Everyday Canvas

9 Days of Entries All Together

In The Treatise of Tahlan, an ancient treatise for samurais, Paulo Coelho says, “The more we feel we are in control, the farther we are from controlling anything at all. A threat gives no warning, and a quick reaction cannot be programmed like a walk on Sunday afternoon. So if you want to be in harmony with your love or with your fight, learn to react fast.”
How good are you in reacting fast? How good are the characters you create? Do you ever think about their reaction time?

I am not too slow with my reaction time, but I am not super-fast either. I usually take a few seconds to take in and assimilate the situation first. Then, if I know what to do, I react. There have been times I have reacted instinctively, also. This is true for situations and happenings, but if anything is verbal like an insult or a threat, I freeze in shock. Several hours or days later, I think of a good comeback.

I never thought about giving specific reaction times to my characters. I guess I might have burdened them with mine , but when I saw the quote, I thought it would be a good trait to think of when creating a character.

Prompt: What do you think resiliency is? Are you or someone you know resilient? What are resilient people like?

Resiliency is not giving up; it is mental toughness. No matter what happens to you or around you, you are a resilient person if you somehow overcome the shock or the surprise of the event and continue on with your life as well as you can. I hung a saying on the wall right where my desk is and where I can see it. It says, “When something goes wrong in your life, just yell, ‘plot twist’ and move on.” That ‘moving on’ idea is the key to resiliency.

How do you feel about creating themed Christmas trees? Do you feel it's fashionable to follow the different trends? Or do you feel its more important to keep the family traditional tree? What's your favorite ornament on the tree?

I’m always for tradition, and I don’t like anything too showy or sparkly. I don’t have a specific favorite ornament but I value several things that point to some person or an event in my family and friends.

"The most painful realization as an adult is that most people are not interested in meaningful exchanges!"~Elle Nash.
Do you agree or disagree with Nash? What do you consider meaningful exchanges?

I kind of agree, but who can really pinpoint what a meaningful exchange is for any one person? What is a meaningful exchange for me can be hogwash for someone else. I think most people evade meaningful anything for fear of being considered a snob, a nitwit, or a fool with an agenda.

Since I like people, whatever they wish to converse about becomes a meaningful exchange to me, as long as they talk about what is really important to them and they are not trying to just fill up the time.

Write a love or a rant poem/ short story from the perspective of a pirate ship captain writing to the woman he loves. It's your blog, have fun. Maybe after the holiday dinner you have some pent-up frustration to vent.

Wind belts waves on my sea of storms
and I cheer for you’re the rum in my cask
On the deck are some scattered bones
Pick them up, I hope you’re up to task!

Here’s the lantern, here’s the broom
for my bride who loves his groom.

The moral is: That’s what a lady gets for falling for a pirate. So, ladies, move on and let pirates be!

Prompt: What are your favorite Thanksgiving foods? Do you cook your own or do you like when someone else cooks them?

I used to cook everything myself. During the later ten or fifteen years, we spent Thanksgiving with my son’s in-laws. This year, the lady of the house was taking care of her sick brother, so we all went out to lunch in a restaurant.

Prompt: What was your best Thanksgiving? What was your worst Thanksgiving?

All my Thanksgivings were pretty good, although I can’t choose a best one.

The worst one was when I had invited a lonely friend and her two kids over. My little boy, four years old then, who didn’t quite grasp the meaning of the holiday, blurted out in the middle of the dinner, “Why are we having people here who aren’t family? Thanksgiving is a family holiday. Darren (his friend next door) said so.” That was a just-shoot-me moment for me. I wanted to spank him so bad and I’ve never spanked my kids. My husband luckily took over and said that “Friends are family for us,” etc. My son certainly got an earful from me later, in private.

Prompt: Can you find a positive meaning in a negative situation or even in a word, such as revenge, mayhem, pain, etc.? Come up with your own example, if you wish.

It is hard to find a positive meaning in a negative situation when one is inside that situation, but in hindsight, every situation has a positive and a negative. We just need the eyes to see it in its totality.
As to the words, revenge can be sweet when one can do unto other as they have done unto him, although it is more saintly to forgive for the sake of general peace.
Mayhem can lead to revolution and a better way of handling conflict, although mayhem in itself is disconcerting.
Pain urges us to seek for a remedy as it may point to a hidden problem. Whether the pain is emotional or physical, it rings alarm bells to urge us into action.

Prompt: In his 1821 essay "A Defence of Poetry," Percy Bysshe Shelley writes, "Poetry is...the perfect and consummate surface and bloom of all things; it is as the odor and the color of the rose to the texture of the elements which compose it...." Make a list of words and phrases that describe the surface textures, odors, and colors that surround you as this year draws to an end, choosing the details that are most evocative of the season. What influences you the most?

rich shades of violet, burgundy, maroon, wine
yellows, oranges, salmon orange, rust
waves over the ocean, surf
the color and smell of tea,
all kinds of palm trees
squirrels, field mice
gourds on display in the supermarket
pumpkins, acorns,
the memory of tiger lilies and foliage of Northeast
cardigans, lost mittens

Everything can influence me. Usually, it is the thing that isn’t out there glaring in front of the the eyes, but those minute things and events of nature that usually go unnoticed.