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 A new blog to contain answers to prompts |
Since my old blog "Everyday Canvas "  became overfilled, here's a new one. This new blog item will continue answering prompts, the same as the old one. Cool water cascading to low ground
To spread good will and hope all around.  |
| "Being alone does not mean you are lonely, and being lonely does not mean you are alone." John Spence What are your thoughts on being alone or being lonely? --------------------- This quote made me chuckle as it reminded me of my much earlier experiences. I grew up in a very lively family with many members who lived close-by, and most of the time, our house would be full of family members and friends. If we didn't have guests at the dinner table, my grandmother would feel sad, and she'd weep and say, "We're alone, tonight." Even though four of us sat at the table around her, right at that moment. Maybe because of being around so many people, I grew a phobia about being alone. Or more likely, the reason might have been all the scary stories I kept reading or listening to about the supernatural and scary stuff. So I developed this fear...so much so that I couldn't stay alone in an empty room to study and do my homework. An adult usually had to sit in that room with me. Then, at nights, I shared a room with my grandmother, also. Fast forward 60+ years to today, for the last six years, I am now living in a large house all by myself, with my sons checking on me often, and a rare friend or two visiting, every now and then. The miracle is, I am just fine with it. In a nutshell, I found out solitude and loneliness are not the same state of being. Being alone is a factual condition. It means no other person is physically present. I might be sitting and fooling around on the computer in my quiet place, doing housework, walking in the yard by myself, or spending an evening at home reading, all without company. In these moments, being alone is all right, and I feel contented enough. Being lonely, however, is an emotional state. I can be lonely in a crowd, from lack of connection, belonging, or understanding. Loneliness is less about the number of people actually being present and more about a lack of meaning. Especially the absence of good relationships can make one feel unloved and insecure. So, the main difference, I believe, lies in the connection and choice. Being alone can be voluntary; loneliness is unwanted and painful. This means, if someone is lonely, the solution is not in the number of people with that person. It is in the content. It has to do with the people around with whom a deeper bond, honest talks, and mutual appreciation is missing. As such, loneliness isn't a personal failure, but it is a need that points to our human nature looking for connection. |
| Prompt: "Great men are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force - that thoughts rule the world." Ralph Waldo Emerson Do thoughts really rule the world as Emerson claims? What do you think? -------- I doubt that anything created can rule the world on its own, alone. Certainly not the thoughts, and not by themselves. They are, however, the invisible forces behind much of what we people deal with. Those forces, such as actions of people, money, weapons, machines, natural resources, and now. artificial intelligence shape history and our time, and they almost always have power over our fears, hopes, and ideals. But then, I have to okay Emerson's point, too. Don't revolutions begin as arguments about justice? Scientific findings as hypotheses? My sons' rebellions, before having their own apartments? Likewise, the push for women’s rights, the abolition of slavery, and the spread of civil liberties were driven by changing moral ideas. This meant thoughts acted as architects whose designs later took concrete forms. So, the way I see it, thoughts alone don't and can't rule the world. They need people, luck, institutions, circumstances, and resources. Take economic crises, political pressures, military power, for example. They always have ideas and thoughts behind them. Yet, history is full of people whose visions were ignored because the world around them was not prepared to change. Then, Emerson’s emphasis on the spiritual may be pointing to the way how we humans are choosing to respond to what we understand. Those choices can lead to resilience, reform, or worse, domination. So, I think, thoughts alone may not rule the world, but they may influence how the world is ruled. . |
