To my way of thinking
how we think
express ourselves
and our creativity
is unique to each of us
The creative spark
comes from inside
What we create
can be copied
but how we create can not.
Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt word for today is ‘reason’. Featured image by Andri Tegar Mahardika on Pixabay.com
A good night’s sleep is a rare treat these days. We are told, at my age, we need 7-8 hours of sleep per night. The sleep I get is broken. If I at least get blocks of 3-4 hours together, and get into some REM sleep, I feel I am doing good.
If you have had children, you can remember disrupted sleep, sometimes for years, when your kids were little. Now the causes for me are different but the results are the same.
Lots of brain fog.
Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt for today is ‘sleep’. Featured image by Tyli jura via Pixabay.com
” Sychronicity -the coincidental occurrence of events and especially psychic events (such as similar thoughts in widely separated persons or a mental image of an unexpected event before it happens) that seem related but are not explained by conventional mechanisms of causality…” (Merriam Webster.com)
I’ve had the experience more times than I can count. I am thinking about my daughter and she calls. I am thinking about her and feel something may be wrong. I call her and find out she is having some problem. Or I will say something and my husband will say he was thinking the exact same thing. Many of you may have had these experiences too. I don’t think of them as coincidences do you?
This post is part of Stream of Consciousness Saturday’s prompt ‘Coincidence.’ Featured image ‘Solitude and the Sea’ by the artist Jacques Bodin
“Reading is the key that opens doors to many good things in life. Reading shaped my dreams, and more reading helped me make my dreams come true.” ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg
If we were having coffee, I would tell you I have been busy reading the books I checked out of the library this week. I am often attracted to books with the word ‘library’ or ‘bookstore’ in their titles. So, one book that caught my attention was ‘The Book Woman’s Daughter’, by Kim Michele Richardson. It is a historical novel set in Appalachia and ‘the book woman’ is what the locals called the Pack Horse Librarian. She was a young woman who rode up into the hills and hollers bringing library books to the people there. The Pack Horse Library Project was started during the Depression through the WPA (Works Progress Administration). The women were paid $28/month and had to supply their own horses or mules. Some women would rent their horses from local farmers. There were many people who couldn’t read in Eastern Kentucky so the women would read the books to them as well.
To help combat illiteracy in that area there was another program called ‘Moonlight Schools’ started by Cora Wilson Stewart. Local schoolteachers volunteered to teach adults to read and write in the evening at the one room schoolhouses where they taught children during the day. The program was successful and copied in several other counties and states.
Another interesting part of the book is that the main character and her mother have a hereditary condition, called congenital methemoglobinemia, that causes their skin to be blue. It only affected the younger woman’s hands and feet, but it caused her to feel shame and she and her family suffered terrible discrimination because of it. There was a real group of people in Kentucky who had this hereditary trait.
I really admire the Pack Horse Librarians and the great teachers who provided these wonderful services to their communities. The Pack Horse Library Project ran from 1935-1943. After that there were more accessible roads for the introduction of bookmobiles.
You can read more about the Moonlight School program of Kentucky here.
Weekend Coffee Share is hosted by Natalie at Natalie the Explorer.
Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt for today is ‘key.’
“I think the public library system is one of the most amazing American institutions. Free for everybody. If you ever get the blues about the status of American culture there are still more public libraries than there are McDonald’s. During the worst of the Depression not one public library closed their doors.” ~ David McCullough
If we were having coffee, I would tell you I was sad to hear that a historian and author I admired had passed. David McCullough brought history alive for me with his books ‘1776’, ‘John Adams’, and ‘Truman’. David McCullough died August 7, 2022. I agree with this quote about libraries. They are amazing and uplifting places that nourish our minds and spirits. You get a library card for free and then can check out any book in the collection. I have recently gone back to the local library to check out several books. I have to be patient while the books requested are shipped to my local branch and need to return them within a specified length of time. I can extend the time with a renewal if no one is waiting for the book. My local library system has a lot of the latest popular fiction available, so I do not have to buy so many books. The only problem is I think I requested too many books this time and hope I will be able to renew some of them when they come due.
Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt for today was to use a word starting with the letter ‘u’.
Weekend Coffee Share is hosted by Natalie at Natalie the Explorer.
If we were having coffee, I would tell you I have been hibernating a bit lately because the weather has not been good for walking. Just going out for errands or appointments. Read in the weather reports we are supposed to have thunderstorms but so far only a few sprinkles of rain over our area.
