Life in progress

Category Archives: Life


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#SoCS – Still is the answer, what was the question?

I find it incredibly hard to sit still. Especially when I’m trying to write. If I’m not getting up to get something I’m playing a mindless game on the computer because my brain just can’t handle, most of the time, the intense thought processes it has to go through to get what’s on it, on the screen. I need time to fully picture what I’m going to write before I write it. Once I have that picture I can go – and sometimes, yes, I’ll look up from the screen and realize it’s gotten dark outside without my noticing. Or, “Oh, look at that. I missed dinner time. No wonder I’m hungry.” This is, of course, only when I’m alone. Which is the best time for me to get anything done anyway.

I have a hard time sitting still but I wish my weight reflected that. Normally when I think of someone who’s always on the go I think of a person who is as skinny as a rail. Not me. Which proves that there’s no such thing as a stereotype where busyness is concerned. Then again, usually when I write and I have to distract myself, I end up in the kitchen…

The word “still” bugs me sometimes. At my most stressful times I’m usually saying “I still have to do this,” or “I still have to do that.” There’s always something I still have to do. I never get to the end of the damned “to do” list. That could have something to do with why I’m not sure my manuscript will ever be finished. There’s always a point I want to change or something I want to fix. Perfection must be achieved! Which I know sucks, but I don’t want to be criticized for something I could have fixed but didn’t.

Maybe instead of making my own wine (at the wine store) I’ll eventually end up with my own still in the basement. It may be the cure for all my stress. And hey, I can just pass out down there. That’ll keep me still.

SoCS badge 2015This post is part of Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click here https://lindaghill.com/2015/10/16/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-oct-1715/ to learn more! Come and join us. 🙂


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What Type of Believer Are You?

There are different types of believers in this world. Those who are religious (or not) are usually the first to come to mind. Some believe devoutly in one political party over another, others are positive there are aliens hovering, just waiting for the right time to be taken to our leader (which may or may not have something to do with the example before). But none of these have anything to do with my ponderings, nor my question to you.

This morning, while I was preparing my son’s tube-feeding, I started thinking about the difference between people who believe in superstitions versus those who swear things that happen which are related to one another are mere coincidence. And then I thought about Murphy’s Law. You know, the one that goes something like, “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” I then started to wonder if there’s any correlation between the pessimistic old Irishman and the half full/half empty glass.

Keeping in mind the fact that I was thinking all this at 5:30am, I’m sure you’ll bear with me through my semi-conclusions to this riot of contemplation. Right? Okay. Here we go.

If a person believes in Mr. Murphy’s doom and gloom prophesy, he (using male pronoun for no other reason than ease) is more likely to be superstitious. Why? Because it’s his only defense against a probable negative outcome. It follows then (or at least it did in the wee hours of this morning), that superstitious people are glass half-empty people. So, Murphy = superstition = pessimist.

Alternatively, if a person does not believe the infamous Mr. Murphy had a leg to stand on, then she (see above pronoun explanation) is more likely to believe that relatable happenings are coincidence. Why? Because why not. This happens, that happens, chances are if we do it right in the first place then it’ll be okay. You see where I’m going next… she is the glass half-full person. The coincidence believer. No Murphy = coincidence = optimist.

All cut and dry, right? It is until I take into account that I believe in some superstitions and most of the time our dear old Murphy AND I’m an optimistic glass half-full type. What to do with this confusing information… Hmm… Oh I know! Ask my wonderful friends in WordPress land! Where do you fit in to all of this gobbledigook?

To make it easier, I’ve created a poll.

Please answer it as best you can.

Further to the poll, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Am I way out to lunch? (Or breakfast, as the case may be.) Should I keep my 5:30am thoughts to myself? Let me know. And don’t forget to vote! This is science, people!

 


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Let me share with you

Do you ever experience something when you’re alone that’s so incredible, you just have to share it with someone else? It happened to me the other day, kind of. I was strolling along the waterfront trail when came across an elderly man who was sitting on a bench facing the water. He turned to me and I smiled and he said to me, “Do you want to see something?”

I said, “Sure,” and walked over to where he was sitting.

He pointed at a heron, standing close by on the rocky shore. “They don’t normally let you get this close,” he said to me. “Isn’t he beautiful?”

I agreed and then I respectfully oohed and aahed; I hadn’t the heart to tell him I’d been even closer to one of the huge, majestic birds just a few days before. When I walked away I felt good that I had been the one to share his wonderful discovery with him.

Here’s the first heron I saw:

heron

Isn’t he beautiful? 😉


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One-Liner Wednesday – I’m driving here!

Last night, as I was driving down the main laneway in a parking lot, an entire family stepped out in front of me. I stopped rather close to them by necessity and the woman yelled at me through my open window, “We’ve got kids here, you could wait your turn!” I hmphed and drove away. When I got home, my adult son told me I should have retorted, “I’ve got a car here, you could wait yours!”

From now on I’m not leaving home without my 21 year old son. I’m sure he’ll be pleased with that arrangement.

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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.”

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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Envy me if you must…

This is the sort of thing I wake up to in the morning:

Minion stuck in a roll of paper towel

Minion stuck in a roll of paper towel

It’s a hard life.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends!