| Prompt: If someone said "You've changed" to you, what would you think? Would this mean you’ve stopped living your life their way or just differently? ----------- If someone said, "You've changed," to me, I'd celebrate it. Surely, the context is what matters, but still, I can't imagine not being changed. After all, who stays the same as the day they are born? Life means change, and life changed me, even when I resisted. Plus, thanks to change, I could learn and understand and be able to do more and more things, hopefully better and better. Thanks to change, I could become more flexible and open-minded. With change, I learned how to resolve conflicts with difficult people. With change, I learned how to appreciate the people and the events in my life. This was because I grew, adapted to, and learned new things each time something changed, and along the way, I discovered new insights about life in general and who I am and who my friends and family are. A couple of questions that popped up into my mind now are: Is an unplanned and unexpected change bad for us? And on the other side of the coin, what if all changes were good by default? Inside my mind, the answers to both these questions end up in the same vein. Even if change may not be to our liking, we still learn a lot from it. True, a bad or a sad change would make us unhappy. But we still do learn from it, and that could be the default factor of a change. As to the second part of the question, "Would this mean you’ve stopped living your life their way or just differently?" I'd say I only want to live my life my way. I can take a good advice or a sincere criticism and work with it, too, but I am who I am, and I have lived a long time, and learned how to embrace change as my life teacher along the way. . |
| Prompt: The last time I saw---- it's your entry have fun! ----------- The last time I saw the airport in Rome was 55 years ago, when our first child was a baby. I thought it to be the worst and the most poorly functioning airport in the world, then. From what I have been hearing from others, it still is way below par, today. What happened with us was that 15 minutes before the plane was to take off, they changed the gate. All the passengers had to rush from the gate they had us waiting, to the other gate which was at the other end of the terminal. There were no vehicles or help to aid the passengers, and worse, no wheelchairs for those who needed them. My husband and I had our carry-on bags plus our 9 month-old son, and we were running toward the other gate. We made it into the plane possibly the last minute. I don't know what happened to those elderly passengers who were supposed to be on the same plane with us. All that rush and at the end, although we were among the younger set then, we were so exhausted! We both decided immediately, that we'd never get on any flight that stopped at Rome... ever. And we never did. A friend told me recently what she saw on the Rome airport from where she had a connecting flight. She saw a passenger using a walker getting off the plane, and she was looking for a wheelchair that was earlier reserved for her. There was a person waiting with a wheelchair. The crippled woman hobbled up to him. The guy checked his phone. He said she wasn't in his app, so she has to walk. My friend doesn't know what happened to her. The last she looked back several other passengers were arguing for the crippled woman. Another friend tells me that now, at the ground level, they have passport machines for the people from the EU, only. And even some people from the EU have had difficulty with that arrangement for the ticket machines have very long lines and a few get broken every now and then. There are other scary and weird stories I've heard on this very subject, also. And I had thought the problem had only been in where we left it, 55 years ago. Funny how it survived until today, and it seems, even flourished! I think our Italian friends have something to fix when it comes to their main central airport. |
| Prompt: Have fun with these words- tick, dialect, dependence, flush, mosaic, proof, guarantee, vain, and fresh. ---------- Words in Couplets At the *tick of dawn, *fresh winds have stirred my pain, their dark *dialect reflected light as if *mosaic in rain. I sought *proof in clouds, searched for some *guarantee, but the mind resisted my *dependence on what I longed to see. I tried to *flush out doubt from inside my brain, for chasing certainty is absurd and *vain yet, morning has my hopes up, I am not afraid for life and memories are still being made. * |
| Prompt: The Winter Olympics are almost here. What Winter Olympic sports will you be watching,? Write about this in your Blog entry today. ----------- To tell the truth, I am not going to watch any Winter Olympics. In fact, I don't watch much TV at all. My husband, on the other hand, wouldn't miss any sports events. He really loved the TV, especially the Olympics, for he himself was a long-distance runner in his late teens. Which reminds me of his adoration for Jesse Owens who upset Hitler's White Supremacy obsession during the !936 Olympics in Berlin by winning four Olympic medals that year. That might have been God's preliminary warning to racists, which must have been to alert them to the final result of World War II. I guess, black or white, or any color, doesn't a hero make. It is the person, the human being with his mettle, who is the most important. As for me and TV watching, I have never sat in front of a TV, unless I was doing something else as well. But I did sit next to my husband while he watched...always. As I sat across from the TV, then, I could have been writing down ideas, eating, knitting, sewing, peeling veggies. etc. I liked to stop what I was doing and watched figure skating, however. Nowadays, after my husband, I only have the TV on to news while eating supper. Considering today's news and happenings all around the world, it is a miracle I didn't get any ulcers...yet! |
