Our prompt word for January 24th is “ideal.” Thanks so much, Astrid, for the great prompt!
I like playing solitaire.
Because no matter what …
I deal.
See what I did there?
***
This ridiculous post is brought to you by Just Jot it January and Paula! Please be sure to check out Astrid’s blog here!
For Just Jot it January, click the following link to see how you, too, can join in! https://lindaghill.com/2023/01/24/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-24th-2023/ It’s fun!
The prompt word for January 23rd is “paintbrush.” Thanks go to Paula for the colourful prompt!
When we paint our woes with broad brushstrokes, we don’t really convey everything we’re living.
Ugh, I have so much to do!
It tells a story, but the behind-the-scenes to-do list is not anyone has time to hear about. They have their own to-dos.
Ack! Everything hurts!
It might not be accurate, but it conveys the message better than an inventory of all our aches and pains. And just about everyone can agree that aches and pains are all-consuming when we have them.
But when we paint our accomplishments and happiness, it’s usually more defined.
When was the last time anyone said to you Everything is wonderful! And when they did, could you relate? If not, ask yourself why not?
Because there’s almost always something we didn’t get around to doing. There’s almost always a discomfort or pain somewhere.
But if you take the reverse, when there’s so much to do, isn’t there something you’ve accomplished somewhere along the way?
When everything hurts, is there not usually something that doesn’t?
We let the negative keep us from painting our happiness in broad brushstrokes, but the positive rarely gets in the way of the broad strokes of our woes.
Let’s change that. Right now.
Repeat after me:
Everything is wonderful!
And let’s do that every day.
***
This hopefully uplifting post is brought to you by Just Jot it January and Paula! Please be sure to check out Paula’s blog here!
For Just Jot it January, click the following link to see how you, too, can join in! https://lindaghill.com/2023/01/23/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-23rd-2023/ It’s fun!
Our prompt word of the day today is “optimism.” Thank you so much, June for your wonderful prompt!
In coming up with something to write on the subject of optimism, I’ve discovered something. As I so often do.
I’ve discovered that optimism is easier the narrower the subject gets. Case in point:
Am I optimistic about the state of the world? Not really. At least not with the way it’s going.
The state of my country? A bit more so, but it’s beginning to go the way of the world.
The province I live in? Not unless we can get rid of Doug Ford.
My family? Sure. We’re doing okay.
This post?
I have the highest optimism that it’s going to get posted in three … two … one …
***
This somewhat optimistic post is brought to you by Just Jot it January and June! Please be sure to check out June’s blog here!
For Just Jot it January, click the following link to see how you, too, can join in! https://lindaghill.com/2023/01/16/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-16th-2023/ It’s fun!
Once upon a time … You’d think this would be easy for me, wouldn’t you?
I tell stories all the time.
And yet, every single time I write one, I ask myself, Is this autobiographical? Am I writing about me?
I don’t want to write about me when I write fiction, so I try to steer away from it.
But I think it’s a common thing for writers to wonder. How else can we write aside from relaying what we’ve observed about the world? And how much of those things, those experiences, has seeped in to make us who we are?
GAH!
I didn’t want to get philosophical with this.
Who came up with this prompt anyway?!?
Oh.
I did.
***
This cozy post is brought to you by SoCS and Just Jot it January. Click the link to see how you, too, can join in! It’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2023/01/13/the-friday-reminder-for-socs-jusjojan-2023-daily-prompt-jan-14th/
2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.com/
Our prompt word of the day today is “reversal.” Thank you to Sadje for such a challenging prompt!
I’ve spent the entire day trying to figure out what I could write about reversals. Finally, I looked it up in the dictionary, and it was the example sentences that made me realize why I was having such a difficult time applying the word to anything in my life.
Here are some of those examples, from Merriam-Webster online:
- In a sudden reversal, the mayor has decided not to run for reelection.
- a surprising reversal in the value of the stock
It was the “sudden” and “surprising” that clued me in. Because so many changes in life happen gradually, and the ones that happen suddenly are often negative, I think I may have blocked them out. Unless you suddenly win the lottery and have a reversal of fortune, fortune tends to come slowly due to a goal or a dream. We usually have to work for the good things in life.
Maybe that’s why that damned nightmare of being in a car that’s moving backwards and won’t stop no matter how hard you press the brake is so … nightmarish.
***
This contemplative post is brought to you by Just Jot it January and Sadje. Thanks again, Sadje! I wish I’d thought of this prompt word myself. 🙂 Please be sure to check out Sadje’s blog here!
For Just Jot it January, click the following link to see how you, too, can join in! https://lindaghill.com/2023/01/13/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-13th-2023/ It’s fun!
Today’s prompt, “endurance,” was chosen by Destiny. Thanks so much for the awesome word, Destiny!
Okay, so I’ve got a slew of planners now to keep me on track this year. A SLEW, I tell you!
The most recent one is an hourly one that goes from 6am to 11pm. I would have liked it to go later, but hey, maybe it will entice me to go to bed before 2am, eh?
Like, the day is finished at 11. My planner says so!
All this means is I’m not just organizing my time, I’m micro-organizing my time. Like the CEO of the company I am.
Can’t wait to go golfing! That’s what CEOs do, right?
Anyway …
We’ll see how much endurance I have for this.
Because it’s only 9 days into the year. 356 to go.
I feel like I’ve just begun a marathon.
***
This tiring post is brought to you by Just Jot it January and Destiny! Please be sure to check out her blog.
For Just Jot it January, click the following link to see how you, too, can join in! https://lindaghill.com/2023/01/09/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-9th-2023/ It’s fun!
