IWSG, A Random Thought, Six Impossible Things, Being Thankful

Posting the First Wednesday of every month, the Insecure Writer's Support Group, is the brainchild of Alex Cavanaugh. YOU can sign up HERE to participate.

Every month a question will be posed that may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Remember, the question is optional. You can write about anything that relates to your writing journey.

Let's give a warm welcome to our co-hosts:  Dolorah @ Book Lover,Christopher D. Votey, Tanya Miranda, and Chemist Ken

This month's question is: How do major life events affect your writing? Has writing ever helped you through something?


This is a good question for me as I haven't written a thing since Irma/Maria hit the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico in September of last year. So, to answer that question, in this case, writing hasn't helped me get through it. When I was younger, oh so much younger than today, my angst filled self wrote a lot more.

But there's good news. Inspired by the theme for the next Insecure Writers Anthology Contest, I've actually turned on my computer, opened a blank page, and written almost 2000 words. I have all of next month to fill out the story, polish and submit. It won't matter to me if I get included, what matters is that I've had a fresh, new idea, and am developing it.

As I'm not longer going to be post Hurricane Updates (unless something important needs to be said) I'm going to haul a few things out of my closet.

A Random Thought

A quote from Sophocles who, it appears, did quite a bit in innovating playwriting.

One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: that word is love.

***

It was the White Queen, from Through the Looking Glass, who said to Alice: "When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." 

When life gets you down, think of or believe, six impossible things before breakfast. Take a deep breath and close your eyes. If you are aren't smiling by the sixth thing, think of six more. Keep thinking of impossible things until you smile, or until you understand that life itself is impossible. Yet here we are.

Here, for your entertainment, are Six Impossible Things. You can believe them or not as you wish.

1. Being carried away by a swarm of butterflies.
2. Living inside a giant Sequoya.
3. Having tea with Lao Tzu.
4. Discovering the Lost Continent of Mu.
5. Flying with Superman.
6. Being awarded the Nobel for Literature.

Being Thankful

Today I'm thankful for the nice rain we've had, the cooler temperatures, and the swarms of mostly snout butterflies that these conditions have produced.

What are you thankful for? Have any impossible things to share? Has writing helped you through rough times?

Up

What follows is NOT something I wrote. It came to me in an email. Perhaps some of you have already seen it. What it is is an example of how wonderfully confusing the English language can be. Enjoy.

'UP,' has more meanings than any other two-letter word. It is listed in the dictionary as an [adv], [prep], [adj], [n] or [v].

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP?

At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP, and why are the officers UP for election, and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?

We call UP our friends, brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, warm UP the leftovers, and clean UP the kitchen.

We lock UP the house and fix UP the old car.
At other times this little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.

And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!

To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look UP the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4 of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions.

If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, it soaks UP the earth. When it does not rain for awhile, things dry UP.

One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now ........ my time is UP!

Oh.....one more thing: What is the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do at night? U P !

Did that one crack you UP?

It's UP to you not to screw UP.

Now I'll shut UP.

So what's UP with you today?

Incongruities: A Random Thought

Like riding a bicycle in the snow.

The other day I was down at my gym walking on the tread-mill, not a favorite thing to do. But afterwards I'm rewarded with water aerobics, which is something I love.

I walk at a goodly pace, 3.0 to 3.4 MPH with an incline of 3 %. (I'll get it steeper soon enough.)

Walking the tread-mill would be deadly boring if it weren't for the fact that there are large plate glass windows on two sides that look out onto nature. I can occupy myself by watching lizards climb on the glass, or hummers sipping late blooming salvias, or bumble bees bumbling around the sages, or butterflies drifting by, or buzzards circling overhead, or see birds flying in and out of the great old bald cypress trees that line the river which flows 100 or so feet away.

If these distractions weren't enough I have my own brain. I can think of ideas for future blogs (like this one) or think about my current WIP or meditate on my countless blessings or dream of far away places.

Still, with all these wonderful distractions every once in a while my eyes get pulled up to the two TVs that hang on the wall over one of the sets of windows. Luckily, there is no sound, you have to plug in headphones, earbuds (what-e-ver) to hear about the latest disaster, murder, scandal etc.

What I've noticed is this: most often there are two kinds of commercials. One kind is for skinny clothes from places like Kohl's, Target, Sears, J. C. Penny's. You know the kind, clothes for those unfortuante anorexics. Skinny jeans, pencil-thin sleeved jackets, tiny little blouses. And because it's fall, high-heeled boots, perfect for walking around on icy sidewalks.