We have had humidity. I did take a walk yesterday when it was 92F, but with humidity my weather app told me it felt like 100F.
The weather app is predicting a storm for tomorrow. We will see. In the meantime, I need to take a ‘digital break.’
Above wallpaper from interesting article in Washington Post Wellness section by Hannah Good, ‘Need a break? Take one with this digital reststop,’ about taking a break from negative digital media by focusing on relaxing images.
Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt for today is ‘wallpaper.’
Weekend Coffee Share is hosted by Natalie at Natalie the Explorer.
If we were having coffee, I would tell you the temperatures are going to be in the triple digits until Friday. Hot weather for June even here in the Coachella Valley. We are maintaining our cool with the AC and my husband has the fans going all over the house. It puts a crimp in my walking goals. I have been walking at least 30 minutes a day. Have to see if I can get up real early to walk before the heat sets in.
We’ve had a couple more visits from the roadrunners. I spotted one hopping up the branches of the grapefruit tree. I don’t think they like grapefruit but are probably using the branches like a ladder up to the back wall.
I’ve been doing the Spelling Bee in the daily newsletter from the New York Times. You have to see how many words you can make out of 7 letters. The words have to be at least 4 letters in length. I knew the word zigzag, but did you know you that ‘zigged’ and ‘zagged’ are words all by themselves?
The roadrunner zigged and zagged to avoid detection by a couple of big ravens.
Weekend Coffee Share is hosted by Natalie at Natalie the Explorer.
Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt for today is ‘ a picture from wherever.’
If we were having coffee, I would tell you I turned over a new leaf, tea leaf that is. I’m having a cup of honey chai turmeric this morning. I do have coffee available if you prefer.
The weather continues moderate here and good for walking outside. We did have some wind the other day which kicked up quite a bit of sand into the air. But none of the extreme weather like I read about in other parts of country and world. Life here continues mostly indoors.
Our book group is starting up again this month. I had already purchased three new books and I am in the process of starting to read the third one. We will meet on Zoom but the plan is for in person in March.
The three books:
‘The Sentence’ by Louise Erdrich
‘State of Terror’ by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny
‘The Dark Hours’ by Michael Connelly
The book group book for this month:
‘The Vanishing Half’ by Brit Bennett
Of the two books on the top list that I just read; ‘State of Terror’ is the page turner. ‘The Sentence’ centers around a haunted bookstore in Minneapolis. It includes current events like living through the pandemic lockdowns and protests after the killing of George Floyd. The bookstore is able to remain open and sell books by curbside pick-up and sometimes home delivery. I picked up a couple of books curbside, but now I order them online for delivery. I did have a book arrive damaged recently and had to go to the local Barnes & Noble to exchange it. I didn’t expect to see so many people in the store, all wearing masks. Like in the book, bookstores are a balm during these times.
Maybe we’ll turn the page on Covid soon.
Weekend Coffee Share is hosted by Natalie at Natalie the Explorer
And Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt word for Saturday is ‘page.’
If we were having coffee, I would be having herbal or decaf tea. I have given up coffee for a while because it was one of the things that was causing stomach problems. If you had asked me a few months ago if I thought I could stop drinking coffee, I would have said it would be very hard. It surprises me that it has been pretty easy. I don’t think I have had caffeine withdrawal she says as she falls asleep at the computer.
I made a resolution to get outside and walk every day and I have been sticking to it almost 100%. It does feel pretty good to go out and look at the trees, various cacti, flowers, and the beautiful expanse of sky over the Coachella Valley. I even like the dark grey clouds like the ones we had about a week ago that brought some rain with them.
So far it hasn’t really stormed here but we did get enough to soak our patio and one of the roadrunners. I spotted it up on a fence puffing up its feathers, trying to dry off.
Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill.
I thought by now we would all be looking in the rear-view mirror at the pandemic, but it continues to have a few tricks up it sleave. So here we are heading into another holiday season with a new variant. It’s having to worry about catching it, wearing masks, nervous about letting repair people into the house or getting too close to a stranger or slightly known acquaintance. I know some like to throw caution to the winds…
And even though I feel like it sometimes, I don’t want to catch COVID or spread it to someone else. So, I don’t have to like it but, I will continue to take precautions and I hope you do too.
Hope you have Happy, Healthy, and Safe holidays!
Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt word for today is ‘opposite.’
Weekend Coffee Share is hosted by Natalie at Natalie the Explorer.
Photo of Mill Rose Inn by Wonderlane on Flickr.com
Notes Tied On The Sagebrush 