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 |  This contains entries to Take up Your Cross, Space Blog, Blog City PF and BC of Friends |
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  Prompt: “Reflect upon your present blessings -- of which every man has many -- not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.”― Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings What are some of your present blessings? I quit believing in "Luck" a long time ago, and began believing in blessings. I have been blessed all of my life. I had an accident when I was a child. It resulted in a skull fracture and traumatic brain injury. As a result of that my brain compensated for the injury by bolstering my ability to think creatively, thus making me a better writer. All of my life words seem to be easy for me to remember and understand. My reading comprehension is excellent. Everything just falls into place.' I have also been blessed in a million other ways. I have been caught in rain storms that seemed to hold off until I was sheltered. I have wanted a certain food only to find it was being served at a place where I was eating. I've had a lot of experiences people would say were luck. "Prompt: Can you think of something that played a major role or was a big part of your childhood, which the children of today may never experience?"Two things come to mind immediately and I believe strongly that both need to be reintroduced: corporal punishment in schools and prayer in school! I believe we are destroying society by doing away with these things! MarvinDSchrebe  .. . . |
"September 9, 2019"  "Prompt: Write a tribute to a grandparent or someone you think of as a grandparent."It has been years since I have considered anybody a grandparent to me. I am old enough to be a grandparent myself. My grandparents all went to their rewards decades ago. I can say however, that if I have the privilege of becoming a grandparent I hope I can do as good a job as they did in that role. My grandmother was always the disciplinarian in her role. You always knew that she loved you though. She fed you well and kept the food hot. You could always count on her for a homemade biscuit with fresh churned butter. My maternal grandpa died when I was young. I remember cutting firewood with him. He always drove farm use trucks. Often the trucks would have no exhaust and they were very loud. The noise would frighten me so much. I grew to love those old trucks. My paternal grandmother I did not know. She was killed when my dad was a child. He says I would not have liked her. I guess she was mean to him.My paternal grandpa was a father figure to me. He protected me when I was young. He would check the bed for monsters and then stay until I went to sleep. He was my hero. "Prompt: Write about something that you or someone you know were obsessed with and if that obsession still continues."The worst obsession I ever had was win a song got stuck in my head and stayed there for a month. I would go to bed with it rolling through my head and wake up with it. It was maddening. |
| "September 7, 2019" Prompt: "How do you like your pizza (and do you call it a pizza pie)?" I never call it pizza pie but I like pizza just about any way you fix it. My favorite pizza is Chicago style. I don't know whether they are best served hot or cold, but they are best served with friends and family. I hate eating pizza alone. I share with my friends just to have company and because I don't want to deal with left overs. The best kind of pizza is free pizza! "Prompt: I remember a day in the early autumn when..."At my age you remember a lot of days in autumn when... In my case I have 56 years of autumn memories behind me. So I could probably draw on a lot of memories. My most memorable autumn was a day we were cutting firewood. It must have been early October. My dad had fallen a huge white oak, which is excellent firewood as it burns long and hot. We were trimming it up and preparing to saw it up when my brother and I stepped on a yellow jacket nest. Those bees came pouring out of the hive and got under our clothes and began stinging. We were off in the country by ourselves so we stripped completely naked in an effort to be rid of the bees. It worked and I was only stung several times. We went back to work.avoiding the nest and got the tree cut up. I learned a new found respect for yellow jackets that day. U also learned to be more observant in the forest. You never know what you may step on. |
