Style of Writing

Poetry, haiku, fiction, non-fiction and all the sub-genres of those styles.  Read everything you can.  Haunt your local library, bookstores, grocery shelves and drugstore books. The more you read, the more you will know what you like.  Start writing.  If line paper is too much to write on or blank screens too intimidating, then writing on the backs of envelopes, on drawing paper, on those pesky notepads we keep lists on for shopping.  Writing is just another way of organizing lists.  Writing connects your hands with two important pieces...your guts and your head.

Yours in Style

Then Again and Until Then

Then again, checking the web is one of the best ways to find out if other people are interested in what you are thinking.  Google is an amazing research aide.  And your mind and common sense are your best friends in the search for your next best job.  Take photos of pictures you like, take photos of snails, snow, ice formations, cats, dogs, birds and store them on your computer as a slide show.  That way the computer remembers them and will flash them up on the screen whenever you are ... waiting ... for the next thing to do.

Until then
peace

Just asking and putting passive voice issues out there

I have a real problem with passive voice writing.  Ghost writing (perhaps with real ghosts) would be easier.  Passive voice (for those who want to know) is using non-active verbs.  If there is anyone out there who can help me, just write in the comment section.  I struggle with this every time I write.  Maybe other people do too but I don't know them (or you) and would like an idea of how you fixed the problem.  One of the best books I have read about a writer with writers' block (and including ghosts) is "Golems of Gotham" by Thane Rosenbaum.  Terrific, funny, dark book with perhaps (in my own opinion) a need for editing out some of the thumping on a theme to make sure we 'get' what the author means.  But I let it slide since Rosenbaum is a lawyer and humanist and his training is making sure his audience understands what he is saying (even if he is repeating himself).  But other than that it is a terrific book.  Really wonderful.

At least he avoids my passive voice issue and for that alone is worth reading.

Until then, peace

Scanning-word of the day

Scanning...what is it exactly? Here is a link to the dictionary definition
www.merriam-webster.com/netdict/scan But scanning for me is all inclusive...from scanning a page while reading directions (and missing something critical) to setting up a printer and wondering why it won't work when I have forgotten to plug it into the computer. Seeing the surface of things is really good if I am hunting for a bird but actual living with technology is a little tougher... Printers don't tend to hop from branch to brand and instructions for running machines don't scurry off into bushes. Sigh. I wish they did...

Wait, then again, maybe not.  Hopping Printers would be much worse than cave crickets.  See what I mean

And they HOP.  At least they are small even though they are icky to see when they hop.  Imaging Hopping Printers now.....Yikes!!

Cheap Thrills Not Available this Week for Teens

This week was a stretch for all of us.  I think is was worse for drivers since there were no roads cleared enough to drive on.

Perhaps Trust ... Comes Eventually

And the word of the day is: Trust. Reciting the Nembutsu helps me feel connected to the sangha and helps me work towards trust. Rev. Kenyru T. Tsuji wrote:

"Namu Amida Butsu...
it is the song of gratitude
not of my finding the Buddha,
but Buddha finding me."

UDUMBARA: The Journal of Ekoji (Volume I: Summer, 1985) © 2007 Ekoji Buddhist Temple

Until then,
Peace

Today's Word: Compassion

Here is what a Buddhist website says about compassion.
http://buddhism.kalachakranet.org/immeasurables_love_compassion_equanimity_rejoicing.html
With that in mind, I need to be sure I do rescue and helping with one aim -- to help. Not to look good helping. Not to be praised for it. Just to do my part in filling in the wheel of life.
Until Then
May All Beings Know Peace

Another Word for the Wise-Acceptance

My right hand does not like my new mouse. It keeps trying to do what seems normal. But normal doesn't exist with twitchy nerves and long standing pain. So this morning I faced that awful/awesome word, Acceptance. I had to type, I had to use the keyboard, I had to work around my habit-driven thumb. So I changed which hand is using the mouse. Maybe forever -- maybe just for now. And to do that I had to accept I cannot control my thumb's habits. Perhaps I need a 12-step program for retraining thumbs. But until then...
Namaste

Word of the Day - Attend

Here is a link to the definition of "attend" first. http://www.wordnet-online.com/attend.shtml I take it to mean "pay attention" to life. So in addition to other focusing techniques I now use the word attend when I feel my attention wandering.

Until then, namaste

Acceptance - Something More than a Word

Working on acceptance to let go of the fear and anger I feel at having CMP. So far, CMP 60%, acceptance 40%. Not bad so far.

And the Answer is "Desperation"

I just saw my doctor who is amazing, caring, perceptive and patience itself when dealing with me. I always come away from seeing him with renewed hope and a sense that I am not alone. Pain is such a lonely drain. I tried to describe what motivated me to up my medication without consultation. He waved my words aside by just saying "desperation." And he is right. When I hurt and hurt and hurt and see no end to the hurt, I get desperate. Trying not to make the pain worse by holding on to it is upper level pain management for me still. So I just do the simple things like change to ergonomic mouse ware (I need to find ears for this mouse) and small keyboards so I won't have to move my shoulders so much. Myofascial freezes me into an arms at my side position (think of that show "Six Feet Under") only I am the one in the box. It is no fun. So anything that helps me loosen up -- heating pads, talking to friends, seeing my doctor when I am desperate helps. Until then,

Realizations

On the cosmic scoreboard of my life, it is usually out of town team 100, home team 0. I don't usually realize how much I have changed until I am done changing. I always forget the good I have done and only see what I have done wrong. Sigh. But I am realizing that state of mind tonight. Going forward from here is an uphill climb but at least I won't be holding myself back.

