Tapping into the energy

July 22, 2013October 20, 2014 ~ Sahara ~ 7 Comments

Yay! I like the idea given in the daily prompt, to begin to compare your most-viewed posts and piece together what may attract people to your blog. Research and stats in action.

My top four posts include posts about personal things, and prompts that really spoke to me. My top posts are my personal favorites as well. I felt like I really had something to say and they practically wrote themselves.

Have you ever had that? When something writes itself? There’s a story I wrote in college like that, and I wish I knew how to tap into that energy more. Are there other bloggers who are able to do that and may I ask how?

Here are a few other thoughts from other bloggers:

If only…

July 19, 2013August 21, 2016 ~ Sahara ~ 3 Comments

If I could be a fly on the wall anywhere and anytime in history, there are so many places I would like to have been!

At the Eagle and Child when J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis and the other Inklings met to discuss their writings. I would love to hear their process and how they interacted with each other.

At the Last supper with Jesus. In fact, maybe in the workshop of Joseph where Jesus worked before he began his ministry.

I would like to have been a fly on the wall of Apollo 13, just to hitch a ride to the moon. I prolly would have died, though.

To the point of snorting

July 4, 2013October 20, 2014 ~ Sahara ~ Leave a comment

This entry is courtesy of today’s Daily Prompt about the last time I had a good hearty belly laugh. I am lucky enough to be able to laugh like that when I’m with my fiance. We’ve known each other since we were kids, and he was always kind and intelligent (out of my league, honestly). We went our separate ways after high school, but found me after 13 years and we reconnected, quicky fell in love.

We are the best of best friends, and since he’s really smart, his humor is quick and often ironic, which I like. No poop humor here. Sometimes he makes me laugh so hard that I snort, and the last time I did that was probably last week. I don’t remember when or why, but he makes me laugh that hard often, so we were probably just hanging around, being with each other.

Ali told me I’M the greatest

July 1, 2013October 20, 2014 ~ Sahara ~ 7 Comments

Today’s prompt about what makes a good blog gives great tips to newbies! I’m still sort of new to this, and I also started a new blog over the weekend, (http://nerdflowering.wordpress.com/) and I realized, as I read over other’s thoughts on what makes a good blog, that I’m guilty of poor blogging by their standards, even by my own standards.

Something I’m interested in.

Something that’s well-written.

Something that’s funny (or otherwise engaging).

I also like the story that’s told in a blog. I don’t mean fiction, but the way a tale is told.

Here are other thoughts on what other people appreciate in a blog. Glean from them what you will:

My go-to laugh inspiration

June 21, 2013October 7, 2015 ~ Sahara ~ 5 Comments

I’ve got to write again about this prompt about jokes: I have a particular website that I go to for laughter inspiration: Television without Pity (TWOP). They have many writers who review television shows and some movies, and I can usually get a laugh or two off their reviews – I like them.

I am a child of the 80s, and had some formative years while Dawson’s Creek was on. On TWOP, there were two people in particular who recapped the four early seasons, the ones I knew best. It seemed like they were friends, because they would refer to each other throughout the recap and were kind of unified on their opinions and nicknames of the characters which was woven throughout the recap. They also interjected their opinions throughout the recap, and that was possibly the best part. It was so funny.

Continue reading “My go-to laugh inspiration” →

Pure Love…on the Streets

June 20, 2013December 23, 2014 ~ Sahara ~ 4 Comments

Reflecting on a moment of kindness, as was suggested in today’s prompt, I remember one of my clients.

I don’t know Tony’s diagnosis, but he’s not very lucid. He generally only speaks when spoken to, and when he smiles, his eyes crinkle into a dozen lines. He is one of those people who had fallen through the cracks and wasn’t doing well, but it’s been changing over the past couple of years and he’s recovered a bit.

With that recovery comes the singing of Jackson 5 songs, and you can hear his falsetto “tweet tweet” as he sings Rockin’ Robin. He doesn’t even know the words, just the tweet, and the whole floor can hear him.

Last week, I learned that one of my female clients left the place she was staying with her son to avoid the drug use and dealing, and they were sleeping in the streets for several nights. I also learned that Tony accompanied them on the streets to help defend against possible trouble. He’s in an apartment (one we helped him get into) but on those nights, he chose to stay with my client and her son to help keep them safe, without requesting anything in return.

