As soon as I can, I will buy this audiobook. I was charmed by Ms. Jackson’s way of telling a story. I love her ability to show her deep faith and fair justice. Oh, and her ability to sing hymns. If I weren’t supposed to be getting to sleep, if I weren’t supposed to be quiet so my husband could sleep, I would have been singing along. She has a beautiful voice both musically and in narration.
Autobiographies mean more to me now that I’ve written my own. And now, I look for different things in what I listen to. I have to admit that those who seemed to cause their problems without learning the lessons of that action are not as interesting as those who learn not just from their mistakes but take note of what happened to others. Ketanji is exceptionally intelligent. She loves learning.
This audiobook made me feel as if I were having coffee with her. She is so interesting. This is a book I highly recommend, especially the audio. I got this one through Libby.
The fork in the road is one we revisit often. Should I have said or done this? And, of course, with the benefit of hindsight, we know what we would have said or done. I guess that is why we aren’t given that knowledge when it would have been helpful.
I should have told her, when she complained of being so tired, to call the doctor immediately. But all I knew then was that she just needed to rest. Not that my COVID-addled brain knew more than coughing and needing to sleep. I was finally over the fever but my friends and I check in on each other often. And of the three musketeers who had known each other for a couple decades we knew age, pain, and strengths of each other.
Three musketeers. They came to visit me shortly after we moved so far away. This was a fun visit.
You know the Bible verse about entertaining angels unawares? I have and sometimes got the breeze from the wings. Michele was one of those
One of the forks in my life. My adult children all moved north. It made no sense to stay. So my husband and I moved north. Before the move, I looked up NaNoWriMo, writing groups, BookCrossing groups.
I found the writers and readers of the new community and found myself at home. Even if my adult children were busy with their jobs and lives, I found my people.
That Writers’ Group set up a lot of friendships for me. I think you have to be quite vulnerable to write inner thought while in a group. This group was open and welcoming. That was due to the one on the left and the one on the right.
Anyway (this stream is so hard to write!),the Sunday night after I finally was fever-free, one of my friends went in for emergency surgery. The very next day the other friend had a heart attack. It was touch and go for both. I’m 6 hours away from them. I couldn’t do anything for either of them. Sadly, Michele passed, or as her daughter said, she gained her wings. I always believed she had wings.
One of the hard parts of writing this is the heart-heavy stuff I want to say I can’t as deeply as I’d like because I don’t want to bring personal names here, to protect both friends.
Michele was raised in a abusive family and then had a few relationships that were equally horrid. But she decided early on to not raise her children in that kind of environment. She found a religion that served her heart, and she dedicated herself to love, God, family, and friends. She was one of those people that didn’t preach. Her love was in how she took care of everyone. Always patient. Always feeling empathy for others. Helping as much as she could, in any way she could. See, she already had the wings. I am going to miss her so much and yet, I feel she will be watching over her family and friends as much as ever, except now, I pray, she is painfree.
My other friend is still in medical care. She had that surgery and hasn’t been able to eat food or even move around for the stitches up and down her abdomen. I wish I could be with her and help her through this nightmare that is both physical and emotional, having lost our mutual friend.
I feel awful that I couldn’t say goodbye to Michele. We did chat on Instant Messenger so at least I know our last conversation was loving and hopeful towards our friend who had the surgery. We had decided we didn’t want to worry the one in the hospital surgery department. But of course with Facebook we can all see what is happening by a peek on our phones.
And my friend in the hospital still had a fever yesterday, and all I can hope is that she has had visitors and rest as I don’t want to call and wake her. Please pray for my friends and their friends and family. I don’t mind a few coming my way. I’m trying not to revisit forks in the road, traveled or not.
Many people found ways to express themselves in 2020. Many of us worked towards being healthier. I was in my 19th NaNoWriMo year. This shirt was for my 30+ pounds extra. It’s still my favorite. It fits like a tent but it’s so comfy.
Since I’ve been NaNoing since 2001, I’ve collected a few shirts. I tried to buy one every year whether or not I won. The light blue was one of the first. Yes, they are wrinkled . But now I’ve folded them up and put back in the drawer they had been wadded into before. The room is dark so I often pick up whatever color calls to me. They are my “play clothes,” not go to town clothes. Sometimes they are sleep shirts.
Here are some of my other favorites. I don’t have a Live Journal anymore but I made everlasting friends there.
Oops! I nearly forgot my newest favorite.
Yes, David is my Doctor.
Oh. And my favorite Halloween shirt. My son and stepson work at Knott’s. Both knew I would ride any ride, but NEVER go to Halloween Haunt. I don’t like people jumping out to scare me. People are scary enough!
This is the back. It glows in the dark. I’m part of the scary people. Imagine being my husband! Love ya, Sweetie! It becomes my night shirt in October and reminds me to start creating characters as NaNoWriMo starts the day after Halloween.
This prompt was brought to us by Linda G. Hill. Go check out her page and join in the Stream of Consciousness Saturday fun. In case you couldn’t tell, today’s prompt was ‘shirt.’
Linda’s JJIJ, and Joanne’s prompt, Writing.From the Free Photo Library
I love writing. Fiction, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, blogging, even my memoir. But at least as much as the topic, I love writing cursive or playing with lettering, calligraphy. I don’t like the modern stuff but rather
The modern
I love to practice
The Gothic look
Or
Or the swirly, pretty stuff
To me writing is artwork. My handwriting lately (or the fast note writing during lectures) is horrible. But I like to take my time and enjoy writing. Even grocery lists.
