Life in progress

Author Archives: Helen Vahdati


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The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Nov. 21/15

It’s Friday again and unfortunately, Linda isn’t here, so you’ll have to settle for me instead. I hope I can fill her very large shoes without falling on my face. (I guess I made it out alive last year, so I don’t know why this one is making me shake so much…)

Do you ever have something that gets stuck in your head and you think “that’s not very good so I’m going to think of something else;” only, you can’t come up with anything else because all you can think about is that very first thing? Yeah, that’s what happened when I was thinking about this week’s prompt. I finally decided to give in and post the original prompt because it obviously wants some air time.

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “to/too/two.” Use one, use them all, but most of all, just have fun!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here at this week’s prompt page and check to make sure it’s here in the comments so others can find it and see your awesome Stream of Consciousness post. Anyone can join in!

To make your post more visible, use the SoCS badge! Just paste it in your Saturday post so people browsing the reader will immediately know your post is stream of consciousness and/or pin it as a widget to your site to show you’re a participant. Wear it with pride!!

SoCS badge 2015

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!


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Keeping it Real with Reintroductions

If you hadn’t heard, Linda is flying away to a land far away this week so she asked for some help with the  SoCS prompt. I was excited to help, but then I remembered that Linda likes me to “introduce” myself and I don’t know; I just feel so awkward. It most likely won’t stop me in the future, but maybe it will remind me to plan better, although I’m not entirely sure how you plan one of these posts.

I guess I’ll just jump right in and go for it. If you were around last year, I’ll try not to bore you with a repeat of my first introduction post.

Not much has changed with me since last year except my day job. After six months of working a job I really hated, I finally found something that I love, but it restricts when I can actually jump on the blog and write. I’ve had to work writing and blogging into my nighttime and weekends and it hasn’t been as easy as it was a year ago, but I feel it’s totally worth the sacrifices. Every time I go a few days without posting, I feel like I’m missing something and I inevitably end up hearing from a family member to get my butt in gear.

Perhaps the change in my circumstance led to the change that has happened on my blog. I’ve done a lot more poetry this year, which hasn’t been a bad thing. I’m reminded how much I love poetry. I do miss the longer stories I used to write, but those take a lot more out of me and at this point, I can’t seem to find the time. I’m hoping I can fit them in once I’m more established at the new job.

I also started my very own prompt this summer called Song Lyric Sunday. I love music and wanted to share my favorite music with my blogging friends and have them share their favorites with me. It’s more like a simmer right now instead of the wildfire I hoped it would be, but I do love those who have participated with me. If you’re interested, you are more than welcome to jump in!

You can find me over at This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time. As I’ve said, I write poetry, flash fiction and I try to write stream of conscious every Saturday, although I’ve missed a few weeks this year. I have three beautiful kids that I write about quite a lot and I’ve written a few posts about the struggle with the day job. I guess you could say I try to keep it real.

I’m excited to read all your posts on Saturday. I hope I can make Linda’s absence not seem so rough, although I know she will be missed.


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Thank You for the Warm Welcome

Linda is a pretty amazing and very trusting person. She told us we could post on her blog while she is away, but I wasn’t actually planning on it. I have my own blog, after all (that I feel like I’ve been ignoring),  and it’s still pretty intimidating, if I’m completely honest. I look at that 4,000 follower count and do the slow blink as my heart starts to beat a little faster. It pales in comparison to my own list of followers, especially considering I never imagined my blog would get over 10, much less over 100!

But I wanted to let you all know how much I appreciated the warm welcome I received and how much fun I had yesterday reading all your wonderful posts and commenting back and forth. I love how one word can bring so many different types of responses and it was heart-warming and lovely spending a Saturday with all of you.

If any more posts trickle in today, I will keep reading and responding. I’m pretty excited I managed to keep up with all the posts that came in yesterday! (It was fun sitting in my pajamas half the day with a cup of coffee just enjoying the experience)

I also appreciate the positive feedback on my prompt as I was a little worried about how it would be received. It’s funny when you start something new how overwhelming it feels but when you do it enough times, it just becomes a thing. I imagine Linda was maybe a little nervous when she did her first SoCS prompt but after doing it enough, she became the expert. It makes me appreciate what it entails to host something like this and I am even more grateful for her prompt each week.

