Life in progress

Category Archives: Prompt


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Just Jot It January 26th – Oneness

There are certain things we humans naturally feel a oneness with. Being joined by the tradition of marriage; being a couple rather than an individual and having your name synonymous with someone else’s of your choosing creates a sense of completeness. The birth of a child between a couple who love one another is a bond that cannot be broken. For that matter, our families as well as our friends, nature, or even a good book can cause a feeling of oneness. But etched in my mind was one bond I can recall with great clarity. It was with my horse.

His name was Shadow and he was a mutt – part quarter horse, part thoroughbred; we were never really sure. I bought him from the lady who owned the farm where I guided trails but I eventually moved him closer to where I lived. Close by was a conservation area, the Vivian Forest, consisting partly of natural forest and partly planted rotating forestation, which spans almost 5,600 acres. I could ride for eight hours without seeing the same trail twice. Shadow and I knew the place very well.

There were a few rides, just me and my horse, that I’ll never forget. Once, riding along a well-worn trail, we came too close to an owl’s nest. She wasn’t pleased: she flew at us, soaring over my head three or four times as I ducked down as close as I could to Shadow’s mane and we galloped the hell out of there. Another time we were walking, on our way home, when Shadow came to a dead halt, head up, ears pricked. Rather than urge him on, I sat still on his back and looked in the same direction he was staring; a fully antlered buck, almost the size of my horse walked out of the forest on to the trail, stopped, stared at us, and crossed the trail, disappearing back into the woods.

But there was one ride that truly made me feel that oneness. It was early summer and I’d just finished an overnight shift at the 24 hour gas station I was working at at the time. Rather than head home to bed, I decided to go out on Shadow for a while. We went a long way that morning and on the way home I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. So I closed them and fell almost all the way to sleep in the shade of the forest, while Shadow took me home. What an incredible feeling of oneness it was.

The “Oneness” prompt is brought to you by Carol at WritersDream9. Pop on over and say hi!

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today. It’s never too late! And don’t forget to ping back your January 26th post here!


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Just Jot It January 25th – Prestidigitation

Funny story: When I saw “prestidigitation” suggested as a prompt by my friend, the lovely Pamela, I have to admit I cringed a little bit. There’s a mouthful, I thought. I wonder what it means? Regardless of my initial reaction, I was looking forward to writing a post on it. It’s a fact that I work better under pressure, at least when writing is concerned. I believe in this fact so much that I forced myself to wait until I was ready to write this post to look the word up in the dictionary. When I did, I had to laugh at myself.

You see, as it turns out I have been writing about prestidigitation quite constantly, quite vigorously, and quite intently, for more than four years without realizing it. My novel, which took eighteen months to write and is on its seventh revision, is about a magician. Prestidigitation means to perform magic.

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How did I not know this?!?

So thank you, Pamela. The word “prestidigitation” will find its way into my novel. And that page will be dedicated to you!

Speaking of prestidigitators, you may remember I met a very nice magician last summer and requested an interview with him, both for my own research and to share with the public. I’m quite embarrassed to say I still haven’t managed to use that interview anywhere, but I haven’t given up. I plan to try pitching it to a few more places but, if I’ve had no success by the end of March, I’ll post the interview here. Please look forward to it!

The “Prestidigitation” prompt is brought to you by Pamela at Butterfly Sand. If you don’t already know her, please click on the link and have a read!

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today. It’s never too late! And don’t forget to ping back your January 21st post here!


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Just Jot It January 24th – Compelled – We’re almost there!

So hard to believe, but there’s only a week to go ’til the last day of January. Then after a slightly elongated February we’ll be looking forward to spring, and looking to the weatherman to find out if we’ll have an early one or a late one. I think for many of us in North America, our mild December has made this month (or at least the winter so far) seem much shorter, don’t you?

The fact that there’s only a week left of January means we’re almost finished Just Jot It January too! If you’ve made it this far without missing a post, congratulations! If you’ve at least written a name and number down on a post-it note, good for you! You’ve jotted something every day. 😀

But we can’t stop here. We’ve got to keep going! Whether you’re compelled by the enjoyment of jotting out a post every day, or you’re simply on a roll and the momentum is carrying you, it doesn’t matter. JusJoJan is an exercise to remind ourselves that we can write something every day. We’re all writers after all, every one of us who has a blog. And yes, I’m talking to those who have art and photo blogs too – the titles and tags have got to come from somewhere, right?

So whatever your motivation, keep that compulsion going. We’re gonna do this! 😀

The “Compelled” prompt is brought to you by Willow at Willowdot21. Please stop by her blog to have a read and say hi!

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today. It’s never too late! And don’t forget to ping back your January 24th post here!


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Just Jot It January 23rd – Odd/Even #SoCS

It’s odd that even though I love to write, sometimes it seems such a chore. I think back to a video* I watched again just recently of John Cleese, standing in front of an audience, talking about creativity. He stresses the importance of needing to be free of stress (haha. my bad) in order to be creative. He says that we have to be able to play – to play with ideas at least – and that means not being bogged down by the multitude of things we MUST do. Because let’s face it, as adults play is often at the bottom of our list of things to do.

Like just now, a perfect example: I was happily writing away when I heard a noise from the kitchen. The puppy was chewing on the table. Being a responsible adult who doesn’t want teeth marks in my table, I had to get up and leave my writing. It never ends!

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Winston

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…the constantly wiggly

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…unless he’s sleeping

So Mr. Cleese, quite rightly suggests that there must me a time and a place to be creative. Only I rarely get it. And that really cuts into my enjoyment of writing.

So I come back to the beginning, don’t I? It’s not really odd.

And then even when I do get a moment to myself, and a space to myself, according to Mr. Cleese (and my own experience) it takes time to wind down. Speaking of wind, the dog just farted. For a small pup he can cause a big stink! Where was I? Oh yeah. Getting in the mood. There are times that I’m in the mood to write even when I’m stressed. An idea will pop into my head, or just a mood will overcome me and I can’t not write.

Being a writer is such a strange thing!

The “odd/even” prompt is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click here to join in, and leave your link for everyone to see!

SoCS badge 2015

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here. Join in today! It’s never too late! And don’t forget to ping back your January 23rd post here at this post.

Note: If you combine SoCS and JusJoJan in one post, make sure you ping back to both this post and the Friday Reminder post.

*Google “John Cleese on creativity” to find it on Youtube.


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The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Jan. 23/16

Look at that! It’s Friday again and time for the Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt!  The SoCS prompt will also be tomorrow’s Just Jot It January prompt word, so if you want to use it for your JusJoJan post, go right ahead, and if you want to combine the two challenges you can do that too!  I meant to post this earlier but it seems there’s no end to my to-do list, so here I am. And here’s the prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “odd/even.”  Use one, use both, use ’em any way you’d like! Enjoy!

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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Just Jot It January 22nd – Felicity

I always thought the word “felicity” meant easy. And it does, kind of. One of the definitions is, and I quote from Merriam-Webster online, “a pleasing manner or quality especially in art or language,
“an apt expression.”

So it seems to me that it means a way of wording something that makes the something easy to understand. Yes? Yeah, okay. I’m trying to justify myself. Is it working?

The first two definitions of “felicity” from the same source are, “a : the quality or state of being happy; especially : great happiness, b : an instance of happiness,
“something that causes happiness.”

So I suppose it really means happiness.

“Felicity” always reminds me though of an early 2000’s TV show called Felicity. I never watched it. I do recall seeing previews in which a woman (presumably Felicity, played by Keri Russell) seemed to be always in a state of angst. Which would have made the show quite ironic I suppose. I don’t enjoy watching ironic shows – they make my head hurt.

There’s one other thing the word reminds me of – felicitations, meaning best wishes or, as a translation from French, congratulations. I’ve always wondered at people saying congratulations to an individual for turning a year older. But it is indeed the way some say happy birthday. Weird.

The “Felicity” prompt is brought to you by Fun at Simply Me. If you don’t already know her, please head on over and have a read!

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today. It’s never too late! And don’t forget to ping back your January 22nd post here!


