Category Archives: Blogging Community

Sun Signs

This year I have been happy with our June Gloom here in Southern California. It is a sign of cooler weather when we have gray cloudy skies, when the climate conditions cause the moist cool air from the ocean to come inland and keep temperatures down. It results in cloudy days but it is better than the very hot days we will be getting in July and August. But just when I was celebrating the coolness along comes a heat wave expected to last at least until early next week. TGFAC! (Thank God For Air Conditioning). I am hunkered down inside like a refrigerated hermit.

I have ventured out a few times and wanted to share some photos of clear blue sunny Southern California skies.

My sunny neighborhood

Blue Skies

“Blue skies smilin’ at me

Nothing but blue skies do I see…”

Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt word for today is “sign.” Featured image of Sun with cloud by kropekk_pl on Pixabay.com

The Final Transition-WEP June Challenge

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The Final Transition Ceremony was planned for the first full moon of August. This was the law of the New Order. Anyone above the age of 55 was considered a detriment to society. It was thought The Olders no longer had anything to contribute and we unable to adapt to the new ways. The Olders gathered at the stadium that led to The Great Bridge. Those who crossed it were never seen in this world again. Sarah found herself thinking how quickly her time had passed. She was an artist and had created many unique pieces of sculpture. It was her 55th birthday and she was in her studio when the patrol came to get her.

“It is your time, they said, you must come with us.”

The Olders walked silently down the road that led to the bridge. They appeared resigned to their fate. Sarah walked with them but her feelings were not of resignation. What was the matter? She knew her transition time had come and what was expected of her. As she continued on silently she also knew she was not ready. As the group walked on she slipped out of line and down a small gully at the side of the road. She quickly hid behind a large boulder waiting for the procession to pass. She remained there, afraid to move for what must have been hours, until she drifted off into an exhausted sleep. When she woke up she realized she had to get moving or risk capture. She saw a small trail that wound up into the mountain and felt compelled to follow it, not sure where she was going but knowing she was running away from the end that was planned for her.

Sarah climbed higher and higher along the narrow winding mountain path. She was grateful for the full moon’s light that kept her from stumbling over rocks or veering too close to the edge. When she glanced over the side, she saw the steep mountain side dropping away into darkness. Looking down made her light-headed and her legs wobble a bit, so she kept her eyes trained on the path ahead. She did not know how long she had been walking when it started to get light.

The trail forked, with a smaller branch curving off to the left into a craggy opening. She decided to explore it to see where it led. She needed to find a place to hide and rest. The opening led into a passage. She could hear water running somewhere. As she walked toward the sound it became louder. The passage opened behind a wall of water. Sarah stepped through and found a small path along a ledge behind the falls. She picked her way carefully along the slippery ground until she came to a wide outcropping. The falls thundered down into a river gorge that ran under a bridge.

“No, it can’t be….. The Great Bridge?” Sarah said, her spirits falling rapidly like the water. Did I come all this way for nothing?, she thought to herself.

Sarah realized she could not remain where she was and she couldn’t go back either. So she climbed down the path at the side of the falls. She froze when she saw some people approaching.

A woman approached first and spoke, “Don’t be afraid, you are not in any danger here.”

“I don’t believe you. I can see The Great Bridge,” Sarah spoke with voice rising.

“You are mistaken. We are helping The Olders to escape to our world.”

Sarah, feeling her apprehension growing, said, “What did you say? Escape to your world? Where do you come from and why do you want to help The Olders?”

“We come from another galaxy but our planet is similar to yours. Some of our ancient explorers discovered Earth.”

“Another galaxy, ancient explorers….,” Sarah mumbled not understanding.

“Let me explain,” replied the woman.

“We discovered your planet when life was just beginning and planted our seeds, our genetic material. We have continued to visit over the years to watch your development. Our societies have shared a similar value. We valued youth over age. Several years ago we were conducting experiments on prolonging youth. We developed an anti-aging vaccine. We thought it was successful until it went terribly wrong. It altered our genome so that our people die in early adulthood. When we lost our ability to age our culture lost its perspective and wisdom. We have learned that true wisdom is only gained with life experience. We share a genetic ancestry with you and hope we can repair our genome with part of yours. The Olders can contribute greatly to our society.”

