%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 |  Come sit with me on the porch. We'll sip lemonade and talk. . . |
 Welcome to my porch! Come on up and sit down with me a while. You can join me in the swing or have a seat in one of the rockers. There's lemonade and Granny's Tea Cakes on the little round table by the screen door. Pour yourself a glass, take some tea cakes, and let's visit awhile.  I've reached that stage of life where I reminisce a lot about my childhood and young adult years. Some of my best memories are of the porch swing at the little house my dad and his brother built with their own hands about five children before me. We moved from that house when I was twelve, but there were other swings and other porches to enjoy. I've been encouraged to create a daily journal--I guess it's all the rage these days. Goodness knows, I do love to talk, so I guess this might be a good thing. I can't tell you just what you may find here on any given day. You know how it is when you're on the porch. A lot depends on the weather. I can tell you this. I plan for it to be a fun place to visit, because I'm in the mood for some fun! |
I was reminded of this quote the other day and wondered if any of you had heard it, or if anyone has ever felt that you were being asked to do that very thing.  "Faith is stepping off into the darkness of the great unknown and knowing that God will either give you something to walk on or give you wings to fly." I think it's a great saying and a true description of the choices we are sometimes forced to make and the depth of our trust that things will be okay because God is in charge. I'm not saying that bad things won't happen to us. I'm saying things will be okay because God is in charge. This doesn't mean that I can just go jumping off cliffs for no reason and expect God to spare my life. There are times, though, we face life-altering choices. All we can do is the "next right thing." If we made a bad choice in the past, we have to look at it like this: we made that decision based the circumstances at the time and our own best judgement. However it turned out, it's over and in the past. We can't re-write history. All we can do is the next right thing. (That's another great quote. It's from AA.) I'd love to hear from you on any of these quotes.. "Be especially kind, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle." Check out my new Rising Star, Mia - craving colour  |
"A word is not the same with one writer as with another. One tears it from his guts. The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket." ~Charles Peguy This is my second attempt to share my thoughts about this quote. My computer has been very finicky the last several days and picks and chooses when it will save something and when it will launch it into cyber space to wander the vast cyber universe for all eternity. Whatever words were plucked from my pocket earlier may no longer be there or may be arranged in a completely different train of thought. That fickle is my brain. As a rule, words do not avail themselves to me as easily as plucking them out of my pocket. I usually chase after them, looking high and low for just the ones I need at the moment. I may find all sorts of terrific words, some with cob webs on them, that just don't paint the particular image I'm after. It often takes months of hide-and-seek for me to be reasonably satisfied with the word choices for a poem. (Short stories are another story, altogether. Pardon the pun.) I think of my written works as "fluid" because they continue to change and evolve over the course of time. I do find that my supply of words directly correlates with how much reading I have done recently. You see, as I read good poetry, I place a nice phrase, and terrific simile or metaphor, and any particularly descriptive words in my pocket. I toss in any other conventions that strike me as interesting. I find that the poetry of SWPoet  provides me with numerous creative ways to format a poem. She is one of those poets who seems to be able to sit down and let the words pour from her fingertips with ease. She is able to break the lines and the verses creatively to give just the right flow of her thoughts and feelings and is a master of metaphor I like mistress of metaphor. Hmmm. That may be my new nickname for her. She has a treasure trove of poetry in her port. 🌕 HuntersMoon  's port is never short of inspiring poetry either. He loves the challenge of a difficult form and can meet the challenge every time. Visiting his port is like a really fun field trip in a poetry class. There are times when words do seem to flow easily from my fingertips, but most of what you find in my port that is worth your time in reading has probably been edited more times than I can count. I don't wait until it's perfect to post it in my port. I take full advantage of the "Review" feature of Writing.com. I can think of specific reviewers whose comments turned my poem on its ear. One reviewer simply stated that he would like to see a few metaphors and/or similes in my poem. I re-visited the poem and focused on changing some of the lines from literal to a metaphor. It turned out to be one of my favorites. Another reviewer asked me to consider switching the last two verses! As it turned out, that DID work better. With a little tweaking, it made the poem really shine. My closing thoughts are that whether the words are easily plucked from my pocket, or torn from my guts, the end result is a piece of me on paper. Something I wrote from inside me. That's why Writing.com is such a haven for me. I never thought I could write poetry until SWPoet invited me to join WdC. I am forever in her debt for that. Once I joined, I found so many supportive people encouraging me to keep writing. I try to do that for new members now--help them hold on until they get the hang of things so they can find their own voices of expressing whatever they need to express.  |
