all those, frankly speaking, out of self-defense. This is because letting go of anything and their outcomes, which I could not control anyway, could make me anxious and could make me suffer with resentment or illusions. In addition, letting go cures me of any expectations from others and be more self-reliant.
Yet, there may be moments when not letting go is just as important. This is when letting go of accountability, self-respect, or one's principles in the name of “acceptance” can only be avoidance. It erases mine or another person's selfhood, so to speak. Since letting go of the most important things would show me as being detached and uncaring, wouldn't it! I mean, not that this ever happened, but I could not sit in my porch and enjoy my cup of tea, while I hear a neighbor beating up on his wife or his mother, could I?
Letting go, therefore, should not make me passive, but it should ease my relationships while holding my ground and hanging on to my principles.
The way I see it, therefore, letting go is not a blanket rule. There is a point where we have to hold our ground and not let others distort our deeply held beliefs and ways of being.
Prompt:
"Healing takes time, and asking for help is a courageous step."
Mariska Hargitay
Do you ask for help when you need it? Or do you hesitate?
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Healing is uneven and time is a factor. Not only the physical part of healing but the psychological part, also.
In my case, during my earliest years, I never had to ask for help. I grew up in a big house as the only child with my mother, my grandmother, my grandmother's foster daughter, plus the men, grandfather, uncles and such who came and went and saw to my needs without me asking for help. Later on, during the first years of my marriage, I wouldn't even ask my husband for anything, which made him quite upset, and one day, he talked to me about it. So I started to ask him for help while feeling embarrassed about it.
I'm still not very good about asking for help, now that I have only my two sons. My sons, however, are onto me by now, and the younger one, whose place is closer to me, takes the initiative and asks me if I want this or that done or if he could bring me something from the store. I do appreciate that attention a lot, from both my sons, needless to say.
Even so, asking others for help, for anything, takes a lot of courage for me. It may just be that I might be equating asking for help, subconsciously, with weakness or dependence. Maybe, deep down inside, I am afraid of being a burden, being judged and dismissed.
Unlike me, for some others, the reluctance of asking for help may come from earlier bad experiences when they weren't trusted about their pain or need being real, and they weren't believed. So they don't want to live through those rejections, and therefore, they hesitate to ask for help.
Logically, I know that asking for help is not a weakness, and enduring everything alone does not point to courage. Plus, I see that human connections require togetherness, and asking for help is one of them. Who knows, as I am getting really older and older now, I may have to begin to ask for more help from others as I go along.
Prompt:
"You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength."
Marcus Aurelius
How much power do you have over your mind? Do you wish you could control it 100%?
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I've always loved the Stoics, despite their at-times-rigid standards. As such, this quote is unsettling and comforting at the same time.
Is Aurelius saying we have power over our minds and not outside anything? Double-edged sword, here, I think.
First, he is denying pain, loss or injustice. Also, weather, chance, other people's actions and choices, and our own bodies influence and defy us, mostly. This also pokes holes in the high wall Aurelius builds between a person and the outside world.
That said, forget about the world for a second, so I can talk about my own unruly mind. No, I don't have absolute power over my silly mind. Thoughts, memories, snippets of events from the latest few days, things people have said or done or wrote rise uninvited, especially when I am busy doing something else. Imagine writing something or talking to someone about an important thing and the mind wanders away. Some such things I can shoo away, but others insist. Then, some thoughts jump up uninvited and I may even get emotional.
Do you think I want to feel fear, grief, and anger over something in the past that I've endured or fear about something stupid in the future that my mind has conjured up? Nope, and I don't think anyone else does either.
Still, I do believe in the Stoics' stance. This is because the power Aurelius is talking about is realistic and subtle. This power doesn't really prevent my pushy thoughts from suddenly jumping up and appearing, but I might exert some control over which ones I might choose to give importance to. Or I can reframe the thought and let it pass. Strength, if or when I have it, is in me thinking, “This happened, but it does not get to define me,” or “This feeling, possibility, or memory is real, but it is not the whole truth.”
Having said that, I wish I did have a mind that I could have trained to stop butting in or to separate what it can influence. Truth is, I can't control my mind 100%, but possibly, no one can theirs.
Then, just maybe, I am gaining power over it because I realize the limits of my control. Well, at least, that!