As Sarah listened she found herself questioning the motives of the strangers. “You would not need to relocate all of the Olders to obtain their genome,”she said.

“The Olders would help persuade our people that we need to repair our genome so we can age. They would bring a living example of the gifts of ageing to our people and the perspective that is missing from our society. They could mentor our youth who have lost their parents and never experienced the benefit of grandparents,” the woman replied.

Sarah noticed a beam of light coming down behind the strangers. “What is that golden light?” she said.

“What you see is the gateway between our galaxies,” the woman replied.

Sarah was startled awake by the knocking on her front door. She must have fallen asleep in her studio. What a strange dream, she mumbled to herself as she opened the door.

“Your time has come,” the patrolman said. They escorted Sarah to the bus that would transport her and other Olders to the stadium for The Final Transition.

The Olders walked silently down the road to The Great Bridge. “I can see a bright light ahead, ” a woman shouted. ” It is the end of us, ” another woman cried out. Sarah smiled and said, “No, it is just the beginning.”

Featured image ‘Bastei Bridge in Saxon Switzerland by Thomas Wolf on Wikimedia. Image ‘Multnomah Falls’ by Jake DeGroot on Wikimedia.

Word count: 998

Full Critique

Words of Wisdom

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“There are many things of which a wise man might wish to be ignorant”-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every morning I scan my email inbox and see how many I can weed out. I try not to let too many emails accumulate. I get emails from organizations I have donated to in the past, asking for more donations, or asking me to sign petitions on this issue or that. I have started ignoring them more often now because I feel that I can not afford to be making donations and tell myself I should probably be the one who gets donations. I get tired of signing petitions, but still do a bit of it. I get emails from different newsletters and websites I have signed up to. I may have found an article of theirs interesting and decided I would like to read more, and I end up with all these emails from them. I have noticed that so many of the websites and newsletters are in the business of giving us all advice on how to live our lives with subject lines like: How To Get More Joy In You Life, Why It’s So Hard To Say You’re Sorry, The Best Cities For Successful Aging, The Next Food City You Should Pay Attention To, What a Healthy Relationship Looks Like. I have noticed that posts about how to be happy and have good relationships are a frequent topic of many writers. When we are struggling with our problems or lonely we might be drawn to read their advice. Are we all supposed to pack up and move to a city that has the best food and chance for us to have “successful aging?” I have this vision of selling our house and moving to one of these places and then finding out they have decided to cut back on their services and not be a best city for successful aging. And then I would be stuck.

One Liner Wednesday is hosted by Linda G Hill. Featured image ‘Woman sitting at desk writing’ via Pixabay.com

Admitting To Going In New Directions

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I have recently reached a WordPress milestone of 500 posts on Notes Tied On The Sagebrush. And I must admit it has been quite a journey. I have used this blog to share some of my life, thoughts, opinions, humor, and even some creative writing. I appreciate very much the support of my followers, family, friends, and other bloggers. It has been wonderful to get the positive feedback I have received over the past 3 years. I have appreciated your comments and encouragement very much. There have been times when I thought I was tired of blogging. I learned I had to discover my own pace. I realized I was not going to be out to win the most prolific blogger award. So I am surprised to find that I have decided to start a second blog about my journey into Grandmother-hood called Grandmotherly.blog. I have to say I am pretty excited about the new blog. I have had a few posts on Notes Tied On The Sagebrush about becoming a grandmother, but I decided this new part of my life deserved its own blog. I will be continuing my Notes as well.

GRANDMOTHERLY.BLOG

I welcome all of you to come by and take a look. The focus will be on Grandparents, grandchildren, premature babies, and all things grandmotherly. I hope you will drop in and comment from time to time. I will continue with Notes Tied On The Sagebrush as well. So here’s to new adventures!!!

Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt word for today is “admit.” If you are new to blogging I recommend taking a look at Linda’s blog. You can meet a nice group of bloggers there. My Grandmotherly blog image is by blickpixel on Pixabay.com Desert image by O. Palsson via Flickr.

The Swallows Return

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Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night……will keep the swallows from returning to the Mission San Juan Capistrano on St. Joseph’s Day every year. Turns out while I wasn’t looking the swallows stopped their historic annual return in 2003. It can’t be blamed on the California weather or global warming. The swallows stopped coming when construction was going on at the Mission. The swallows did not return for over a decade. Now with the concerted efforts of the Mission staff, an ornithologist, recorded bird calls, and the building of a temporary nesting wall, the swallows are returning to Capistrano this year. So whether or not you think my post about the annual migration of our swallows is hot, I think it’s pretty cool.