 "Be especially kind, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle."  This is my favorite quote. I have so many quotes I'm very fond of, but this one reveals a secret that most of us never think about. We see people behind a checkout counter, at the drive-thru window, in front of us in line at the bank. They may smile and make polite small talk, or they may be grumpy for no apparent reason. They work beside us. They sit beside us in church. They telephone, e-mail, and even text us. It's doubtful, though, that even those we consider friends, are being "real" with us. We might let some small thing slip occasionally if we're talking to a very close friend, or a sister, perhaps, just because we can't hold it all in anymore. Every person we meet--EVERY single one--is fighting some kind of battle. It may be something easy to hide, or there may be some public evidence of it, but make no mistake, it is there. So, I decided to quit beating myself up for being such a bad parent. That's my battle-at least the one that seems most pervasive in my life. Life is what it is. My children were impacted by their early years before we adopted them, and I cannot change that fact, as hard as I try. I remind myself of all the many, many ways I tried to help them find healing over the years. I was and still am a good mother. I say that because I didn't feel that way for a long time. I thought, surely my kids would not be so messed up if I had done this or that differently. Now I understand that we parents do the best we can. We love our children and make decisions based on what we know at the time. Past that, all we can do is love them and pray that God has a plan to rescue them. Writing.com is my happy place. We all need a happy place where we can put down our swords and just have fun. I do work on Writing.com, but the work I do here is work that brings me joy. I have so many good friends, and I do not subscribe to the idea that these friends are any less real because they are "Internet" friends. I cried when Judy B lost her long fight with leukemia, and I cried when my dear friend lost her mother a few weeks ago. I have a good friend right now who is battling some kind of illness the doctors haven't even identified yet. I miss his wonderful sense of humor, and I hope he feels like coming back soon. Okay, so my challenge to you is to simply look around you. Temper the way you view people with the certain knowledge that they are fighting some kind of battle. So give a big, warm smile to that bank teller. Ask the checkout lady how her day has been. My goal each day is to touch lives in a positive way. I like to think that something I did made a small difference in someone's day. When I created this journal I vowed that it would be full of happy things, and that I would not focus on the struggles. So, let's focus on our challenge, maybe even our charge, to make a positive difference in someone's day today. DISCLAIMER I know I got a little creative on the decorations. I do understand that the purpose of a journal is to just get our thoughts down on paper. However, today, I was feeling particularly colorful, so AFTER I got my thoughts down, I decided to spruce the place up a bit before I had company. |
There's something enervating about taking a new class. Maybe the comma rules are ones you learned years ago, and you always aced every test. However, with age, and failure to practice using those rules on a regular basis, they tend to go into hiding. or worse yet, they decide to re-write themselves. So, I find myself excited at the idea of learning anew those things that have long since become rusty with the years. In fact, that is much of the great joy that I get from Writing.com, itself. I'm always challenged to learn new things. Write poems I never wrote until I was 55 years old! Write stories, pitiful as they are....  But, I have in mind re-visiting those stories and applying the many rules I have learned since joining Writing.com. I am fond of the characters I created, and I want to go back a bring them to life, paint them up on the movie screen of my story for all to see, hear, feel, and undertand. Those are a few of my goals. I leave you with my most favorite quote of all time. I don't even know who said it. However, it guides everything I say and do at work and at home: "Be especially kind, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle." ** Image ID #1800630 Unavailable **  ~~Image #6000 Sharing Restricted~~ |
The first class I took here was quite a while back. Karen  and I had recently become acquaintances. In fact, it was sometime along in there that I became her Rising Star Sponsor. I can't remember the exact sequence of events. Those darn brain cells get more slippery with age, and little details like that seem to slip and slide right out. At some point, she told me that she was planning to start a new class at New Horizons Academy. It was a poetry class with a bit of a different approach. I think the name was a bit different in the beginning, but it was based on the current class, "Journey." It was a wonderful experience, and I learned so much. Soon after that I took a class about weak verbs v. strong verbs. I worked like a dog for both classes because I tend to set high goals for myself. I enjoyed them both. Personal health issues slowed me down for a while, and I was unable to take other classes until this past spring. I signed up for Dynamic Reviewing, and it changed my reviewing and writing for life. What an adventure! I worked hard in that class, too. I guess I figure if I'm paying the GPs to take a class, I might as well get everything out of it that I can. Recently, I was asked to be Joy's assistant in her Dynamic Reviewing Class. I was thrilled and gave a hasty "Yes." Going back over the things I learned last spring could be nothing but beneficial for me. This session I'm also participating in Winnie's Comma Sense class. I am excited about that! I've had my eye on that class for quite a while. I'm a recovering coma-holic, and I've taken to looking the comma rule up before bestowing my misguided comma instructions on the writers I review. With this class, I will, hopefully, become re-acquainted with those ticky little comma rules I learned so many, many years ago. The news just gets more exciting! Next, I was asked to consider teaching Rixie's Punctuation Station so that no instructor would be teaching two classes during the same term. Me?? An instructor for New Horizons Academy? Of course, I said I would love to, so now I am studying the materials Rix sent to me and preparing to teach winter session. I've been a staunch supporter of New Horizons Academy for a long time. It's wonderful to have a top-notch educational institution right here on the WdC site. The tuition is very reasonably priced, and the courses are so appropriate it makes it hard to choose which one to take. Beginning last spring, "Invalid Item"  began offering our members free tuition for one class each term. We figure it's a win-win situation. Our members become better writers and reviewers, and "Invalid Item" reviewers improve their ability to offer helpful and encouraging reviews. Well, that's all for now. This visit on the porch is probably a little long, but I wanted to share what New Horizons Academy means to me. I have tremendous respect and admiration for all the staff and faculty. "Be especially kind, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle." |
 Log in to Leave Feedback |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