Prompt:
James A. Murphy says, “It's not that we spend five days looking forward to just two. It's that most people do what they enjoy most on those two days. Imagine living a life where everyday are your Saturdays and Sundays. Make everyday your weekend. Make everyday a play-day…"
What day of the week do you accomplish the most? If you're retired do you still plan activities for the weekend? Would you be happy with every day as a play day?
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Let me just answer the questions first. What day of the week do you accomplish the most?
Every day, depending on the distractions and unplanned anything. If you're retired do you still plan activities for the weekend?
No, not if I can help it. Would you be happy with every day as a play day?
It depends on what one thinks of as being a "play day." In my case, since I am writing in my blog everyday and doing other things I like in addition to things that need to be done, every day is a play day.
As to the quote, I don't really like the term play-day because it gives the impression of being lazy and useless. But I do play, not like a kid, but in my own terms and in my own way. Plus, I have a way of looking at most chores as if I am playing.
So, now, let's look at what bugs me the most. It is the stupid scammer calls on the house phone with AT&T. I have no way of stopping those except for immediately deleting them. And they usually show up as "unknown" on the phone's display. I have no such problem with Comcast with which I have my cell-phone. Many years ago, I had my cell with AT&T, also. Guess what made me go to Comcast!
The house phone or the landline, we had it wired specially, several years ago, with AT&T, so each room could have a phone. And that has been quite convenient, but nowadays, I am thinking of getting rid of it, and no more AT&T, because, especially during the Medicare application months, the phones rang nonstop. Except on Sundays.
Even today, a Saturday at midday, with the Medicare application time now history, I already received four calls from that "unknown", I bet trying to sell me something or hoodwink me into something! "Hello, this is Olivia!" Truth is, I never met that Olivia or her co-workers-in-crime as Jean, Mary, etc. I say crime because calling old people day and night, many times over, with iffy offers and suggestions, and trying to extract their personal information should be a crime seriously punishable. And the phone companies should also be responsible for that.
I don't think we have had such a government or any political party yet, to take on scamming the elderly.
So tomorrow is Sunday and I'm seriously looking forward to it as the day possibly no scammer---except for possibly and unfortunately, only one or two--may call.
Prompt:
"The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person's determination."
Fred DeVito
Do you agree with Mr. Devito? Do you consider yourself a focused person or should I say a determined person when it comes to fulfilling your aspirations?
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Yes, I guess I agree with him that most anything has to do with determination. But if, right this minute, I wanted to fly to Alpha Centauri, it wouldn't be possible, would it, no matter how determined I may be? So, within reason, yes determination is the key to making things happen.
As to the second part of the question, I do try to keep my focus intact, but sometimes, it is not possible due to extenuating circumstances. My really long-term aspirations are no more because I'm old. Still, I do work on new projects, even if I may have to leave them unfinished.
So, the real question becomes if I really fulfilled all my aspirations throughout my life. I'll have to say 'no' to that because of extenuating circumstances, and not only such circumstances but the choices I made that were different from the earlier choices and aspirations, due to changes in my life or in my environment. I, however, always replaced one aspiration--one I couldn't reach or decided to abandon for any reason--with another possibly more important one.
I know I'm not the only one, here. In most lives, aspirations change due to personal growth and evolution, while perspectives also change, making old goals irrelevant. In any case, changes in family situations, moving, and other incidences defined or redefined what was more important to me.
Plus, I had to readjust my career path to such situations. I did find new avenues of interest and different opportunities, but I am not sure if they could or did replace my original aspirations. Would I make the same choices I made today, given the same circumstances? My answer is definitely, yes. This is because, in my case, and I'm quite sure in many others' cases, circumstances and other life twists must have had a huge role in following our original dreams and aspirations.
I think when all is said and done, it is healthy to let go of old dreams and embrace new directions, rather than viewing the old aspirations as failures. Who knows. maybe during going after new aspirations helps us to understand our own core values and enables us to focus on meaningful lives.
Prompt:
"Love planted a rose and the world turned sweet."
Write about what you think this means.
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I had to check who said this quote, "Love planted a rose and the world turned sweet." I found out that it is the same person who wrote, "O beautiful for spacious skies for amber waves of grain..." It was Katharine Lee Bates, to be exact. As such, love planted USA and the world turned sweet. I am not too sure if lately that sweetness is wavering or not, though. But then, most roses need extra care.