The other kind of commercial I see is for calorie laden food, dripping with butter and sauces and chocolate from places like McDonald's, Dairy Queen, Red Lobster, The Olive Garden.

I see an incongruity here. Seems to me the food and clothing industry ought to get on the same page. Either the clothes advertised should be for us normal and heavier people in which case fat (errr fast) food ads could continue as they are, or the food people should be advertising low-cal food so we could fit into those skinny clothes.

Either way, think of how THAT would boost the economy!

Have you noticed any glaring incongruities lately?

A Random Thought - Tibet

This month marks the 50th anniversary of a failed rebellion against the Chinese occupation/invasion. It marks the 50th anniversary of the escape into exile of His Holiness the 14th Dalia Lama.

I don't know when I first became interested and curious about Tibet. Maybe it was a National Geographic article. Maybe it was books with Tibetan-like settings like Lost Horizon by James Hilton. (Did you know it was the first mass produced paper back book by Pocket Book?) Maybe it was learning about the Himalayas, Sir Edmund Hillery, and Mt. Everest. Maybe it was just the sound of the name...Tibet, Roof of the World. Maybe it was because it seemed so mysterious, isolated as it was by both physical and political barriers.

Whatever the reason, over the years I have read a little (not nearly as must I would like to) and have had a secret longing to go there.

But the Tibet I long to see, the one that Alexandra David-Neel managed to see, the one His Holiness had to leave behind, no longer exists.

China has smothered the Tibetan people, committed mass cultural genocide. The mystery that was Tibet is now the mystery of what China has done. Tibet, and its indigenous people, is as isolated and alone today has it has always been. But rather than being locked away behind mountains and its own policies, it has been locked away and isolated by China. Who knows if we will ever know the truth of what is going on/has gone on there.

On March 28th China has ordered/told Tibetans to celebrate China's invasion and the destruction of their culture and heritage in what will be known as "Serf's Emancipation Day."

I say it is a day to mourn.

A Moment of Silence

...for the crew of the Challenger which exploded on this day, 1986, 73 seconds after lift-off.

My sweetie and I had been married only four months. I was in the mall when I saw/heard the news on TVs in a display window of one of the stores. People were standing around watching it.

Of course it was shocking, heart-breaking.

Yet all explorers and pioneers risk their lives. Astronauts are no different than other explorers, like Magellan, Columbus, Lief Ericson, Lewis and Clark. Those who go before the rest of us, who "break ground," are and will always be the ones who take the greatest risk.

But then, I could go out to my mailbox this afternoon and...not come back. Life will kill you. It's the nature of the beast.

Go forth and live fully.

A Random Thought

Yesterday morning, around quarter to five, the power went out.

I was getting ready to post a blog when...we were in total darkness. After a few minutes we realized it wasn't going to come back on right away. So we hauled out our lamps and candles and spent 2 and a half hours in the warm glow of fire light. We went outside and looked at the stars which were in great abundance due to the lack of light pollution. It was beautiful.

I was reminded of the years we lived without electricity on St. John. I was reminded of the long outages that still occur in the islands. A recent one my sister told me about lasted 36 hours. After hurricanes Hugo and Marilyn she and my mother survived for 3 months or more without electricity. They had to syphon water out of the cistern, they had to regularly get bags of ice to keep things cold in ice chests and only bought a few perishable things at time.

Like my sister I have gas stove, something I insisted on when Stan and I moved into our home. I even have a stove top coffee pot that makes very good coffee, just in case....

We take it so for granted...with a flick of a switch there is light, there is heat. How many of us know how to live without it? Yet it was not all that long ago that our grandparents and great-grandparents lived comfortably without it.

What would you do if the lights went out? How would you react? Would you be ready?

A Random Thought

We interrupt our regularly scheduled broadcast for this special announcement from our Sponsor.

He has turned on the switch and is calling these beautiful miracles to return to their winter home.

We saw the first of them yesterday. We will probably see more. We are honored that He has programmed them to fly over our yard.

If you happened to be blessed to witness this wonderful migration, I'm sure He would be pleased if you wished them, "Safe journey and God speed."

I give you...the Monarch Butterfly.

What Kind of Wasp Are You?

In the islands we have a lot of insects. Among them are wasps. Two kinds of wasps are variations on a theme. Some call them Yellow Jackets or Jack Spaniards. Down here they are also called Friday and Monday wasps. Except for size they look the same and they make the same kind of paper nest. They are sleek and built for speed. They are yellow and black.

