short story, TTOT

10 Things of Thankful – August 2

barefoot beach blur break
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Good Morning! It’s time to share about all the wonderful things for which we are grateful. Namely, 10 Thinks of Thankful or TTOT! This week, I have the pleasure of co-hosting TTOT, joining a wonderful group of dedicated peeps. It’s an honor to be asked. There are no hard and fast rules, just make a list or not a list, but mainly share ten things for which you are thankful, more or less. I promise there will be no head bonking if you can’t come up with ten, or listing, numbering yada yada yada… Just hop in. There’s a link at the bottom of this post and you can link up by going there and adding your post link. It’s easy and always wonderful to add more to the gratefuls. So, without further chatter, here are my 10!

  1. Poetry Dive – I dove into a month of poetry with Jena Schwartz. It was a great way to write to prompts on a regular basis and write it raw, no edits, just write your poetry and post. It’s a vulnerable and empowering experience and I am grateful to have done this. The feedback from other poets was helpful to encourage me to take those poems and develop them. Who knows? I may have another secret project…well, you know I do!
  2. art artistic blank page book
    Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
  3. Laughter – Last Saturday I got together with a couple of Blog Squad members and we had a blog working session. Whenever I am with this group I always find funny things to laugh about. One of the women in the group, also the founder, Missy Cheney Farrow, has a fun blog, often poignant humor about her kiddos, and I look forward to reading her posts right away. They are the kind that make me stop what I am doing and read. So here’s her link so you can LOL and go AWWW with me: Midlife Margaritas
  4. Six Sentence Story – This weeks prompt word was Pad and I saw so many variations from this word. I have a lot of fun with this group. Here is my STORY
  5. Family – This should be #1, but regardless, it’s important to have family and friends who become family. I may have mentioned before that I have two children. One is my daughter who is grown and the other is my son, also grown. And my daughter was adopted by me when she was 10 and my son adopted me about six years ago, no official paper or date, but as a grown man he decided I would be his mother. His wife is like a daughter to me and we met before I met my son. There is also a third child, one I think was a boy and I have written a couple of poems about him, he didn’t come into this world alive, but he grew in my womb and in my heart and would be 19 by now. Another time, in another way, I will tell more about his story, but suffice it to say, I am grateful for the time we had.
  6. Celebrations – August is my birthday month and I will be 65 next week. I have a good friend who has her birthday next week, as well. We get together and have a birthday dinner, just the two of us, each year. Once we work out our schedules, this will likely happen next week. I also get a lot of freebies for my birthday, so I look forward to the fun yums this month.
  7. Weight is still slip sliding away. YAY
  8. blue tape measuring on clear glass square weighing scale
    Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
  9. Air Conditioning – What would we do without this? I remember back in the day (yeah I am THAT old) when you could get by without A/C When we lived in Texas we had air coolers which were like glorified fans. We ran them in the living room and made pallets on the floor. It looked like we were camping.
  10. Swimming – It’s been a rough week of not being able to get to the pool as much, but oh it has been so nice when I have gotten in that water. It’s not soupy hot and sooo refreshing. I am soooooo grateful for this and wish I could invite everybody to join.
  11. Tea – This week I tried a new tea, recommended by my friend and oh boy is it a game changer. Plus, I got it free because of a special this week at one of my grocers. It’s a Cinnamon Chai by Paromi. I like the other chai I have, as well, but this is another lovely treat. It’s also caffeine free.
  12. Appliances – As I sit here listening to my washing machine running, I feel ever so grateful not to have to run to the laundromat. Hopefully, those days are behind me. It seems that more apartment complexes are furnishing these and I am so happy. If they did not, I would have to get them, but oh isn’t it nice that I don’t have to do that.

So there you have it. Those are my TTOTs – Come join in!

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poetry, short story

Waving – Six Sentence Story

brown sand
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Waving – An Acrostic Six Sentence Story

When life is moving forward, past present tense, there will be many waves accomplished, challenged, and freed, just ask elders about them, but experiencing your own makes life all about the meaning of waves.

As one moves forward the waves of goodbyes come often and with many meanings, such as goodbye to those who you will see again, goodbye to those you are happy to leave, goodbyes where you don’t want to ever leave, but nature calls them or you and those goodbyes come with inner waves, the ones you cannot see.

Vigorously working on life’s goals bring on waves of excitement and anxiety all in a nice bundle, sometimes depression, along with stirrings which cannot be named.

In each life there are also waves of nausea, heart breaks, fears, tears, and laughter, emotions can come in waves.

Nothing, but nothing can completely control any of the waves if they are to be organic; as much as we try, it’s natural to have all kinds of waves, but the scariest of all are the ones without control.

