I’m a writer, and as a writer I tend to write… with my fingers. My fingers are attached to my hands, which are attached to my arms, which are connected to my body at the shoulders, my body holds my noggin… which tries with all it’s might to oversee what the fingers do… write!
My writings are how I communicate with others, while in an online setting. My phone rings from only 4 sources… hubby… my chica… my longtime friend Christine… and the Doctor’s office! For the entire rest of the world out there, my fingers are the only form of communication, giving more light to the cause of why I right so darn much, these days.
In fact, the tougher life gets on me, the more I write! Did you know that while freezing my toenails off, I wrote another children’s book?! Go figure!
Online communications has actually been a Godsend for this ole girl… I used to have to write all this stuff down with a pen and paper, and quite frankly, my hands were really suffering for it. The keyboard has actually allowed me to write at a rate that seems unprecedented, compared to what I was capable of writing before modern technology intervened!
The only downside comes from mankind’s inability to create an autocorrect that functions properly… as we have all seen from some of the text massages we have all been subjected two! See how I did that… hehe!
One of my favorite things about all this online communication stuff… virtual cookies!
Here is a cookie with zero calories… all the fun without any guilt or unhealthy side effects… perfection! I do love technology when it works in my fingers… I mean favor!
As I sit down to write Live Wire this morning, all is right in the world… well, I have a steaming cup of fresh coffee, anyway, with my favorite French Vanilla creamer swirling into its depths. Oh, it’s still only 11 degrees out and life is still what it was yesterday, aside from us having fresh water and coffee creamer. Can you believe that something as minute as creamer or fresh water, made the difference between life and death, based on my re-reading of my own Note To Self last night. I think at one point, the night before last, I may or may not have considered riding a stray dog to the grocery store… either that or my husband was going to have to find a nearby cow to milk!
While looking over what I’d written only a day ago, aside from feeling like a big baby, I saw a thread of common ground surface between life today and life for the Israelites so long ago… change is never easy, and we all handle it differently. Just as I struggle to adjust to difficulties and changes in my life currently, so too did the Israelite struggle as they headed out into the wilderness to find the promise land! They left everything they knew behind them, following Moses into the desert with just a hope and a dream to spur them forward.
While my husband and I had this old RV to place our meager belongings in, for our journeys, the Israelites had to use livestock to carry things… or their backs… I’m already complaining to myself! Clothing, babies, food and water, shelter… and we shouldn’t forget, God had the Egyptians give the people all of their belongings as the Israelites headed out! That’s a large amount of STUFF! The wives packing for this journey must have been overwhelmed with this process, before they ever even left the house. These people had never camped before… they’d been slaves! From birth to death these people had only known the yoke of slavery, never given the right to think for themselves. Get up, serve the Pharaoh, go to bed… somewhere in there one best eat… this was their life!
When I followed the Israelites from Egypt, I found them at the base of Mt. Sanai, some time after they’d crossed the Red Sea and left the life of slavery and bondage behind… but did they? Do we?
Sometimes change can feel so foreign to a soul, it can easily be seen as the wrong direction… as the soul who is experiencing this change, possibly, only has limited experience or understanding of said change! If you’ve never experienced the pain of a needle, it makes trusting a stranger difficult, when they say it will be good for you and it’ll only hurt for a second… or two or three! I think this expressed my point in a round about way, without writing out some of the more painful changes most of us face during our lives. It would take days of writing to cover all the differing experiences that might be encountered by one person or another… why… because what one person goes through may not be that bad to another. Now put those two people together in a tiny home and wait… just wait… wait for it…
How would you know how I feel, says one… why do you make such a big deal out of a small thing, says another… See what I mean?! Now bring in a neighbor, who may live in a big cozy house, with lots of rooms and plenty of space.
Imagine how it must have felt for these people, during that actual period of time in history, traveling together, ending each day by setting up house among the dunes, in a sort of giant communal campground. You don’t really get to pick your neighbor, nor will you get to choose your own space in your tent, depending on how many were in your family unit. There were some strong, some weak, some young, some old, some youthfully healthy while others were suffering an illness or perhaps just the infirmity of old age. There were no parks for the kids to burn off pent up energy, no clinics to get easy medical care, no metro busses to run you across the campground to where the nearest healer was… we are talking hundreds of thousands of people… camping… together… in ONE spot!