Friday wasps are smaller than the Monday wasps. They don’t dive-bomb or attack unless they feel threatened and the threat usually has to do with the actual disturbance of the nest. When its larva, its babies, its home and family is in obvious danger of being destroyed or harmed, the Friday wasp will attack, and like all wasps which have repeating stingers, they will zap you as often as it takes to get you away from its nest. Once the danger has gone away, the Friday wasp quickly settles down.

If a wasp can be docile, the Friday wasp is that. One can pass by a nest and not be buzzed. One can even accidentally disturb a nest and not be attacked. There may be a moment or two of excited buzzing around, a fluttering flurry of activity. But Fridays seem to evaluate a situation and quickly determine if the threat to their nest is real or not. If the threat is not real they settle down and continue to go about their waspy business as if nothing had happened.

After all, they are Friday wasps. They know the week-end is coming. It’s time to relax and enjoy life.

On the other hand, Monday wasps are pissed because it’s Monday. The party is over and they have to go to work. Monday wasps are ornery, unpredictable and tend to be bullies. It takes very little to provoke them. Walking ten feet away from their nest can cause them to get nervous enough to dive-bomb. And they will dive-bomb at your head. If they are particularly nervous or upset they will attack and, unlike a Friday which only stings to chase the threat away, Mondays will follow you and continue to sting you, even when you have left their nest far behind.


This is a nest of Monday wasps. I took the picture early in the morning so they were still sleepy. Since they hadn’t had their coffee yet I can only assume they momentarily forgot it was Monday for them. I’m glad the flash didn’t upset them.

So I ask the question, what kind of wasp are you? No doubt most of us would like to be thought of as a Fridays and can readily point a finger at someone who is a Monday.

And what about groups of people or nations? I can think of several I could label as Friday or Monday wasps. What about you?

A Random Thought

So, we’re supposed to “spring forward” sometime tonight or in the wee hours of Sunday morning.

I wish “they’d” make up their friggin’ minds! What time is it? Oh, you want an extra hour of daylight at the end of the day? Well then, get up an hour earlier, cause that’s all we’re doing when we set our clocks an hour ahead, which means, for someone like me who is up between 4 or 5 AM every morning that I’ll now be up between 3 and 4! GAK.

I so don’t like this messing with the clocks. I experience jetlag er…timelag for days. Here it is going on 7 AM and we’ve got this nice sunrise going on but tomorrow morning we’ll be waiting around till like 8 AM before it starts to get light! Jeeze! And then as the months go by I’ll have to be deal with it still being light out when I’m ready to go to bed.

Which reminds me of this poem by Robert Louis Stevenson

Bed In Summer

In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer, quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.

I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown-up people’s feet
Still going past me on the street.

And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?

The only good thing about it is now there will be a one hour difference between where I live and where my sister lives instead of two. So when I call her at seven PM my time it will be eight PM her time instead of nine.

A Random Thought

Another favorite Poem from Silver Pennies

The Elf and the Dormouse
By Oliver Herford

UNDER a toadstool crept a wee Elf,
Out of the rain to shelter himself.
Under the toadstool, sound asleep,
Sat a big Dormouse all in a heap.
Trembled the wee Elf, frightened, and yet
Fearing to fly away lest he get wet.
To the next shelter — maybe a mile!
Sudden the wee Elf smiled a wee smile,
Tugged till the toadstool toppled in two.
Holding it over him, gaily he flew.
Soon he was safe home, dry as could be.
Soon woke the Dormouse — " Good gracious me!
"Where is my toadstool?" loud he lamented.
And that's how umbrellas first were invented.

How I used to giggle every time I read/recited this poem! I loved it then, I love it now, particularly the line, “Tugged till the toadstool toppled in two.” That’s probably the line that introduced me to alliteration. If feels so cool tumbling off the tongue.

A Random Thought

I was thinking about the full moon...and the eclipse last night (which we didn't get to see because of cloud cover) and that got me to trying to remember a poem I used to know as kid. I looked it up (the internet can be sooooo wonderful) and I found it. Not only that, I found the book it was in, a collection of poem edited by Blanche Jennings Thompson. It was the same book I had as a kid. Alas, it is one book from my childhood that did not survive. It was called Silver Pennies.

Here is the poem.

Yet Gentle Will the Griffin Be

by Vachel Lindsey

The moon? It is a griffin's egg,

Hatching to-morrow night.

And how the little boys will watch

With shouting and delight

To see him break the shell and stretch

And creep across the sky.

The boys will laugh. The little girls, I fear, may hide and cry.

Yet gentle will the griffin be,

Most decorours and fat,

And walk up the Milky Way

And lap it like a cat.