| Prompt: Some of us are seeing snow, ice and cold weather. Describe a winter scene from your window where you live. If you live in an area without snow, describe what your winter scene looks like from your window today. ---------------- I see the outside from the window, from where I am now sitting at my computer. There are four people around the 7th. hole in their golf outfits, short-sleeved shirts, and one of them is trying to putt. The flag today on the hole is navy blue, but I don't know what it means since they change the flags everyday. One worker in the course had once told me that flags were for the weather conditions and from where the wind blows. Each day the flag's color and what's on it changes. We have some wind today, and the blue flag keeps waving. The course is lush green in the middle with a slight yellowing to its edges, and the trees around still keep their green leaves, not as light and happy green as in spring, but green nevertheless. Moreover, the sun is bright today, too bright if you ask me, and if I were out there, for sure, I'd be wearing sunglasses. We had a cold couple of days lately where the temp dipped to 39 in the middle of the night, but where I am in the far south, we don't get snow. To the north, here in Florida, they do get one inch or so in the Panhandle and, at times, on the Georgia border. Yet, I do remember snow from Long Island and other places. When we lived on Long Island, several inches of snow would cover the whole place, and especially our backyard with its tall trees would look as if some white angel spread its wings on our property. It would especially be a stunning scene under a full moon. I recall, one year, when there was a lot of snow and an ice-storm following it. Most people in our neighborhood ended up in the shelters because electricity was cut. We stayed home and camped by our fireplace and even cooked on the open fire. This was one good memory of family togetherness, for sure. Night thickened with white, branches bowed to borrowed weight, time held its breath still. Under frozen skin water dreamed of being free, patient as a pulse. Morning cracked the ice, my kids' laughter fogged the air winter learned our warmth. * |
| Prompt: Adaptation "My job is called adaptation. It's always about adapting to new situations, but the core team is going to be the same." Patrick Mouratoglou What’s one small example of something you wrote an adaptation of or have adapted to in your life for the better? -------------- To me, adaptation is how I adjust to a new or changed situation, form useful habits, and learn to cope and survive in this crazy world. Surely, my overgrown Christmas Cactus now has to adapt to its new pot and new location, as do polar bears, fish, birds and us humans to new situations. Scientifically speaking, adaptation happens over decades, centuries, and circumstances. In my little life it happens almost daily now, not only with ai butting into everything I do, but my own changing conditions due to aging. Case in point, this morning I got into my car to go to the drugstore, Walgreens, to be exact, to pick up a prescription. The ignition didn't catch on. It could be because the weather got colder the last two days, and also, I didn't use the car for a week. That I'm going to have my son look at. Which left the unpicked up prescription idea dangling over my head. I tried to call the pharmacy but they were constantly busy. So I went online and changed my prescription from pickup to "send home." It means a tiny fee but that's okay. Then, there's such a thing as literary adaptations. These involve transforming written works, such as novels, short stories, plays, or poems into different mediums such as film, television series, stage plays, or even video games. To do such an adaptation, the essence of the work stays but the writer or the creator of the adaptation can take the story to a very different direction. Off the top of my head, the film adaptations of Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls and Poe's Tell-Tale Heart could be examples for adaptations. As such, I have done no adaptations, at least I haven't written anything while knowing its original source. Yet, I think adaptations are everywhere, even for us human beings, since our bodies and our minds are adaptations themselves, which nature saw fit to change according to its whim at any time. |