Can you imagine the logistics alone, on travel day, when it was time to gather your belongings to yourself, get your family together and head out. What if a member of your family was sick… oh well, too bad! When it was time to move, everyone needed to follow suit whether they were ill, injured, or just emotionally exhausted! Life went on within these folks whether they were traveling or not… babies were born, parents passed away and had to be tended. Celebrations and grieving alike, had to be undertaken on the fly, so to speak!
When I started reading the part in Exodus, where Moses climbs Mt. Sanai to collect the Stone Tablets God etched for him, as well as all the rules and guidelines for governing the people and building God’s Tabernacle… no wonder it took 40 days! I felt like I was back in grammar school, as I steadfastly read through all the measuring, weighing and descriptions of the temple. Add to this time, all of the Order of Operation guidelines given for people to just plain get along… I was reading for a while.
I’m sorry, but the movies make it look like Moses took a trip up the mountain and while God just plunked a book of information down into his human form, all the folks that were waiting down below simply got bored and decided to have a party! I used to always get so mad and judgy towards this very young village, as it seemed that none of them had a blinking backbone for right behavior. It is so easy for us to sit here, with our hot coffee and French Vanilla creamer, pointing the finger at others for how they handle change, trials, and/or hardships in their lives. I consumed chocosyrupmallow watercoffee yesterday that left me wanting to hitchhike to Safeway with a complete stranger… ya… that covers my level of skill at handling things when I’m overwhelmed. I have a new understanding of Aaron, Moses own brother, who melted the gold down for the people. In desperation, he tried to pacify everybody by created the Golden Calf, only managing to make things worse. By the time Moses got back to camp, the party was in full force… if I saw what Moses saw that day, I would have tried to hit a few partygoers with the stone tablets being thrown to the ground!
This first major mountain that the Israelites found themselves before was a very life altering CHANGE for this young village. As I continued to read on through the parenting God did with these people, I saw an incredible transformation occur, within the hearts and minds of people just like me… they began growing up. By the time God called Moses to return to the mountain for another set of Stone Tablets, he left a completely transformed village behind to await his return. For the first time, from Moses all the way down the line to the youngest mind capable of understanding, everyone was ready to follow and obey.
Now I didn’t say everything was now working like a well oiled machine or anything, as that would take more time, more traveling, more mountains, and yes ladies and gents, more CHANGES!
What I will say, however, is that I saw reverence and growth begin to change the hearts of God’s people. The same holds true for us, living so many generations past that time, regarding change and growth…
It’s our attitude that effects how we cope with change, and if we change our attitude about the challenges we face… that is when the growth comes! Wiwohka
I don’t have to think back too far, as we are still living in an RV, living like nomads wherever we go, and for however long we stay. We don’t really have any home left, here on actual earth, so we rumble along on this road trip, taking safe harbor wherever it can be found.
If you think about it, everyone is on a road trip of sorts, and I would imagine that we all feel like it’s quite memorable. I appreciate the prompts use of the word most, while referring to the road trip, as they could have used best, worst, happiest or saddest… but they chose most memorable. Life IS most memorable, wouldn’t you say?!
Don’t we always say things like, it’s a wild ride, it’s gonna be a bumpyride, it’s a crazy ride, or Baby, what a ride? So I don’t need to think hard on why my thoughts drifted this way, once I began reading the prompt question.
Life is most definitely a journey, or road trip if you will!
It would take us all a very long time, to write down all of what we’ve seen, felt and experienced, along each of our personal highways… oh wait… that’s what I’ve already been doing, right here on WordPress… you’re welcome!
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”Martin Luther King, Jr.
While I’m not sure if this is fitting for how I feel this morning, but it surely feels like it!
It is 14 degrees outside, as we usher in day 2 of a deep freeze in our region. I had to start flushing the toilet with an old jug of water I’d stashed away, but we’ve not had water since the night before last… even for that!
In honesty, the part that is more difficult for me, more than anything else in these bad weather situations, is water use and consumption! Things taken for granted, like water to drink, water to wash, water for dishes, and yes… water for flushing a toilet!
Yesterday, I found another resident that shared enough water for half a pot of coffee, in which I mixed chocolate Ice Cream Syrup and half a bag of marshmallows into the cup for some flavor… any flavor! Some folks may not have even had what I had.