Ah, Permission Slips

Permission slips are a daily thing in a household with school age kids. But I never realized I needed to give myself permission to start a new role as a new 'me.' I mean the change in legal status still has me staggered. How do I suddenly give myself permission to become a new "me"? Whom do I ask for permisson to do that? I am sure it looks easy from the outside but I am just now realizing how hard it is from the inside. And it has taken me a very long time to realize that granting myself permission is not just about staying up late and watching tv. It is about deciding what I like, what I want to spend time doing, how I deal with anger, how I deal with frustration, how I deal with loneliness, how I deal with fear, how I deal with the anger I have at the pain that has taken over and constricted my life, and generally how I deal with life. Tonight I discovered the person who needed to do that -- me. So yeah, lots to think about. Think, not fester, not rage. Just think and check in on how I am handling the permission slip thing. Oh, yeah, and make sure I give the permission slip to the right person -- me.

Things I Never Knew About Phases

When I was in school, I always thought the moon was the only thing I needed to learn about that had phases. I was wrong. Now I realize there are phases I never learned about in school. Phases like my kids went through -- the terrible twos, the teenage years. Now in my mid-50s, I realize there are more phases to face. I know, you're thinking that I have to deal with getting old. Well, there is that but there is more to it. Different ages bring different challenges. In some ways, tougher because if I make mistakes at this age I won't have as much time to fix them. In some ways, rougher because after a number of years building a certain personna as a Mrs. and working mom, I am now a Mrs. who doesn't fit that personna anymore. And frankly letting go of who I was is far tougher than letting go of who I was married to. Evolution...is a process. Some species made it to today. Some didn't. I plan to make it through this phase.

Serenity and the Cluttered Mind

I have a cluttered mind. I suspect it is like most of us these days. Whirling from chores, long commutes and then more chores, we rush around and then wonder why we never really get anything done. In all the rushing, I would write notes to myself of things I saw or felt and left the scraps scattered around the house and lurking unwritten in my mind. Then I started a website on serenity and all those scraps came out to play. And now, this blog. It is a good day. May we all find a scrap bin of our own to put our thoughts in. Until then keep writing, keep thinking, keep body and soul together....

Hunting for Serenity

Until then, hunting for serenity is ... attainable ... when I see my cat wrinkle his whiskers in his sleep.

When Good Words Go Bad

I Just .... Get ..... Steamed ..... when I hear words that used to mean something else entirely become co-opted by various groups. You hear them all the time, "ho," "gay," "weasel," "bang," and the list goes on and on. Small wonder that talk/shock jockies get burned by casual use of a word like 'ho.' And then there is me. I love slang. I mean it. Not gutter slang like 'ho' though. Old fashioned slang. Mickey Spillane, Sherlock Holmes, Dashiel Hammett, gangster movies, molls, guys, dolls, gats, spats and all the words that came out of their characters' mouths. That kind of slang. Sure, I know, jazz meant drugs back in the day. It also meant music and the clubs where the drugs were. But did jazz ever mean anything else before that? Nope. It is a consistent word. Gay used to mean an emotional frenetic happiness. Ho used to be a noise Santa Claus made. Weasel still is a very pretty animal. Bang used to mean the noise a gun made. I just hate getting gunned down by words becoming inconsistent. Sigh.

Cyclones of the Soul

In re-reading my entry for Sunday night, I realize that there was a extratropical cyclonic depression going through the Northern Virginia area where I live. Extratropical Cyclones (also known as Nor'easters) are winter hurricanes and odd things happen during them. Odd things like sudden freezes, sudden thaws, high winds and emotional ups and downs. But the reason I bring up cyclones is the emotional aspect to them. The winds I sat through on Sunday gave me and the cats huge feelings of dread, we just knew something was going to happen. So what to do on those days when dread gets the upper hand, when the wind of change is making the soul's windows shudder? I pray and gather the cats close and jump onto the www.tarot.com website to check my impressions. I probably should have gotten my dowsing stuff out but I was so unclear about what was going on I would have asked really general questions. Sometimes just sitting through dread is the toughest thing to do. Just don't try to do it alone.

Finding Talents from an "Oh, That's Nothing"

You know the phrase... Oh, That's Nothing. That's a sure fire way to find the things you do easily, effortlessly. Talents. Now as I go forward I am looking that the things I say "Oh, that's nothing." So looking for "nothings" means "something."

Slang and Imus

Slang and the downfall of Don Imus. Love him or hate him, Don Imus represents all that is crude in today's society. He says what other people think and like the little kid who said the Emperor had no clothes, he gets away with it. But the downfall was what I rail against daily, viz, the coarsening of daily discourse. What am I talking about? I mean conversation has sunk to such a level that my kids call their friends "ho"s and think nothing of it. Personally, the "ho" word offends me deeply and that's just when I hear my kids use it. For a public figure to use it to describe a girls' basketball team not only insults the players but every woman every where. Not only young girls like the basketball players, but women every age. For shame, Don, for shame. A glib mouth and being allowed to get away with verbal assaults has finally bitten you back.