“You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.”
― William Faulkner
Photo: Moonrise with a pink and blue sky over a lake, taken in autumn when the trees are bare of leaves.
If you would like to participate in this prompt, 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.
Here are the simple JusJoJan Rules:
1. Just Jot It January starts January 1st, but it’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honour system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list), counts as a “jot.” If it makes it to your blog that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!
2. I’ll post prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). The prompt will be the word in quotation marks in the title of my 2am post. You don’t have to follow the prompt every day, but that will be where you leave your link for others to see. You’ll get a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday and on Saturday, when your prompt will be the Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS, which will appear at about 9:30am Friday. Each prompt post will include the rules.
2 a) The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:
1. Make it one sentence.
2. Try to make it either funny or inspirational.
3. Use our unique tag #1linerWeds.
4. Add our lovely badge to your post for extra exposure!
5. Have fun!
Badge by Laura @ riddlefromthemiddle.com
3. Please ping back or link to the daily prompt. To ping back, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! Note: A) The newest pingbacks will be at the top of the comments section. B) Ping backs only work if you’re blogging on WordPress. Everyone else must paste a link manually.
4. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.
5. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!
6. If your post is NSFW, do not ping back. Please leave your link in the comments with a warning.
7. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge so that others can find your post more easily.
First, I want to say thank you to Dar for her awesome prompt of the day, the word “solo.”
Back in the day (you know, back when I walked uphill both ways to get to school), I was in the school band. I tried out the trumpet at first, but I sucked at it. Eventually I settled on the clarinet.
I was interested enough in playing that I got into my high school concert band. But I was never good enough to be invited to play a solo. That honour usually went to my best friend, Tracey.
I’m not bitter. Really, I’m not.
Still, though I was never good enough at the clarinet, I’m glad I finally found something I am good at.
And now, in both my writing and editing careers, I’m nothing but solo.
The good news? I’m always the number one employee!
Go me!
***
This one-woman cheering section post is brought to you by Just Jot it January and Dar! Thanks so much again, Dar, for the great prompt. Please be sure to check out her blog.
As I contemplated what I could write on the subject of Willow’s excellent prompt of the day, I decided to go to the dictionary to see what beyond the stars I could write.
And as I thought about it some more, I came to realize that I tend to write the same sort of characters in all my books. That is to say characters all of a sort that have deep issues. Issues of longing, of hardship, of loves lost.
Some of my characters deal with their issues with laughter—they tend to end up in my romantic comedies.
Some of my characters deal with their issues in a more angsty way, as in my paranormal series, “The Great Dagmaru,” and another dark romance that’s been gathering steam in my imagination.
But they’re all part of a constellation in my mind. They’re with me constantly … perhaps helping me sort out my own issues.
***
This contemplative post is brought to you by Just Jot it January and Willow! Thanks so much again, Willow, for the great prompt. Please be sure to check out her blog.
I have one resolution for 2023 and that’s to organize my numerous goals.
Now, I’m sure you’re like, what the heck, Linda? Isn’t having goals just a subset of having resolutions?
Nuh-uh. It’s better than that.
I’ve spent the better part of the last year failing at most of the things I wanted to accomplish on a personal level. My freelance editing business is going very well, and I always manage to get projects done on time, if not early. But the stuff I wanted to do that isn’t on a deadline, i.e. writing my own books? Not so much.
So rather than resolving to write and publish, say, two or three of my own creations this year, I’m going more granular, by organizing my time so I can see what I can reasonably get done in the space of 365 days.
It’s easy to think “I’ll just scroll through Facebook and get to work on my own novel—the one no one is holding me accountable for—later.” But then five minutes on Facebook turns into hours and then I think “It’s okay, I’ll do it tomorrow!”
It’s the rinse and repeat that never ends.
Unless I organize myself.
So yeah, that’s my resolution. Set timers, work when I know I’ll have a chance, organize my time, figure out how long each step takes, and rinse and repeat that instead.
Sounds like a solid plan, right?
