Anything is Possible!

With Love, Hope, and Perseverance


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SoCS: Hiding in the Tapestry

 Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “hide.” Use it way you’d like. Enjoy!

There are fond memories of playing hide and seek as children in the neighborhood, maybe after dinner, before the streetlights came on…..

Sometimes, when I’m embracing my inner introvert, I like to hide from people in general, at least physically, by staying in my house. There’s a facebook page that has a lot of memes about the coziness of staying home which reinforces my tendency to want to be a homebody. The facebook page name has the word, cottage, in it. It’s all about coziness. But the little section of my brain that tries to hide secret thoughts of conspiracies wonders if this is a plot to keep all women at home with their pretty flowers, cats, and coffee mugs. There was a time, many years ago, when I disdained stay at home “housewives” as they were called. Now, I understand the loveliness and luxury of staying at home, decorating, planting flowers, tending the home…… Life can change like that.

Hide. Mine has never been naturally thick. In fact, my skin is physically thinner than when I was younger, and my psyche has always been on the sensitive side. I sometimes envy people who have thick skin… thick hide… Sort of….

There’s a song by Carole King called “Tapestry” which I used to listen to in the early 70s, with the line about the drifter passing by wearing a coat of many colors around his leathered hide. That’s some imagery there. There’s a Joseph in the Bible who was given a coat of many colors. So maybe the drifter was more than just a drifter. He must have had a colorful life. Anyway, it’s a beautiful song about life and death.

I read somewhere about how a tapestry does not make sense from the back, with lose strings and all, but from a different perspective it makes sense and seems to go together. From close up, things don’t always make sense, but in the big picture, it all works out. That’s what I’m believing today, in the stream of consciousness.

I just now found this video of the song, Tapestry with the background of a tapestry made in honor of Carole King.

And since it is Easter Saturday, I thought of this song about trusting Jesus as my hiding place, which I suppose can happen even in a crowd.

Happy Easter!

~~~

For more streams of consciousness,

visit our host, Linda Hill

by clicking HERE.


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SoCS: Rounding Up Unusual Suspects for my Birthday

Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “usual.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!

It’s unusual for me to host a party. But that is what I’m going to do. It is after all my birthday weekend, and it’s a big one: 70! I’m 70 YEARS OLD! Hard to believe.

I’m writing this on Friday evening as usual, but on my birthday 12/12, which is not usual and also planning a party that’s been in the works for months. This might shoulda been the first paragraph. Sheesh, I need to stop worrying about things like that.

My intention being clarified right now as I write this is to relax and enjoy the company of friends tomorrow. I can still enjoy friendship even though I’m basically an introvert.

In the 1970s I was not as much of an introvert, and being in my 20s, went to a lot of parties. Back then while attending the community college, I could have said “round up the usual suspects” for any event we were planning. Gotta love that line from Casablanca when the local authority, was his name Reneau? made it clear he was not going to turn Rick in for killing the nazi.

Since we haven’t lived here that long, there are no usual suspects. Not yet anyway. Most of the people I invited are from my church, so they would not be usual suspects. But then, you never know. (wink.) Episcopalians have been known to cause a little good trouble now and then.

I was close, it’s Captain Renault.

It says this video is not available, but maybe you can see it on Youtube, or maybe you remember it well, along with the line about the possible beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Having done my birthday hike back in November, today David and I went to the big city of Winston Salem to To Your Health Bakery that specializes in healthy desserts (gluten free/allergen free/paleo/vegan, etc.) They made my chocolate birthday cake (for the party) which is both vegan and gluten free. I also treated myself to some vegan and gluten free gingerbread cookies which practically melted in my mouth. They’re calling me now.

That last sign was one that I obeyed. My desserts were not sugar free.

~~~

For more streams and rules,

visit our SoCS host, Linda Hill,

by clicking HERE.


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SoCS: Serendipitous Company is No Accident

Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “company.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

We don’t have company often, especially since covid, and I embraced my inner introvert. Who am I kidding. I didn’t have company much before that, though I did enjoy the occasional visit with good friends and have thrown a couple parties in my lifetime. It’s easier for me if there is a specific purpose, like singing or working on a project, not just random, vague socializing.