| Prompt: Necessary or Unnecessary? “We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities.” Oscar Wilde What’s something you love today that you never even knew you needed in your life? ========= The line between what I truly need and what I like is so blurred. What was once optional now feels indispensable to me. This is such an irony, isn't it! Mostly, today, some things just soothe my life, and not because they are indispensable, either. Let me go back a few decades, since I am such an oldie. In my youth, only the government, Nasa, and such had computers, and we had black-and-white console TV's. Yes, those were the dark ages, for being colorless. Yet, we had other good stuff, but that stuff is not something I am going to address in this entry, today. On those earlier times, we thought we hit the jackpot, When, before the computers, arrived the DVRs. Our first DVR in 1968 cost over a thousand dollars and it was a huge and heavy prototype. I can't recall the make of it, but my husband got it from a salesman who visited him in his office and told him this offer was only open to some professionals like him. Sales shtick? Who knows. But my hubby bit, and brought the darn thing home, which kept my older son, a baby at the time, occupied with the reruns of the earliest forms of Sesame Street. This made me realize at that time that there could be something to this techno whatever revolution. which was taking its first baby steps, at the same time with my kids. Well,since then, we've come a long way, baby, haven't we! One thing I've noticed over the years is that what the younger generation of any era considered a commonplace convenience, the older generation before them applauded it as independence. Yet, in their earliest beginnings, things may proceed rather slowly. Then, fast forward it to our day when things have changed so much. Today, we--the older generation--are at a loss with today's technologies, and especially the ai based workings in companies. At first, I used to blame ai, with all my bad experiences with the banks, companies, online sites, etc. Then, I thought, later, ai is not to blame for our generation's flailing, but the companies themselves are, by falling behind each update and upgrade. At this time, I've changed my mind again. Now, I also realize, the constant changes and improvements bombarding the companies and businesses in lightning speed should be blamed much more. On the other hand, blaming will do no one any good, and things are what they are, as fast as they are coming down at and upon us. Also, some of this new technology is allowing us, the elderly, to live without constant help. Plus, with my eyesight problems, I have really been enjoying the pads, audiobooks, streaming, and cellphones. Yes, especially the cellphones because I can video-conference or visit my family and friends who are now scattered all over the world. In this sense, which had been "unnecessary” way back when, now answer very real human needs that were once met by larger families, closer communities, or slower lives. Just maybe, in essence, this quote reminds me that necessity isn't a fixed thing, but it is something greatly affected by fear, curiosity, convenience, and care. Today's necessary objects may also be the obsolete ones, tomorrow, but for the time being, they are holding my life together.  |
| Prompt: Imagine you're opening your own writing-themed restaurant. Name it and provide a list of signature dishes. Be creative! ------------- Joy's Misplaced Metaphor Cafe Welcome friends, welcome all, Lyn and Co, and WdC, to my colon-shaped cafe, although the sign out front misspells things, in strife I have crossed it with a comma-shaped knife and, sorry, inside, my chairs don't agree with the tables and the walls are papered in unfinished fables as menus ramble, sentences dangle at mid-thought, my theme trails off in ideas not well-caught so I propped my thesaurus on a wobbling leg then stamped the napkins, "Don't leave, I beg!" the chef is moi, once a writer, that I insist since I've stirred the soup with a pen as a deli twist I seasoned by mood, by mistake, or instinct but "now halt" said the man from the precinct to salt, pepper, and cumin in my signature dishes "I can't taste this twice," he said, but with good wishes my overwritten onion soup layered again and again, until me, the chef, forgets where it all began and my purple-prose pasta so floral and thick in adjective sauce, to any tummy will stick my run-on ravioli runs to spill off the plate then arrives back, still alive, long after you ate my show-don't-tell steak, juicy, profound it too is aggressive and stays around and every night, as my kitchen sighs I smile at my uneaten pies although my food sure is a narrative mess it's my cafe and I'll write nevertheless. * |