What I love most about this quote is its intentionality. Here, love is not accidental. It plants. A rose must be nurtured before it blooms. For it to bloom, it takes effort, patience, and care. Which reminded me of my own rose garden of more than 40 years ago, in which I had over 50 different kinds of roses and I played with them, raising them, grafting and such. So, yes, roses do turn the world sweet.
Yet, world's sweetness does not come from the rose itself, alone. It comes from what it represents. When love is present, ordinary moments become warm and special, and wounds and bitterness do not hurt as much. The same world, with its thorns and storms, still exists, but love changes how we experience it.
In my present home, I have two rose bushes. One in front of the house in a raised flowerbed and the other in a large pot inside the porch area. This has shown me that even one or two planted roses are enough for happiness. In the same vein, one sincere act, one connection or one moment of compassion can change sadness to sweetness, even in difficult soil.
Prompt: "Don't be pushed around by the fears in your mind. Be led by the dreams in your heart." Roy T. Bennett Write about this quote in your Blog entry today.
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Tough command! Is it possible for anyone to push aside a fear totally and be led by dreams? After all, both fears and dreams have had a place in my life.
Surely, fears were there for my protection, but they could also become tyrants. And one fear just did that! In the same vein, taking a fear to the extreme is not healthy but just going after a wild dream is just as undoable, especially for me. I can, however, appreciate the quote for its effort in encouraging empowerment
And yes, any fear if not harnessed right, can become a tyrant within. This is because my mind or anyone else's is wired for survival from birth on. I have a good example in my own life of fear becoming that tyrant.
While I was growing up, at age eight, I started piano lessons, not as my choice but my mother's. Unfortunately, the first piano teacher, a very old man, was an overlord, persecutor, and bully all rolled into one. I feared him more than I'd ever fear God. Luckily for me, one day after a few months of my torture, my mother, hearing him yell, entered the room without knocking on the door and saw him bending over me and tapping on my hands with a wooden ruler. That became the last lesson with that teacher.
Yet, the fear lingered, and my next teachers were better and more understanding. Still, I never got over that earlier experience even though, years later, I got good enough to play in a small concert. Then, after I married, my husband, thinking he was doing me a grand favor, bought a fancy piano. He didn't know I was relieved to leave my old piano in my mother's home. Then, years later, when we retired and moved to Florida, I gave that piano to my older son. Thank God! I'm so relieved I don't have to touch it anymore.
In hindsight, if the first teacher had given me dreams instead of scaring me to death, just maybe I'd do better. Not much better though, because, as I said in the beginning, piano lessons weren't my choice but my mother's.
On the other hand, when I want to do something I really like, I can go after it full force with dreams and everything else I've got. This may be because the heart of a dreamer beats to the rhythm of curiosity and purpose.
I see dreams as the blueprints of our potential. When a musician finally plays her song or the writer finally writes the last word in a story or the ballerina takes a high leap, they’re not eliminating fear; they’re choosing growth.
Dreams, after all, are the quiet voices that say, “What if you tried? What if you soared?”
So one of the life lessons learned should be the understanding that setbacks are not failures but feedback, and that growth often lives on the edge of discomfort. When we choose to follow our hearts, we don’t eliminate fear, but we ride past it.
I think, later on, I was able to get over other fears much better than that of the piano-playing, and at least, some of the times, I didn't let any later fear to hold me back from answering the call of my dreams in many other areas.
Prompt:
"Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
What does Emerson mean in this quote and in what ways, do you think, any lie can be beautiful?
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Anytime, I tackle Emerson, I end up confusing myself. And this quote is no exception. Just maybe, my poetic thinking cap has many holes in it, and I am now sitting at the computer with an uncomfortable tension.
So now, it comes to me that Emerson is challenging his readers to think about why people are drawn to lies. Not because lies are stronger than truth, but because they are easier. Truth asks us to change. Lies ask only what we believe on the surface.
I can understand more easily why truth is beautiful. It is because truth is real. Talking for myself, it grounds me, gives shape to my life and lets me trust others. In fact, two days ago, my son told me I was too trusting, involving the matter that a worker for the outside of the house wasn't showing up but charging us just the same. But I digress. Coming back to truth, it doesn't need any decoration. Truth has the weight of integrity and consequences, and it endures. What is true remains standing even when things are or become painful.
As to lies being beautiful, they are like a woman who looks good only when she wears an intense make-up. This makes her appealing, only because she wears beauty like a costume.