Dogs are the best company. They socialize by playing ball or getting a belly rub.

Artist: Stephanie Lambourne (found on FB)

I’m thinking about having an afternoon party for my 70th birthday in December. Singing will be a focus. Maybe some Christmas carols and old hippie peace songs. One of the best parties I ever had was over 20 years ago when friends took different parts singing the 12 Days of Christmas in my living room.

Last weekend, David and I went to the annual fundraising dinner for the no kill animal shelter where I volunteer. I participated in the silent and online auction and got this framed print:

We had talked in advance about not staying for the live auction. Last year it was too much noise, and we didn’t want to be out that late. So, we sat at a table near the exit for an easy escape. There was only one other couple sitting at the table – the woman is an artist who donated some artwork for the auction (so did I!)

Did I share the art I donated for the online and silent auction? Here it is:

Angel Dog and Cat on Rainbow Bridge
by JoAnna of the Forest

I painted this specifically for the shelter fundraiser and got it professionally framed in silver. I don’t know what it went for. Doesn’t matter. Someone got it. I hope they love it.

Anyway, I enjoyed talking with this sweet young couple (younger than us and with kids at home) who were very much in love and also loved dogs. I found out the woman had once lived in Pilot Mountain like me. Now they have a small farm. I kept meaning to ask her where she had lived in Pilot but kept getting distracted. Finally, as we were getting ready to leave, I asked her. She said she had lived on the same highway that is now our address. Then she said she and her Ex-husband had remodeled a blue mobile home on a lot that is now overgrown.

“Was there was a reddish-brown house and a barn next door?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said with curiosity.

“That’s my house!”

She had lived right next door to where I live now!

I’d been wondering why the place had been abandoned since before we moved here a year and a half ago and wished someone would clean up the mess around the RV I see every time I walk Marley on that side of the property. The young woman told me she and her EX lived in the RV while they remodeled the mobile home. We told her we might be interested in buying the property if the price was right (especially if there is a mountain view.) She said she could see the mountain if she walked out to the pasture and that she’ll let her EX know implying it would be good for him to sell it. She told us about the original couple who owned our property and the woman, Evette, who was from Peru and planted all the wonderful flowers and herbs here. I’ve been wanting to know more about her. I’d heard she used to sell herbs at the farmer’s market.

It’s interesting that we just happened to sit at the same table as this young woman who used to live next door. Sometimes social events are worth the effort.

~~~

The gallery relates to the marigold seed I planted in late summer near a daisy plant that had been slow to bloom from a pot. The marigold plant got really big but didn’t seem to want to bloom. Maybe it needed more sun, but they can dry out with too much sun. Just in the past month it developed an abundance of buds and is finally blooming as we approach frosty temperatures. Plus, there was a Halloween caterpillar that seemed lost, so I put it in a patch of weeds near a tree after the photo.

~~~

For more streams and rules,

visit our host, Linda Hill,

by clicking HERE


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SoCS: In Person vs Zooming, and Dogs

Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “in person.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

Covid is bad, very very bad. No doubt about that. But one of the few good things that came out of covid was zooming. Maybe zooming was there before but became common during covid. I like zooming because it’s way better for the environment compared to a bunch of people driving two hours for an in person meeting. Being an introvert (mostly), I also like zooming because it creates a little distance. If it’s a big meeting, like with people from all over the country, I don’t even have to show my face. I can doodle, eat, or even step away from the screen. But I have not zoomed in a while, so get to go to more in person events. Yay.

My husband David does not like zoom at all. He prefers to feel people’s energy or something like that. Maybe that’s an extrovert thing. David likes to see body language and get other nuances I am probably aware of subliminally. People’s energy can overwhelm me sometimes.

