Tag Archives: Life

Blue

I am not blue about the winter weather in Southern California. I am liking it after 6 years of drought. It is nice to have colder temperatures and rain for a welcome change. I am working on keeping an even keel and not feeling anxiety about this transition period in my country’s leadership. There have been other times during my life that there has been tumultuous and anxious times in my country. The country and its people survived. The featured image at the top is ‘The Umbrellas’ by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1881-86). He used a lot of blue in this painting. The pigments used for the blues were cobalt blue and ultramarine. I am wondering why he chose to use to so much blue . It was a popular fashion color in France at the time. Many artists use color to express a feeling. Could it be that the rainy weather calls for a subdued color pallette. Subdued is a good feeling right now. I would like to maintain that feeling, calm and subdued but not blue.

A short video about the painting by The Frick Collection on You Tube:

JustJotItJanuary is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt word for today is ” blue” suggested by John Holton at The Sound of One Hand Typing, https://thesoundofonehandtyping.wordpress.com/.

Complete

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We are often seeking something outside ourselves but we already are complete.

“To be beautiful means to be yourself.You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself. When you are born a lotus flower, be a beautiful lotus flower, don’t try to be a magnolia flower. If you crave acceptance and recognition and try to change yourself to fit what other people want you to be, you will suffer all your life. True happiness and true power lie in understanding yourself, accepting yourself, having confidence in yourself.”

-Thich Nhat Hanh

JustJotItJanuary is hosted by Linda G Hill. Today’s prompt word is “incomplete” suggested by Cyn K of That Cynking Feeling, https://cynk.wordpress.com/. I decided to write about the opposite. Featured image is of the beautiful Redwood National Park, California via Pixabay.com.

Extraordinary

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“From outward appearances, no one can tell, the rich inner lives we lead.” ∼Notes Tied on the Sagebrush

Lucy Maude Montgomery

“There isn’t any such thing as an ordinary life.”-L.M. Montgomery

Today is Bessie Coleman’s 125th Birthday , First African American woman pilot,Google reminded me. JustJotItJanuary is hosted by Linda G Hill. Featured image (top of post) ‘Contemplation’ by Maurice Fillonneau on wikimedia. Photo of Lucy Maude Montgomery via wikimedia. Today’s prompt word is “extraordinary” suggested by Kelly of Forty, C’est Fantastique!(https://fortyandfantastique.wordpress.com/)

Laughter

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“Laughter is to the soul what sunshine is to a flower.”-Peggy Toney Horton

Reading funny commentary has been a real stress reliever for me lately. Being able to laugh at something is truly healing. Laughter is one of great pleasures of life. Maybe comedians are truly healers.

“Laughter is a powerful weapon for it carries the light. To laugh is to defy the darkness.” -Isobelle Carmody

One Liner Wednesday and JustJotItJanuary.

Internal Light

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“Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.” -Maya Angelou

One Liner Wednesday featured image Santa Cruz [California] Sunset by Anita Ritenour on Flickr.

and

Resilience

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Winter is the time for quiet and contemplation. The sunlight is weaker and the temperatures drop. Darkness comes earlier in the evening and I find my energy waning. Nature and I are drawing inward to ourselves. The power of life is not diminished, it is just resting and storing up energy. In the Spring it will burst forth again. No man made force can hold it back.

JusJotItJanuary is hosted today by Dan Antion of No Facilities. Word prompt “power” supplied by Erica at 20/20 hines sight. Click on their links to visit their blogs. Featured image of Bodie Hills, Ca. via Bob Wick of US Bureau of Land Management Conservationlands April File on Wikimedia. Click here to get some interesting information about the Bodie Hills location.

Just For Fun

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“Perhaps I write for no one. Perhaps for the same person children are writing for when they scrawl their names in the snow.”
― Margaret Atwood

I enjoy writing on my blog. But is it something tangible and am I a real writer? What is a real writer? It is someone who produces a tangible product like a book or published article. I am writing therefore I am a writer even if I never sell or publish any of it. Writing on my blog or anywhere else is not a job or career and I don’t think I want it to be just now. It is a form of creative expression and sometimes I get on My Soapbox about an issue. A description of my blog writing matches these synonyms for hobby:

Amusement, relaxation, divertissement (ooh, cool French), play, interest, leisure activity, sometimes whimsy, but also art, craft. It is way of being creative for me. Fun.

JustJotItJanuary is being guest hosted by Rosemary Carlson. The prompt word, “tangible” was provided by Prajakta at An Armchair Perfectionist.

Warning Signs

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My morning ritual is coffee, toast/bagel, read several news sites, email, gradually get ready for the day. Having some jittery feelings about the transition to the new President. There are so many news reports of his political appointments, tweets, and general prophecies of doom, gloom, foreboding, and The Russians. So I need to titrate the amounts of these stories going into my brain to help protect myself. Balance the negative with the positive hopefully. Remember there is positive in the world like my duck and turtle crossing sign. I mean if people are trying to protect the ducks and turtles there has to be some good will out there, right? 🙂

The prompt for today’s post is “warning” supplied by my friend Dan Antion at No Facilities for JustJotItJanuary hosted by Linda G Hill. Featured image via Max Pixel.

Sex And Marriage With A Robot

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This is disturbing to me because the robots depicted in the short video are very machine like. I could not imagine having one for a mate. How do you feel about this? I just watched an old episode of Star Trek TNG last night, ” The Measure of a Man,” which is about the android, Data, and how we define what is sentience. Data is so “human-like” that it is easy to relate to him as an individual and envisioning friendships and relationships for him. What kind of personalities would these future “robot-mates” have? Would they be so totally compatable with us, be like mirror images, our twins? Would they never chose to disagree about our choice of restaurants, movies, activities….Just kind of wierd.

DigiDame

You may not believe this but it’s just a matter of time that some of our children, or grandchildren, will take a robot as a life partner. In fact, at the recent Love and Sex with Robots conference in London, industry experts predicted that human-robot marriages will become commonplace by 2050.

You can read all about it here.The New York Post just did a story about this. While many of us consider The New York Post to be a rag, they do have unique and bizarre stories that eventually come true.

Make sure you watch the video too.

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Mormor Names for Grandma

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I have recently found out that I am going to be a Grandmother for the first time. A new adventure opening up on the horizon with a new person coming into the world. I have not got my head around the idea just yet. My daughter in law had asked me what I wanted to be called, for Grandmother. I told her I wasn’t sure. I am not sure I will have a choice either because I think the grandchild can be the one who picks the name.

I called my maternal Grandmother and my husband’s Grandmother, Nana. I do not like the name Nana so much. I am not crazy about Grandma either. I was inspired by a website by the Norwegian photographer Karoline Hjorth called Mormor Chronicles. Mormor is the Norwegian name for Grandmother. On the home page it says: ” Wise Words and Waffles from Nanas of Norway.” She photographed and interviewed several older women for the website. She wanted to give a voice to older women and show that Mormors don’t always match the stereotypes of Grandmother.

I know that Grandmothers in America today are not like the stereotypes of those in the past either. Some young women may say, when describing themselves, ” I am such a Grandma,” meaning the sterotype image of staying at home, knitting, and baking cookies. While I might appreciate these activities in others it does not describe me. I like to eat cookies but do not bake.

I did a little research with Google Translate to see what Grandmother is in a few other languages. I found there are several Pinterest boards and other websites that cover grandparent names. It’s kind of like those baby name sites.

A few names from the long list: