Saturday, February 25, 2017

Day 45 Creativity For All!

 I spent a pleasant evening out tonight after a totally wonderful artist's date day that included working out, a pho lunch, a mani/pedi, a lovely massage (Chinese, which is quite different from other massages I've had) and a night out at a local bar where I had a wonderful T-bone steak dinner. Yum!


The music was great and varied. Everything from Frank Sinatra's New York, New York! to Bon Jovi's Dead or Alive to Billy Joel's Uptown Girl and the Eagle's  How Long.   Variety is so the spice of life.

That got me thinking about creativity.  There are some folks who feel they just are not creative. I'd like to tell you that if you are one of them, you've been told lies.  Everyone, absolutely EVERYONE has some sort of creativity.  Many people mistakenly believe they have no creativity when in fact their creativity is an OTHER kind of creativity.

Friday, February 24, 2017

Day 44 Tragedy to Triumph

The young man curled up in the hay and slept. Cows lowed, horses neighed.  He was a long way from his Churchville,Virginia home.  He and a handful of others had made the stable their bivouac. They traded guard duty, keeping an eye out for any sign of enemy ingress. At a mere eighteen years of age, James traded in his college life to join the military.
 Now, here in Philippi, restful sleep was a thing of the past, with his senses still on alert for any sound that might be out of the ordinary.

After rest, James resumed his turn at the guard post.  He was hyper-aware. The enemy could attack at any time. And they did.

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Day 43 Turn the Page

Today is D's last day. I got a phone call before I left this morning letting me know and asking me to pick up some pie.  I know D enjoys banana and I wanted to get a banana cream pie but was told those pies were still in the frozen state.  I got a sugar-free apple and a strawberry rhubarb pie instead.

D is a bigger than life, funny, super intelligent man.  He wears chivalry like skin. For a while, in the beginning when he came to QA row he intimidated me. Not in a scary sort of way, but rather the sun was so bright wherever he went.  D is outrageous good fun to be around. His sense of humor gets us all going. D is also a compassionate biker and frequently participates in charity rides.

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Day 42 Training Day

Since the lay-off there have been days where it is just plain ol' difficult to get out of bed.  I know it's the depression talking and working to get a hold of me so I fight it with all the energy I can muster. It is the basement level of the mood elevator.

Monday, February 20, 2017

Day 41 True Confessions

It's sort of hard for me to admit to myself that I was a victim of abuse. I see it now but I didn't then.  All I saw was anger so intense and unwarranted that I feebly tried and often failed to quell it.  The bulk of the anger for a long, long time was taken out on our family dog.  Gus was a beautiful bull boxer and had a sweet disposition.  Until the abuser showed up.  Then he became skittish and withdrawn.


It angered the abuser that Gus was afraid. The abuser, though, had taught Gus the fear and his fear was well founded.  We got Gus around 1999 I'd guess. Not too long after my return to my home state.  He was a cute little thing and had the adorable dark eyes that we associate with so many dogs.  He was good and loving and he adored P.  

Sunday, February 19, 2017

Day 40 It's Fresh Like Spring!

Wow, Day 40 of the blog.  Just a little over a tenth of the year.  Hardly seems possible that I've written this many posts.

What I like about it though, is the consistency.  A teacher I knew a long, long time ago had this phrase above his double blackboard (do you remember blackboards?) - Consistency is bliss.


There is some truth in this axiom.  When you do things on a consistent basis, whether it is write, or exercise, or watch your diet, those things begin to change.  Consistency brings about habits, hopefully good ones. When we can exercise without having to convince ourselves that exercising is really the right thing to do, when we've gotten into that habit and it is ingrained in us to the point that we don't feel well if we don't do it, then the consistency has brought bliss and other powerful benefits.