I’ve been sitting here for a while pondering the things I collect. I can’t come up with a single collection I possess that doesn’t have a specific use. By that I mean I don’t collect knick-knacks, the major reason being that I hate dusting.
I have a record collection, a CD collection, and a DVD collection. Soon, I’m sure, there will be a Blue Ray collection as well, but so far I only have two of those. The kids have more. I have a jewelry collection that I haven’t added to in at least five years, mostly because I rarely wear any of it. I used to collect coffee mugs, but last time I moved I ended up throwing a lot of them out; I didn’t use them. I collect words – books are probably my biggest vice.
It’s a bit of a conundrum, isn’t it? They say there’s so much benefit in downsizing and getting rid of things we don’t need, and yet there’s a need to collect things that we don’t use. There’s a comfort in it.
What do you collect? Tell me in the comments or jot your own post and link it back here.
The “Collection” prompt is brought to you by Deborah at Container Chronicles. If you don’t already follow her, please check out her blog!
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 17th post here!
What should I write about? Should it be about the puppy, who is now ripping my front door mat to shreds? (Not conducive to writing a SoCS post at all.) Or should I write about the fact that by the time this post is published I’ll be firmly ensconced in a hotel room, dreaming the night away? Yes, it’s my first night of sleep since November 29th. I’m looking forward to it.
Should I write about… how nice it is not to have to listen to the TV when I’m sitting in the living room with my Deaf son while he’s watching whatever he likes? I’m surprised when the sound is on – that’s how often it happens. He’s really the only one who watches it.
Ah, there are endless possibilities when the prompt is so open. It’s almost overwhelming, isn’t it? I sincerely hope that doesn’t sound conceited. I know I’m the one who came up with the prompt, but honestly I never have much of an idea what I’m going to write until I sit down to do it. Any more than you do. Hey, there’s a question – do you like the completely open-ended prompts like “what”? or do you prefer when it’s a more concrete one? Personally I enjoy the balance between the two.
Anyway, my ex is on his way to watch the kids for the weekend. Unless his mom told him about the puppy (hi Lucie!) he has no idea he’s looking after an extra soul this weekend. Surprise!! Hehe. Word.
The “what” prompt is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click here to join in, and leave your link for everyone to see!
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 16th 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.
Friday’s here and so’s your prompt for tomorrow’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday! 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! It turns out that last week’s prompt was a little confusing, so I’ve decided this week’s will be more of a typical SoCS challenge. Here it is:
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “what.” Start your post with the word “What.” Bonus points if the final word of your post starts with a “w.” Have fun!
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!!
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.
I used to love playing follow-the-leader when I was little. My favourite part was getting the chance to be the leader, although I never insisted. I always waited my turn.
When I was a young adult I landed a job on a dude ranch, taking out trail rides. I loved horses; riding was my passion in life. Yet my first few experiences guiding a bunch of strangers on an equal number of 1,000 pound animals they couldn’t necessarily control, whilst on my own 1,000 pound animal, practically sitting backwards in the saddle so I could watch the aforementioned strangers was a bit nerve-wracking; for $2 an hour, how could I go wrong? Seriously, it was my favourite job to date. But I digress.
All my life I’ve been able to take or leave the role of leader. In most cases, unless I have no idea what I’m doing, I’m happy to take over if no one else wants to. Except when it comes to my kids. With them, it’s my way or the highway, and I don’t mean the kids directly. I’m talking about anyone who looks after them.
I’ve been disappointed by more doctors than I can mention, the most recent being the one who was filling in for our family doctor the day we went for our flu shots. I had mine done; when Alex’s turn came he said no, he didn’t want a needle. I offered to hold him down while they did it but they refused. It had something to do with the fact that he’s 15 years old… that he’s only 60 lbs and has the mentality of a six year old seemed to escape them. But whatever. It was decided we’d try in a few weeks since he was going for surgery (dental) and would be under a general anesthesia anyway. Only when I got there, the anesthesiologist refused to administer it. That was before Christmas.
Last week our family doctor’s office called me to follow up and make sure Alex had his shot. They were obviously expecting a “yes” and didn’t quite know what to say when I told them no, and then explained exactly what had to happen – I wanted another appointment and I needed them to insist he have the vaccination next time. After all, with his heart issues, the flu could kill him. The doctor’s secretary said she’d get back to me in a couple of days. She didn’t. In the meantime I made an appointment to see his pediatrician. Between us we came up with a plan. We’ll try the nasal spray vaccination at the pharmacy but if he puts up too much of a fuss I’ll bring it with me to the pediatrician’s office and they’ll hold him down. The entire process has taken two months so far.
As a “leader” in my family’s care, I am less than pleased. It won’t happen again next year. I’m not waiting my turn to be the leader anymore.
The “Leadership” prompt is brought to you by Tessa at Always A Writer. Please check out her blog and say hi!
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 15th post here!
They say that with great responsibility comes great power. But what about sacrifice?
When I was a teenager and into my young adulthood I thought of sacrifice as something romantic. I dreamed of the ultimate sacrifice, as in, “I’d die for you my love!” As much as I might have jumped in front of a bus for my boyfriend, I (thank goodness) never found out whether I’d have the guts when it came down to it.