David and I are opposites in many ways, but we have similar values and beliefs. That’s important. When we reconnected in 2011, first by Facebook, then by phone, I got a picture in my mind of what he looked at based on his voice. We had not seen each other in 39 years, so all I really knew for sure was that he was tall. And probably still good looking. For some reason, I imagined him as a bit wider since he has a big voice and most of us put on weight as we age. When we met again in person that July, he was muscular, but not at all overweight.

Seeing David in person, the energy was electric – a natural high. Couldn’t feel that on zoom.

Sometimes I wonder what life would be like if we had not reconnected. I did work on accepting that possibility. I worked hard to love myself and become the person I wanted to spend my life with. It would have been okay. I might have had to learn to do things outside my comfort zone, like fixing things that are broken or paying someone to fix things. I probably would have settled more deeply into introversion. Me and my dogs would have been okay. It’s a very good thing that David loves dogs. He brought his three dogs to live with me and my two dogs, so we had a five pack of dogs when we got married.

Walking the Five Pack 2012

Dogs don’t appreciate Zoom, because they can’t smell others like they can in person. But dogs do get zoomies!

Marley zooming ahead followed by his brother, Bjorn

Time keeps zooming along. The original five pack members have all crossed over the rainbow bridge. Marley is the first dog we’ve had since the pack. I want to see them all “in person” again on the other side.

The gallery includes clouds- the first two are simply scenic. The later cloud photos may reveal faces, an eagle and a pterodactyl.

~~~

For more info on Stream of Consciousness Saturday,

visit our host, Linda Hill

by clicking HERE.


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SoCS: A Year of Change

Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “my year.” Use “my year” as the theme of your post. Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

2024 was our year of changes – for my country and my family. It’s still hard to talk, write, or think about the election, so I’ll likely stick to the personal change of moving to Pilot Mountain, NC after living almost 40 years in Wilmington. I traded the ocean for the mountains. Seems like more people are moving to Wilmington and even Florida to retire. But the mountains were calling and I had to go.

I might have mentioned that I miss my old neighborhood and friends, but it was worth the move to be closer to my kids and grands. It was a surprise how much I enjoyed talking with a couple of longtime friends on the phone this past week. Surprising, since I have embraced my inner introvert and generally don’t like to talk on the phone.

Speaking of inner introvert, my inner ear kept me home a lot over the holidays with vertigo. It got better briefly, then worse after I went to church and sang Thursday night. I’ve read that loud prolonged noise can make vertigo (and of course tinnitus) worse.

Thankfully, I’m about 75% better now and go to physical therapy Thursday. It was disappointing to miss the Christmas Eve service where I’d hoped to sing in the choir. Having been gifted with a halfway decent singing voice, I wondered why God was making allowing me to miss Christmas Eve and other choir opportunities. Doesn’t God want me to share my voice?

On Christmas morning, David, who had gone to the 11pm service said they had trumpet, and it was quite loud. I remember now feeling more and more bothered by the loud organ (and loud noise in general) when singing in choir in Wilmington. The trumpet setting on the Wilmington church organ was like nails on a chalkboard.

Maybe God has been shielding me from more damage to my hearing, as David suggested.

Or maybe it’s a coincidence, except I don’t really believe in those anymore.

My year ahead will hopefully include more artwork which has taken a backseat, home cooking, and gardening. I’m also planning to focus on my health. My friend from high school, Elaine, died on December 17. She taught GED classes in prison and was a person of light, integrity, and insight. I’m hoping I can make it to her Celebration of Life service today.

We don’t know how much time we have. Hopefully, my year ahead will include more quality time with loved ones, like hiking with my daughter and granddaughter:

A song that came along in the stream: Changes by David Bowie

Below are some recent photos I’ve managed to take.

~~~

For more about Stream of Consciousness Saturday,

visit our host, Linda Hill

by clicking HERE.


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SoCS: Making the Call is Not Alway Easy

 Today’s prompt for #JusJoJan the 27th and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “make the call.” Use it as an idiom or use it literally. Have fun

Me in 1957 wondering what to say.

I had to make a few calls to cancel appointments due to covid still showing up positive Wednesday after 9 days. My recovery seems stalled at around 70% better, which could be worse of course, but I’m ready to move on with my life. That sounds like I’m whining, but this is the stream of consciousness, so that’s what you get.

“Make the call” might sound ominous, like something you don’t want to do. Surely there are positive versions of making a call. Applying for a job, accepting a job, inquiring about volunteer work. Maybe you want to do it, but it’s a little scary, or you just weren’t ready. Maybe it takes courage. The day or the hour comes when you are ready to call an old friend, go to a meeting, make a reservation…. even calling it quits can be a good thing if the thing has run its course and is adding stress to your life. Where is that coming from? There’ve been times when I’ve overextended myself. Sometimes we can call for a sabbatical.

Speaking of sabbatical, I just finished Teagan’s book, Atonement Tennesse, the first in the series, which I greatly enjoyed. I related to the main character taking a sabbatical on dating which I did for a few years before June of 2011. But only because God said, this woman needs a dating sabbatical. Good call, God.

I’m thankful David made the call to me in 2011 when we were ready. I had not heard his voice in 39 years and was surprised that it sounded so ? northern. When we dated in high school, we were both recently transitioned from being military kids to civilian life so maybe he still had a mix from the melting pot and no clear accent. After his family moved back to Connecticut at the end of tenth grade, he spent the rest of his life in New England until moving back down south in 2012. So, I guess you can pick up or enhance an accent over 39 years. For a long time, his phone voice surprised me. It didn’t match my image of him. On the phone, the voice is all you have. In person, you get so many other pieces of the person. Like David’s scent that had subconsciously imprinted on my 16-year-old brain and is still intoxicating to me.

Texting gives us even less, but unless it’s close friends or family, I prefer texting. It’s easier for an introvert to text or email than make a call. It’s easier to connect on social media where we have more time to respond. Still, there are some old friends not on social media I should call.

Maybe I’ll start with a text.

For more about SoCS,

visit our host, Linda Hill

by clicking HERE.


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SoCS: Therapeutic Hindsight on Being Alone

This week’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “left alone.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

There are times when I don’t mind being left alone as long as I have the dog, cat, and birds singing outside. For a while, that is. Sometimes I wonder, being an introvert with sensitive and empathic traits, how long it would take me to feel lonely without human companionship. When David goes out of town, I’m okay for a couple days at least.

But after my first marriage ended in 2002, I felt lonely – even with two kids and two dogs in the house with me. This loneliness came from feeling rejected by my husband of twenty years. Feeling unwanted made me vulnerable enough to fall into the rebound from hell. That was twenty years ago. Isn’t it weird how some memories can be so vivid – like they happened last week? Or last year?

It was shortly after the year long rebound from hell ended, when I was still dealing with some of mental and stress induced physical symptoms from that sick relationship, that I overheard a friend at church talking to some people about a party she was having. Though we had been good friends, she never talked to me about the party. If this happened today, I might go to her and say, nonchalantly, “So I hear your having a party….” I don’t know, but if I wanted to go, I like to think I would mention it and give her the opportunity…. But I did not do that twenty years ago.

What I did do was schedule my first ever hypnotherapy session for the afternoon of my friend’s party to work on those mental and physical symptoms, to work on ME. It was a good session. I think I might have cried during it. Two things that came up were my love for water and for dogs who had always been there with their unconditional love. After that, I swam more at the beach and pool and embraced walking the dogs. I kept working on me.

The week after the party, a close friend mentioned to me that she was sorry I wasn’t able to make the party. I clearly remember my flat response, “I wasn’t invited.” My friend looked surprised and didn’t know what to say. I remember feeling sad and rejected. After that, the friend who had the party announced all her big parties at church and said everyone was welcome. But that’s not what’s important here.

Yesterday, as I happened to drive by the house where my friend had the party, (she doesn’t live there anymore) I remembered feeling rejected and unwanted by the lack of invitation twenty years ago. Then it hit me: Maybe I was being protected. I was pretty sure there was a guy at that party who had flirted with me a few weeks earlier. I might have wanted to date him, but I didn’t get the opportunity. He later got back with his wife. What I’m getting at is that maybe my guardian angels were protecting me, knowing I needed to work on me and to Trust the Timing. That’s what I’m going to believe, because everything eventually worked out for the best.

