While I could answer the prompt in its current form, I find the question intrusive!
Now, if you asked me what I learned, or perhaps what kind of trouble I found myself in while attending said establishment, I’d be happy to answer… but not NOW!
If you were thinking that I don’t want to answer because I didn’t go to college, you would be incorrect, as I carry degrees and certifications that I’m quite proud to have accomplished in my life. It’s just none of your business, unless we are chatting together and you asked me about myself.
This is where my problem with the prompt question lies… it’s like a computerized newspaper that just fills up with everyone’s personal information and then simply shares it with the entire planet in one fell click! Has everybody simply forgotten three very valuable letters in the alphabet… you know, T…..M…..I!
In all honesty, it baffles me, in a world where Identity Theft is a real problem… we freely give out personal names, intimate information about our lives, as well as pertinent personal information for filling out a credit application! No one needs to know my school history here, my personal political views, nor what I ate, at whatever restaurant I happened to be dining in last week! Have we all simply lost our minds?
Now, had the prompt asked one of my alternative ideas, like what did I learn or what did we do for fun while gaining an education, I would have been happy to answer. I have a ton of stories to fill these prompts, but I can’t spend all day, every day, correcting and adjusting these prompts for WordPress… I have other things to be writing about that are much more worthy of reading, in my opinion.
While I am committed to not being flippant with my answers on the Daily Prompt, you will see my MeeMaw surface to lecture folks on things that should be common sense to us all! We are writers for crying out loud… give us writer questions that allow us to be creative, not something that a friend would inquire about. I don’t know about any of you guys but I’m not on a friend basis with any of the WordPress developers… just sayin! We should all be exercising more caution while using social media, and this site is a form of social media, with the same risk of trollers, lonely hearts, and souls with nefarious behavior wandering in and out of each of our sites.
While some may not be bothered by the very personal questions, I will say that I am, and fully intend to belly ache about it some! The internet and social media are a double edged sword, so be very careful how you wield it!
Living the way we live, at the present time, means my playtime is reserved for trail hikes in the park with my squirrel friends, and my writing. I still don’t have the ability to safely drive, so I do not go far from my hobbit hole, as I affectionately call it!
That being said, my mind is free to go wherever it desires… meditation, prayer or reading is the fuel for my inner playtime fires! Who else can say that they get to spend hours a day, just dreaming up things and writing about them? If there were a bunch of activity and people floating in and out all the time, I’m not sure how much writing I could successfully get done.
Ask any child who encounters me or any animal I have ever owned… I AM FUN! I had my grandson fully believing that we had a hilarious Troll that lived in the culvert just across the yard… I KNOW HOW TO PLAY!!!!
If you look back over all those stories I told you about my girls when they were small, you can see how much we played. They learned about magic Christmas Trees, a mouse that could trade Chapstick for baby teeth, and many more stories that I spun to fill their dreams.
With life rolling forward and leaving childhood in the past, I am left with nobody to play those games with anymore, in that fashion.
I had no intention of letting playtime die off, so I searched and searched… and then I found YOU! You are where I pour my imagination and dreams, hoping to bring a smile to your face or brighten your day. Every time you visit to read my wordy words, it makes my heart happy.
My playtime is in the world I like to create for others, gaining so much joy out of bringing smiles… or sometimes think about hard stuff in a lighthearted atmosphere, hence all the cookies you’ve had to eat!
Everybody that has seen the movie Mary Poppins, should have picked up on the fact that she just wouldn’t quit, no matter the obstacle. In my opinion, Mary Poppins embodied playtime, all the while, teaching valuable lessons to those children… as well as their father. All these years I have dreamt of owning a magic Mary Poppins bag, though all I have to show for myself thus far, is a purse filled with broken peanut shells, grocery store receipts, lip balm, and a bunch of stuff I can’t remember why I kept.
As far as answering the prompt question, playtime for anyone is whatever and wherever we make it… we all have playtime available in our hearts and minds that just needs to be let out! I think that might be the secret side of that phrase young at heart. Below, is the actual definition given by the dictionary, but it certainly doesn’t do it justice, in my opinion…
: thinking and acting like young people : active and having a lot of energy
I have to say, I didn’t expect the definition to be so short and loosely defined. It should read, Young at heart: verb Thinking and acting like young people that don’t need everything handed to them on a silver spoon, and continued activity of play and adventure, even after the body is no longer cooperating… just saying.
