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 Reflections and ruminations from a modern day Alice - Life is Wonderland |
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Reflections and ruminations from a modern day Alice - Life is Wonderland  Welcome to the place were I chronicle my own falls down dark holes and adventures chasing white rabbits! Come on In, Take a Bite, You Never Know What You May Find... "Curiouser and curiouser." Alice in Wonderland ** Image ID #1701066 Unavailable **   |
| "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise" Day 2531 April 24, 2025 Prompt: Women need solitude in order to find again the true essence of themselves." Write about this quote in you Blog entry today. The quote makes several bold generalizations, at least in my opinion. First, who's to say that only women need solitude to find themselves again? There could be men that seek solitude to reconnect with their inner self. I know several coworkers who regularly take themselves on solo hunting or fishing trips to get away and reset themselves mentally. Secondly, I think some women could find the true essence of themselves as easily on an isolated mountaintop as they could at a crowded event like Burning Man or some weekend long music festival. The words read a bit dated to me. Today, there are multiple means and venue to achieve self-awareness or to do a mental cleanse that do not involve isolation. For me, I do not require solitude as much as a particular setting. When I need to reconnect with my truest self, I am either doing that at a keyboard and monitor, writing or I am out in the world, appreciating the beauty in my favorite places. I rarely am alone when I am doing either of those things. How we all mentally reconnect is extremely subjective and individualized. Blogging Circle of Friends " Day 3816 April 24th, 2025 Have fun with these words: Manifest, abhor, detour, originality, community, and the drive-in {movie setting) The town hall feels stuffy and oppressive even in these early evening hours. Natalie shifts uncomfortably in the folding chair, and she feels the exposed skin on her thighs stick to the metal. She hears the impatient rustle of the people behind her, the group with the posterboard signs with messages scrawled in angry red ink that read, "not in our community" and "save our fur babies". Natalie clutches the linen folder to her lap and glances up at the town council members who have begun filing in and taking their seats in the front. The chairman announces the agenda, and Natalie is dismayed, but not surprised, that she is going after the mob filing the seats behind her. She lets her mind take a brief detour. After a few minutes of council housekeeping, the floor is opened and the "Save our shelter" group spits forth a representative. She is an intimidating figure, tall and broad with a head of unruly, wire gray curls. Her eyes seem to spark when she takes her place at the podium. She launches directly into her speech, not even taking a moment to detour through any introduction or pleasantries. For the last twenty years, our community has been served by dog pound. That dog pound has admittedly seen better days. The speaker embarks on a long list of citations, violations and failures on the part of the town to provide adequate upkeep. It has fallen into a state of disrepair that the only course of action, according to the Save our Shelter group, is to build a multi-million dollar facility on the grounds of a defunct drive-in movie theater in the center of town. The women proceeds to rattle off all the ways in which a new, state of the art shelter would "improve the life of our community pets". Natalie thinks about her own dogs, who live a cozy and highly cushy lifestyle and would benefit not a single, solitary bit from a 4 million dollar building designed to house stray dogs and cats. She gives the woman points for originality though, because she sees a lot of nodding heads around the room. The woman finishes her impassioned speech and returns to her seat which her co-organizers cheer and pump their signs up and down in appreciation. Natalie hears her name called. She raises to her feet, deliberately standing through her spine as if to manifest the tallest stature possible. She steps towards the front of the room, clutching her proposal to her chest. The proposal to protect and reforest the old drive-in property as free and open space for the community, that same parcel earmarked for the new animal shelter. Natalie looks at the crowd before her, adorned with t shirts emblazoned with dog paws and wagging dog tongues and wonders if these animal lovers will rip her to pieces when they learn what she has to say. |
| Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise" Day 2529 April 22, 2025 Prompt: Fears and Courage “Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others.” Robert Louis Stevenson Is it always wise to keep fears to ourselves or should we boast about our courage? What would pros and cons be in both these cases?? Coming back from break is always daunting, but especially coming back to a work schedule filled with tense meetings and messy scenarios I have to make sense of. Taking a break over lunch to tackle a few prompts actually brings me a measure of relief, even though its a prompt featuring fears. Let's face it, there seems to be a lot more to be fearful of these days. Where I had hoped for balance and stability, it seems we have uncertainty and volatility. The mainstream media seems to oscillate from one fear-mongering headline to the next and my normally independent resources seem more confused and dismayed than I'd like to admit. In general I try to mitigate my fears for my daughter's sake - especially if they are fears based on situations I can not control like the stock market reactivity or political discontent. I don't see the value in seeding that kind of fear in her. I'd rather she focus on overcoming the fears she can control, like being scared of giving blood or having to deal with medical tests. I want her to discover her courage in the face of those things, and in the space she makes for herself when she moves past those fears. I think most people tend to keep their fears to themselves, and still, I don't know too many people that would boast about their courage either. I think it you are boasting about how brave you are, you are likely trying to convince yourself more than others. Those who are quietly courageous are more sincere maybe. "Blogging Circle of Friends " Day 3814 April 22nd, 2025 What's the best advice a teacher gave you? Did you listen or disregard it? I had, for the most part, great teachers. I had an English teacher in elementary school that encouraged me to pursue writing. She dragged me up out of my seat and to the front of the class to read something I wrote. She told my parents that I was "gifted". She told me to just keep writing, to never stop writing about every little thing. I had a history teacher in high school that was so passionate about what he taught that he had the entire class engaged. He told us, "history is happening all around us, everyday" and reminded us to "look for those key moments". I had a creative writing teacher, Wally Lamb, who learned his first book 'She's Come Undone", had made Oprah's list one day just before he started class. He told us to always "write what we know". Even in my fictional pieces, there are pieces of me and of the things I know to be true and it keeps me credible, it keeps me honest in the craft. I had a professor in college tell me that the path I was on, was not for me. He saw something in me that I hadn't yet realized for myself. I credit him with the most impactful insight of all. The advice reversed the course of my life. Looking back, he had been 100% right. Teaching is one of the last truly noble professions. It takes courage, it takes dedication and compassion. It takes an iron will and a good heart. A good teacher can make a world of difference in someone's life. |
| Blogging Circle of Friends Day 3803 April 10, 2025 On this day in 1912 the RMS Titanic embarked on its maiden voyage, which ended in tragedy several days later when the luxury liner struck an iceberg and sank. What do you remember most about this story in history? Like most people, I remember covering the sinking of the Titanic in school but it wasn't until I watched the movie, that the real impact was made. There was always something morbidly fascinating about the tragedy but seeing it play out on the big screen was riveting. Though the movie was centered around a fictional couple, their story was build on the foundations of truths, truths about the class divisions, the imbalance of opulence verses poverty and how fear can breed both cowards and heroes in equal measure. I loved the scenes were you saw the ruins of the ship on the sea floor interspersed with the ship as depicted in 'life'. The way bits of history were woven in, like the band continuing to play as the ship sank, or the introduction of real people from the voyage interacting with those fictional characters. I was always struck by how needless it all was that all those people had to die, that there were not better measures in place I always believe it spoke volumes about the arrogance of humans - building something they claimed was unsinkable only to be taken out by something like an iceberg, natural-forged and unforgiving. Blog City Day 2517 April 10, 2025 Prompt: "Many go fishing all their lives without know that it is not fish they are after." Henry David Thoreau Write about this quote in your Blog entry today. This quote reminds me of a friend who used to love to fish. It brought him such joy and peace. He was a really bad alcoholic and sometimes I believe fishing was the only thing that quell his demons for a time. He was always sober, always himself with a rod in his hand. I remember so many nights watching him in the waves, with this heavy surf rod. He loved to go to the beach at night, and would be out there for hours, casting in the moonlight, a wide grin on his boyish face. Whenever he'd catch something, he call me over to see it. Sometimes it was a jack or mackerel, sometimes flounder. it never mattered what he caught, they'd all go back. After a few minutes marveling over his catch, he'd kiss it and gently toss it back. Those nights, it was so easy to love him. He was in his element, his heart was at peace. It seemed the only place he knew he was safe from the monstrous thing inside him. That monster eventually killed him but those memories I have of him fishing are the ones I keep close to my heart. Its how I like to remember him most always...my giant man-boy, standing in the waves, smiling and full of joy. |
