Category Archives: Blogging Community

Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award

The Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award:

I am honored and Thank you Prajakta of An Armchair Perfectionist for nominating me for this award. Prajakta has a lovely blog that includes poetry, fiction and self-expression about life and her life in India.

Rules:

Provide the link to the person who nominated you.
Add the reward logo.
Answer the questions your nominator has asked.
Nominate 5 other bloggers and let them know via comments.
Ask your nominees 5 questions.

My questions from Prajakta:

A superpower you wish you had. Besides being able to heal what is wrong with the world like pollution of the air, land and sea and human suffering, I would like to be able to travel the world and drop in on some of the sisterhood and see all the great sights I have dreamed about.
Do you believe in ghosts? Any experiences? I think there could be spirits in the world. I have read stories about people leaving a sign for their loved ones to find to let them know they are all right. After our cat Angel died I thought I saw here running into the living room. I would be happy if she was at peace somewhere in our house.
Who is your most favourite person in the world? I don’t know, pretty hard to say. There are many people I admire very much: Gloria Steinem, Anne Lemott, Elizabeth Warren and after I publish this I will probably think of someone else.
Introduce a great plot twist in the world we live in. Suddenly all people who are making wars and killing people for religious or political differences will be struck with the realization that we are all connected and every human whether man or woman has rights to be free and pursue their own destinies without anyone dictating to them how they should live or what their role is in life.
Link up your best/favourite post from your blog. Well I do have over 100 of them but this was a short fiction I attempted: The Chronicle of Aine Part I.

I nominate these wonderful people for the Sisterhood of World Bloggers Award: ( I wanted to pick people outside the US with whom I feel a connection or sisterhood)

LucileDeGodoy for a visit to Amsterdam and a lovely blog about current topics, beautiful photos and proverbs. Lucile is very warm , gracious and writes thoughtful comments and responses.

LINDAGHILL for a visit to Canada. Linda has two blogs that include her fiction writing and she is a wonderful host of One Liner Wednesday and Stream of Consciousness Saturday. She is very welcoming and encourages us to read each others posts and she always comments on everyone elses.

Flaming English by Anna Nolan for a trip to England and some humorous lessons in grammar. Anna is very sweet and friendly as well so don’t be intimidated by the word grammar.

Hariod Brawn at contentedness.net to Glastonbury England and an interesting blog about spiritual and philosophical topics. Hariod is very supportive and thoughtful of other bloggers as well.

Capsule Creations another blogger from England who is an independent and modern young woman who likes to share some interesting and entertaining glimpses into her life and has been warm and gracious with her comments and responses.

My Questions for You:

1. Who in the world would you like to meet?

2. Where in the world would you like to travel or do you have a favorite place you have already been?

3. What kind of trips do you like the best? By car, boat, train or plane?

4. Do you think letter writing is a lost art and do you like to receive letters?

5. What woman do you most admire past or present?

Hope you enjoy and thanks sister bloggers of the world! ❤

The Harmony and Peace Award

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I want to Thank Fourth Generation Farm Girl for nominating me for the Harmony and Peace Award. She has a lovely blog about her life on a beautiful farm in Virginia that has been in her family for 100 years. I encourage you to check it out.

This award was created by the Idealistic Rebel

~IN HER OWN WORDS~

“I created this new award to celebrate all those who promote Harmony & Peace, and who add Love & Beauty to the world through their Blogs and through their lives. Their Positivity makes the world a better place for all of us.”

~The Rules~

Give this award to seven bloggers who have added Harmony & Peace, Love & Beauty and Positivity to the world you live in.
Let them know that you nominated them.
Acknowledge the blogger from whom you received this award
Display your award on your blog, because you have earned it!
Continue to live in Harmony & Peace

My nominees are:

Dandelion Fuzz

Kat promotes community among bloggers by hosting KatGotYourTongue every week. All are welcome to participate.

An Armchair Perfectionist

I always enjoy Prajakta’s posts. I met her first on LindaGHill’s Stream of Conciousness Saturday.

River of Life Flows

I admire Teresa’s ability to take any daily prompt and make something creative out of it that relates to her life in Singapore.

Silver Threading

Colleen has a lovely blog and has won several awards. I appreciate that she also hosts a weekly blog event Writer’s Quote Wednesday. She is welcoming to everyone and encourages us to read each others contributions.

Loving Me too

JoAnne’s tag line is Ongoing Lessons From a Recovering People Pleaser. I can relate. She writes some peaceful blogs about being good to ourselves and finding balance.

Not a Punk Rocker

This blogger has many interesting and witty takes on things. I think you will enjoy her posts. Humor helps to promote peace and harmony don’t you think?

Mark Bialczak

I met Mark when he was the leader of our group of bloggers during NaBloPoMo with our Nano Poblano group. He is always very kind and supportive of other bloggers. Definitely promoting Peace and Harmony.

Well these are my nominees and I hope you will check them out. Now I think I must be on my best behavior because of this award. I hope I will continue to promote the values that got me nominated for it to begin with. 🙂

Swift Water Rescue Has Your Back

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For my Stream of Consciousness Saturday post I decided to write about a local stream, the LA River. Our prompt today is to use the word “back” in our post.

The Army Corp of Engineers created a cement channel for much of the LA River. The process is called channelizing. This was meant to control flooding. What happens when we have a big rain is the river turns into a bullet train of water as it races through the channels like a gigantic water slide. Invariably some foolish, careless or uninformed people decide to go down to the river and are swept away. The LA Fire Department has a Swift Water Rescue Unit that will come to the rescue. People have died in past years despite desperate rescue attempts. Here is a story from the LA Times about the rescues from the recent storm which includes some video.

