Life in progress

Monthly Archives: January 2016


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Just Jot It January 8th – Honorable

I’ve been procrastinating long and hard on this post. It’s not that I don’t want to write it, it’s more that I want to get it right. But I want to get some sleep at some point tonight (I haven’t had a night off without kids since my last one in Japan, on November 29th) so here I am just writing it.

Honesty, honour (I managed to eke out one American spelling for the title; sorry Tasha, that’s the best I can do), and ethics, to me, are the most important qualities in a person. I’m no harder on anyone else on these points than I am on myself. I demand them of myself constantly. I come by it honestly enough.

The Golden Rule was drummed into me as a child to the extent that I’ve developed a love/hate relationship with it. Yes, it should be followed always, but it seems a no-brainer. While many people consider it a purely ethical teaching, I can see an equal amount of logic in it. Like Newton’s third law (every action has an equal and opposite reaction), “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” simply makes sense. I’ve begun to see it in action on a daily basis, now that I have a puppy in the house.

Alex is on a feeding pump at home for at least a few hours every day. The pump (which is like an IV pump) has a tube running through it which attaches to a valve in his stomach; it delivers his formula directly. There is about three feet of tubing between his belly and the machine, so if he walks away from the device, the tube sits on the floor. Alex is deathly afraid of the dog grabbing and pulling on the tube, so every time the pup comes near, he screams and pushes him away. The puppy, being a puppy, thinks this means he wants to wrestle. Which makes the situation so much worse than if he quietly held the dog at arm’s length until it got bored and walked away.

Golden Rule or Newton’s Law? Or both?

While my example doesn’t really have a lot to do with behaving ethically, honourably, or honestly, it’s a prime example of why we must react to and treat all humans and creatures as kindly as we can, with as much understanding as we are able to muster. Wouldn’t the world be so much better if puppies weren’t pushed away from enteral feeding devices? And we all just got along quietly and calmly?

The “Honorable” prompt is brought to you by Tasha at Corner Of Confessions. Please click on the link to visit her blog, and follow her if you aren’t already!

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today. It’s never too late! And don’t forget to ping back your January 8th post here!


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Just Jot It January 7th – Robust

Robust isn’t a word I use often. If I did I would perhaps say that I enjoy a robust wine, or blend of coffee. By that I would mean extremely flavourful. But. (There’s always a “but” in there, right?)

I looked up “robust” in my trusty Thesaurus and came up with some very interesting synonyms. Among them are: athletic, hard-headed, lusty, realistic, rollicking, straightforward, and unsubtle.

… How…? I mean how do you describe, say, a person as having all these qualities?

“The athlete rollicked straightforwardly into a lusty yet realistic dance, with an unsubtle hard-headedness. Because that’s who he was.”

Or even worse:

“The wine rollicks over the tongue with an athletic, lusty twist before heading straightforwardly to the belly warming your insides in an unsubtle, hard-headed… really… I don’t even.”

Who knew the word “robust” could mean so many things? For a six-letter word, it’s got to be the most confusing one in the English language.

This “Robust” prompt is brought to you by Michael at Morpethroad. Click on the link and have a read, and tell him I said hi! And thank him for the crazy prompt!

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today. It’s never too late! And don’t forget to ping back your January 7th post here!


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unbucket list

Need some cheering up? Read this lovely, inspiring poem by Candy! 😀

Candace's avatarrhymeswithbug

I will not make a buck-
et list
all things I’d like to do
someday

then tick them off
one by one
until my bucket’s
empty and I am left

instead I will drop some-
thing into my bucket
each day
a kind deed, an adventure

with a four year-old,
a trip, a concert, an un-
expected email,
lunch with a friend

oh, I’m sure there will be big
surprises in my bucket too
and when I reach the end
of this life

I will spill out all the
wonders my bucket
holds, smiling in
gratitude for my full bucket

——

Just Jot It January – bucket list

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One-Liner Wednesday – Enough Said

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“no coffee no workee”

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Anyone who would like to try it out, feel free to use the “One-Liner Wednesday” title in your post, and if you do, you can ping back here to help your blog get more exposure. To execute a ping back, just copy the URL in the address bar on this post and paste it somewhere in the body of your post. Your link will show up in the comments below. Please ensure that the One-Liner Wednesday you’re pinging back to is this week’s! Otherwise, no one will likely see it but me.