| Prompt: Use the following words to create a story or poem. Words: dance, castle, onion, grinder, screamer, glamor, cougar, reckless, zebra ----------- * Moon Dance A *zebra met a *cougar to *dance by the *castle gate, both twirled with *glamor, *reckless, laughing at their fate and at an *onion wearing a crown while a *grinder was humming down a tune, and then, the pair-- in stripes and spots--bowed to a *screamer owl's applause, howling wildly at their type, while these two moonwalked, side by side, making Michael Jackson jealous and so what, if my poem is too zealous! * |
| Prompt: What books are on your reading list? ------ I don't normally use a reading list. This means any book I could be interested in could be in the running. But I do buy or download books I could be interested in when I come across them. Making a list is pressuring myself because I'd be uncomfortable about something that says I have to do it. At least, this is the meaning that my mind conjures up. My only real list is a daily one I make in the morning or the night before, to give my everyday life some routine. so I don't forget to do anything important. When it comes to books, I read a lot, which means one book at a time, without others in the waiting line or maybe one or two if I'm really interested. This is because I tend to rush my reading if there's a long list. Still, at this time I have a few books in mind. As of today, I am now reading The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates, a hard-cover book gifted to me last month. What I want to read next is Mes amis, mes amours by Marc Levy. Then, in the waiting, comes The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz, which is a three-book series. This is, if before or in the middle of these books I mentioned, another book pops up and grabs me in its claws.  . |
| Prompt: "It is easy to believe we are each waves and forget we are also the ocean. " Jon J. Muth Write about this quote in your Blog entry today. -------- For some reason, I love this quote. So, let me explore why I loved it, at first sight. Up front, I saw right away that it had an inkling of Rumi in it, as Rumi said, "You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.” I think Rumi's drop has been converted to a wave in this quote. Either way, both quotes challenge the idea of separation. If the entire ocean can exists in a wave or a drop, that boundary between “self” and “world” is insignificant. Talking for myself, my life experiences are not disconnected from those of what the entire humanity may have experienced or will experience. Mine is just a tiny bit of it. As such, my joys as well as my griefs are shared, maybe in different and varying forms, but still they tend to unite us all. In other words, what I may feel privately, it may also be deeply universal, although, at this place and time, I may not be aware of it. I can also detect empowerment in this quote. Seeing myself as just a small wave can lead to passivity. It may make me think, "What difference can I make?" But, on the contrary, if the whole ocean is in me or in anyone else somehow, then our actions, thoughts, and choices carry weight. Also, I tend to think the quantum theory of today, which connects the entire universe, is heading in that direction. Plus, Alexandre Dumas has in The Three Musketeers. "All for one, one for all." I wouldn't want to mess with any of those three musketeers in any way, would I!  At the end, this quote invites us to direct our attention inward. It means to say, depth already exists within. In the same vein, a search for oneself, to get to know oneself, can mean to touch the infinite, which is what the ocean represents. As such, change may emerge from a single, tiny point of awareness or person who may very well make a huge difference for the entire world. |
| Prompt: "The key in letting go is practice. Each time we let go, we disentangle ourselves from our expectations and begin to experience things as they are." Sharon Salzberg What do you think about "letting go"? Is it always a good practice? ======== In all my years here on this earth, I learned one thing: In the long run, nothing is unconditional. In my mind this also applies to letting go, as letting go is a discipline I think I have taught to my "self." As such, I've let go of many things, like wrong opinions about me, false friendships, unkind words and gestures, etc. Was my letting go unconditional? I don't think so. I let go of all those, frankly speaking, out of self-defense. This is because letting go of anything and their outcomes, which I could not control anyway, could make me anxious and could make me suffer with resentment or illusions. In addition, letting go cures me of any expectations from others and be more self-reliant. Yet, there may be moments when not letting go is just as important. This is when letting go of accountability, self-respect, or one's principles in the name of “acceptance” can only be avoidance. It erases mine or another person's selfhood, so to speak. Since letting go of the most important things would show me as being detached and uncaring, wouldn't it! I mean, not that this ever happened, but I could not sit in my porch and enjoy my cup of tea, while I hear a neighbor beating up on his wife or his mother, could I? Letting go, therefore, should not make me passive, but it should ease my relationships while holding my ground and hanging on to my principles. The way I see it, therefore, letting go is not a blanket rule. There is a point where we have to hold our ground and not let others distort our deeply held beliefs and ways of being. |