It is a gift to be able to go back and reframe things from our past in a more positive light or at least gain some new insight. It’s like therapeutic hindsight. I’m thankful that my first marriage ended. Even though that ending was very painful, it eventually made room for something better.

The something better is my husband and first love David who found me again when the timing was perfect.

On Memorial Day, David went with me to the vegan potluck at the sanctuary where I volunteer. I forgot to take pictures of all the food but did remember to show the remnants of cooler corn cooked to perfection by pouring a large pot of boiling water over a full cooler of corn then leaving it closed for about 15 minutes.

PS. We’re never really alone. God/Goddess/Great Spirit, angels, or spirit guides are always within reach.

~~~

To learn more about Stream of Consciousness Saturday,

visit our host, Linda Hill

by clicking HERE.


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SoCS: It’s Okay to Start Over

Feeling overwhelmed is something I try to avoid. When you’ve lived 67 years, you start to learn what overwhelms you, like too many social events in one week, too many appointments, a crowded room where a lot of people are talking and not being able to hear the person next to you.

Thankfully, I’m not overwhelmed as often as I used to be before I retired. I just have to learn to not take on too much, as in volunteer work, community activism, and damn social events since I have embraced my inner introvert. It’s not that I’m anti-social, but I don’t do well at events that are purely social. Just the thought makes me cringe. So ENOUGH OF THAT!

I’m starting this post over.

But first, here’s my plan:

It might not always happen, but peace is a priority in my life. Do you hear that, mind? Step away from the drama and go to the light.

One of the things I learned in recovery meetings for codependency, overeating, or other side doors to recovery, is this:

“You can start your day over at any time.”

You can start your day over at 11pm if you want to. The past can’t change and maybe I messed up earlier in the day, but nothing can ruin my entire day, because there can be good moments mixed in among the bad ones. But those are judgements. As many of us have learned, something “bad” can eventually turn into something “good.”

In starting the day over, a deep breath can help. In my yoga class, we do this thing where we open our arms wide, raise our hands overhead so that our fingers touch in an overhead arch, then bring our hands straight down in front of our body as we makes a shhhhhhhsh sound. Sometimes I wiggle my fingers like rain is washing away the tension. We so it three times. It’s pretty simple, and I should/will use it more often at home…. or at social events when I retreat to the bathroom.

Starting over. What a good thing to be able to do.

After looking up songs about starting over, this cover was my favorite:

Are we ever too old to start over?

I don’t think so. What I really mean is, hell no!

Happy Mother’s Day to ALL Mothers,

including dog mothers, cat mothers, horse mothers…..

Peace and blessings to all.

~~~

For details on SoCS,

head on over to Linda’s blog

by clicking HERE.


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SoCS: Brains, Birds, Trees, Electricity, and Singing in the Wire

72530873-4C03-4E67-80E2-39270B3FC76F

Today’s prompt is “wire.”

It’s interesting how many wire thoughts can run through my brain between the time I read the prompt and the time I start writing. Brains are sometimes said to be “hard wired” for certain things. Maybe like, survival. But we don’t hear much about being soft wired for things, which is more often the case. I believe we can override much, ? some, a lot of the wiring in our brains.

I’m wired to be an introvert, but I can override this to a point. Then, I have to have alone time. I like alone time. I might not mind being quarantined, but I don’t want to be sick. I wasn’t going to write about the virus, but it snuck in here, like trash in the stream of consciousness. Damn news. But we need to know some things. I feel sorry for extroverts who get quarantined. I read about some people in Italy singing, but I’m saving that for Good News Tuesday.

Speaking of GNT, I just wrote about… no wait, that was Thursday Tree Love! In TTL (Thursday 🙂 ) I wrote about trees coexisting with electrical wires in the city and the grotesque, well I actually wrote unnatural, forms the electric company cuts the trees into for the electrical wires to have the right of way.  Notice I don’t write “power lines,” because when we lose electricity, we still have power. I made a meme about that. Let me see if I can find it.

