What gives you direction in life?
I will follow
Where he leads
Category: Uncategorised
One by one
Do you have a quote you live your life by or think of often?
‘ Count your blessings’. I tend to tell myself this quite a lot. It’s valid.
Whenever I feel a bit mizzy I will have a word with myself and say ‘ get a grip’.
It’s quite apt at the moment as I’ve been feeling quite unwell since last weekend. I was concerned and it wasn’t until I thought to myself I hadn’t felt this ill since I had COVID I wondered if that was it. I did a test but it was negative. So I guess it’s the flu of some description, that’s properly flooring me. Not very nice whatever it is. The paracetamol with caffeine has kicked in, allowing me to put pen to paper here. I’ve not contributed much to the Daily Prompt for a good few days.
Hopefully I’ll get my mojo back before too long. In the meantime I will count my blessings one by one, it’s nothing more serious..
New Year’s Day
What is your favorite holiday? Why is it your favorite?
Without doubt the holiday I love the most is the first day of a new year… The renewal. Feeling Spring on the horizon. Clean slate, fresh start, new chapter….What’s not to love?
First ever smiley face?
What are your favorite emojis?
This jug, dated 1700BC, was unearthed in 2003 in an archeologically dig on the Turkish-Syrian border, but the smiley face was not revealed until this Hittite piece was restored in 2017. Word is it would have been used for drinking sherbet, a sweet drink….I wonder how they determined that?
🥳😂💓💗🤣😆🌄🌞😘😳😭😱🙄😎🇵🇸🇺🇦
If you aren’t paying for a service, you are the service, they say.
How do you unwind after a demanding day?
I am very grateful to Matt Mullenweg and his co-founder Mike Little for this space they have given us for free. ( Yep, we can pay for premium) Allowing us to say/write what we want when we want. I don’t know who originally coined the phrase ‘ if you’re not the service/product……….’ Several claim it was their thought first off. Tristan Harris and Andrew Lewis have both had their names attached to it. But here in this tiny corner it isn’t the case is it? They really do let us have it for free. No strings. Thank you, Sirs.
Today, if I may, I’d like to address the department which is Daily Prompt. Being a relative newbie here I am not noticing any repeats, but many of the other guys mention it from time to time. I think I could handle a couple of them as there is always something left unsaid, or another angle to come from. But already I digress, that’s not what I initially wanted to say.
So, today you are asking how do we all unwind after a demanding day. Thing is I have now got off the treadmill and escaped that rat race. So, unwinding is second nature. Something I have perfected to the extreme, you could say. Zen it is.
But actually it’s not about me ( for a change) I write about today….but the folk who love to come here to write who are physically, mentally or emotionally unable to partake in a demanding day. And now how ridiculous that sounds as the words leave my head and I look at them in print! Life for those with challenges are almost by definition demanding, aren’t that? Silly me!
What I am trying to say and not very well is how much thought goes into the Daily Prompts, you generously supply us with each morning. How hard do you consider the bigger picture? Sometimes you ask about family or parents, what if some of the folk here don’t have any, what if someone doesn’t have a demanding day, not for the want of trying, but they just can’t. There are lots of prompts/scenarios that don’t resonate, simply don’t evoke anything at all?
And here is where you emphasize they are prompts not briefs….I really am not complaining WordPress, as I said I’m having fun here, I just look at that bigger picture and wonder how folk are going to answer…..and that’s the point, I guess. Mmmm.
For the record listening to rainfall on an app is the ultimate way for me to chill……which is a bit strange really, as extreme weather is something I fear.
I would be truly amazed if anyone has actually read to the end here. If you have, I thank you for taking the time out today. Have yourselves a safe and pleasant day. Best wishes All xxx
Navigating the Wild West
How do you use social media?
Once you have learnt to bypass the fake news, AI generated content, advertising and plagiarism and given a wide berth to the Influencers ( do people really forget they are paid to endorse those products?) you are on your way. Rants, raves, negativity and nastiness pushed aside the path becomes much clearer and you can reach your objective quite easily.
I love Bluesky. From there I can get links to news items and lifestyle articles from The Guardian, the only unbiased newspaper out there, it seems to me.It gives me access to things that make me smile, laugh out loud on occasions. Heartwarming things appear there too. We all need those from time to time to counteract just how brutal life is getting out there.
Weirdly I get totally taken in by hairdressing clips. Dogs agility will hold my attention for way too long.
On the Socials I can chat to old friends and make new ones, and do have the apps for most of the platforms, but use them in varying degrees, depending on my mood. I’m enjoying the WordPress Daily Prompt a great deal and from The Reader I get to see the latest posts from those lovely peeps I subscribe to. It’s so interesting to read other folks slant on life.
I’d like to leave Twitter, but some of the charitable organisations I follow, mainly animal rescue related, are there only. I respond and repost to all their posts about rehoming the often broken souls, so brutally abandoned and abused.
If I need to lean how to do something I’ll go straight to YouTube. I have my trusted companion of course, but even with four legs it’s limited what he can achieve. And anyways if he’s not playing, sunbathing, out walking or eating, he’s asleep.
To keep my grey matter in place I’ll play games of all descriptions most days….and yes, I scroll….for longer than I should, but hey. I’m not hurting anyone.