| Prompt: "Healing takes time, and asking for help is a courageous step." Mariska Hargitay Do you ask for help when you need it? Or do you hesitate? ------- Healing is uneven and time is a factor. Not only the physical part of healing but the psychological part, also. In my case, during my earliest years, I never had to ask for help. I grew up in a big house as the only child with my mother, my grandmother, my grandmother's foster daughter, plus the men, grandfather, uncles and such who came and went and saw to my needs without me asking for help. Later on, during the first years of my marriage, I wouldn't even ask my husband for anything, which made him quite upset, and one day, he talked to me about it. So I started to ask him for help while feeling embarrassed about it. I'm still not very good about asking for help, now that I have only my two sons. My sons, however, are onto me by now, and the younger one, whose place is closer to me, takes the initiative and asks me if I want this or that done or if he could bring me something from the store. I do appreciate that attention a lot, from both my sons, needless to say. Even so, asking others for help, for anything, takes a lot of courage for me. It may just be that I might be equating asking for help, subconsciously, with weakness or dependence. Maybe, deep down inside, I am afraid of being a burden, being judged and dismissed. Unlike me, for some others, the reluctance of asking for help may come from earlier bad experiences when they weren't trusted about their pain or need being real, and they weren't believed. So they don't want to live through those rejections, and therefore, they hesitate to ask for help. Logically, I know that asking for help is not a weakness, and enduring everything alone does not point to courage. Plus, I see that human connections require togetherness, and asking for help is one of them. Who knows, as I am getting really older and older now, I may have to begin to ask for more help from others as I go along. . |
| Prompt: "You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength." Marcus Aurelius How much power do you have over your mind? Do you wish you could control it 100%? ----- I've always loved the Stoics, despite their at-times-rigid standards. As such, this quote is unsettling and comforting at the same time. Is Aurelius saying we have power over our minds and not outside anything? Double-edged sword, here, I think. First, he is denying pain, loss or injustice. Also, weather, chance, other people's actions and choices, and our own bodies influence and defy us, mostly. This also pokes holes in the high wall Aurelius builds between a person and the outside world. That said, forget about the world for a second, so I can talk about my own unruly mind. No, I don't have absolute power over my silly mind. Thoughts, memories, snippets of events from the latest few days, things people have said or done or wrote rise uninvited, especially when I am busy doing something else. Imagine writing something or talking to someone about an important thing and the mind wanders away. Some such things I can shoo away, but others insist. Then, some thoughts jump up uninvited and I may even get emotional. Do you think I want to feel fear, grief, and anger over something in the past that I've endured or fear about something stupid in the future that my mind has conjured up? Nope, and I don't think anyone else does either. Still, I do believe in the Stoics' stance. This is because the power Aurelius is talking about is realistic and subtle. This power doesn't really prevent my pushy thoughts from suddenly jumping up and appearing, but I might exert some control over which ones I might choose to give importance to. Or I can reframe the thought and let it pass. Strength, if or when I have it, is in me thinking, “This happened, but it does not get to define me,” or “This feeling, possibility, or memory is real, but it is not the whole truth.” Having said that, I wish I did have a mind that I could have trained to stop butting in or to separate what it can influence. Truth is, I can't control my mind 100%, but possibly, no one can theirs. Then, just maybe, I am gaining power over it because I realize the limits of my control. Well, at least, that! |