Going forward in life is important, but standing in the waves for the present moment, toes sinking in the sands, allowing a chance for the stance to take hold, may be just the wash that is needed.

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There you go! That’s my Six Sentence Story for this week. Where’s yours? Go to this LINK to add one or to read others.

Rules of the hop:
Write 6 Sentences. No more. No less.
Use the current week’s prompt word.
Come back here on Thursday, link your post…
Spread the word and put in a good one to your fellow writers 🙂

PROMPT WORD:  WAVE

 

 

poetry, short story, TTOT

10 Things of Thankful – July 5

human hands and us flag
Photo by Edgar Colomba on Pexels.com

It’s that time again to be thinking of all things thankful! Here are my 10 and I hope you will join in with yours. You can go to this LINK to join in!

1. Remember the Secret Project? Well, here it is. This is an article I wrote for Midtown Magazine in Raleigh. New Bern Article

2. Six Sentence Story and a celebration. It’s that time of year to remember my special someone and I when we decided to be a couple. Here’s the story HERE

3. Family. It’s been the time for daughter to join for a weekend and it’s a holiday weekend. I’m sure I will have more to post about it next week, but, for now, let’s just say it’s bound to be fun!

4. Poetry Reading – Remember last week when I posted about the upcoming poetry reading? Well, it happened and here’s a picture of the audience and the poet Aruna Gurumurthy. Nice turnout and lovely words of expression.

5. Poundage has me 20 # less than when I rebooted and a total of just over 60# from my all time high. It’s a long process, for sure, but I am happy with where I am going.

6. Dive Into Poetry – I joined the July Dive Into Poetry group and it has been doing daily poems. Yay!!

7. Tea – Again? Yes, my journey into teas has become fun and I am grateful as I am finding the natural medicinal qualities are helping my zzzzs

8. Reading – I am currently reading a book for the book club we started. I hope it picks up as I have no problem putting it down. How is this good news? Well, when you read something that is questionable, it makes you appreciate when you read something interesting. I have three of those on my back burner, but I can’t wait to shift the pots.

9. Mammogram Results – Every year I have to get a mammogram because one year I had a benign lump removed, so I am on the watch for further developments and the good news is that I made it through this year with no issues.

10. Other tests. It is that time of year when I also get blood work done and I am happy to report my A1C is still looking good. I had to changed my eye prescription, but it’s all good as the words “diabetic myopathy” are not being spoken.

That’s that and there you go! Hope your week was awesome!!

short story, TTOT

10 Things of Thankful – June 28

It’s time again to reflect on the past week and the many things for which gratitude can be expressed. Would you like to join us? You can go to this link: TTOT and join in! We would love to have you!

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Photo taken at New Bern NC where I enjoyed more interesting patterns.

1. 2. Poundage is still becoming lessage 🙂 The pool helps.

3. Tea for health. When shopping with my errand buddy last week, she introduced me to a Numi brand Chai without caffeine. In the evening, I have a cup of tea to help me relax and this new one hits the spot! And there was a nice turmeric tea with some other spices, which helps the joints, so I added that. Yum to the tum.

4. Sleep. I have had a better week of sleep. Maybe the tea helped. I couldn’t get to the pool as much, but I got there some.

5. Throat Lozenges – I often have a dry throat and many things I cannot tolerate, but I found that these Ricola Lemon Mint Sugar Free lozenges help. I don’t know why my throat gets this way, but I’m just grateful there’s some relief.

6. 6SS – Yep – I am still going strong with the Six Sentence Story. This week’s story is about simplifying life. Maybe you would like to read it. I am happy for a simpler life. Here’s the LINK

7. Poetry – I am excited about this coming Sunday’s event which I have been promoting. As one of the editors of this phenomenal poet Aruna Gurumurthy’s last book as well as the current book she is working on, I am fortunate to gain so much from this experience. Here’s her most recent book:

8. Pathways – So much in life involves decisions about which path to take and sometimes revisiting old paths for a different perspective, maybe with more mature eyes. I am grateful for the many pathways I have traveled and for the ones I have yet to explore.

photo of a pathway in a forest
Photo by Artem Saranin on Pexels.com

9. My dear friend who has had a pickle of a time with illness and for the glimpses of goodness she experienced this week. I pray more than glimpses come to her this week.

10. This came yesterday. I actually stalk my mailbox for this magazine. Yes…I love it that much!

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So, there you have it! My 10 and I bet you have 10 too! Disclaimer: While I may edit many works I do not edit my TTOT posts, so have mercy on me.