Dear Lily…..Thank you x
Describe a positive thing a family member has done for you.
Today, once at again I’m tapping away on my tablet, with my left hand only. The dog currently commandeering the whole of my right side. Lily would smile at this comical stance, I’m sure. She liked dogs and had a lovely thick coated crossbreed called Darkie. There was a cat at her house too. Liquorice a tabby plus.
Genetically I wasn’t related to Lily, but she did more for me in the years she looked after me than anything my blood relatives ever did. Today I would like to honour her and give thanks for everything.
I was only two weeks old when this wonderful soul came into our lives. With two young sons and a new baby my mom was struggling to cope. I am sure my dad would have been of little or no help at all.
And so it was when Lily’s own daughter fled the nest ( more about her (SB) in a future post) that I was invited into the void she had left behind, her bedroom became mine and I was safe. At the same time my own mom had fled, too. Without the safety net which was Lily I don’t know how I would have coped, at all.
There is so much more to write about her and my life with her, but for now to answer the DP. What positive thing a family member has done for me? The answer is she did everything she possibly could do for me. I thank you. R.I.P 💜
*Also, thank you SB for sharing your mom with me x
Arthur….I haven’t forgotten you x
Wishing your life away? Please don’t
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
It was probably a warm and sunny morning in late May 1995,when Christopher Reeves set off to participate in an equestrian event.
The American actor is well known for his role as Superman. He may even have felt pretty confident the day would go his way.
Little did he know his life was about to change forever. He fell from his horse, landing on his head and leaving him paralysed from the neck down for the rest of his life.
I think we should think about and remember this true story, from time to time.
I would like to change the word ‘ Where’ in today’s Prompt, to ‘ How’.
In 10 years time I would like to be breathing. Healthy and mobile. Secure and content.
Take it easy
What’s the most fun way to exercise?
I just made the big mistake of deciding to have a ‘quick game’ on my tablet before I came to WordPress. Of course, it wasn’t a quick game, was it? At least 40 minutes passed before I got here and read coincidentally our DP today is about having fun. It’s true, I was having fun. Or was I? Maybe just consumed by the black hole which has become our devices. Not much exercise to be had here, other than our fingers and hopefully some grey matter.
Picture this…..It’s a warm, bright sunny day. In a garden somewhere the grass is as green as it could possibly be. The flower beds full of colour. In the middle is a paddling pool. A hose runs with fresh and probably chilly water. A dog runs in and out of the small children as they shriek with glee. The one with the hose being IT for the moment. They are in a safe space and free to scream and shout, to their little hearts content. This is kids having fun. Their cognitive creativity peaks around 6 years old. Motor skills, imagination, problem solving and balance ease up at this age and they begin to mimic the ‘grown ups’ around them. If they are not lucky this can have quite a detrimental effect, I think to myself.
Research suggests that adults lose their sense of fun in their early 40’s. Saying that around 42 years of age, things change somewhat. I wonder if that goes for 40 somethings who have a passion? Surfing, hand gliding or skiing, for example. Surely it would still be fun to do those things at any age, as long as you are fit enough to do so?
These days having fun for me is maybe having lunch out and/or window shopping with a friend, simple things in life. Again not too much exercise going on there, though.
I get to have some fun the three times a day I go out with my boy. I’m not a fair weather dog walker. We’ll go out in whatever. I’m happy to see him having a good time, running like the wind-ish, eating sun-dried sheep’s poo or swimming in the streams. He’s a bit of a bruiser and he has trained me well. He’s taught me how he likes things done and when. I’d say that the walking is exercise and we have fun. So, there it is WP, I’ve answered today’s question.
…This is Anna
What book could you read over and over again?
As we are given a Daily Prompt and not a ‘ Brief’, I want to tell you about a book I was given over twenty years ago. Take into consideration I have lived quite the transient life and for this to still be in my possession says a lot.
When you move around you cannot ‘ hang onto things’, to be a hoarder would be a luxury. Well, perhaps not. But you get my drift. When a person gifts me with something I’m grateful for their thoughtfulness and generosity. The item becomes precious, as is this, for several,reasons. (I thank you PN)
For clarity, transparency, call it what you will, I will state here that I am not a religious person, but I do respect the path some folk take. You would be more likely find me in a book shop eyeing books about Paganism or Buddhism. Each to our own.
Mister God, This Is Anna, is an extraordinary little book of less than 200 pages. Published in 1974 and written by Sydney Hopkins with the psudonym Fynn.
In the book Fynn then aged 16 finds an abandoned and neglected four year old girl wandering the streets of docklands, on a cold and foggy night in 1930’s London. He takes her home to his parents where for a few years she amazes everyone around her with her intelligent, lively and curious precociousness. She has a luminous innocence and wisdom which dazzles Fynn. They bond quickly and become the firmest of friends.
It is a religious book, yes. However it is defiant of unscientific dogma. Physics, biology, maths are all of interest to Anna. Herself an instinctive theologian.
Her luminous innocence, wisdom and infinite relationship with Mr God and her friendship with Fynn are woven together in this story, which totally undercuts adult pretensions.
This is a fine book, which I am now ready to read again.
IN THE BOOMER PIGEON HOLE? 
You must be logged in to post a comment.