| Prompt: James A. Murphy says, “It's not that we spend five days looking forward to just two. It's that most people do what they enjoy most on those two days. Imagine living a life where everyday are your Saturdays and Sundays. Make everyday your weekend. Make everyday a play-day…" What day of the week do you accomplish the most? If you're retired do you still plan activities for the weekend? Would you be happy with every day as a play day? --------- Let me just answer the questions first. What day of the week do you accomplish the most? Every day, depending on the distractions and unplanned anything. If you're retired do you still plan activities for the weekend? No, not if I can help it. Would you be happy with every day as a play day? It depends on what one thinks of as being a "play day." In my case, since I am writing in my blog everyday and doing other things I like in addition to things that need to be done, every day is a play day. As to the quote, I don't really like the term play-day because it gives the impression of being lazy and useless. But I do play, not like a kid, but in my own terms and in my own way. Plus, I have a way of looking at most chores as if I am playing. So, now, let's look at what bugs me the most. It is the stupid scammer calls on the house phone with AT&T. I have no way of stopping those except for immediately deleting them. And they usually show up as "unknown" on the phone's display. I have no such problem with Comcast with which I have my cell-phone. Many years ago, I had my cell with AT&T, also. Guess what made me go to Comcast! The house phone or the landline, we had it wired specially, several years ago, with AT&T, so each room could have a phone. And that has been quite convenient, but nowadays, I am thinking of getting rid of it, and no more AT&T, because, especially during the Medicare application months, the phones rang nonstop. Except on Sundays. Even today, a Saturday at midday, with the Medicare application time now history, I already received four calls from that "unknown", I bet trying to sell me something or hoodwink me into something! "Hello, this is Olivia!" Truth is, I never met that Olivia or her co-workers-in-crime as Jean, Mary, etc. I say crime because calling old people day and night, many times over, with iffy offers and suggestions, and trying to extract their personal information should be a crime seriously punishable. And the phone companies should also be responsible for that. I don't think we have had such a government or any political party yet, to take on scamming the elderly. So tomorrow is Sunday and I'm seriously looking forward to it as the day possibly no scammer---except for possibly and unfortunately, only one or two--may call. |
| Prompt: "The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person's determination." Fred DeVito Do you agree with Mr. Devito? Do you consider yourself a focused person or should I say a determined person when it comes to fulfilling your aspirations? ------- Yes, I guess I agree with him that most anything has to do with determination. But if, right this minute, I wanted to fly to Alpha Centauri, it wouldn't be possible, would it, no matter how determined I may be? So, within reason, yes determination is the key to making things happen. As to the second part of the question, I do try to keep my focus intact, but sometimes, it is not possible due to extenuating circumstances. My really long-term aspirations are no more because I'm old. Still, I do work on new projects, even if I may have to leave them unfinished. So, the real question becomes if I really fulfilled all my aspirations throughout my life. I'll have to say 'no' to that because of extenuating circumstances, and not only such circumstances but the choices I made that were different from the earlier choices and aspirations, due to changes in my life or in my environment. I, however, always replaced one aspiration--one I couldn't reach or decided to abandon for any reason--with another possibly more important one. I know I'm not the only one, here. In most lives, aspirations change due to personal growth and evolution, while perspectives also change, making old goals irrelevant. In any case, changes in family situations, moving, and other incidences defined or redefined what was more important to me. Plus, I had to readjust my career path to such situations. I did find new avenues of interest and different opportunities, but I am not sure if they could or did replace my original aspirations. Would I make the same choices I made today, given the same circumstances? My answer is definitely, yes. This is because, in my case, and I'm quite sure in many others' cases, circumstances and other life twists must have had a huge role in following our original dreams and aspirations. I think when all is said and done, it is healthy to let go of old dreams and embrace new directions, rather than viewing the old aspirations as failures. Who knows. maybe during going after new aspirations helps us to understand our own core values and enables us to focus on meaningful lives. |