Playtime, for me, is to dream stuff up and write it out for you guys… whether you read it or throw it away. I play as I write and you have to choose to play along and read… playtime is our choice. If you would like to join in my fun, I play here every single day!
F.Y.I. all my cookies have no calories, because I replaced all the sugar with dreams and adventures, so eat as many as you wish… and let’s play!
Being that I’m a a pretty good tattle tail, mostly about myself, I have decided to start telling on myself regularly… once a week, in fact!
Now don’t expect it to be negative and depressing, because that’s not my thing, nor would it be healthy for any of us to dwell on. It’s me, for crying out loud! I always like to call myself out in a funny way, because it keeps me real, as I like to say. I am also very good at calling out the truths about certain things in society, without pointing judgy fingers at them… just candy coated truths, or cookie covered ones, that most all of us need to hear more often.
We need reminding, occasionally, to be more aware of the connection between the words coming out of our mouths and the steps we walk that either match our words or betray them… Walk your Talk or your Talk is gonna Walk all over you!
I can say most of what I say with confidence, as I am usually the story on the table. I make every effort to be more gentle with my words any time I speak about others… speak the truth in love or don’t do it! In other words, if you want to tell the truth to someone but you’re hurt by them and maybe holding on to that anger… until you have your heart in a place of love… Shut Up! Is that so hard? Some days I am on top of my emotions and can hear God say, Shush child… some days I’m under the rug because of something I said in the wrong state of mind. Words can stick to the fabric of a soul like paper stapled to a wall, painfully anchoring to whomever the stapler was aimed at!
I am not just a writer, but a talker, flinging my words everywhere I go, so I have to make a great effort to reflect God in that which escapes my mouth. In the bible it talks about guarding yourself from those who talk to much… with so much coming out of my mouth, the chances are higher that I will say too much or the wrong thing entirely! That’s why you see me bring up walk the talk stuff all the time. How can I share with you, the things I believe God wants us to learn, if I don’t live and practice it myself?
With all this in mind, as I write to you this morning, the idea of turning Tuesdays into a lighthearted News Report sounds pretty fun to try. The main difference, in my opinion, between what I write and many of the tabloid magazines… I make every effort to ensure the material is truth BEFORE it goes to print!
For me, both as a writer and a human being, my biggest challenge is being seen… by anyone!
You may have noticed that I call it a challenge and not a problem or an impenetrable obstacle, because the only thing that has to be tackled is timing… the right place to be, needs to be achieved at just the right moment in time! Yes, I used that word twice in the same sentence. I want to make sure you get my meaning here. Time, in all sense of the word, moves, whether it feels slow or fast! I used it once and by the end of the sentence, it was there again! It simply followed me as I wrote out the thought.
Being in the right place at the right time, is the only safe way to jump onto this moving bus without getting run over by it, or simply left behind at the station. There are so so many talented souls everywhere I look… some quite successful while others never catch the bus. Does it mean that one is better than the other or tried harder… sometimes it can play a part in things, but most often it’s no more than timing!
While I admit that Brutus will take a bit more work for me, as I have never written an actual Novel… I wrote Tilly in a day! God’s given me the content, the dreams, the imagination and the tenacity to get it done… my challenge is not in the creation and journey of writing something, it’s in getting it where it’s meant to be… in your hands…
And this is why I said that it is a challenge but not an impenetrable obstacle… I will walk by faith, stepping where my heavenly Father steps… no need for fear of things here… it’s all about His timing!
Eat, sleep and recover… I think that covers what most folks will be doing throughout this first week of 2024.
Personally, I’m attempting to tidy up the Lobby and get back on track with the differing projects calling for my attention. I’ve already changed out all the pictures for each page on my site, so now I am reflecting on the daily themes I used last year, to decide what should remain and what needs changing… it’s hard! Do I change it all up again or does that get on peoples nerves? Sometimes change is good, but at other times we take comfort and reassurance from a steady routine.