Oh yeah… my husband has been a bit under the weather, so there has been no driving to the grocery store for necessitates. It will have to wait until he feels better. Yes, I can now see just fine, and yes we have a fully operational vehicle… but no valid drivers license means that I will not be going it adventure style, as the law is there for a reason.
Amidst all of this funnery, the doctors office called to schedule my follow up for the MRI I had done last week. If you are giving me the option of an over the phone appointment or regular… I just got my answer, as to whether or not the pain I constantly feel is a big deal to anyone other than me… apparently not!
All I am capable of saying about how I feel right now or what this particular Note To Self means, is what I just shared… I’m tapped today, and it’s not even 7 a.m. yet!
Of all the things someone might want to ask me… in a prompt of all places… as a way to elicit my desire to … oh, I don’t know… WRITE!
When given the opportunity to ask something that might bring people out of their boxes and bubbles of solitary writing… all you can come up with is to ask what I want to snack on at this very moment?????
Have I simply lost my mind, or did a bunch of I’s and Q’s just walk off the job, at where ever these questions are coming from?
If it’s an AI generated system, well then, I am confident that we have nothing to worry about with computers taking over the world! Please tell me that there isn’t some think group being employed to come up with these prompts, and they all happened to be hungry at the time of writing the days questions for us.
I suppose we can just wait til tomorrow and see if the next question is, “What do you like to drink after eating too many saltine crackers at one time?”
Maybe this question was meant to be directed at kids… the last I checked, the big thing was eating dry ramen out of the package… go figure!
I suppose if the question was being directed at us, by a physician or nutritionist, I might have a bit more patience in my answer.
The greatest feat they accomplished in this prompt was to place the word Would… not could, not can, not will nor want… but what snack would you eat right now…
Would I eat my snack in my chair or in my bed… would I share my snack with the people in my head… would I want my snack in a bag or in a bowl… would I use a fork or just eat it whole… would I like my snack or would it be bad… what if it were the only snack I really had… would I eat it or set it on the table beside me… trading it for a coffee with creamer is where you would find me!
The next time you start wishing that everyday could be Friday, think again!
What if every day were just like Fridays?
I know it might sound good at first, but after careful consideration, most would surmise that some things… like Fridays… are better left alone!
It’s like eating your favorite meal for breakfast, lunch and dinner… every day! Eventually, this would end your feelings of favorite about the once cherished dish. The things you thought you loved about that meal begin to become the things that displease you, causing you to either avoid or dread the next upcoming meal.
It would be awful for all our weekend Party Warriors, never getting enough time to recover from one bender before you’re encouraged to belly up to the bar again, for another round!
This one will blow your mind! Imagine what most children are like on Fridays, after a long week of alarm clocks, classes, bullies, homework and being generally bossed around by any and all grown ups in the vicinity. Trust me, they are very very ready for their Saturday mornings of sleep, cartoons, and cereal out of the box… no milk necessary!
Now have their parents wake them up the next morning for school, knowing that it’s again Friday… knowing that yesterday had been Friday also… AND knowing that their kids also know that yesterday was Friday and now today is Friday too… again! A lot of folks would be seriously rethinking many life choices, right about here!
Mondays would become a very moody MondayFriday…
Tuesdays would feel more like denial about the whole thing…
Wednesdays would be flipped on its hump, leaving us unsure whether we were coming or going…
Thursdays would just stop serving Happy Hour altogether…
Fridays would see a great many tantrums being thrown on the office floors…
Saturdays would be filled with grumpy resignation at the state of things…
Sundays would become like Ground Hog Day, where everyone tried to be on their best behavior and do everything they thought was good and upright… hoping and praying that they wake up to a normal rainy Monday morning…
Thank Goodness tomorrow is Saturday, for the greater good of all mankind, wouldn’t you agree?
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Our goal, here at UPPAA, is to ensure that you find just the right pet that you deserve, in the most real way possible, so that you truly appreciate who the animal is, where it came from, and what it might possibly be like from here on out! We are able to keep costs down here, by never having to hear why you didn’t know what you were getting into, or that this pet is nothing like what we advertised! We boast a perfect track record of no rehoming pets returned for the third time.
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Wow! It’s cold outside right now, and apparently it is about to get colder. With temps dropping and snow inbound here in the Northwest, with many of us holed up in our homes, either binge watching our favorite shows, stressing about not getting work done… or both!