| Blog City Day 2516 April 9, 2025 Prompt: Holding the ocean back with a broom. Write about this quote today as this applies to life and the problems we face. I have taken an usually long hiatus from writing. I have gone through periods of inactivity before but it seems that I have gone almost 6 months without writing anything outside press releases and work emails. I have always believed that writing is one of the ways I process and seek balance in my life and this notable absence in pursuit of that craft, has taken a mental toll. I have told myself that I am too busy, that there is too much I have to deal with to slow down and make the time. I have repeatedly silenced the internal narrator in my head. The truth is that I have gone to long without allowing my muse to use her voice. I have entrenched myself in the mire of stress and responsibilities of working life and I have sacrificed a part of myself, I have reduced myself in some critical way. Attempting to start again this morning, giving myself the time and the space to open up, feels a lot like holding the ocean back with a broom. Its not knowing where to begin and needing to tell it all to myself at once. I feel the need to check in with myself and the writer I have allowed to languish in the shadows of my overcrowded mind. My ocean is a tide of conflicting facts and emotions. I am a woman struggling with the onset of middle age, the grace and the challenges that come with that age-ful distinction. I am a mother to a teenage daughter who's blossoming youth and ever-growing beauty both fills my heart with joy and simultaneously reminds me how far I have moved away from those things myself. I am a hard working career woman who has finally achieved a position of power and authority in my company, but sometimes the knowledge that I am responsible for all the families attached to the company makes it hard for me to breathe. And while I believe I make every decision from a place of pride and love for what we've built together, it never stops me from second-guessing myself - even if I do it in the wee hours of the morning where no one can see my doubt and fear that I am good enough to led them. I am a wife, who finally feels like I can plan a forever with a man who has proven himself to be good, gentle and safe. I am also the person who can still be triggered into remembering the dark corners of my past, where old wounds still ache and wagons wait to be circled around my fledgling, fearful heart. I am a writer. I am still a writer, and the sound of my tapping keys will always bring me home. - Blogging Circle of Friends Day 3802 April 9th, 2025 “Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.” ― Frederick Douglass Sounds familiar doesn't it? Your thoughts on this quote. Your thoughts on what's happening in the US. I have a dear friend who is very concerned about the current state of affairs. We recently connected and I was really affected by how agitated and legitimately afraid she was for her friends, her loved ones and her own future. We have somewhat different views on politics. Though I tend to be a bit more conservative in my political views, I am also a registered independent who finds more middle ground on most of the politically charged issues. Where she is drawn to marches and demonstrations, I am opt to avoid activism in public forums. I don't like crowds, and I seek more private, individual ways to both protest and support the issues that matter to me. I respect that for some, like my friend, those demonstrations feel like something they can do in a world, and in a time, when they feel isolated and unheard. I also understand there are many people now who feel oppressed and degraded. As time goes on, even I am starting to lose faith in the image of a strong and unified country. Learning to drive a boat is a tricky skill. Most are not as responsive as a car so when you steer, you have to anticipate what it will do. Sometimes, small movements of the wheel are best to stay on course. If you react too much, you can over correct and the boat ends up too far to the right or the left. It takes practice to anticipate the movement correctly so that those large swings in direction can be avoided. Like a big, beautiful boat, I believe that the country needed some correction. In many ways, we had reached a tipping point and had veered too far off course. I had hoped for a leader who would anticipate the moves correctly to get us back on track and to get us re-balanced. I fear more and more that what I am seeing instead, is just another severe over-correction. |
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