One thing that stays, without any thought at all, is the Lobby! This is a resting place for any and all who pass through, so I take my place in the Lobby very seriously. My desire is to keep it always bright, fragrant and free of things just laying around. Fortunately, God is the tender of our fountain, so there is no need to call in a maintenance worker for that. I pretty much just need to fluff the pillows and do my hair, so I can’t complain!
Definitely keeping Note to Self and Live Wire! By writing to you on these two topics, I’m learning so much by all the reading, research and application of what I’m studying. Sometimes, it even feels like I have hundreds of Study Buddies here on WordPress, when you read and comment on things you’ve read while visiting.
This year is shaping up to be a very busy one, what with trying to finish Brutus, as well as getting Tilly published. I have two new stories brewing in my brain, so I have to get busy and get all this stuff out of my head and onto paper… I’m NOT getting the best sleep due to the literary storms raging inside my brain! It can often seem like I have about 6 virtual television shows running at the same time, all vying for my attention. Ahhhhh… the life of a writer it is for me! I thrive on this stuff! Part of me feels bad that you guys get hit twice a day with all my wordage, but not enough to stop… to quote a line from the show Castle, played by Nathan Fillian, “It’s what I do”!
I think that I will use Tuesdays through Fridays will be wild cards because I currently don’t want to do anything beyond my coffee cup… It’s New Years Day for crying out loud…
I saw the question this morning and immediately saw a problem… the time line!
According to the definition, which I have included below, this feeling of Nostalgia must come from the past.
a sentimentallonging or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.
I have several problems answering the question in its current form, one being the concrete time of the PAST, the other problem comes from finding a memory that is pure happiness without any sorrow following in its wake! With any problem, or let’s say obstacle, my hat goes backwards and my eyebrows furrow forward with determination, challenging this literary Goliath with my tiny typing fingers.
I’ve written scads of things that reveal how my past is fully saturated with beauty and pain all rolled into one! Enough said!
I believe that it IS possible to be nostalgic for what is to come, based on both the past and present journey. I am looking forward to being home, more than any dream or memory I have in my noggin!
Don’t think that I expect you to just agree with me, without any examples or evidence given, so I shall present my Prompt Rule Breaking Case as best I can…
I am a Christian… a born again Believer and a chosen child of God, therefore, it stands to reason that I will live, eat, breathe, and speak the Word of God. To do this fully, I believe fully in the entire Bible… all of it! I accept the truth of that book as the living breathing words of God! This book is my evidence of what is to come… the good and the bad! I believe that we were never promised an easy walk, as this is a broken and fallen world, so buckle up Buttercup! The bible also tells, in countless entries of what is to come, for all of us. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m well aware of how bad it looks back in my history, and I can’t wait until I see His face at the end of this life!
I will share with you my version of Nostalgia, coming from the future! How can I do this, you ask? Well, if the words of the bible are Holy Writ, then it stands to reason that this future is guaranteed to be there for me when I arrive!
Since I have no human understanding of what God will actually look like when I arrive, I sort of have this vision in my head of what it might look like to Him as I enter the gates. The vision may sound comical, but I do think that God has a great sense of humor. Imagine God all squared up, like a baseball pitcher, at the gates with a mitt in one hand, leaving the other hand poised to assist. As you look out into the clouds beyond the gates, you begin to hear the thunder, followed by bolts of lightening shooting across the sky. Next, you see commotion in the clouds, followed by a massive tidal wave that literally thrusts me up over the edge and sends me like a high powered missile toward my Creators’ waiting arms.
As I often say, to anyone stopping long enough to listen, Go Big or Go Home… or better yet, Go Big AND Go Home!!!
In your face prompt box, Ha!
Here, some of you may need a handful of cookies on this one…
Out with the old and in with the new is how most are feeling right about now!
The range of people’s emotions, as they think on this feeling, can reach both ends of the scale.
For some, it’s benign in terms of the big picture… bills got paid, pensions are safe, nothing bad happened and life is good. For others, there may have been challenges through this last year ranging anywhere from financial challenges, to any number of health issues. Some have lost loved ones or experienced the end of a marriage, while at the same time, there were babies being born and/or weddings to attend. I think maybe this is why emotions run sort of high for many during the week between Christmas and the New Year.
I bet most new moms don’t want to let go of last years joys quite so easily, nor are they looking forward to moving on into a different stage of that infants life.