Then when I started thinking about having kids I wondered at all I’d have to sacrifice of my relatively carefree life. And when it came down to it, I suppose I did. I miss the days of laying in on a weekend morning, of being able to go in and out of the house at will, of doing all the things one truly takes for granted before they have kids. But it doesn’t feel like a sacrifice.
So I was quite wrong, in my own case at least, when I thought that with great responsibility comes great sacrifice. It’s definitely power… the power the kids have over me.
The “Sacrifice” prompt is brought to you by Me – Who Am I?. If you don’t already know her, check out her blog!
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 13th 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.
I’m back again this week with the same request I had last week. I don’t have a prompt word for tomorrow’s Just Jot It January and I need your help. Yes, you!
This is your opportunity to create a prompt for tomorrow. The rules for getting your prompt in are as before: one word in the comments below. If your comment includes more than one word, your suggestion will be eliminated. Also, if you’ve already contributed to the existing prompts for the rest of the month, you are disqualified. 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. 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!
After he died and everyone around her was keening in grief, she was keen to keen, but she wasn’t really feeling it.
This post is part of the Tuesday Use It In A Sentence prompt. It’s being hosted by My Loving Wife over at A Word Adventure this week. Click on the link to read the rules and join in. It’s fun!
I think about all the things I used to do effortlessly when I was younger and I wonder that I can’t anymore. I know you young ‘uns out there are saying, “We don’t want to hear about all your aches and pains, ya old coot!” I know. I remember thinking it myself. I also thought I’d never get to this stage. But here I am.
Gone are the days when I didn’t have to struggle to get up off a hardwood floor after sitting on it for ten minutes. Gone is the ability to sleep through the night without waking up with a sore hip; the ability to read things on the tv without glasses, and the ability to do the splits…
There’s a message in some of this for you kids out there. The message is, don’t stop. If you can do the splits now, or touch your toes without bending your knees, or run half a mile, or multiply large numbers in your head, keep it up! It’s when we stop because we no longer need to do it that we lose it. Age has little to do with some of the things I find difficult.
But you know what? It’s not all that bad. There are things I CAN do now that I couldn’t do before. Like write a story or a blog post, or even a novel and put it out there for the world to see without caring what anyone thinks. Or like effortlessly sing all the low notes that used to hurt my throat to even try. Hell, I can even sing in front of people now. It used to be that I wouldn’t sing in a house when I was on my own, unless I was singing to something playing on the stereo.
It’s not all bad, getting older. Then again. I’m not THAT old.
This “Effortless” prompt is brought to you by Dan Antion at No Facilities. If you don’t already follow him, please check out his blog!
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 11th post here!
What does it mean to be sane? According to Google’s dictionary it refers to a) a person who is “of sound mind; not mad or mentally ill,” or b) an undertaking or manner which is “reasonable; sensible.” That’s all fine and good, but who gets to judge?
The obvious answer is a doctor. But before that can happen, someone has to take, encourage, or direct said insane person to the doctor in the first place. Because chances are that the truly insane person doesn’t know he or she is insane at all. Not, of course, to put down anyone with mental illness. But for example, I had to be the one to decide to take my Autistic son to the doctor to get checked out. I was the judge in that case.
Moving on…
I often wonder about my own sanity. Considering some of the things that come out of me in my fiction, I think anyone in their right mind would. The thing is, I have no idea where my darker, twisted imagination stems from. I had no significant trauma (that I can remember) in my childhood. I was loved by my parents until my father passed away at the tender age of 49, when I was fourteen. So where’s the psychology in it? Okay yes, I’ve been reading Stephen King since I was fourteen, but can he have influenced me that greatly? No, in fact I don’t think he did.
I’ve had the imagination of a writer since I was very young. I’m talking four or five years old. I remember coming up with stories that, not having the skill to spell, revolved over and over in my head. Some of them even then involved a certain level of torture and sex. So how? Could I have been remembering another life? You may be thinking what I poor child I must have been to have such imaginings, but I grew up with a healthy sense of right and wrong, with empathy, without anxiety or nervousness, and with an understanding of humankind that has prevented me from hating a single soul on the planet. It’s an understanding that has enabled me to write relatable characters. It’s an understanding of everyone else but me.
But then, does anyone really understand themselves? Or does everyone but me?
This questionably “Sane” prompt is brought to you by John W. Howell at Fiction Favorites. Please click on the link to visit his blog, and follow him if you aren’t already!
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 10th post here!
It’s come to my attention after a full week of eight hour days spent reading and commenting on and tweeting all (I think I got them all) of the posts that are linked back here and still being a day behind that I’m not going to be able to keep it up. For some strange reason, my kids are trying to scrape me off the laptop and my glue is getting weaker by the hour. I’ve been trying to read your posts before replying to my own comments, so if your kindly left comment has gone unanswered, that’s why.
From here on in I’m going to do my best to get to everyone at least once every two days. On the odd day I may “like” but not comment. If this happens, it doesn’t mean I didn’t read your post! Chances are I enjoyed it immensely but am just short on time.
I’d like to take this opportunity to once again say thank you to the overwhelming response to Just Jot It January and SoCS. You guys are awesome, and I really do love reading all the posts! So keep visiting each other, keep up the community spirit and keep on jotting. 😀
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