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 Day to day stuff....a memoir without order. |
 Imagination is described by Webster as...The act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses in reality. Albert Einstein said "Logic will get you from A to B, but imagination will take you everywhere."  I never realized it until I read it somewhere but there are ways to boost one's imagination: Create a visual journal Draw whatever you see for 15 minutes a day. You don't need to be an artist. Think like an artist Cut out pictures from magazines & piece them together to create an original image. Listen to Bach Close your eyes while playing your favorite music. Or listen to the sounds of nature on a CD or in the great outdoors. Play word games Try thinking of as many words as you can that begin with MAR...or you pick. Daydream Let your mind wander, or focus on a single object & study its characteristics.     Everyone has a story....here's mine.....c ** Image ID #1701066 Unavailable **  |
| I have conjured up the perfect grandchild to listen to my memoir as I write and it is definitely helping with the flow. They even ask questions!!! |
| I have done a little math and in order to complete the average word count for a memoir (60,000), I will need to write 1500 words per week to be completed sometime in November (2026). And I will have time to proof and edit before the end of the year...hopefully. So far, today, I have written 1386 words...I'm on a roll. |
| I am finally getting back to preparing my memoir manuscript. Wish me luck and steadfastness, please. |
| Everyone tells us to live in the present, savor the moment, and be happy in the here and now. But I wonder how many of us are able to do that, especially when we are up in years. Our past has a way of invading almost everything we see and hear and feel in the present. Our emotions are tied to yesterdays, and it is difficult, even impossible, to separate the past from the present. I learned a new word this week and that started me thinking about this oxymoron of living in the present. The word is from the Welsh and is spelled “hiraeth”, and it is pronounced “here ith” with the i sounding like the i in ice. Although there is no exact English meaning, it relates to nostalgia and invokes a mourning for the past and for things lost. I started thinking more about this while watching a miniseries on Netflix titled Love and Death, a biographical crime drama based on a true story. In a nutshell, a 1980s suburban housewife is accused of murdering her neighbor after having an affair with the neighbor’s husband. Not only does every radio song in the series throw me back into my past, but even the inside of the homes, the kitchens especially, bring back all kinds of memories. No, I didn’t murder anyone, but I’m sure you get the picture. And the fact that the story was true (the real people are still alive), impacted me even more. This miniseries could be a study on my new word. As the audience later learns, our past determines, to a large extent, who we are today. We may do our best to change ourselves into who we want to be, but our history is always there, never to be forgotten. Sometimes, as in this Netflix story, it lurks in our subconscious, and we remain unaware until some emotional trigger stimulates a flashback. And, then, anything is possible. The stories of our past that we share trigger memories for each other, and I consider that a good thing. When we tell someone “I like that”, that like usually comes from our past, something we’re familiar with, something derived from a good experience. And conversely, things we don’t like come from memories that were not so pleasant. Food is a great example of this. I loved potato chips in my childhood, and always felt special when a bag was bought just for me. We like things that make us feel good and dislike things that hurt or that provoke negative feelings. Instructions on how to live in the present are even more confusing with the first guideline being to notice your surroundings. Most of my surroundings have some connection to the past. Yes, I know. Study the leaf, listen to the birds, feel the wind on your face, smell the rain, but for me all these things bring back memories…and that throws me back into my past. When I see a leaf, I think of a corsage for my senior prom. When I listen to the birds, I think of hawks I heard at our camping spot in Fanning Springs. When I feel the wind on my face, I think of the salty breeze at Rehoboth Beach. And when I smell the rain, I think of my mother-in-law’s funeral. In today’s world, most people are thinking of their future, but at my age, I try not to think of the future so that may be one reason the past returns to me so often. And it seems we are being taught to live in the past. Keep a journal, explore genealogy, write a memoir, keep the old as buying new is environmentally incorrect. What to do? And then I think of some people’s past being erased by those in power. What do they do? I love my past, not all of it but most of it. My naivety at the time may have something to do with it. I didn’t know we were poor so it didn’t evoke a negative emotion. Would I go back there if I could? I don’t know, but it’s something to think about. That opportunity might be possible in the future. At the moment, I live in the present and the past. The future, except for things I have some control over, takes up little space in my brain. Although I long for our past America to be a future reality, my vote is my only power, and I will be certain to use it. Hopefully, it will remain a power. And if you have the inclination and opportunity, please watch Love and Death on Netflix and let me know how you think it relates to hiraeth. The human brain will always be the biggest mystery…I think. |