Post inspired from today’s LA Times Article ‘Familiar Sights Returning to O.C.‘ about the swallows of San Juan Capistrano. Featured image of San Juan Capistrano Mission by Ken Lund via Flickr. Image of Cliff Swallow by Don Debold.

Unofficial motto of the US Postal Service, “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds” inscription on James Farley Post Office in New York City.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt words for today are “weather/whether.”

For this 98-year-old baker, sharing dessert makes life sweet

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Leo Kellner is a piemaker with a purpose. Seeking something to do with his days, the 98-year-old began baking after the death of his wife. He now donates his baked goods to friends and others in need, and is training a young friend to take over for him. Special correspondent Dennis Kellogg of public television station NET reports from Hastings, Nebraska.

Source: For this 98-year-old baker, sharing dessert makes life sweet

Featured Image ‘Cherry Pie ready for baking’ by Minette Layne via Wikimedia

Come To Your Senses

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Hyperosmia is a heightened sense of smell. It can be related to “morning sickness” during pregnancy. I remember being nauseated by greasy food smells when I was pregnant. I have a sensitive sense of smell even when not pregnant. When I worked as a Nurse, I was able to smell odors that indicated infection. A pleasurable side of the sense of smell is the use of aromatherapy. I love the smell of natural scents like lavender, rosemary, sages, roses and others. I really do find these scents soothing and relaxing. My daughter has made me a couple of small scent pillows and I have bought a lavender eye pillow for Yoga. The scent of peppermint is supposed to be good for nausea and headaches. In the Renaissance people wore rings with hidden compartments for scent. Hidden spaces under the bezel of the rings allowed scented materials to be hidden in an attempt to cover up the bad odors that were the result of bad hygiene. The hand wearing the ring could be brought up to the nose whenever a smell became too much to bare. ‘Smelling salts‘ were used in Victorian Times to revive people who fainted. The strong smell would kind of shock the person awake, help bring them to their senses or to regain consciousness. First you faint from a shock and then are revived by a shock to your nasal membranes. It would be nice to have a little sachet of lavender to bring to my nose when I’m stressed. A good way to calm my senses.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill. Prompt word for today is “smell.”

Jetsam

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Like baling water from a leaky boat, It seems like the more stuff I try to get rid of, more comes to take its place. Over the past few years, I have periodically worked at getting rid of things. When we had the kitchen painted, we had to empty out the cupboards. I used this as an opportunity to sort through and get rid of what we have accumulated and don’t use. My husband and I seem to working at cross purposes though. He is tempted by bargains on eBay. That’s how we ended up with 2 double coffee makers in addition to our single pot coffee maker. He justifies this purchase because he got one of the double coffee makers for $5. In case you’re wondering, we now have the capacity to make 52 cups of coffee at the same time. I just finished reorganizing our collection of everyday dishes and glassware in the cupboards. My husband has been adding assorted pieces to our everyday dishes for a while, and there really isn’t room for another thing. I thought he had gotten better about buying stuff on eBay. Then, just the other day I spotted some boxes on the dining room table, a set of 24 glass coffee mugs. I asked him why he bought them since we don’t have room and he said, “They were a good price.”

Post inspired by Almost Iowa post ‘My Storage Room.’ Featured Image of Good Housekeeping cover 1908 by John Cecil Clay via Wikipedia, looks like me trying to decide where to put some of our crockery.

Past Perfect

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‘All or nothing’, that is a good motto for a perfectionist. If something does not meet the ideal standard it is worth nothing. It is definitely not synonymous with flexible, easy-going, having self-compassion. Like trying to force a square peg into a round hole and I have the bruises to show for it. It is good to be able to recognize that something is not working for you and allow yourself to move on. Not keep trying to get yourself to fit into something that doesn’t suit. It is not being a quitter or failure to acknowledge something isn’t working out for you or you are not working out for it. It would have been better to realize it is not ‘all or nothing’, success or failure, but that there could be something else waiting out there for you.