As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS), if you see a ping back from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. It’s bound to be short and sweet.

Unlike SoCS, this is not a prompt so there’s no need to stick to the same “theme.” However, if you’d like to combine One-Liner Wednesday with Just Jot It January, go right ahead!

The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:

1. Make it one sentence.

2. Make it either funny or inspirational.

3. Use our unique tag #1linerWeds.

4. Have fun!


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Just Jot It January 6th – Cloud

I love looking at clouds, yet I’ve never been very good at seeing things in them unless the shape made it really apparent. Like this for instance:

DSC00010

Click on it. Do you see it?

The cloud low on the horizon, right behind the cruise ship looks like a giant head of a dragon, facing left. Tell me you see it. Go on. Please.

Sometimes the clouds balance things out:

Sometimes they’re the focus:

sunset

Never mind the Boston Pizza

 
Don’t you love clouds too?
 

The “Cloud” prompt is brought to you by Geoff Lepard at TanGental. If you don’t already know him, check out his blog!

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today. It’s never too late! And don’t forget to ping back your January 6th post here!


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Just Jot It January Prompt for Wednesday Jan. 6th

I’ve been thinking all day about what I’m going to do for tomorrow’s JusJoJan prompt. I didn’t think I’d have a problem with it – I was just going to make my “jot” my usual One-Liner Wednesday. However, far more people are using the prompts than I’d anticipated, and I don’t want to let you all down.

So it is my great joy to announce that someone will have the opportunity to create a prompt for tomorrow. The rules for getting your prompt in are as before: one word in the comments below. If your comment includes more than one word, your suggestion will be eliminated. Also, if you’ve already contributed to the existing prompts for the rest of the month, you are disqualified. The first one to write their word below, wins. Hurry up!

P.S. This post is also part of Tuesday Use It In A Sentence. Today’s word is “joy” and this week it’s being hosted by Kelli at Forty, c’est Fantastique!. Click on the link and join in!


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Just Jot It January 5th – 2016 (My Bucket List)

For the 2016 prompt I’ve decided to take a page from Opinionated Man’s book and write my 2016 Bucket List. Here we go:

  1. Finish my novel and get it published. (I cringe to think how many times this has already drowned in my bucket.)
  2. Get paid for something I write. (It might even be my novel!)
  3. Have a weekend to myself. In my house. Alone.
  4. Teach the dog sign language as well as voice commands so Alex can communicate with him.
    5. A boy and his puppy

    A boy and his puppy

  5. Get my house spotlessly clean top to bottom. (Look for this one on the list every year for the next ten years … a girl can dream.)
  6. Do something with the pot hole that is my back yard. (Okay, it’s not that bad, but it’s not that great either.)
  7. Keep the weight off that I’ve already lost. (This is starting to sound like a list of resolutions. 😛 )
  8. Finish writing the novel I said I was going to finish by Christmas. (My bad.)
  9. Get inspired some more!

What’s on your bucket list for this year?

The “2016” prompt is brought to you by Fiona at Fiona’s Favorites. Click on the link and have a read!

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today. It’s never too late! And don’t forget to ping back your January 5th post here!


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Just Jot It January 4th – Dachshund

Yes, my prompt for today is “Dachshund.” It’s the most challenging prompt so far – it may just end up being THE most challenging prompt for me. Thanks, Bee. 😉

I’ve lived with a few different breeds of dog in my life – my first dog was a black lab. We had him for only half a year because my parents kept saying he was “too big for the house.” As a five year old I could never figure out what that meant. The dog was much smaller than the house.