| "September 6, 2019" Prompt: "What is your favorite source of news? Why?" I have no favorite source of news any more. I grew up in an era when reporters would report the news without their particular slant or bias. Now you can't turn on the news without getting the reporter's opinion. These biases are not necessarily the reporter's bias, but the bias of the organization they work for. Fox New Network for example is very conservative. So you can pretty much bet that Fox News reporters are going to sling mud at any opponent who takes a liberal stance. MSNBC on the other hand is quite liberal and will sling mud at any guests who are conservative. I have yet to find a station or network that deals solely in the facts and does not report in favor of one side or the other. Something else I dislike about the news is that they never show anything positive. I know the world is a mess. I don't need some reporter bringing me down even more. However, good news does not sell. People want to hear all this negative junk, though for the life of me I can't figure out why. Typically I do not watch the news locally or world. I could not give a rat less. I like to be upbeat and the news typically brings me down.I avoid that. I also don't watch reality television for much the same reason. I see enough reality. If I watch television it is to escape reality. Prompt: "When was the last time you received a handwritten letter? Better yet, when's the last time you've written one yourself?"I write a lot of letters. My problem is not so much writing them as it is mailing them. I have no printer on y computer so I have to put everything on a flash drive and take it to the library to print. I don't have much time for that and I'm lazy at times. So it doesn't happen. |
| "September 5, 2019" Prompt: "Neva asked you what was your favorite birthday gift. I'm curious what was your worst birthday experience or gift?" I don't recall that I personally ever had any "bad" birthday gifts. As I said in the prompt Neva put up, I usually didn't receive gifts for birthdays at all, so I never considered them good or bad. I just never really gave it much thought to be honest. I always considered birthdays and birthday parties to be the luxury of wealthier families. It wasn't until I grew older that I realized that my parents simply couldn't afford to spend the time and energy needed to organize a birthday party every other month. It just wasn't feasible, wealthy or not. There was one gift I received that I will never forget. That was the gift of recovery. My recovery birthday is 2-9-09 and that is indeed a birthday I celebrate each year. If anybody is struggling with addiction, hit me up. I will tell you what I did to recover. Recovery is something I have to share if I am to keep it, so do not feel you are being a burden if you ask me how I did it. I have celebrated a lot of birthdays since recovery. Not only do I celebrate my recovery birthday but I also help others celebrate different anniversaries as well. I enjoy doing so. I write a lot of reviews on here for Anniversary Reviews Forum
"Prompt: "The glory of October are at hand and the earth has begun already to put on her garniture of glory." Charles J. Peterson How do you feel about earth and her glory?"I feel the the earth and everything else is God's handiwork. It all points to His glory. |
| "September 4, 2019" "Prompt: What is your favorite fall activity?" Fall for the past few years has found me in college. I am working toward a regents bachelor of arts degree in psychology from Marshall University. The past few years have found me there. This is my last semester if I can get through my science class. I had a traumatic brain injury when I was young due to a car wreck resulting in skull fracture. The left frontal lobe of the brain is the area responsible for processing math and mine was damaged. As a result I am bad at mathematics. My science class requires the use of algebra. The professor is understanding, and of course the university is required by law to make accommodations for my injury. So I will get through it. The minimum required grade is a D but I hope to do better than that. I made the Dean's List last semester and hold myself to very high standards of academic excellence. We'll see what happens. |
| "September 3, 2019" "Prompt: My favorite birthday gift." My family was never one togive birthday gifts. Most of the people in my family are so poor that we can't really afford to give gifts. I think most of the idea of not giving gifts stems back to my childhood though. My parents had nine children. We depended on my dad's pay to get by. He was a janitor most of the time, which, means he earned just a little more than minimum wage. Every penny went to put food on the table and keep the lights on. Birthday gifts were unheard of, though we did receive Christmas and Easter gifts. When you have nine children you by-pass things like birthday gifts because if you do it for one child you have to do it for all your children. When you have a birthday coming up practically every month you don't buy gifts. My parents were consistent though. They had nine children but all the children shared a birthday month with another child. Three of my siblings were born in November, two in December, two in May, and my sister and I had June birthdays. I guess maybe my parents could have bought something special on those four months, even if it was only a card. They just never did. They never failed to acknowledge that it was a birthday. I received birthday spankings until I got old enough that they became embarrassing. All of us did. After that we usually just received spankings period. Mom always told us that she was going to start waking us by pulling the blankets down and taking a switch to us before we got out of bed in the morning. This way she would have already punished us