I’d like to say thanks so much to Jezzie G. for his awesome prompt of the day, “friendship.”
I read somewhere once that I’m a typical Aquarius in that I’m able to remain friends with people even if I don’t talk to them for years. And for the most part, it’s been true. I can easily pick up where I left off.
Take my best friend, for instance. Okay, so he’s an Aquarius too—his birthday is the day after mine—but we didn’t talk to each other for, like, ten years at a time. We drifted apart after high school and met up for dinner about ten years later, then there were another two ten-year or so gaps when we both kinda fell off the face of the earth, then he moved to a house around the corner from me about ten years ago and we’ve seen each other regularly ever since.
Except with COVID. He came over for breakfast yesterday for the first time in almost three years. Breakfasts together were a daily habit when he first moved here.
But aside from that, he’s one of my only friends … Until I get together with someone else I haven’t seen for ten years, I guess.
Is that weird?
***
This friendly type post is brought to you by Just Jot it January and Jezzie G.! Thanks again, Jez, for the great prompt. Please be sure to check out his blog.
For Just Jot it January, click the following link to see how you, too, can join in! https://lindaghill.com/2023/01/08/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-8th-2023/ It’s fun!
Thinking outside the box isn’t easy when you can’t get out of the box. I know this, because at times, I think of my house as my box that I rarely leave anymore.
Is that why cats get into boxes? So they feel protected and don’t have to think about what’s outside?
I’ll have to ask a cat someday.
But I mean sure, we have movies, TV, books, the internet—they all help us to escape the box and think outside of it. They’re not the same as actually living it, though.
I fear sometimes that I’m getting far too comfortable in my box. C’mon, though. I live in my PJs! Who wouldn’t be comfortable?
***
This cozy post is brought to you by SoCS and Just Jot it January. Click the link to see how you, too, can join in! It’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2023/01/06/the-friday-reminder-for-socs-jusjojan-2023-daily-prompt-jan-7th/
2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.com/
Thanks so much to Ritu for her delectable prompt of the day, the word “sweet.”
I’m going to write about how busy I am—yes, again—because A) it’s what’s on my mind, and B) if I start talking about sweets … Let’s just say there’s an unopened tin of Quality Street chocolates upstairs and I’m trying to not tempt myself into opening it until I’ve completely digested my holiday dinners.
On point “A,” I’m discovering (today—this is an observation I’m just making today) that if I’m only a little bit busy, meaning I’ve got nothing currently on my plate to get done on a deadline, I get less done of what I need to do and more procrastinating done than if I was busier.
It’s the mindset of Oh, I can get that done in five minutes! I can play a game or scroll through my Facebook feed first … what do you mean it’s four o’clock already?!?
It’s as destructive a mindset as, say, opening a tin of chocolates and eating all the orange ones … *slaps self*
My point is, there’s got to be some kind of sweet spot where I’m busy enough to convince my brain that yes, I have to get some work done today, and no, it’s not okay to waste an entire day doing nothing, or on the other face of the coin, being so busy I just want to crawl under the bed with the cat and go to sleep instead of digging in and getting it done.
And if there’s no sweet spot, how do I create one?
The answer is, of course, discipline. Not chasing after that shiny bit of string (apparently I’m easily influenced by the cat) like Facebook when I could be getting the few things that need to be accomplished done first.
Writing everything down in a planner is helping. Being able to see my to-dos without having to remember them (or conveniently forget them) works well as long as there aren’t too many gaps in my schedule.
Maybe I need to find a way to concentrate all my tasks into a set time. Like, say, 9 to noon and 1-5, and then take my scrolling time after those hours.
Now there’s a concept.
I’ll have to contemplate that over some chocolate.
***
This proactive post is brought to you by Just Jot it January and Ritu! Thanks so much again, Ritu, for the sweet prompt. Please be sure to check out her blog.
For Just Jot it January, click the following link to see how you, too, can join in! https://lindaghill.com/2023/01/06/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-6th-2023/ It’s fun!
Our prompt word of the day today is “cancer.” My thank you goes to Lauren for her profound suggestion.
I’m one of the lucky ones who hasn’t been touched directly by the unfathomable and unfair nature of cancer, though I do know those who both have been and currently are. To them, I wish nothing but peace, love, and happiness.
In the meantime, I’m doing what I can to provide help, if in only the most distant of ways. And though it feels somewhat tacky, I want to tell you about a book.
It’s not just any book. And I don’t stand to gain any money from its sale, though I have a story in it. All proceeds, in fact, will be directed to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
I bring to you, Love and Other Kerfuffles.
Is Cupid a lover or a fighter?
This Valentine’s Day affairs of the heart wind their way around workplace flings, turning enemies into romance, friends into lovers and shooting his darts at a certain best friend’s brother.
Kerfluffy is on the rampage, making cute ‘n’ fluffy appearances throughout this collection of romance stories bringing love and laughter to every Happily Ever After.
Over thirty titillating stories from USA Today best-selling and award-winning romance authors in a rom-com collection curated by The New Romance Cafe, with ALL proceeds going to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
If you enjoy reading romantic comedy, I do hope you’ll consider donating to breast cancer research by buying this wonderful anthology. It’s available for pre-order, for release on February 7th. And please tell your friends!
***
This hopeful post is brought to you by Just Jot it January and Lauren! Thanks again, Lauren, for your heartfelt prompt. Please be sure to check out Lauren’s blog here.
For Just Jot it January, click the following link to see how you, too, can join in! https://lindaghill.com/2023/01/05/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-5th-2023/ It’s fun!
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