The Ventura County and LA Fire Departments, Police and Sheriffs Departments and the officials of other Southern California communities have been busy with a swift water rescue of 2 people, evacuating people from their homes and rescuing people trapped in their cars in mud slides along the Pacific Coast Highway.

In all these life threatening situations our Fire Departments, Police and Sheriff Departments really have our backs. We need to be aware of nature and potential threats in our environment and stay away from natural water channels, creeks and rivers during or after storms.

Video via news10d You Tube of Firefighters getting ready for rescue:

|LindaGHill|

Some Rambling Thoughts about Focus

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“One way to boost our will power and focus is to manage our distractions instead of letting them manage us.” –Daniel Goleman

I get frustrated trying to take a photo because it is hard for me to be sure the image is in focus. I wear glasses for reading now and it seems that this does not help when I am trying to focus a camera or my phone to take pictures.

I have trouble staying focused in other ways at times. I can get distracted by interesting things on the internet and spend way too much time browsing. I am not a regimented person. Left to my own devices I enjoy following my own schedule. Which can mean no schedule. I can meander through the hours.

I do like having choices of what to do with my time. If I have an appointment or need to do some work at a certain time I am good with that. But otherwise I really like to call my own shots.

It is easier to focus on things we enjoy doing. Like reading an article that catches my eye, watching a favorite film or reading a favorite author.

Social media like blogging can be very alluring and distracting. I am drawn into perusing the “likes” on my posts and comments. I enjoy the back and forth chats I get into sometimes in the comment sections. But then it is harder to focus and organize my thoughts about what I may want to write. There is a need for a schedule or regular routine to better order my day when I have this time I do have. To structure it for myself. To bring things into focus.

katgotyourtongue

|KatGotYourTongue|

One Liner Wednesday-Heaven

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“One day if I do go to heaven…. I’ll look around and say, It ain’t bad but it ain’t San Francisco.” —Herb Caen

|LindaGHill|

Silver Threading Writer’s Quote Wednesday

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Should we be looking at stats and trying to figure out which posts are the most popular and do more of those. It has to do with what your goals are as a writer. Are you writing to create a popular product or to express you own unique voice and creativity? What do you think?

|Silver Threading|

Writer's Quote Wednesday

A Milestone Today

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I started my blog in July and a lot has happened blogging wise since then. I have learned a lot about how to navigate the system of Word Press. I have had advice of the staff and other bloggers. I have made some blogger friends! I made it through daily posting in November. So today I was notified I have created 100 posts.

So there is a lot to read here. Some of it is pretty good if I say so. Some of it probably not so good. But it has been quite an odyssey. At times I have gotten tired of hearing myself.

We are heading toward a new year and the direction I am going with my blog is still not certain. Still need to mull over topics. I am grateful for those of you who have been following me along. Grateful for new followers and old. And grateful for those of you who take the time to write thoughtful comments. Thank You!

Be Present

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I hear this a lot these days, ” Be Present.” Which means be in the now. Don’t live in the past or worry about the future. Stay focused on what is happening in the moment. I have read books about this philosophy and can agree it is good to be aware of what is going on around you in the present. If you get too caught up with worries about the future and distractions or brooding about the past your present life can just pass by without you being there.

I have experienced being in the now or being mindful of what I am doing. There are times when I am very relaxed doing a mundane task like washing dishes and can just be focused on that simple act and not be thinking of so many other things that have happened or may happen in the future.

Blogging has been a distraction for me recently. I am reading so many posts and trying to be mindful of what the author is communicating. It becomes a distraction from my own life when it is consuming a bit too much of my day.

Today I had a respite from the blogging world. The electric power was shut off in our area due to work being done by the utility company. Even after the power was restored to my house our internet service was disrupted even longer. I did not want to use my cell phone battery up to go online.

Besides that I have been fighting a cold and so felt I should just rest and take some herbs. I did something today I haven’t felt like doing much of lately because I have been reading so many posts. I actually sat down and read a novel. If I get into a book I can finish it in one day and that is what I did today. I read a new book by Jodi Picoult called Leaving Time. It is a mystery about a young teenage girl whose mother disappeared and she wants to find out what happened to her mother. I really enjoyed getting back to reading a book again.

That was my way to be present in my life today. I took a break from the internet, drank special herbal tea and took my herb tincture, rested and became more engaged in my “normal” everyday life.

I hope to enjoy a different present tomorrow. As part of my birthday present my husband and I are going to drive up to Santa Barbara. It is not far from where I live and part of the drive takes you along the ocean. It is a beautiful view. The distance is just right for a day trip.

I will be easy to be present to enjoy a present like that.

Santa Barbara County Courthouse by Konrad Summers

City of Santa Barbara

|LindaGHill|

Saturday Mornings

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Eva_Gonzalès_-_Morning_Awakening via wikipedia

“What irritates me most of all about these morning people is their horribly good temper, as if they have been up for three hours and already conquered France.” —Timur Vermes

In my full-time working years Saturday morning was a time to relax. To wake up, look at the clock and remember that I did not have to get up early that day. Except when I worked as a Nurse in a hospital or in Home Health. Then I did have to work every other weekend. But on the Saturdays I was off it was a great feeling. Unless I had to get up for one of my kid’s soccer games. Oh those early morning games were not my favorite!

Nowadays, I do have more time off because I am semi-retired and my kids are grown. So usually I do not have any reason to get up early on Saturday. My husband loves Saturday because he is still into the Monday thru Friday work scene. He does wake up fairly early anyway. Sometimes he inadvertently wakes me up which I do not like. I describe myself as not being a morning person.

Not being a morning person means I do not get up with the first light and I am slow to get going in the morning if left to my own natural inclinations. I am not ready for a lot of conversation especially not before my first cup of coffee. It takes me a while to come to full consciousness. Have to start out slow. Gradual. Don’t rush me. Otherwise, grump alert.