Life in progress

Category Archives: Opinion


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One-Liner Wednesday – Waking on the weekend

It was interesting enough waking up to my eldest son’s cat on Saturday morning, since he (the cat) is supposed to stay in the basement,


but it was even more interesting to find out Alex was riding him (the cat).

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!

5. Have fun!


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#SoCS – Critical Thinking

I don’t like criticizing people. Okay, maybe I do criticize members of my family and my best friend once in a while (shut up, John), but people I don’t know very well–people who might take my criticism the wrong way–I don’t like to criticize. Why not? Because I don’t want them to think I’m judging them. I like to think of myself as non-judgmental. Really, I don’t judge.

So what did I do? I chose editing as a career. Possibly one of the most critic-heavy jobs one can do. I criticize people’s writing for a living.

Maybe it’s being critical without being judgmental that’s the biggest challenge for me. And I do love a challenge. What I do NOT do is judge people’s writing. I don’t judge people on their ability to write a certain way, or on their lack of knowing the difference between “discrete” and “discreet,” for instance.

Look at it this way:

I can tell you your fly is open without judging you. That might be seen as criticizing your ability to remember to do your fly up, but still, I don’t judge you for it. I assume it was a mistake and that you’re not trying to flash me. My biggest reason for telling you is so you’ll do it up before someone comes along and laughs at you for it, less discreetly than I did.

The difference between that and editing? After all, ideally, I edit before someone indiscreetly points and at you and judges you for not knowing the difference between “discrete” and “discreet.”

The difference is, you don’t have to spend thousands of hours learning how to notice someone’s fly is down. You just have to have a good eye. Or a bad eye. Don’t judge me!!

SoCS badge by Pamela, at https://achronicalofhope.com/

This very late, very non-judgmental post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Sunday Saturday. Click the following link to find all the other critics posts for this week. It’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2019/02/22/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-feb-23-19/


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One-Liner Wednesday – I need to get out more

You know you don’t get out of the house often when your kid comes home from school and frowns, confused, asking you why you got dressed today.

(True story.)

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!

5. Have fun!


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One-Liner Wednesday – Good or bad?

Nothing saves water better than a water heater that turns off after five minutes when you’re in the shower.

(Motivational poster made for free at canva.com.)


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Serendipity – #JusJoJan 2019 Jot #20

I’ve written about serendipity a couple of times on this blog already. The last two times I wrote about phenomenal events. We all have those serendipitous moments occasionally. Once in a while they’re life-changing, but mostly they’re the little things that come to us. Unexpected good things.

Sometimes, it seems, the universe gives us things we don’t even know that we need. Like the money I received from the government a week before I dropped my laptop. It turned out to be the exact amount my new laptop cost. Yes, I could have used that money to pay for the things I’d already spent it on, but the situation also could have been worse.

And sometimes the motes of serendipity appear as things seemingly sent just to put a smile on our faces. A song that comes on the radio that lifts us when we’re down, or items we give significance to as a sign of hope.

Serendipity can be mind-blowing.

Or it can just help us get through the day.

 

The prompt word, “serendipity,” for today’s post is brought to you by Jill! Thanks, Jill! To find her “serendipity” post, click here. And say hi while you’re there!

It’s never too late to participate in Just Jot it January! Click the following link to find out how, and see all the other participants’ links in the comment section. It’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2019/01/20/jusjojan-2019-daily-prompt-jan-20th/


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Inch – #JusJoJan Jot #18

Inch is one of those words that, if I look at it too long, it stops making sense.

Inches are the only thing that make sense to me when I’m measuring height. Of course, if I don’t want to do math, feet are important too.

I just realized why my 12 times tables were so important in school. Are they still? In countries other than the U.S., that is.

I’d rather measure snow in inches–four inches sounds much better than ten centimetres.

Inches are about as far away I am from going to bed after a very busy day.

Inch is the prompt word for today, brought to us by John Holton. Thanks, John! Here’s the link to his “inch” post. Drop by and say hi to him, if you haven’t already!

 

It’s never too late to participate in Just Jot it January! Click the following link to find out how, and see all the other participants’ links in the comment section. It’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2019/01/17/jusjojan-2019-daily-prompt-jan-17th/


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Paris – #JusJoJan Jot #15

My trip to Paris was, for the most part, a waste.

