IDLE TIME??NO WAY!

handmade cards one way to go

What are you doing with the idle time that seems to show up right along side of Covid 19?

Neighbor Bina and I were talking about how our use of time seems to have changed as the world around us has too. For myself, my brown thumb has been found in the garden for one thing. Might as well grow some of the groceries and have that fresh taste. And of course there's also a whole lot more baking and cooking going on lately as well.

Making cards to send to friends has been one of my greatest pleasures with time to do so. I laugh that sometimes it seems I might be saving the USPS single-handed. 😜

Realizing that journaling and this blog have not really been "enough" for writing, I also asked friend Catharine to share some writing prompts. Got the first one today and had some fun with it here:

Whoosh! Pet poodle Horace at my side as I drove at a good clip around Crater Lake, my orange VW Beetle seemed to break not only the Zen of the moment but the sound barrier as well. (Seems there is more to this story, but I finished with the prompts...can you guess what they were?)

What are you doing so not to have too much idle time (some is good, of course) on your hands?

100...IT'S ALL ABOUT GOALS...AND GOING FOR THEM

It has been almost a year now since setting the goal to do two blog postings each week. I was surprised to see the number "100 pop up the other day when I had posted. Sounded like a lot.

If I am calculating correctly, that would mean that after this post I will be a mere three away from the goal with a full two weeks left in the year.  Hmmm. Pretty sure I missed one in October while on road trip. So.... 

It seems like even though I blew it (failures are not bad, by the way) at least once, maybe I played overachiever a couple of times as well. In any case, I am not at all displeased with the result this far. It has been a great challenge and has pushed me (at times when I did not want to be pushed AT ALL.

I'm super pleased that I didn't add any adjectives like "good" or "interesting" or "scintillating" to that goal. That would have pulled in an unnecessary judgment call. Looks like the goal will be reached, with a small glitch or two, and I am happy with just that.

What shall the next goal be? Hmmmmmmmmm

ON WRITING

Floating along

The bright smile started my day off well. Dean, a friendly man I see sometimes on my morning walk, stopped me. He had gone camping in Big Sur recently and somehow come across a Coastline Pilot from 2012 with my Chasing Down the Muse column in it. 

He and I have spoken before about the column...we both miss it. I, for the push it gave me and for him, I cannot speak, but he understood when I had told him my unwillingness to write when I could no longer be paid. It does all writers a disservice, I think.

This morning we again talked about art and writing. It is interesting that with art work there is a recognition by the artist that it is valued when someone purchases a piece. This is not always true with a writer, who may write for a newspaper or other publication. Again, this is one of the reasons it is so important to be paid for one's writing. Sadly, print has been phasing out and just doesn't pay.

Well, I shall keep on chasing down my muse and writing this blog, not even knowing if anyone reads it. It somehow works for me. As Willie Nelson said, "I like myself better when I'm writing regularly."

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN

Lately I had been thinking about the column I used to write, Chasing Down the Muse. Vague plans to peruse the many columns and pick favorites to form a compilation roamed around in my mind. Then, too, what about resurrecting some for use in this blog?
Well, when I encountered Boston friend, Jan, this morning on my sunny day walk and she said she missed the column...well, it just seems time to act. So here is one written in February, 2011:

The announcement had been made the day before. It was not as if it were something we had anxiously been awaiting, but as the group of friends sat around the table playing with clay, making ceramic birdhouses together, the subject came up.

As so often happens in these settings, conversations twist and turn in many directions as the focus stays on the work at hand of creation...in this case these birdhouses.

"Did you hear that Merriam-Webster announced the word of the yeat?"
I don't know whether we were all just specially tuned in that week or what, but somehow we had all heard the news. The announced word of the year for 2010 was, not surprisingly to any of us, "austerity."

We batted around our thoughts on the choice and what it seemed to mean to each of us. We even considered what our choice might be for 2011.

"Civility!" I blurted. "I vote for civility to be the 2011 Merriam-Webster word of the year."

....How we speak to and about each other says a lot about each of us--much more than it says about the object about which we speak. If we are to have any self-respect, then the civility we show others is not a choice but a command. Emmylou Harris said it:"...if we don't get our civility back, we're in trouble."

How? Where do we begin to gain or regain civility, respect for others and their rights? How do we create an environment that can help grow peace rather than one that is open to violence and hatred?

Graciousness, kindness, common decency, consideration, respect--each wrapped up in civility--are these just empty words? When we disagree, we certainly can do so respectfully, without attacking the character of another.

Can't we?

Shift to today...February 16, 2019. Eight years have passed. Are we any closer to embracing civility? Or, as I fear, have we gone entirely the other way?

Several years ago the CivilityProject.org shut down after two years of trying. They had reached out to politicians and others to participate. They asked participants to sign a pledge that contained just three items:
1. I will be civil in my public discourse and behavior.
2. I will be respectful of others whether or not I agree with them.
3. I will stand against incivility when I see it.
How hard could it be? At that time a mere three politicians signed--Sen. Joe Lieberman and Reps. Frank Wolf and Sue Myrick. Not one governor took the pledge.

Where are we headed?