| Dang! I read some good books last year! https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2025 |
| I had a very enjoyable get-together today with my Life History Group at the library. Each of us shared a story as usual. Juliet talked about her trials and tribulations of translating her stories into German so she could send them to her relatives overseas who were eager to read them. Having been in the U.S. now for a long time, she had to "find" the German words for new things unheard of when she lived (and spoke) in Germany. She mails a little package of some of her favorites to family at Christmastime. I thought that was a wonderful idea. Arlene had written two short stories, one about a Halloween celebration when she was a child, and another about how much she enjoyed our group, how long she had been coming, and some special stories she remembered people in the group telling, some who are no longer on earth. Pat turned 90 since we saw her last, had a bout of Covid, took a terrible fall ending up in the hospital for a couple of days, and, miraculously, has published her book. It is beautiful! Carolyn wrote about re-finding an old love...no, not that kind, the golf kind. She found a community course offered at our local college and discovered her old clubs were...well...old and outdated. But she enjoyed the course, borrowed clubs, and is seriously thinking of signing up for round two. Which reminded me of a story to write about for next month except mine will be about bowling. I got three offers to meet at the local alley sometime soon. I'll have to think about that. Robert told us about his mom who helped form a children's library in the small town she and her husband retired to after living most of their lives in Cleveland. She was certainly an inspiring woman. And Ann wrote about one of her uncles who headed a boys' school in Chicago, a well-loved family member and Chicagoan with many accolades upon his death. And my story was about my summer job the year before I went away to the University of Delaware...which is probably hanging around here somewhere. All in all, a very good day! |
| I had a lunch date for tomorrow, but it has been canceled. She has a cold, and I am thankful she is being considerate...rescheduled. I am waiting for my flu and COVID shots. Thinking Thursday when I will be out and about so I plan to stop in at Walgreen's then. They have been slow to be available, but COVID doesn't know the difference. Erica and Murphy were down from Jax yesterday for a Sunday visit. Erica's daughter (my granddaughter) will be married on 10/24 so Erica is getting ready...modeled her dress for me. The wedding is in Rhode Island so, No, I won't be attending. But Murphy (Erica's doggie) is going with her (flying). It's like taking another person, maybe even more trouble. She's staying a week, planning Boston visits, etc., but has to plan for Murphy as well. More to come on that after it happens. |
| So...renewing my driver's license is now off my "bucket list" and on to bigger and much better things. I was amazed at the number of employees at driver's license place...like a million! They must really get busy...sometime. I was in and out in 30 minutes which was 45 minutes before my appointment, and I was busy doing something the entire time. Everything went without a hitch except for my photo. It took three tries with the final one with glasses off because of the reflections. OMG, who is that ugly old woman on my license? |
| As expected, my daughter's "dating deal ran its course." Thankfully. Her daughter is getting married in October so that has almost completely taken over her life for now. Happy for that. My drivers license has to be renewed this year (Nov.) so I made an appointment today for Thursday to do that...want to get it over with, just a vision test which should not be a problem. But I don't have the new "I.D." license yet so I have to provide several items to prove I am who I say I am...like who else am I? I can only tackle one thing at a time. |
| We had a very enjoyable life history group meeting yesterday even though there were only five of us. We enjoyed stories on a grandmother's wake, the Dali Museum in Tampa, a Tuskegee Airman and an NIH medical trial on the Active Mind (one of our members enrolled and told us all about it). And today I was back to cutting up some more limbs. I'm getting to be a pro at this...as long as they are small. It was quite hot...95 degrees F, but I drank tons of water. And tomorrow the Gators play South Florida, estimated to be 93 at the 4:15 kick-off. And...I learned that my single daughter of 60 is on a dating Facebook site and is "conversing" with two possibilities. I'm not too happy about that, but reverse psychology has always worked so I will not say anything against it. I'm not stupid. |
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