This is not the one. It’s just a photo with wires. I bet I have a lot of those.

snow storm on Beech Mountain

Okay, I’m still going back for the meme in my computer files….  Here it is:

if we lose electricity

And then there are the birds on a wire that I wrote about in the post about letting go of my parents’ house. When we were loading the last boxes on the day the house sold, there were four birds on the wire in front of the house. They represented my four family members in heaven (Mom, Dad, and my two sisters.)  Each one flew away, one at a time, and the last one (my father bird) lingered. It was a powerful experience telling me it was okay to let go, to move along in my own journey, that their spirits were alive and well. Oh, yeah, and we were staying at their house when our house was being re-wired.

Here’s that post in case you missed it.

Finally, I keep thinking about a line from a song that goes, “I hear you singing in the wire.” It was a really pretty old song by Glen Campbell. “Wichita Lineman.”  I’m not normally a country music fan, but this song seemed to cross over into 70s soft rock. It always moved me.  Maybe it’s because of the message of hope and perseverance, a love that lives on, and the soothing music.

 

Stay well, everybody! Take good care of yourself. Keep calm and wash your hands.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday is brought to us by:

https://lindaghill.com/2020/03/13/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-march-14-2020/

Here are the rules:
1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing (typos can be fixed), and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.
2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.
3. I will post the prompt here on my blog every Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The,’” or will simply be a single word to get you started.
4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours. Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.
5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read all of them! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later or go to the previous week by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find below the “Like” button on my post.
6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!
7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.
8. Have fun!


12 Comments

A Tale of Two Christmas Parties

candles in mirror from pixabay (2)

Our stream of consciousness post for today is, “contrast,” provided by Linda G. Hill at

https://lindaghill.com/2017/12/15/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-16-17/

Where would we be without the darkness that lets us see the stars at night. The heat of the summer is relieved by coolness of falling leaves. Winter’s cold will give way to the warmth of spring. We seek the sunlight in the cold winter, a place away from the wind. Christmas lights and candlelight are so much more beautiful glowing in the darkness.

Last night, I attended two parties. The first one was related to my husband’s work. There were some moving parts to the speeches of gratitude, lots of smiles and laughter, and singing at the end led by yours truly, because I would like everything to end with a song. But the bright lights in the crowded private room at the all you can eat buffet restaurant made this introvert doing her duty ever so much more appreciative of the second party – a small intimate gathering of people from my church, mostly choir members.

The second party was at a historic old house downtown. Soft browns in the rich dark wood beams and trim inside the house glowed with the reflection of candlelight. I don’t recall any light other than candlelight. Though a few were battery operated candles, a candle chandelier hung from the ceiling over the table full of food I couldn’t eat much of since we’d just come from the trough. Oh, yeah, now I remember, it wasn’t just candlelight, there were soft white strings of Christmas lights wrapped in green garland. In case you can’t tell already, I adore soft lighting. I choose restaurants for the soft lighting even more than the food. Plus, there was soft holiday music: “My Grown Up Christmas List,” “White Christmas,” ….soft, mellow, my kind of music, My mind relaxed into drowsiness as I listened to people I felt comfortable with talking, not feeling that I needed to conversate, but interjecting easily when I felt like it. It was wonderful.

I don’t think I have any more “parties” until New Year’s Eve. No, wait there is one the day after Christmas, that “boxing day” leftover thing. But it will be okay. I’ve got lots of excitement coming up next week, going to pick up my grand daughter – driving 5 plus hours each way – for her first overnight visit at grandma’s house! She can be a handful, so it will be an adventure. After she goes to bed, I intend to light some candles and listen to some mellow music, or watch an old movie and recapture the feeling of total relaxation savoring memories of delight sprinkled on dark chocolate frosting.

(Unfortunately, I was so relaxed at the second party, I didn’t think to take pictures. The one above from Pixabay, sort of captures the feeling.)

SOC winner 2017

Here are the rules for the Saturday Stream of Consciousness:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours. Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!