Fortunately, I’m blessed with having all my work flowing back and forth, somewhere between my head and my fingers, most of the time. Lately, I have been keeping myself busy with my novel, discovering that it is not nearly as easy as they make it look on Google!
First of all, I learned how to turn Google off! If I am to fully engage in the telling of this story, I cannot be distracted by rules, instructions and everyone else’s opinion of how I should write this book! If I don’t have a book written, searching around on the internet for help in how to sell said book, is pretty much mute! Too much help has actually been interfering with the telling of the Tale… and that just won’t work for this girl!
The second discovery I’ve made? Writing takes a lot of work… more so than I ever realized! You know that old adage, Rome was not built in a day? If I’d not understood the depth of that phrase’s meaning before, I’ve surely begun to feel the weight of its truth now! In my naivety, I had developed some very unrealistic ideas of how books were written. For some reason, I had it in my head that real writers could just sit down in some fugue state of enlightenment, that then gave way to the spewing out of an entire story… in only a brief amount of time. Maybe some can truly write that way… just not me!
Not only did I discover that I write differently than other writers, which is as it should be, but I learned that I like to build my own literary road blocks, or excuses, so I don’t have to push myself into writing freely. Leaving this way of thinking, is the best way to grow as a writer, in my opinion. That should explain why you’ve all seen my posts about writing more off the cuff, as they say. I’ve changed up my entire daily schedule, in order to structure a more realistic writing environment for myself… earlier rising… quiet time first…daily writings and correspondence here on WordPress… and then I work on my dream!
I am a tortoise, remember, and not the hare when it comes to walking forward in this pursuit. If I rush forward in what I try to get down on the page, it fills me with the worst pressure within my spirit. Therefore, I must pull each thread out of my dreams, very methodically and then carefully sew it into the literary fabric of its creation. I’ve no desire or intention of running over my own typing fingers with the needle of my Brain Machine! While I may end up being the worlds slowest Story Seamstress, Story Seamstress I shall be, none the less!
Every day I challenge myself to pull my chair up to this literary sewing table, whether it be to cut in story patterns, pin sections to one another, or cut away loose threads.
Regardless of what I do at this table, the project goes forward… and yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is coming closer to being complete. I’m going to take my time, learning the process and improving my skill with writing. Timing is everything, as I’ve learned over and over through the years… and I fully agree with whomever first said it. In fact, I believe so strongly in that phrase that I’m willing to take it to the bank… you know… That bank… Eternal Investments and Loans. If you’re looking for a better banking establishment, BTW, this bank only came with one question on the application and they apparently already had access to my background report… and I got an account anyways… crazy right?!
At the end of the day, or at least the end of this article, I still have no idea what I’m doing, nor can I see into the future to where I’ll end up… but I can say that I see growth, I feel peace, and I am finding so much Joy in this journey. If I can say this while living the way I do, through all the waiting, all the hardship of both grief and sorrow, with no clear answer for the end… my prayer and belief is that you can too, in whatever place of your journey that you are on. There is Joy to be found if we push on… whether we need to take baby steps, or at times even crawl!
Life has a way of sometimes being reduced to nothing more than a thing… an item to be played with, bartered, or thrown out when it’s usefulness has been expended!
For many souls it can take an entire lifetime to figure this out, only really feeling the harsh bite of reality, as it begins to surface on or near retirement! Basically, most begin to take more notice of feeling less valuable to society, as the body begins to slow and lose the ability to carry on at the same pace they once kept.
Then there are souls like mine, who learned painfully early in life how little value they held, how they weren’t valuable enough protect and care about… never worthy enough to be saved! This was my dark alleyway of existence, wandering through the night until I found a place to sleep… doing whatever I had to do to secure food, warmth, and sleep… never safety… just sleep! This life was not much but it was mine and I valued it above everything else!
I’m 55 now and nearing the age when most are preparing for retirement and their golden years… not this runaway!
I’m just getting started, I think, as I strive to prepare and strengthen myself for something bigger, better and still yet to come.
It has taken some considerably long years to get my life to this moment, not caring and cherishing it, as the item I valued so strongly as a child… none the less, it’s still in tact, for the most part.
If you’ve any curiosity about what has become of the item I was so attached to as a youth, you need only read the letters I have written to you all, over this last year, here on WordPress.
As this site is really all I have to show for explaining things, it will have to suffice as my best answer!
Journey With Me! 