Yet, temporarily, lies offer escape, hope, and comfort. Are they ever useful? I tend to believe not, but I can understand that, in extreme circumstances, they may soften grief, protect innocence, or preserve peace. In fact, fiction, story-telling, and even art are built on lies that reveal truths. Those invented stories help us relate to and understand other worlds and ours much better, as we all know here in WdC.
On the other hand, a lie's beauty is weak and fragile. It depends on illusions that easily evaporate. What begins as comfort or entertainment can become harmful if it replaces the truth, and worse yet, it distracts us from our real lives. By this, I don't mean to downplay the writing arts and our imaginations, but after we put down our pens and leave the keyboards alone, shouldn't we engage in our real lives, fully? Ultimately, even in writing, especially in good writing, deep down inside, that stronger truth is always there.
Prompt: Food
"Food is memories."
José Andrés
Do you have happy or not so happy memories attached to food?
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This question makes me grin. I don't have any unhappy or not-so-happy memories attached to food. Does that make me a gourmand? I don't know, and I fear to think about that possibility too much.
What I don't fear, though, is food itself. Food isn't just fuel for our bodies. We are, especially I am, very picky about it. So much so that, it bypasses logic. This may be because the brain processes taste and smell together with emotion and memory.
I say memory because a flavor can make me feel as if I've traveled back in time. When I saw the ad for cured black olives in Amazon, for example, inside my mind, I went to my childhood when my grandmother would never set a breakfast table without cured black olives. After I saw that add, now I have those olives at breakfast again. Am I regressing to my childhood? Nope, I'm capturing the happy feeling of being cared for again, together with the renewed taste of something. Something that has to do with the warmth of family.
Come to think of it, food keeps many of the earliest memories and language of care. Long before we start understanding words, we understand being hungry and being fed. Food, then, is the elimination of hunger in addition to warmth, attention, and safety. As such, in adulthood also, to share a meal is to lower our defenses and to agree, be it briefly, in most things because food and us are present together.
On top of it all, food was very important in the family I grew up in. Both my mother and my grandmother would feel sad if we didn't have a guest at the dinner table. And no wonder, they had a lot of friends. Countless, it seemed to me. As a small child, I used to believe my family knew everyone on the face of the earth. Of course, internet wasn't invented yet and phones were usually on the walls attached to long cords. And if someone called someone else during dinner time, the call would begin with an apology. Those were the days meals were markers, such as the taste of Sundays, or celebrations, or even grief.
Because meals have been markers in my family, food has carried stories across generations. Recipes preserved geography, culture, struggles, survival, and they have outlived people. A dish my grandmother used to make can hold the memory of scarcity or abundance, of adaptation, or of home recreated in a new place. When I go back in my mind and try to cook the same recipe, I reenact old memories with my hands and my kitchen utensils. If I didn't, that memory might disappear.
Food, therefore, sits in the center of meaning and feeding my body. In a world that moves quickly, eating slows me down just enough to feel. Food keeps me alive, yes, but it also reminds me who I am, where I've been, and who I've loved.
Prompt:
"Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway."
John Wayne
What do you think this quote means and have you every taken on something that you were scared to do?
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At twelve years of age, I had an experience that would fit this quote well and its "saddling up," literally. At the time, I was being raised by an over-protective mother and, worse yet, I was her only child.
On an occasion, my cousins, all seven of them, came to visit and wanted me to go with them to a local fair. Surprisingly, my mother who would never let me out alone without an adult chaperon, agreed, since one of my cousins was 19 at the time, and he promised he'd keep an eye on all of us.
Yet, when we got there, he saw a few friends of his and wanted to hang out with them and told us to go have fun by ourselves. At the side of the fair, adjacent to it, but not inside it, there were horse rides on a vast open field. Watching people on those horses was exciting. So we neared that place where two men, ride-handlers I suppose, put the would-be riders on the horses for a small fee.
Up to that time, I had never been near a horse, let alone ride it. So I stood back, but my cousins egged me on, and I didn't want the word chicken attached to me for as long as we all lived. Next, I found myself sitting on a big horse, holding on to its rein. One of the handlers led us out of the starting point into the open field. But, as soon as he left me and the poor horse alone, I must have felt a terror in my every bone. So in fright, I must have begun pulling the reins and squeezing my legs against the belly of the horse. Later, I learned this is what you do if you want the horse to run. So from its gentle trot, the horse took to running, and through fear or maybe sixth sense, I leaned toward its neck clinging to it, and almost laid flat on the horse. I heard someone say, "Look at this kid. She knows how!"