First smiles, first night without a 2 a.m. feeding, first steps and first words are irreplaceable memories and yet… the joy and excitement of what is next to come makes this time bittersweet. I gather this evidence both from my own memories, as well as the photo album industry… whether in print or digital. I don’t ever want to forget those years!
On the other side of things, I’m sure that there are those who are really hoping that the goodness and success of 2024 will wash over and erase the memory of last year… and with that comes a great amount of anxiety.
Will next year be better or worse? Will the grief of loss over life or love ever lessen? Some have burned the candle at both ends and have now come to the middle and are terrified of what will come next for them. Why is it that we don’t feel the pressure during all the other months of the year? More specifically, why is it this very week that makes many feel so overwhelmed? It’s not like there is a waiver that we all have to sign, come New Years Day, stating that we shall look back no more on the things in the past. Perhaps we think our Talent or Success Card has to be reviewed by a High Council. For all I know, that might be the solution everyone would enjoy!
What if there were a Do Over Card available? I wonder how many of us would trade our last 12 months for another try at things, if there were a magic subway turnstiles available New Years Day.
What would that Returns Line look like at the store? How many would want a full Do Over vs. an Exchange or would there also be a line in the Repairs Department? I wrote about this sort of thing just the other day, sharing how changes or do overs may take away from the good that I want to hold onto, for my journey home. I suppose that’s where the anxiety comes from, for myself at least.
I look back over the last 12 months of my journey, and while I want so bad to stand in the Do Over Return Line in some regards, I have too many good things to focus on. I am also quite exhausted with standing in the Repair Line… I have things to do, dreams to chase and a purpose! What is that purpose? Here’s the funny thing… I can’t even say what it is, this purpose, because I’m right in the middle of it! God has me firmly held in His purpose and I think it is big enough that I cannot see the defining edges. The only thing I wish to do, is to continue walking forward beneath His shadow into the New Year! This is the first holiday season in many many years that I feel excited, expectant and hopeful for what is to come.
While I am not fully ready to continue our journey into the wilderness with you, here on Live Wire Sundays, the idea of what it must have felt like for the Israelites came to mind. As they left behind everything they knew, good and bad, and began the journey to the promised land, there had to be many emotions floating through the air for Gods people.
For many of them, I think they felt a panic similar to that of a toddler being placed in the arms of a stranger, which could end badly, as I discovered while attempting to get my 9 month old to take a photo with a giant Easter Bunny… not cool!
There was a long journey ahead of the Israelites, and they were nowhere near ready, but God knew exactly what would be needed to prepare them. Some days I feel ready to get it done, while most days make me feel like an ill prepared Israelite! Did I ever mention that I counted back to how old I was when God first began knocking on the door of my heart… it was 40 years from when I started writing on this blog back in March of this last year. What an unusual similarity, don’t you think?
I was a chosen child of God… I just didn’t know it yet, nor was I prepared to handle that knowledge. I knew of God but was not impressed! The bible said how things were supposed to work, but I was young, traumatized, and very angry… hmmmmm… sound like anyone else we know? I think it’s a safe bet to say that the Israelites were feeling about the same in terms of their walk with God and what they’d gone through for generations. I’ll leave it at that, since I’m not ready for us to head out into the desert until next Sunday… no spoilers!
Please forgive my rambling and bouncing all over the place this morning, but as it is New Years Eve morning, I am a maelstrom of emotions… Peaceful waters flow all around and over me, calming the storms that push me down and strengthening me for the rapids ahead. Sometimes it is easy to live only in the moment, while at other times it can bring fears to my door, about what is to follow. As I write this to you, my spirit is at peace but my emotions are still a bit challenging. Repeated trauma has done its work on my system, making it very difficult to shut off the release of certain chemicals to the brain that lure me towards fight or flight. My spirit and mind know that I am now safe in Gods arms, but my body still seems to be a Survival Adrenaline Junkie… an odd combination surviving in one single human vessel, but there it is.
While my desire is not to overshare, I disclose many things to you when I write because, let’s face it, I know that I’m not alone in my feelings and struggles. The enemy wants me to feel like I am all alone, with nobody to understand or share what I feel… he is a liar and a thief! We are NEVER alone and I will take that all the way to the gates, my friends!