for at least some of the mischief we would commit during the day! Of course she never did that,but it was the running joke for a long time. We teased her about it until the day she died. In fact, my brother John and I used to tell her that the state was looking for her. She'd always ask why. We would say "They're going to put you in the electric chair. If parents today are going to jail for scolding their children, you are going to the electric chair for the punishments you gave us!" I guess one could say that the best birthday gift I ever received was love. My parents took care of us. My mom stayed withmy dad through it all. He cheated on her more times than I can count, but she stayed with him. I wonder if she ever felt there was any other choice? A lot of the decisions my parents made were made because there was no other logical choice. The decision not to purchase birthday gifts for nine children was one such choice. They did what they had to do and made any sacrifices they had to make. Thank you Mom and Dad. I love you! I miss you both! "Prompt: Dawn or Dusk: In your experience, which is more meaningful to you?"Even though I am quite tired on this particular morning, due to not sleeping well, I would have to say that morning is the most meaningful to me. Morning is a fresh start. Everything is brand new. I am usually rested and ready to tackle whatever is thrown my way. I enjoy having a clean slate each day. I look at each new day as a gift and an opportunity to improve on what went by yesterday. I make it a practice not to dwell on the past and not to worry about the future. However, I do look at the past and consider my mistakes so that I can prevent them in the present. One of the nastiest things I have ever eaten is crow. I don't care how you prepare it, it is always terrible. I try not to eat it, and the way to avoid eating it is to try not to cook it to begin with! Looking at each day as an opportunity, and learning from the mistakes of the past keeps me from eating crow. In case some of you have never heard the cliche "eating crow" perhaps you have heard it expressed as "eating humble pie". At any rate, it basically means humbling oneself and making amends for the mistakes we made. I am a recovered addict. If I do not keep a close tab on myself and make right whatever wrongs I become aware of, I will soon find myself in active addiction. To put it in broader terms I try to be an adult each day and do the right thing. It's what Jesus would do. ** Image ID #21187503 Unavailable ** |
"September 2, 2019" "Prompt Memory of Autumn: "
Autumn arriving to West Virginia Days still boiling with heat September weather means bright sun Harvesting plants and mowing yards Turning leaves still to come. People camping in the park Staking tents and sleeping there Dining from spreads on the ground Ants and insects feasting too Animals invading scaring children Sun beaming at noon. Trees sweltering seeking sunlight Mountain peaks grabbing sky Streams stagnating and trickling Trout lazing in the brooks Autumn arriving in three weeks Colors not yet changing on the trees Summer frolicking and lingering still. Animals developing winter fur Shedding dogs what a mess Enjoying summer's final thrills Autumn rolling in the fields. I have begun trying to use only nouns, pronouns, verbs, and some conjunctions in my poetry and avoid adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions. I know. I used "in" a few times and it is a preposition. Sometimes they are necessary but I try to limit their use. I feel it makes my poetry stronger. I show the reader as opposed to telling. This strategy is working well for me since it has won me numerous awards over the past few weeks at https://allpoetry.com. I know I can put that link here because I followed a link from WDC to find that site to begin with, many months ago. It was advertised in my toolbar. I promised in my August 30, 2019 entry that I was going to make more of an effort to add some substance to my blog. Let me begin to keep that promise now by answering the blog prompt not only with a poem item, but also with some body. Autumn memories? I have a lot of autumn memories. You don't live for 57 years and not see a lot of autumns, especially living in West Virginia USA. West Virginia is at about the 38th parallel. In fact, I believe 38 degrees north is just south of where I currently live. We see a lot of autumn weather. October and November are really our autumn months. September and early October see a lot of summer like weather. It will remain warm until the end of October, but the leaves will begin changing colors. I like autumn because I grew up in a family that depended on harvests from the land. We farmed but we also hunted. Deer season in West Virginia is in November, though bow season opens earlier. I believe bow season may be in October. My family never took up archery so we depended on deer hunting in November. Every Thanksgiving would find me dressed in bright colors, blaze orange, tramping off into the hills to attempt to bring home meat. The law said we were only to shoot visible bucks back then. This meant the deer had to have antlers at least three inches