Also, I heard another person yell, "Relax your legs!". I don't know who said that but I'm forever grateful for that tip and that wise person who must have seen my fear. By the time, we returned to the starting point, the horse had calmed down to an easy trot, and nobody, starting with my cousins, ever believed I hadn't taken any lessons or wasn't on a horse before.
It is a miracle I didn't fall off that horse! I still wonder about that. Although, that horse and I didn't jump fences or anything, given my ineptitude, my daring must have become my teacher, in some way. Furthermore. the real miracle was that I rode anyway, despite the terror in me. So I feel I have to honor that terror and that rough ride and that big horse which wasn't ferocious at all like I had feared at first. Better yet, that experience taught me that motion is the antidote to fear and paralysis.
Accordingly, through my long life, after that scary ride, I made a conscious choice to face fear, to give it its due, but then, to harness it, or else life and circumstances can trample me. What I mean is, fear is not a villain, and the rider who refuses the saddle is the loser who cannot experience anything beyond that of ease and comfort.
Prompt:
"Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway."
John Wayne
What do you think this quote means and have you every taken on something that you were scared to do?
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At twelve years of age, I had an experience that would fit this quote well and its "saddling up," literally. At the time, I was being raised by an over-protective mother and, worse yet, I was her only child.
On an occasion, my cousins, all seven of them, came to visit and wanted me to go with them to a local fair. Surprisingly, my mother who would never let me out alone without an adult chaperon, agreed, since one of my cousins was 19 at the time, and he promised he'd keep an eye on all of us.
Yet, when we got there, he saw a few friends of his and wanted to hang out with them and told us to go have fun by ourselves. At the side of the fair, adjacent to it, but not inside it, there were horse rides on a vast open field. Watching people on those horses was exciting. So we neared that place where two men, ride-handlers I suppose, put the would-be riders on the horses for a small fee.
Up to that time, I had never been near a horse, let alone ride it. So I stood back, but my cousins egged me on, and I didn't want the word chicken attached to me for as long as we all lived. Next, I found myself sitting on a big horse, holding on to its rein. One of the handlers led us out of the starting point into the open field. But, as soon as he left me and the poor horse alone, I must have felt a terror in my every bone. So in fright, I must have begun pulling the reins and squeezing my legs against the belly of the horse. Later, I learned this is what you do if you want the horse to run. So from its gentle trot, the horse took to running, and through fear or maybe sixth sense, I leaned toward its neck clinging to it, and almost laid flat on the horse. I heard someone say, "Look at this kid. She knows how!"
Also, I heard another person yell, "Relax your legs!". I don't know who said that but I'm forever grateful for that tip and that wise person who must have seen my fear. By the time, we returned to the starting point, the horse had calmed down to an easy trot, and nobody, starting with my cousins, ever believed I hadn't taken any lessons or wasn't on a horse before.
It is a miracle I didn't fall off that horse! I still wonder about that. Although, that horse and I didn't jump fences or anything, given my ineptitude, my daring must have become my teacher, in some way. Furthermore, the real miracle was, despite the terror I felt, I rode anyway. So I feel I have to honor that terror and that rough ride and that big horse which wasn't ferocious at all like I had feared at first. Better yet, that experience taught me that motion is the antidote to fear and paralysis.
Accordingly, through my long life, after that scary ride, I made a conscious choice to face fear, to give it its due, but then, to harness it, or else life and circumstances can trample me. What I mean is, fear is not a villain, and the rider who refuses the saddle is the loser who cannot experience anything beyond that of ease and comfort.
Prompt:
“Luck is not as random as you think. Before that lottery ticket won the jackpot, someone had to buy it.”
Vera Nazarian
Do you buy lottery tickets or the scratch off cards? Do you wait for the large pot or do you buy them weekly like clock work? Would you consider lottery tickets as gambling?
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I don't buy lottery tickets or scratch off any cards, although I have nothing against all that. I think of such stuff as not necessarily gambling, but maybe, banking on false hopes, and thus, a waste of time. Then, suppose I did win a few million that way. I can't even begin to imagine its negative results. With the taxes, false friends, scammers--as if not enough of them call me nowadays--and the amount of work and worry about how to spend or invest that lot. I'm just too old for all that.
