Life in progress

Tag Archives: writing


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Cities In Dust

When The Mortal, the solo project of my favourite singer Sakurai Atsushi, released a sample of their new song on Youtube today I spent some time deciding whether or not to share it on Facebook. The song is a cover of “Cities In Dust,” by Siouxsie and the Banshees. This being the 11th of September, the very title of the tune stirs feelings of unease. I don’t know if the band released it today on purpose, or if they’ll realize belatedly the significance of the date and apologize for it. After much careful consideration, I think it’s a good idea to share it.

The lyrics of “Cities In Dust” you see, read to me more like a celebration of destruction than a lament over it. And while it might seem insensitive, in a way I find it helps. The images that were burned into my mind on that fateful day are all over social media, and with those images are messages that we should never forget, lest we somehow cause the tragedy to be repeated. That all wars should end is a vision many of us share. And yet how do we as individuals stop a war from happening? I return to the song.

In the lyrics I find a lesson; that no matter how much hate and ill-will we have for our enemies, none of us should ever wish for destruction. Understanding of opposing views by both parties, cooperation and learning to live together is the only way we will ever find peace. As I always say, we have to start small. With our own communities and most of all, in our own hearts.


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One-Liner Wednesday – The First Lesson in Relationships

Realizing you’re taking your grumpiness out undeservedly on your loved ones is the hard part. Apologizing is easy.

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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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The Young and the Rested

I was inspired by the Daily Prompt here: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/the-young-and-the-rested/ not as much by the actual prompt —

“When was the last time you felt truly rejuvenated and energized? What made you feel that way?”

–but by the title of it. The Young and the Rested.

The fact is, I’ve been at home with the young’uns for the last two weeks of the summer without much of a break. Consider my challenges: Sunday dawned bright and early and Alex, my youngest, wanted to go on a bus ride with his brother. First he had to feed, a process which takes about two hours via feeding pump. So we were sitting around the table, Alex and I and my BFF John, playing a rousing game of Life (the board game) while he fed, when Alex decided it was time for his brother to wake up. I said no, they couldn’t leave for another hour, let him sleep a bit more. Unplug me from my pump, Alex demanded. I don’t want to eat anymore, I want to go now. This was not an option; he turned the pump off anyway. I told him that if he wanted to continue to play his game he had to feed. No way, he said. So I walked away.

He proceeded to follow me around the house, digging his fingers into me to get my attention whilst screaming. Fine, I said, stop screaming and poking me or go to your room.

Okay, I’ll go to my room, he said. With the pump off (still) he went to his room. After a while I told him he could come out if he would turn on his pump. No way, he said. I want to go on the bus, to which I replied, You’re not going on the bus until your feed is finished.

The argument began at 9:30 am. It finished when I finally force-fed him by syringe at 1pm. The consequence, no bus.

This is a typical day for me at home with Alex. He gets something into his head that he wants to do and he will absolutely not consider the consequences of his actions. He’s an adolescent still going through his terrible twos. It takes him hours to give in – and I’m consistent! And as patient as anyone I have ever met. Of course there is the language barrier – he is Deaf and I am hearing. Although my sign language is limited, I still have to believe that after almost 15 years of living together I can at least get my point across on the most basic level.

He’s also sick with that awful summer cold that’s going around, which is really where all this ties in with the prompt. Last night he woke up coughing at 1:40 am. I gave him something that I thought might help (doctor prescribed codeine) but it didn’t. At 4 am I finally gave in and let him watch a movie in bed. So neither of us are rested… and I’m old.

When was the last time I felt truly rejuvenated and energized? The early nineties. Before I started having kids. Parenting is such fun, isn’t it?


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SoCS – Making Light

I wonder when the phrase “making light of a situation” began to take on a mostly negative connotation. I try to find the positive in most things. Making light of them induces, in me at least, the idea that all is not always dark. That there is always a light at the end of a tunnel… that nothing is absolute. But then it’s so much easier to see darkness, isn’t it?

Light can blind us. Imagine being so happy that you can’t see any possibility of misery in the future. But then misery hits and things are never darker. Does it mean that we should look for darkness in the light as well as light in the darkness? Perhaps.

But back to my first thought – I have to wonder if the coming of our politically correct society caused the increase in seeing “making light” a bad thing rather than good. Everywhere I go these days, people are getting up in arms about this or that. Finding insult in everything under the sun. I sometimes wish we could just all “be,” without constantly being criticized for what we are and things we do and say. We’ll never please everyone, but what happened to Thumper’s old line, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all”? “Nice” is such a rarity these days, isn’t it? In society in general I mean.

And so it’s become the norm for me to make light of situations only when I’m at home, where the people I know and love know me, and know that I mean no harm. Occasionally I’ll take a chance when I’m commenting on a blog or on other social media, but I’m always nervous that there’s someone out there who will take offense and make me feel like an awful person.

People need to lighten up.

This post is part of SoCS: https://lindaghill.com/2015/09/04/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-515/ Anyone can join in the fun – click the link to find out how!

SoCS badge 2015


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The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Sept 5/15

And now for something completely different… because it’s Friday of course! And what better thing to receive on a Friday than your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt? I’m having some internet connection issues today, but I should be back later. Here’s your prompt for this week:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “light.”  Make use of it any way you like. 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!!

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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The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS August 29/15

It’s Friday! And what better way to celebrate than with your Friday Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt? This is the last unofficial prompt of the summer if we count September as a fall month … where summer go? Is it just me or did it go by fast? Anyway, here’s your prompt for this week:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “four-letter word.”  Use any four-letter word as your theme. 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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Hashtag Poll – We Need Your Vote!

As you may know, after The Great Twitter Fiasco of last week (read about it here if you haven’t already) I decided that we need a new hashtag for One-Liner Wednesday. There were some fantastic suggestions but only four of them turned up to be already unused. (The most popular ones in the last post’s comments–#1LW and #OLW are the most used of all. OLW is for both “Operation Live Well” and “Only Living Witness,” neither of which I feel strong enough to take on … particularly the witness one…)

So here are the ones we can vote for:

Sandra J. Jackson’s #1__erWed
John Holton’s #1linerWeds
Pamela’s #Your1lineWed
or Willow’s #lindas1linerWed

The Poll

I’ll close the poll before I post this week’s One-Liner Wednesday. If there’s a tie, I’ll decide.

Let’s do this thing!! Vote now!


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The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS August 22/15

Friday! We should write a jingle just for Friday to attach to our alarm clocks so we know without a doubt it’s here when we wake up. Because Friday means it’s time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt! Here it is:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “mind.”  Use it any way you think to. 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!!

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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The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS August 15/15

It’s Friday, right? So hard to keep track of the days some weeks. If it is indeed Friday, then it’s time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. Many of the battles on my to-do list continue to daunt me, but never mind; one at a time, slow and steady, and all those other sayings we love and/or are sick of can be put into play. Ah, so what to do with the prompt? Let’s see:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “-ay.”  Find a word ending in “ay” and use it as the theme/subject of your post. Play with it, I say!

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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One-Liner Wednesday – Instantaneous Gratification in Action

Walking the track yesterday was going so well I didn’t want to stop, even though my foot hurt… just another half an hour, I said to myself: blister = no more track for the rest of the week.

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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 the tag #1lineWed for more exposure.

Have fun!