My hope and prayer this morning is that you step confidently into the New Year, hope burning within you for each of your journeys ahead. My other hope and prayer is that we all choose the path that He has provided us, whatever it may be and wherever it may lead us… this world is not our home, it’s simply the journey that gets us there…
For anyone that might need the encouragement, just remember that with a new year comes a chance for doing good, finding more joy to share with those around you, and new hope for what’s ahead for us. Our successes and failures made us who we are today, and according to God, he uses us all right where we are, in whatever circumstance. I might not be famous or rich, nor am I surrounded by adoring fans that want to hang on my every word. Truth be told, I’m just me… a nobody… but if you listen to this song I’ve shared, you will see who God chooses to use for His purpose and Glory.
Be safe everyone and I’ll see you on the flip side…
Who am I to choose? How many of us would go back and undo becoming parents if we knew how much pain would be mixed in with the good?
Would I go back and undo my life with my favorite pets if I knew how hard it would be to take care of them for so many years, and then to feel the pain of loss when they pass?
While I understand the question says “have” in this prompt, I like to think outside most boxes. How does one explain impact from a current thing… doesn’t it require some looking back on a thing to see whether it leaves evidence of positive or negative? How can one know for certainty, in the here and now of a relationship, whether it is a good thing for us, or a bad one?
When we gather information, usually we do it in a survey of sorts… good points over bad ones. I choose to not let this prompt question become an unhealthy survey of life and love!
I have three adult daughters that barely look my way, six grandchildren I am not able to be close with, a family that rejected and abandoned me, a church family that kicked me out after my divorce, all but two souls that were friends turned away, we lost our home along with all that was within its walls… and on and on and on and on… see where I’m going with this?
Let’s look a little closer at what I shared… it’s ok… this is not a pity party, in fact, it’s a walk of Praise!
The children and grandchildren were and are a miracle and a gift, so I’m not about to return them to the manufacturer… no way to separate all the good from the bad, the beauty from the ugly, nor the joy from the pain. The fibers that bind us are too tightly woven for that, as my blood runs through their veins and they share my DNA!
I remember every single pet I have ever owned, and I would not ever trade the memories, good or bad… they made my world a better place, and their memories do that for me to this very day!
The lessons I learned from the kindness and cruelty of church and friendship have made me the woman I am today… and I love who God has grown me up to become. I will take every one of my experiences, and scars as well, to guide me along the paths of this world. God uses my good, my bad, and my ugly, to guide me on as a wiser and kinder soul than when I began…
“Keep your face always toward the sunshine– and shadows will fall behind you.”Walt Whitman
Note to Self #19 is pretty self explanatory don’t you think?
I may need to give some more perspective though, before folks think I’m going to go and fry my eyes staring at the sun.
When I read this quote, it gave me pause, as I considered the way it was phrased. Mr. Whitman didn’t say to keep your eyes toward the sun, but rather, keep your face toward it!
If we consider the sun for a moment, it is a thing of great power for our world… as long as it stays up there and we stay down here on the ground. We can look around to see the results of the suns capabilities, but if we look directly at this giant round ball of fire, we would quickly destroy our eyes. It sure feels sublime though, to close our eyes and let the warmth of the sun kiss our faces!
As long as we can feel it’s reassuring presence, we don’t have to look right at the sun to know it’s there doing what it does for our planet… nourishing the earth and causing things to grow.
While this quote simply says that if you are facing the sun, your shadow will fall behind you… there’s so much more meaning behind that phrase! Otherwise, I don’t think we would have written it down and made sure it wasn’t ever forgotten.
Personally, this phrase takes my mind and heart straight to my relationship with God. If we looked directly at our creator it would kill us instantly… too powerful for our human minds to handle!
Yet He will walk with us, lead us, carry us and sustain us all the same… no need to look directly at Him to know that He is there. I look around at the results of what He does for me, and that is very reassuring.
When I am having one of those days that seem to suck the life out of me, I like to pull out this particular Note to Self. It gives me pause to check my spirits direction and posture… am I facing the Son or am I trying to look at my silly shadow?
If I am within God’s purpose, dwelling there… I’ve no need to look behind for my shadow, as I am covered by His! By always facing forward and following the Son, I know how to find home…
Journey With Me! 