On the other hand, I congratulate those who have won and who will win and hope everyone is happy with their choices. I am not discouraging anyone, but saying that this is not for me.
Come to think of it, this craze for lottery tickets and such isn't only about money. It may have something to do with the wish to imagine some control in our uncontrollable world. A lottery ticket or any other such game offers a strange comfort, a fleeting control of a comfort, that everyone else is equally powerless before the last draw.
Also, since chance games offer uncertainty in a safe, contained way, some brains like the anticipation and the suspense more than the reward at the end. Possibly, such emotional experiences are good for some people, I suppose. Just maybe, the fantasy itself may be worth more than the actual win.
After all, a lottery ticket may mean hope, imagination, rebellion against routine, and that wish or sense that life can change in a single moment. When all is said and done, the idea is, the future isn't fully written yet.
All this brings to my mind an old song, the one Frank Sinatra crooned in Luck Be a Lady,"They call you Lady Luck // But there is room for doubt..."
Prompt:
Let this quote inspire your entry today.
“January is the worst month. I am fat and broke from the holidays, paler than ever, and I can’t feel my own face when I walk outside.”
Anonymous
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I don't know about this Anonymous, but I am glad to be in January after all the rush and brush of December. Granted, where I live doesn't have me experience any excess cold to not be able to feel my own face. And so, at times and on occasions like this, I am happy for the negatives. Weird me!
And poor Anonymous! Yet, his pain wasn't for nothing because it led me to write some broken verse to show I could commiserate with him.
To Anonymous in January
You stand in January like the receipt
crumpled in your pocket,
that you didn't throw away
and your credit cards still ache
as they tell your truth too loudly.
I see your skin faded like
the color of winter milk,
in holiday softness lingering,
your breath fogging up plans
you swore were serious.
Outside, the cold steals the joy
as your cheeks go numb, but you
can always fake optimism, for
this is what I do all the time
whether I am okay or not.
So I really hope inside you
some humor is surviving anyway,
and although I may sound awful, here,
my noticing you, sharing your pain,
must count for something.
Prompt: 2025
Was it a good year or a bad year? Write about this in your Blog entry today.
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I guess in some ways, 2025 could have been a good year, especially because we didn't have the terrible stuff and all the negatives of the Covid years, and especially 2020. But I don't want to go there, to possibly the worst year of my life. Then, I don't also want to call any year good just because it lacked a certain negative or two...especially with all the world problems still going on, now.
To be fair, though, let me talk about the positives of 2025, first. Judging from the social media, I think people across the world began talking about everything. Naming problems may not seem as if things will get any better, but at least, we the people are doing that. It could as well be the first step toward fixing things.
I guess, I have to add the advances in technology, in ai, to the mix, although I am truly suspicious of where we are going with that, but the cat is out of the bag and we'll see how it all washes out.
Also, there were conscious changes starting with the consuming public, us individuals, in how we live, how we eat, and how we can help life on this planet. The best yet, IMHO, I saw a higher resilience in humans. We adapted to uncertainties and changes quite well.
On the down side, social and political divisions and divisiveness increased, As their result, we had global instability with all the wars, both economically and between countries. Most economies suffered and already high prices went up even higher. Then, came the impacts of the climate with all the floods and other natural disasters. There is a big gap in between what needs to be done and what is being done in almost all areas.
While my thinking may not be totally right, because I don't know all the facts, I still think, as people of the world, we are still growing and are having growing pains. The good news is, to me, we humans are capable of much better growth and adjustment.
I so hope we can, someday in the future, look at 2025 fairly and see that it mirrored us by reflecting our wrongs and by showing that we can learn, however slowly, to do much better. I may not be around to see it, but I'm crossing my fingers that we'll all do much better, somehow.
Prompt:
"If writing is about sharing the stories that matter then designing a home is about shaping where those stories unfold."
Write about this quote in your Blog entry today.
---------- This quote made me think for a while, if only because I've never really designed a home. When we moved to any new home, we just put our already owned things in it and added whatever else was needed afterwards. Our homes were never for show, but for convenience. So, combining this home design thing with writing is new to me, but I'll try to find the similarities between the two.