| Prompt: "Love planted a rose and the world turned sweet." Write about what you think this means. ------ I had to check who said this quote, "Love planted a rose and the world turned sweet." I found out that it is the same person who wrote,  "O beautiful for spacious skies for amber waves of grain..." It was Katharine Lee Bates, to be exact. As such, love planted USA and the world turned sweet. I am not too sure if lately that sweetness is wavering or not, though. But then, most roses need extra care.What I love most about this quote is its intentionality. Here, love is not accidental. It plants. A rose must be nurtured before it blooms. For it to bloom, it takes effort, patience, and care. Which reminded me of my own rose garden of more than 40 years ago, in which I had over 50 different kinds of roses and I played with them, raising them, grafting and such. So, yes, roses do turn the world sweet. Yet, world's sweetness does not come from the rose itself, alone. It comes from what it represents. When love is present, ordinary moments become warm and special, and wounds and bitterness do not hurt as much. The same world, with its thorns and storms, still exists, but love changes how we experience it. In my present home, I have two rose bushes. One in front of the house in a raised flowerbed and the other in a large pot inside the porch area. This has shown me that even one or two planted roses are enough for happiness. In the same vein, one sincere act, one connection or one moment of compassion can change sadness to sweetness, even in difficult soil. |
| Prompt: "Don't be pushed around by the fears in your mind. Be led by the dreams in your heart." Roy T. Bennett Write about this quote in your Blog entry today. ----------- Tough command! Is it possible for anyone to push aside a fear totally and be led by dreams? After all, both fears and dreams have had a place in my life. Surely, fears were there for my protection, but they could also become tyrants. And one fear just did that! In the same vein, taking a fear to the extreme is not healthy but just going after a wild dream is just as undoable, especially for me. I can, however, appreciate the quote for its effort in encouraging empowerment And yes, any fear if not harnessed right, can become a tyrant within. This is because my mind or anyone else's is wired for survival from birth on. I have a good example in my own life of fear becoming that tyrant. While I was growing up, at age eight, I started piano lessons, not as my choice but my mother's. Unfortunately, the first piano teacher, a very old man, was an overlord, persecutor, and bully all rolled into one. I feared him more than I'd ever fear God. Luckily for me, one day after a few months of my torture, my mother, hearing him yell, entered the room without knocking on the door and saw him bending over me and tapping on my hands with a wooden ruler. That became the last lesson with that teacher. Yet, the fear lingered, and my next teachers were better and more understanding. Still, I never got over that earlier experience even though, years later, I got good enough to play in a small concert. Then, after I married, my husband, thinking he was doing me a grand favor, bought a fancy piano. He didn't know I was relieved to leave my old piano in my mother's home. Then, years later, when we retired and moved to Florida, I gave that piano to my older son. Thank God! I'm so relieved I don't have to touch it anymore. In hindsight, if the first teacher had given me dreams instead of scaring me to death, just maybe I'd do better. Not much better though, because, as I said in the beginning, piano lessons weren't my choice but my mother's. On the other hand, when I want to do something I really like, I can go after it full force with dreams and everything else I've got. This may be because the heart of a dreamer beats to the rhythm of curiosity and purpose. I see dreams as the blueprints of our potential. When a musician finally plays her song or the writer finally writes the last word in a story or the ballerina takes a high leap, they’re not eliminating fear; they’re choosing growth. Dreams, after all, are the quiet voices that say, “What if you tried? What if you soared?” So one of the life lessons learned should be the understanding that setbacks are not failures but feedback, and that growth often lives on the edge of discomfort. When we choose to follow our hearts, we don’t eliminate fear, but we ride past it. I think, later on, I was able to get over other fears much better than that of the piano-playing, and at least, some of the times, I didn't let any later fear to hold me back from answering the call of my dreams in many other areas. |
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