I was fourteen years old and bored with everything, not least of all, traveling with my mother. I do have pictures somewhere … I don’t think I’m in any of them because what bored teeny-bopper wants to have their picture taken with their mom? What I do remember about the trip:

My very first croissant. And boy, was I in love.

My first bidet. No, I didn’t try it, because ewww!! (I was fourteen.)

Stairs.

Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower through the window of a tour bus.

Dog poop.

Sacré-Cœur.

Stairs.

Crazy drivers.

Being driven to our hotel with a woman cab driver who had her German Shepard in the front seat with her.

Being the only one who knew how to speak French out of myself, my mom, and her friend who we were traveling with.

Did I mention stairs?

Were I to go now, as an adult, I’m positive I’d colossally appreciate it.

As for the stairs? I’ve been to Japan. It can’t be worse for stairs than that. Can it?

The prompt word, “Paris,” for today’s post is brought to you by Kelli! Thanks, Kelli! To find her “Paris” post, click here. And say hi while you’re there!

It’s never too late to participate in Just Jot it January! Click the following link to find out how, and see all the other participants’ links in the comment section. It’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2019/01/15/jusjojan-2019-daily-prompt-jan-15th/


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Flu – #JusJoJan Jot #11

At the risk of sounding like I’m moaning–I never do that, do it?–Alex was home for the day again, still coughing even though it’s been almost two weeks since he came out of hospital with pneumonia.

I assumed they were going to give him his flu shot at school, like they always have, but they’ve stopped doing it. Now I have no idea whether he should get it or if we should wait until he’s completely better.

In all, it was one of those days where you wish you had a parenting owner’s manual. You know those days, right?

Should I send him to school or shouldn’t I? Should I cut him some slack because he might be misbehaving because he’s sick? Or is he pushing my buttons because he got out of going to school and now he’s seeing how much further he can go?

Ugh. Yeah, it was one of those days.

But now he’s at his dad’s, finally. First time since the first week of November. I’m feeling the exhaustion–it’s hitting me like a tonne of bricks. I think I might go to bed. And stay there until Sunday.

Have a good one, my friends.

The prompt “flew/flu/flue,” for today’s post is brought to you by M. Oniker! Thanks, M! To find her latest post, click here.

It’s never too late to participate in Just Jot it January! Click the following link to find out how, and see all the other participants’ links in the comment section. It’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2019/01/11/jusjojan-2019-daily-prompt-jan-11th/


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Self – #JusJoJan Jot #8

Gah! I hate trying to write about myself. Which is strange, considering that’s basically what this blog is about.

But that’s not entirely true. The bulk of what makes up this blog is how I react to things that happen around me. How I feel about things doesn’t necessarily state directly who I am, though it gives insight into who I am. It would be so much easier to write a bio if all I had to do was write about how I dealt with someone who was rude to me. Or how I managed to get through a day with my kids.

The question “who are you?” is difficult to answer because none of us are just one thing. “Self” is a complex entity, always changing, always growing. Who we are depends on what we experience and how we age. What we do with our “self” depends on circumstances both of our own choosing and of completely random situations and also, where we come from.

Putting all that in a single biography, on a blog or on the cover of a book, isn’t easy.

That took a bit of a philosophical turn, didn’t it?

The prompt word, “self,” for today’s post is brought to you by the fabulous Ritu! Thanks, Ritu! To find her bio, click here. It’s a good one!

It’s never too late to participate in Just Jot it January! Click the following link to find out how, and see all the other participants’ links in the comment section. It’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2019/01/08/jusjojan-2019-daily-prompt-jan-8th/


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Master – #JusJoJan Jot #6

I am not master of my domain.

No, I’m not talking about in the Seinfeld sense, so you can please just wipe that idea from your brain right away. I’m talking about my house. My home. The place that rather than hang my hat, I usually toss it on a piece of furniture because there’s some crisis or another taking shape the second I walk in the door.

Someone once said to me that a perfect house in which children live is a house with miserable children. I’m not sure that’s true–maybe there are parents who are just that organized. If so, and if you’re out there, tips are welcome.

Or maybe I just really need a hat rack.

This very short, very late post was brought to you by the prompt word “master,” given us today by Sadje! Click here to find her Just Jot it January post and say hi!

To see how you, too, can join in, click the following link. You’ll find all the other participants’ links in the comment section. Try it–it’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2019/01/06/jusjojan-2019-daily-prompt-jan-6th/