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Just Jot It January 21st – Mittens

The word “mittens,” to me at least, conjures cozy feelings of being warm despite the cold winter wind and the icy metal scraper I use to heave the snow off my car. It’s just one of those words, isn’t it? Like “hot chocolate,” or “fireplace.” But today I’m here to tell you a sad story about a pair of mittens and a boy. It’s not a devastating story – it’s just a little heartrending. And it does have a happy-ish ending, and a moral too. You ready? Here we go.

One day last week I was in the car with my best friend, John, and my son, Alex, on our way to the grocery store. Alex had noticed a hole in his glove as he got into the back seat, so I assured him we’d be able to get some new ones where we were going. However, it’s a store that sells food, primarily, so the selection of clothes isn’t tremendous. We checked out the kids’ section first, but all they had was a few pairs of gloves Alex didn’t fit into and one pair of mittens. He saw those and his eyes lit up.

Yes! he said. I’ll take them!

But… I said…

No! No buts, said Alex. I want them!

Okay, try them on, I said. (It was just to make a point.)

So Alex tried them on. And they fit.

Yay! Alex said.

Okay, I nodded. Now tell me your name.

And Alex fingerspelled his name. Inside the right mitten. Alex is Deaf.

What’s that? I asked.

Alex drooped in defeat. And gave me back the mittens to put back on the shelf.

We went then to the ladies section where he found a nice pair of ladies gloves that he liked very much. And that’s what he’s wearing to school.

And that’s my sad but true story about mittens. The moral? Fashion and communication don’t always mix.

 

The “Mittens” prompt is brought to you by Candy at Rhymes With Bug. If you don’t already know her, please click on the link and say hi!

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today. It’s never too late! And don’t forget to ping back your January 21st post here!


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One-Liner Wednesday – It’s not what you think

On Saturday, I went to a Japanese restaurant. It reminded me of the last Japanese restaurant I ate in, which was a Mister Donut.

In Tokyo.

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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.” However, if you’d like to combine One-Liner Wednesday with Just Jot It January, go right ahead!

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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Just Jot It January 20th – Surreptitiously

I wonder about the things which cause us to act surreptitiously. You know, the stuff that makes us want to sneak around instead of doing whatever we’re doing out in the open. I can think of a few: shame that we’re not living up to our highest self-standards; fear of judgement; fear of getting caught because we know we’re doing something bad, like cheating or breaking the law. Some of us even blog surreptitiously because we feel like it’s making us neglect other things. Some of us eat surreptitiously, trying to hide from those we love that we’re cheating on our diets. I think that one may mean that we’re even trying to hide our guilty habit from ourselves.

Where am I going with this post? I have no idea. It’s late, I’ve had a ridiculously busy day and I have another one coming up tomorrow. I wish I could hide from it all but there’s no being surreptitious for me. Actually, speaking of being surreptitious, I have a kid with a 24 hour holter monitor on upstairs. He’s supposed to be sleeping but I can’t help but wonder if he’s surreptitiously picking at the stickers. I’ll find out in the morning.

If you’d like to congratulate me on writing the most inane post of the year, please do so in the comments.

The “Surreptitiously” prompt is brought to you by KG over at Books, Music, Photography, & Movies. If you don’t already know her, check out her blog!

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today. It’s never too late! And don’t forget to ping back your January 20th post here! If you’d like to combine this with One-Liner Wednesday (which will be posted several hours after this), have at it! Just be sure to link back to both prompts.


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Just Jot It January Prompt for Wednesday Jan. 20th

Hi there! It’s that time of the week again! I need a prompt word for tomorrow’s Just Jot It January and you can help!

This is your opportunity to create a prompt for tomorrow. The rules for getting your prompt in are:

  1. Enter one word in the comments below. If your comment includes more than one word, your suggestion will be eliminated.
  2. If you’ve already contributed to the existing prompts for the rest of the month, you are automatically disqualified.
  3. Come up with something original. The existing prompt words can be found here: https://lindaghill.com/2015/12/31/just-jot-it-january-2016-rules/ Please make sure you don’t enter a duplicate.
  4. Any word is eligible, just keep it clean.
  5. The first one to write their word below, wins. Hurry up!

P.S. If your word is the first and is chosen, you’ll also have your blog linked to my daily post tomorrow. It’s well worth the effort!