I’m going to leave you with a quote that ties in with the prompt yesterday and wish you all a blessed week in your blogging, your writing and whatever life has in store for you. Thank you again for putting up with me for a few days. Stay tuned for Pav, Leigh and any other posts we might decide to put up in Linda’s absence.

“It is through gratitude for the present moment that the spiritual dimension of life opens up.”
-Eckhart Tolle

 


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The Friday Reminder and Prompt for SoCS December 6/14

Hello all! I’m here to fill in for Linda while she’s away and it’s our favorite day of the week… it’s the day we get our prompt for SoCS!

I actually thought of this prompt a while ago, when I first volunteered to help out, not even knowing if Linda would choose me or not. I was happy to find it hadn’t been used before and, if you’re so inclined to use it that way, it could tie in very nicely with the Christmas shopping I know you’re all busy doing right now. Well, anyone who is ahead of the game. Me? I usually wait until the weekend before. I’m a glutton for punishment, I guess.

So, for this week your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “Present.” Use it however you’d like, just make sure you have fun and enjoy the words flowing onto your screen so you can share them with us!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here at this week’s prompt page and check to make sure it’s here in the comments so others can find it and see your awesome Stream of Consciousness post. Anyone can join in!

To make your post more visible, use the SoCS badge! Just paste it in your Saturday post so people browsing the reader will immediately know your post is stream of consciousness and/or pin it as a widget to your site to show you’re a participant. Wear it with pride!!

socs-badge

Badge by: Doobster @ Mindful Digressions

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” or “Begin with the word ‘The’.”

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments, for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. Have fun!


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Don’t Mind Me, I’m Just Helping Out

I was stoked to help Linda out with SoCS while she is on vacation for a few weeks up until she asked me to write an introduction post. I had difficulties with my own “about me” page, much less saying hey to all you lovely folks and letting you know who I am and why I’m here (not sure I even know that… well, actually, I know why I’m a guest here at Linda’s blog, I’m just not sure I know why I’m here, as in the big HERE, you know?). I was thinking I was smart by having someone else go first, but then Pav went and threw up that post yesterday and I realized it probably wasn’t the best idea to let him go first! (Great post, by the way)

Speaking of Pav, it’s pretty funny in a weird sort of “holy shit the universe just did that” kind of way that Pav and I were selected to help out. Pav’s blog was one of the first I really got hooked on when I started reading blogs, and his writing adventures actually started me thinking it was something I wanted to do and probably could do. He is also the one who led me to SoCS, so I have a lot to thank him for. Thanks Pav!

I’ve always loved writing but it wasn’t something I thought was a “thing for me” so I never pursued it. I wrote some poems in high school and started what I thought could be a pretty great book probably ten years ago, but I didn’t jump in with both feet so it sort of fizzled and died as those pesky things are wont to do when you don’t put time and energy into them. The thing that really started my thought process about writing was when my sister went back to college and ended up sending all her papers to me for editing. I’m probably one of those really weird people who likes the edit process, although to be honest, I’ve never tried to edit a novel, so I’m not sure I really know what I’m in for. Does it count that my sister got A’s on all the papers I edited? Probably not…  Anyway, when she ended up graduating and going into a line of work she was passionate about, and not only that she was thinking about turning her senior thesis into a book and asked for my help, I said absolutely but I also did that sister jealousy thing where I told myself I could do what I love too!

I jumped into my blog in May honestly believing I wasn’t all that creative and wondering what the hell I was even thinking. Since that scary moment when my finger hovered over the publish button wondering if I should or shouldn’t, I’ve managed to surpass even my own expectations and found a pretty great blogging community on top of it all. If you want to check it out, I’m over here at This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time. It’s a crazy mix of flash fiction, poetry, ramblings about running/exercising, and being a Mom to three pretty great kids.

Introductions aside, I decided to jump right in, so I’ll be first out of the gate this week with your SoCS prompt. I’m looking forward to interacting with all of you and hope I am an acceptable substitute for Linda while she’s away.

Thanks for the trust, Linda! May you not live to regret it.