long. My family was so huge and so poor that we could not afford to look for antlers. I shot a lot of does (female deer). There was one time the local Department of Natural Resources officer or game warden, was standing next to me as I took aim on a big doe. He watched me shoot her, helped me field dress her, and then hauled her home for me. He knew there were twelve people in my household living on a janitor's income. He knew we needed the meat. He had no problem with my breaking the hunting laws to feed my family. One of my favorite autumn hunting memories happened on my Uncle Dewey's farm. It was close to dark, and we were heading back to the house. We had overestimated the walk and arrived at the house he used as a barn about an hour before dark. He suggested that we go into the upstairs and make a sort of stand to see if any deer came past the barn. I was standing in a window when a whole herd of deer came walking down the hill. Due to my position I had to lean out the window so far it was dangerous. I would normally have fallen out the window. My uncle simply took hold of my belt and held onto me as I leaned out the window to get into firing position. I am here to tell you he had his work cut out for him! By the time I was in position, only my knees were in the window! I was literally suspended by my belt loop in mid-air as I aimed! The really amazing part is that I fired two shots. Three deer fell from those two shots! One deer had been hit in the neck. The slug penetrated it's neck killing it instantly, then exited it's neck and hit the deer standing next to it,killing it too! The third deer was the buck I had originally aimed at. It fell next to the doe I had first hit. The other deer ran over the hill. My uncle pulled me back into the window and said "Good shooting!" We went out to field dress the two I knew I had killed. Another man who had been withus asked if he could have the third deer I killed. I asked "What third deer'? He motioned for me to come over where he was.When I did he pointed over the hill. There was a doe lying there who had been hit in the abdomen. I was floored! I had no idea I had even hit her. I knew I only fired twice. Upon examination of the first doe we seen where the bullet had exited her neck, hitting the second doe and fatally. I went down and finished her off, feeling terrible that she had suffered. I am not cruel. When I killed it was for food and I tried to do that quickly. Knowing that doe had been hit in the abdomen and I did not even know she was shot haunted me. If Larry had not seen her she could have lain for hours suffering. I never hunted again after that. However the memory of killing two deer with one shot is pretty special. It was a once in a lifetime shot. Let me know what you think of my new writing style. Feedback welcome and requested. "Prompt: Do you know a person--past, present or imaginary--who has isolated himself or herself in search of some truth? What is the truth he or she is searching for?"I have a question before I begin answering this blog prompt. Why does Blog City not do a Blogger of the Week like Blogging Circle of Friends does? I know it would mean setting it up but perhaps we would get more response? I try to answer the blog prompts for both forums as often as my schedule will permit. I will continue to do so as long as I am able to do so so. I just feel the Blogger of the Week prize gives more incentive. I have isolated myself in the past in a search for,,,,something. At the time I think I thought I was searching for some truth, but in truth I was searching for myself. More so, I was searching for something I could cling to. At the time, I felt life was pointless and hopeless. It seemed like an effort in futility. I gave up and tried to find meaning in drugs. All I found was a way to be miserable. I was not even successful at overdosing to kill myself. I tried many times, day after day for years. I simply got high, stay high for a good while, then came crashing down afterwards. I found myself crying a lot and actively wanting to die. Finally, I found myself going to a 12 step meeting. I began talking about my reality and found people listening and caring. A man took me under his guidance and we began working steps and reading recovery material. Today I celebrate 10 years, 6 months, 2 weeks, and 4 days clean. I count because I am reminding myself of what awaits me if I begin using drugs again. I also found faith during this period of time. My faith is in Jesus Christ. I understand that some people refuse to believe in Him. I chose Him because I feel that history supports every claim he ever made. I feel the Bible is 100% accurate. In fact, it is accurate enough that the Smithsonian Institute uses it as a guide to finding artifacts. A leader at the Smithsonian was quoted to me as saying that "If the Holy Bible says it happened, then you can depend on it being true. We just have to find the evidence." I examined all sorts of religions. I felt none stacked up to Christianity, due to the fact that so much evidence points to the accuracy of the scriptures. Therefore, I am a Christian. |
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