He doesn’t brag about this; since he doesn’t really talk unless spoken to, how could he? He just did it. I heard about it in passing, and then when I asked him, he told me. I don’t know if he realizes how kind and precious this is, but it moves me every time. This is kindness like I rarely see it, and it comes from the humblest of corners.

Never s-TAG-nate

June 19, 2013April 17, 2014 ~ Sahara ~ 1 Comment

Today’s Daily Prompt challenged writers to come up with a tagline to describe them, and I like this one – it makes me giggle to think of.

There’s no kill switch on awesome.

Not as bad as everyone thinks. (Several of my clients, homeless addicts, actually say this to me. And if homeless men think I’m tough, I’m okay with that.)

I’m not your handler.

This is why we can’t have nice things.

Just because they serve you doesn’t meant they like you.

Yeah, I’m talkin’ to you

June 17, 2013September 24, 2015 ~ Sahara ~ 9 Comments

Hey.

Hey you.

Obstinance.

Stubbornness.

You need to get out.

No, really. You need to bug off, and get out of here, now.

No, you can’t stay. You cause me trouble at work, trouble with my clients, trouble with my family, trouble with Cohiba, even. You bring out the worst in me.

Plus, Obstinance, you’re a bully. You choke up creativity and you stifle kindness. You completely abandon love and even responsibility.

While you did help after the accident, Tenacity and Determination and I could have done it without you. Actually, come to think of it, we did do it without you – you just tripped over our feet from time to time. If you hadn’t helped, I wouldn’t have cussed out my nurses. I wouldn’t have unlocked myself from the wheelchair and pulled myself back into bed (which was really dangerous, by the by). There’s a lot of stupid stuff I’ve done that I don’t like; I just did it because of you.

So, listen, it’s not me, it’s you, and it’s just not gonna work. Smell ya later.

(This break-up brought to you courtesy of the Daily prompt)

His name is Bill W.

June 13, 2013April 17, 2014 ~ Sahara ~ 9 Comments

The Daily Prompt asked to nominate someone for TIME’s Person of the Year. I want to talk about my dad, someone I didn’t meet for a long time. I was 20 when my dad came into my life.

For the first 20 years, I thought I had a dad, a sham of a father. He only came around when he wanted, abused my mother and I, looked down on us, and threatened us even after we finally got away. Some of his shit still crops up now and again that mom or I have to deal with.

My little developing child mind fixed that these are the kinds of things a Dad does. He says he loves us, and this is what fatherly love looks like.

No wonder I didn’t want kids. No wonder I didn’t want a family. No wonder I was so okay with being alone my whole life.

Continue reading “His name is Bill W.” →

On the Edge of Two Eternities

June 6, 2013April 17, 2014 ~ Sahara ~ 6 Comments

Flash back:

The memory of my dad’s trumpet. I don’t have many good memories of him, but that’s one of them. Bike rides and summer days lived in the library because our house didn’t have air conditioning. Climbing the trees in my backyard. Moving to a different part of town for high school, feeling like I was telling the story from 90210. Marching band, and cool football night air on my cheeks sunburned from a week of afternoon practices. Music was a big part of those years. Maybe a threatening interaction before I went to Uni, a direct result of my dad’s nefarious activities. Car accident, coma, hard work and a triumphant return to building a life. Dad was cheating again in a way that threatened to put me out of school. This time, for the first time, I have the power to stop him from hurting me, and I do. He hasn’t talked to me since. I get closer to God and deal with health issues stemming from the accident. I backpack in England and Poland, and get a Master’s degree while working full-time. A trombone player from that high school marching band finds me on and we marry, happy to have someone to sit with.

“In any weather, at any hour of the day or night, I have been anxious to improve the nick of time, and notch it on my stick too; to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and future, which is precisely the present moment; to toe that line.” H.D. Thoreau

Flash forward

Our wedding, then going to Spain and meditating on the Alhambra grounds. My dissertation research. I keep dealing with issues from the accident, and get my hip replaced. Living by the water where I stand-up paddle board every day, and working at home with my husband. We move further inland, towards the mountains, and buy land. We build a small home and read together under the trees of our land.

(In response to Daily Prompt)