But having the best hand writing in the house means only I can write the lists. I’m not bragging. My guys here would write a list so fast that even they can’t read it, much less if there’s a note, like, not the one with salt, or the crispy kind not soggy, you know what I mean?
But that means I’m stopping whatever I’m doing to write the list. So I got upset having to drop my knitting or jumping off the stationary bike to write the list.
Instead, my husband set up a shared Keep app list we add to as we go along.
More organized, efficient.
But now I need to find other reasons to practice my ABCs.
Guilt trip jumps in here. I need to write more letters to friends and family. I’ll think about it. Again.
I’ve been meaning to review this. I finally remembered. A friend and I have been working through the book as a sort of class to get our creative muses up and running again. We would do the tasks and work on our memoirs as homework. We both picked up quite a bit through this book.
We both had the paperback, and I had the Audible, which we would listen to on Zoom while we followed along in the paper copy. That worked pretty well. We both felt we got more in touch with areas of our lives we wanted to improve.
My biggest gripe was that I felt too old for the book. It seems if you are an early retiree, this would be perfect. We had already passed the floundering when you aren’t part of the workforce. If, in fact, you are at that stage, I think this would be the perfect book to start the next part of your life.
Heather Henderson (Narrator) was excellent in leading our little ‘class.’
Nope, not a knitting tutorial this time. My last couple of days have mostly been about The Last of Us. My son didn’t want me to watch the series before trying out the game.
I don’t play games above the level of solitaire and such. Maybe some hidden object games. But role-playing seems a bit too hard. Long ago, my kids had me play a Mario game, and I enjoyed watching the poor plumber jump. I didn’t get past that for laughing and making him jump more. The game was taken from me as the offspring said more needed to be done.
Well, yesterday, my son brought out his Playstation 3 for me to learn about The Last of Us game. The game is about a serious situation. I felt horrid hurting the actors. So I gave the controller back to my son. It had been so long since he played on this system; he usually plays on an Xbox. So he was having trouble getting the main guy, Joel, to climb up and join Tess. (I think that was her name.) I suggested pushing certain buttons, and it worked! Yay!
The story grabbed me right away, and I wanted to stop the game and see more of the story. Here is what we found. Cut out a couple days to watch these.
Then we watched the next one over yesterday and today.
I loved these and can’t wait to see the series.
While Dana had out the Playstation, he wanted me to try one of his favorite games, Skyrim. He thought I would do well with a few short trailers to understand the world and game. I won’t post all of them here. I wasn’t as impressed as I; I’m sorry, everyone, I don’t much like Lord of the Rings and High Fantasy. That is how it appears to me. But he has been telling me about this lady for a long time. Grandma Skyrim, Shirley Currey. She is my newest idol!
Linda spoke of how her writing was seasonal. NaNoWriMo, CampNaNo and Just Jot It January becomes her writing time. Me, too. It seems those programs help motivate me properly. I haven’t won every time. And sometimes, like last month as I tried another goal, I made no progress at all. But often I make the 50k. Even on the camps. That would probably not surprise my teachers. Most of my report cards had comments like, ‘Darlene talks too much in class.’
This year I’ve over-goaled my life with all the gifts I’m trying to make and so writing has fallen by the wayside.
And I still have to podcast and start reading aloud my books, starting with my memoirs. The area in my house I planned on using, suddenly has Diamond Paintings.
My recorder playing, piano and voice practice have fallen off.
There are only 24 hours in a day. Still!!! I stay up reading until 3 or 4. With my old dog waking me often, sleep also seems seasonal. Heat and smoke and bugs of summer, icy cold and snow of winter affects everything in our house. Where we hang out, how we sleep, either covered up over my head with warmth or sheet to keep bugs off. And all this affects energy and pain levels, ya know?
Maybe I need to organize my day better and my week to include everything I want to do.
Thank goodness for the treadmill. It still gets used most days of the week.
How does anyone get anything done with a job? I did do NaNo. But the rest of this, writing, knitting, especially learning new stitches, artwork, music, etc. Little got done. Too tired. Housework. Phew!
Seasons of our lives are as influential as the weather. Whew!
Per Linda: Your prompt for JusJoJan January 2nd 2023, is “constellation.” Use the word “constellation” any way you’d like. Have fun!
Thanks, Willow, for today’s prompt. Click on her name to check out her blog.
Look at all those stars!
As Van Gogh illustrated it seems they are in motion. And they blink in and out. Magical. Even when we know the science behind the beauty. We are in awe.
As a young person, I gazed at the stars and learned the names of the constellations you would think that my favorite would be the archer. Sagittarius, after all. But I gravitated to the serpentine creature between the big bear and little bear. Draco. I could hear him call to me.
One day he joined the constellation of characters in my books. There are nearly as many dragons in the books I write as there are people. Dragons can teach, transfer in time and space, form living areas for everyone when the planet surface becomes uninhabitable due to meteors falling.
Best of all, dragons are a reflection of our inner being. That’s why my favorite dragon is Enelrad. Her mate is Sirch.
We can be brave and fly between bears (or the stars). We can fly between the constellations.
Someday I will be able to publish Haven’s stories.
Not much time. I still am developing characters and world building. The family Pensées is nearly made. Popeye (papa), Paris (mama), Olive, Poppy, and now working on her twin, Pepper, the three offspring. Then I need a frienemy like Brutus.
I think they are currently on a spaceship but I’ll need a world. Lots to do before midnight!
Working on my series: Haven.
Doodler (zendoodle.com)
Music major: voice and piano
Mom of four great adults
Reiki II practitioner
I have been on disability/retired for 10 years now from depression, anxiety and fibromyalgia.
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