So the next time we got a dog it was a black miniature poodle. We named her Cindy. Cindy had seven pups – I wanted to keep them all but my parents would only let me keep one. Perhaps seven (or eight with Cindy) was equal to the size of the lab and would be “too big for the house.” Who knows?

My mom still had Cindy and the pup (her name was Gigi, because what else do you call a poodle?) when I moved out. I got married to my first husband and the first thing we did when we moved in together was bought George from the pound. Guess what kind of dog George was? Yes, a Saint Bernard. He was a fantastic dog. So well trained, he even knew sign language – we could make him lay down past shouting distance. Strangely enough, I never thought he was “too big for the house.”

George was the last dog I owned until I got Winston, just two weeks ago. He’s a beagle mix – the vet thinks he may have some basset hound in him. He’ll be ten weeks old tomorrow; even though he’s just a puppy he has quite the character already. The cats think he’s “too big for the house,” but we humans think he’s just right.

So what does this all have to do with Dachshunds? Only that I’ve never owned one.

The “Dachshund” prompt is brought to you by The Bee at Just Fooling Around With Bee. Please check out her blog!

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today. It’s never too late! And don’t forget to ping back your January 4th post here!


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Just Jot It January 3rd – Frozen

There are certain things that will always be frozen in time. Moments we remember, though they may change for the better or worse in our minds, that remain static. Like the birth of a child; finding it impossible to forget the joy but the pain of childbirth becomes distant, as something we women dissociate from, transforming it into a story to be related many times as a comparison to every other kind of pain. Or like the size of a place we frequented as a child – our elementary school gymnasium, or a traveling fair’s ride that seemed massive until we revisit it as an adult.

In the interest of keeping things real, I’ve always found journals to be most helpful. As I go through this blog in the next few days and weeks for the purpose of writing a post on my 2015 year in review I’m sure I’ll find that my frozen shoulder was much worse than I remember, and that my summer was unbearably hot (it’s hard not to want such a thing when you’re freezing to death in January, no matter how miserably humid it was).

I’m trying to think of a moment in my past other than the two examples above that might not have been as big or wonderful, or as unhappy or painful as I remember it, but of course, in my mind it’s all exactly as I now imagine it was.

What is your moment?

The “Frozen” prompt is brought to you by Helen Espinosa at This Thing Called Life One Word At A Time. If you don’t already follow her, please check out her blog!

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today. It’s never too late! And don’t forget to ping back your January 3rd post here!


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Important Announcement about JusJoJan

First, I have to say I’m ecstatic over the response this year to Just Jot It January. I’m amazed at how many bloggers are joining in and I’m grateful to each and every one of you. Thank you!

Yesterday, however, has taught me that if there’s any chance I’m going to make it to all your posts to read and hopefully comment, I’m going to need some help from you. Originally I expected to be able to link all the ping backs that ended up on the Rules post back to whatever I posted on the current day. I spent the better part of yesterday doing just that; I wasn’t expecting such a great turnout! So here’s what you can do:

If you write your post ahead of midnight (or if you’re in another time zone, before mine is published at 2am my local time) and you ping back to the Rules post, please also drop a link to your post in the comments section of my daily post. If my daily post has been published, please link back to that. The reason behind this is that as the month goes on, the links will get buried in Rules post (last year’s Rules had 317 comments with less than half the number of people participating as there are this year). Eventually, no one will visit the Rules post since everyone will know the Rules off by heart. Therefore, your link won’t get any attention except from me.

So from now on, PLEASE either ping back directly to my current post (today’s is here: https://lindaghill.com/2016/01/02/just-jot-it-january-2nd-pausepaws-socs/ ) or drop a comment and your link in my current post so other people can find you. And check back often so you can see who else is posting. This is your community! Be good to one another! 😀

Again, thanks to everyone participating for making this year’s Just Jot It January an unprecedented success!