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#SoCS – Living

Living is really only part of what we do on this planet, isn’t it? When you think that most things (and if you ask some, they’ll say all things) we do affects something or someone else, our “living” goes beyond just existence. Our attitude has a lot to do with how we affect other people … and other things. Are things any less important than people? It depends. The rock you kick down the street because your bored and you’re walking (have you ever kicked a rock all the way home from school or a friend’s house? I used to do it all the time as a kid) may not seem like much of a big deal. But if you get mad and kick it and it breaks a window, your attitude has affected a person, not just a thing. Unless the window is attached to an abandoned house, in which case it probably won’t matter to anyone. But what if you kicked every stone out of someone’s gravel driveway? Okay, I’m pushing it here, aren’t I?

So I’m making up a new word. We don’t just “live,” we “attitude.” Like it or not, my new word is “attituding” as in “Stop attituding!” Feel free to use it any time. My treat.

(Half a point for making up a new word?) hehe

This deep yet rambling post has been brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click the link and join in today! https://lindaghill.com/2015/10/09/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-oct-1015/

SoCS badge 2015


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The Advocate

I’m not sure if this is going to come off as a tired rant, a tirade, or an attempt to show others that they’re not alone, but here we go anyway.

Advocating for one’s family is a ball-buster. Bureaucracy makes it so that the people working at the level the public deals with on a daily basis in the schools, and all the way up to the federal government, are in a position to simply throw up their hands and say, “Sorry, this is the way it is.” Which makes it necessary for us advocates to go above their heads. But it’s not as easy as just making a phone call. Oh no. There are “proper channels” we must go through. Forms to fill out and send either by snail mail or fax machines we have to drive around town to find and then spend money on.  And then there’s the wait. The wait that is so damned long we forget whether we do indeed have to just wait or follow up. Follow up? Oh yes, start at the bottom again to get the right phone/fax/post office box number.

And while all that’s going on, something else has come up. It’s a lot of work and it’s stressful! Even if we do manage to talk to someone on the phone we have to go into “stand and fight” mode before we even start. Because nothing is easy and no one at the other end is going to give in. If we’re lucky (and I use that term loosely) we get transfered to the next higher up on the food chain so that we can go through our case again. And then what? Normally it’s wait and see. Or, “We’ll mail you the forms to fill out.” Again.

What I have on the go includes (but is not limited to) getting an aid to help my 20 year old Autistic son in class so he can graduate high school this year; getting the funding I’m entitled to for my other son’s eyeglasses; finding out what the hell is going on with the holter (heart) monitor his cardiologist ordered months ago; sorting which hoops I have to jump through for the nurse at his school who doesn’t want him to eat by mouth this year, this after a lengthy process (with a two year waiting list) of having a swallow study done, followed by a report which was discussed at a meeting with the specialists and the above mentioned nurse to explain that he could eat by mouth; finding out what happened to the money my mother was supposed to get back from the condo corporation after we sold her unit… The list goes on and on. And it’s all wrapped up in bureaucratic bullcrap.

Luckily I’m a stay-at-home mom, so I don’t do anything all day anyway… 🙄

I’m sure I’m not alone in this. In fact I’m sure there are others out there who have it even worse than I do. I have to wonder if there’s a better way to do things. Don’t you?


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One-Liner Wednesday – Think Positive

If every best-case scenario we imagined inevitably came true, what positive thoughts we’d have!

 

Fall 2013

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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.”

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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A Strange Experience

I don’t want to call it an out-of-body experience because I didn’t feel like I’d floated out of myself, nor was I looking at myself from a distance. What happened was, I was sitting in the small audience of fifty people at the writer’s Masterclass last weekend, and had finally gathered the courage to ask a question. I was shaking in my boots. (Not literally: I was a bit nervous and I was wearing running shoes.) About half way through my question, I noticed I could hear myself as other people might. I actually remember thinking to myself as I spoke that I could hear my voice, and I had time to wonder in amazement that I didn’t stutter or screw up what I was saying as I was saying it. It was kind of surreal. Like mentally multitasking.

Has this happened to you? If so, what were the circumstances?


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#SoCS – Expectations

Is it possible to write stream of consciousness style when there’s someone screaming in your ear, stealing away your focus? I’m about to find out.

“Never expect anything and you’ll never be disappointed.” it’s a phrase I live by. I had hoped – half expected – to get this weekend away, but my ex came down with some kind of a bug so here I am with a disgruntled kid who doesn’t want me to pay any attention to anything but him. I had a back-up plan – his older brother – but he’s sick too.

It’s funny. I spend so much energy attempting not to promise the kids anything until I’m positive it’s going to happen but I don’t always put it into practice myself. But it’s really the same thing, isn’t it? I allow them to hope by saying maybe, or wait and see, but I don’t allow them to expect anything, and so if it doesn’t happen, they’re not too disappointed. It’s good advice, no matter whether you’re doing it yourself or doing it for someone else. Yet I don’t know if I’m actually teaching them anything…

It’s particularly important for someone like my son who is Autistic not to have unexpected events happen. Or for plans to go awry. Although I find as he gets older (he’ll be 20 next month) he’s getting better with change – more able to accept it. Still, there are certain things that can not, in his mind, be tolerated. God forbid anything ever happens to his computer.

I like surprises. Good ones at least, and most of the bad ones I’m able to roll with. Then again, I try not to expect too much.

This full-circle ramble is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click the link and join in today! https://lindaghill.com/2015/10/02/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-oct-315/

SoCS badge 2015