Let's take writing first. A writer listens closely and tries to notice moments and ideas that may slip by others more easily. Then, writers choose which stories to tell and which ideas they can explore more deeply. For example, those things may be something like a glance held too long, a goodbye said too quickly, a truth discovered late, etc. Still, what I write usually matters to me, although I do believe that a good-enough writer should be able to write something, good or bad, on any subject. In other words, to me, to write is to preserve experiences and to say this event or thing matters enough to be remembered and to be written about.
Alternately, as clueless as I am on the subject, designing a home may also need intention. Only, its language in physical. Home is where I want ease, relaxation, happier feelings, and laughter to be. For that reason, home is more than a shelter or a container for my things. It is a setting for my most ordinary or extraordinary moments. It's where happiness can suddenly arrive when I carry a certain grief or problem from room to room. My kitchen counters become my mixing food stuffs as if I am loading them with confessions and thoughts, the same as I do while writing into a notebook.
After all, both home design and writing can ask the same questions: What matters here? What is it that I want to linger or to stay? Who or what is this setting or seating for? In the same vein, a story offers a sense of belonging, just like a home does with its space. Both hold me, reflect me, and quietly support the life I'm living. One gives voice to meaning. The other gives it a place to sit, to rest, and to grow and learn.
"Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right."
Oprah Winfrey
In what ways can we get it right in 2026, personally and as a nation? What about the world?
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To begin with, in my humble and jumbled opinion, getting things right in 2026 needs intention, follow-through, and humility, in general. This is because I still believe in the legend of "One Earth, One Future."
In the personal area, I can think of: *exchanges of ideas but not as competitions and without put-downs
*small consistent kindnesses like keeping promises
*checking on one another,
*allowing growth and encouraging learning as one can never learn enough,
*and maybe resting a bit more, especially in my case.
As a nation and this goes for any nation, not just the USA, let's agree to:
*survive and let others survive
*not use contempt or dehumanizing of other nations
*invest in healthcare, education, infrastructure, mental health
*appreciate honesty over anger and outrage, especially with leaders of nations, and also, let's trust more those leaders who are not afraid of saying they are uncertain about any issue
*protect the nations with the least power and with people who are vulnerable, and not only the loud ones
*give space for shared stories between nations, to show co-existence is possible with or without our differences
As the world,we need to:
*share responsibility. No country can live alone, even the strongest ones.
*do not treat the human stories as statistics. What happens to the people of one nation can easily happen to others, given time.
*cooperate on what threatens others, be it the climate, public health, food, and water as these needs cross all borders.
*choose diplomacy over dominance. Intimidation harms the intimidator the most. Just remember Hitler. When power is used to collaborate and get along with others, it works for the best for every nation.
Come to think of it, as I wrote about these three areas separately, I came to the conclusion that the way forward had to be similar at all three levels. That is: *pay attention, *use patience over panic and *keep up the hope but back it by action, and not just words.
2026 is just about to arrive. The ink is fresh. Let's make it count, this coming year.
“Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.”
Mary Oliver
What do you think about this quote and would Mary Oliver's advice work for you?
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I don't know if Mary Oliver's advice would work for me, but, in a nutshell, it seems to be good advice for living a meaningful life.
A meaningful life could be found in the way we look at things. For example, some glitches have been showing up in my life and in the way things are done. Instead of blaming ai or someone else or my own ineptitude, I'm trying to sail with the tide, and it seems to be working for me.
It isn't always easy, but I try to pay attention. Paying attention is to be present, to notice the texture of ordinary moments, the tone beneath someone’s words, the way light moves across a room. It asks me to resist or stop living on autopilot. Attention is an act of respect toward the world, toward others, and toward my own inner life.
Furthermore, attention leads to wonder, which is a natural thing. When I truly notice, the world reveals itself and its miracles to me. "Becoming astonished" can rise from a bird’s call, a child’s question, a sudden kindness...etc. In other words, with astonishment, I let awe overcome any dulled-out certainty.
As to "telling about it," this is what I am doing right this minute. When I tell about what astonishes me I am translating my experiences into writing, storytelling, art, or memory. This connects me to others and preserves something important or touching that might otherwise may vanish. This is because most anything gains importance when given voice, as we writers know so well.
Although this, Mary Oliver's advice, works as if it is a pocket-sized philosophy, it has used a simple direct language and it works. Especially because it is vast in its use and implication.
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