“Set aside the old traditional notion of female as nurturer and male as leader; set aside, too, the new traditional notion of female as superwoman and male as oppressor. Begin with that most frightening of all things, a clean slate. And then look, every day, at the choices you are making, and when you ask yourself why you are making them, find this answer: Because they are what I want, or wish for. Because they reflect who and what I am.

This is the hard work of life in the world, to acknowledge within yourself the introvert, the clown, the artist, the homebody, the goofball, the thinker. Look inside. That way lies dancing to the melodies spun out by your own heart.”
― Anna Quindlen

Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt for today ‘all or nothing.’ Featured image by Kate Ter Haar on Flickr.

Ambitions

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“I believe that women should live for love, for motherhood and for intellect, and I believe we shouldn’t have to choose. And I believe that’s always been difficult for women, to express themselves intellectually, maternally, and passionately.” -Erica Jong

Mother’s Day weekend left me thinking about my life choice of putting my role as Mother first during my early working years. Not to suggest I regret making it a priority versus a career, which I don’t. As often happens when I am mulling over something I start to research online, looking for what others have expressed about it, and I came across an interesting series of articles in The Atlantic called The Ambition Interviews that tracked the careers of a group a women who graduated from Northwestern University in 1993. The authors wanted to find out how their sorority sisters career ambitions had played out in reality 20 years after graduating. They found that their cohorts divided into 3 groups after they started having children, the High Achievers, the Scale Backers, and the Opt Outers. The High Achievers maintained a consistent trajectory of career success continuing to work at their careers full-time, the Scale Backers chose to work less or take on less demanding jobs to have the flexibility of schedule they desired for their lives and families, the Opt Outers chose to leave the work force to be able to be full-time parents. In the articles they discuss all the factors that contributed to the women’s decisions. What struck me is the experiences of these women was similar to mine in many ways and I think many of my Nursing class of 1974. We were in the Nursing baccalaureate program at the University of California in San Francisco and were told we were to be the leaders in our profession. Out of the 37 members of my class that attended our 25th reunion, there was a group of High Achievers who stayed in Nursing careers at a high level, in the military or other areas, went on for graduate degrees, and some became doctors or lawyers. Many of us would fit into Scale Backers in that we chose jobs that were less demanding or more flexible so we could be available to our kids. When my son was born, I decided to opt out and be a full-time parent. This lasted for 8 years and included the addition of a second child, my daughter. Like women in the Ambition Interviews who opted out, I had thought I would continue working but when my son was born I decided I did not want to leave him, as some of the women in the series that had “a physical and emotional bond with their new children that they simply couldn’t reconcile with going back to work,” my Nursing job was not appealing enough for me to choose it over him. My husband was willing to support us. Some couples in The Ambition Interviews decided that the husband would be the stay at home parent or would be the one who Scaled Back and assumed the larger share of child care. I became a Scale Backer when I re-entered the workforce after 8 years but chose part-time at a hospital and then in Home Health. Like the Scale Backers in The Atlantic series, I found it difficult to balance work and motherhood. I worked a lot of weekends to cut down on child care. I felt very stressed rushing through work to get to the school in time to pick up my kids or get them to appointments. It was stressful to leave them when they were sick. It was stressful to find adequate after school childcare with long enough hours to cover my work hours. I missed out on being involved in my children’s schools because of work and I missed out on career advancement and even work friendships because I worked part-time. My ambition did not completely die out. It was isolating to be at home and I did get restless at times. I re-entered full-time work after my kids were older. I went back to work after cancer. I attempted a complete career change at 60. One of my fellow students in the Teacher Credential program questioned why I wanted to pursue a new career after Nursing. Another said I was an “Over Achiever.” It was more like an “Older Achiever.” Why shouldn’t we be allowed to go on learning and achieving no matter what age. Like the women in the series who chose to Scale Back or Opt Out of their careers, I found I was not able to step back into a career path in later years. Now I have come to have a whole new perspective on my relationship to work. I wonder if we can really combine all the aspects of our selves ideally. Even though I may have missed some opportunities, I know my work does not define me or my self-worth. I find career ambition does not play a part in my life any more. I am in a reflective period and some of my ambitions right now involve tutoring, getting rid of weeds, aphids, and volunteer trees, getting reacquainted with myself, writing, and learning to be a grandmother.