I’ll let you know how it goes.
P.S. I looked through my resolutions/bucket lists from past years and there’s one item I’m still striving for. In 2016 I said I wanted to spend a weekend alone in my home. Since then, I don’t think I’ve even had an hour alone. I’ll get there, though. Watch out for the boot, kids! 😉
“You’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching,
Love like you’ll never be hurt,
Sing like there’s nobody listening,
And live like it’s heaven on earth.”
― William W. Purkey
Made with Canva @ canva.com
Photo: The above quote with a woman dancing barefoot on what looks like clear ice, with a sunset behind her.
If you would like to participate in this prompt, 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 pingback, 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.
NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, like Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.
As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS), if you see a pingback 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.”
The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:
1. Make it one sentence.
2. Try to make it either funny or inspirational.
3. Use our unique tag #1linerWeds.
4. Add our lovely badge to your post for extra exposure!
I started off the week with having a Thursday appointment to look forward to. Something to count down to rather than a particularly good appointment. Just a marker for the time to go by. So I did pretty well all week with knowing what day of the week it was.
This morning?
I woke up with no clue. It took me a while to decide that it was Friday. So here I am with a What Day is it Anyway post.
The appointment was really something else. A routine dental cleaning for Alex. Why was it special? Mostly the three hour drive one way to get him there. The local hospitals won’t touch him with his heart condition, and neither will the regular dentists because he won’t stay still. So off to Ottawa we went. Preparation for something like this is huge. I had to get up and start his tube feed at 7am in order to get him to the hospital for a 1:45pm appointment.
So I did that and off we went. Nice drive (though of course it was expensive with the price of gas), and I listened to my audiobook all the way there.
Parked at the hospital, went inside, did all the COVID protocol stuff, sat down in the waiting room …
…and realized I’d forgotten to pick up and administer a dose of antibiotic so he can get his teeth cleaned.
So it was a nice six hour drive. Cost me $54 in gas, $13.50 for parking, and $33 for the chicken dinner I promised Alex if he behaved.
And his teeth are no more clean than they were at 7am yesterday morning.
Next available appointment? November 9th.
At least the audiobook—Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella—was good.
Join me?
If you’re like me and have no idea what day of the week it is, why don’t you write your own “What Day is it Anyway?” post? If you do, you can drop your link in the comments below.
The good thing about scheduling the Friday prompt post a day ahead of time? I don’t have to worry about getting it done on Friday morning before 9:30am.
The drawback to scheduling the Friday prompt a day ahead of time? I keep thinking today is Saturday.
The fact that it’s a holiday for most of the rest of the country isn’t helping.
I’m not sure if they’ll go ahead with the planned fireworks here since there’s supposed to be a thunderstorm at dusk. And I don’t really want to take a chance at having to walk home in the rain if they do go ahead, so I won’t be going regardless.
Will you go to the fireworks this long weekend, either in Canada (Happy Canada Day!) or in the US (Happy Independence Day!)?
Join me?
If you’re like me and have no idea what day of the week it is, why don’t you write your own “What Day is it Anyway?” post? If you do, you can drop your link in the comments below.
Here we are again. Every day this week I’ve woken up wondering what day it is now that Alex is finished school. I work seven days a week, so there’s nothing different in my life. Except Alex’s baseball on Thursday nights, so yay! We have something to do today! I’ll take pictures.
I’m still not going a lot of places. I actually went to the mall last week for the first time in over a year. Stores have moved! I was a bit lost, actually. I think the only place I’ve been to with any regularity other than the grocery store once a week is Best Buy to get computers fixed. *shakes fist at computers*
I copied this post from the one I posted exactly two years ago, just so I’d keep the title consistent. But I kept this little nugget, written Tuesday, June 30, 2020:
This plague seriously needs to be over already.
Little did I know…
Join me?
If you’re like me and have no idea what day of the week it is, why don’t you write your own “What Day is it Anyway?” post? If you do, you can drop your link in the comments below.
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