Mother’s Day, 2019.

Life is short. Do what you like! My new motto. Last year, Mom arranged for us to go sailing. We got a free upgrade to a catamaran. Luxurious! But she said she enjoyed the monohull we had this year even better. In talking to my mom, I also found out she wants to go skydiving someday. Imagine that! Skydiving has been on my bucket list for years, and to know it’s on hers? Wow!

Here’s the gist of it, though: she’s ready to get to work on that bucket list, and I admire that. I won’t for a moment let it make me sad.

Instead, I’ll applaud her doing things for herself. Maybe I’ll even go skydiving with her! I’ve been putting it off, waiting for a time I thought I could deal with a broken bone.

Fact is, I’ve also been putting off that trip to Europe, waiting for a time I could deal with a long airplane flight. Is my bucket list different now? Trust me, I still plan to see the sunrise in multiple states. I’ll have to think on this. In the meantime, I plan to encourage her to do those things she’s been wanting to do.

I am so thankful that I still have her around and that we can be close. I am also glad I was able to spend time with my son on Mother’s day!

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No Two are the Same.

Middletown, Rhode Island sunrise.

The air is cool and the birds are waking up, singing their happiest tune. They flitter from rooftop to rooftop.

Slowly, the tip of the bright, round orb appears. A fully dressed, perfect twenty-something couple walks, then stops in front of the hotel next to my Dad’s apartment. They probably had just gone out for coffee and are staying somewhere along this tourist strip. Luckily, they got quiet.

My son and I are here for four days, staying with my dad in his small, minimalist apartment in a tourist area that is just a walk from the beach. He took us on a sailboat yesterday. Minus 20 minutes of queasiness , it was beautiful and awesome. Add to that the fact that I met today’s goal: waking up to see a strange sunrise. It is not just new, for every sunrise is new. It is strange, as it is occurring in a place I’ve never been and a spot where I’ve never sat before. Sure, I’ve been to RI, but I missed the sunrise, and I certainly never sat on this stoop before!

I can’t tell you this sunrise is better than those back home, since I usually drive to the beach for sunrise. It adds an element of color and vastness you just don’t see surrounded by buildings. However, in this island/inlet area, the beach near us is in the direction of the South. So what do you get? A totally different sunrise experience, and that is just what I wanted.

Every sunrise is unique to its area, like its own fingerprint, in a sense. This leads in to one of my bucket list goals: to observe the sunrise in 50 different cities. Before today, I had achieved maybe 4 cities. (Yeah, I came about this goal in the last two years). I’m happy to say I achieved this leg of the goal, and I can’t wait to see what’s next!

Weekend Coffee Share, The Bucket List

Welcome to the #WeekendCoffeeShare, hosted by Allison at eclecticali.wordpress.com. I’m departing from the usual catch-me-up conversation, and I’d like you to just dream with me. It was Holy Week this week and I attended a somber Maundy Thursday service, then had a diagnostic appointment and a funeral memorial to attend Friday for my neighbor who was only 63. Everything turned out fine at the appointment, though, and the memorial was heartwarming. Still, it gets a person thinking about their own mortality. I have added to my bucket list, and likely will keep doing so. Even if I never get to these, I have gotten to some! So, sit with me, sip your favorite latte, tea, or other appropriate social drink, and lets dream as if we’ll live forever!

*Some I have done. Okay, very few. 🙂

• go whitewater rafting*
• go hang gliding over a mountain
• see the Grand Canyon*
• go sky diving
• publish a book *
• Do a book signing for a published book!*
• learn to fly a small two seater plane, and do so!
• visit the bookstore in SF where Kerouac hung out!
• take a trip to Italy
• witness the sun rising in 52 different cities:Done-Jax, St. Augustine, R. Iceland, Vegas, Brunswick GA, Middletown RI, Nassau, The Bahamas
• visit Ireland or London
• try beer yoga
• try goat yoga
• try helium beer with my best friend from high school. Wait, they say it doesn’t exist? Maybe it will by the time I get to it. LOL!
• Visit Madeira
• Visit Cape Horn and witness where the Pacific Ocean meets the Atlantic Ocean.
• Learn French!
• New Orleans, Joan of Arc parade

Do you have similar dreams? I’ve decided it is okay if I only get to some of them, and my excitement over Cape Horn led me to purchase a book about two people who sailed around it. I can’t believe I still haven’t tried goat yoga! I’m getting so close. This is the year!

Dream with me, my friend!

Stairway to Heaven, Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers. #Fffaw

Photo credit, (c) J.S. Brand

The day was as hot and sticky as a devil’s armpit.  Sasha opened her mouth to complain, but the determination showed in her mother’s face, despite the underlying anguish of seventy-year-old arthritic knees.

“You sure you’re up for this?”  Sasha asked, hoping to turn around.

“I’ve waited all my life,” her mom answered, wiping her brow.

With a shirt drenched in perspiration, Sasha shut up.

“Just wait,” her mom said, gleam in her eyes.  “I’ve seen pictures.”

Crossing the ocean to see this much revered site was her mother’s goal, not Sasha’s.  Yet, the twinkle in her mother’s eye kept her moving, despite the discomfort.

A few more steps…..She grasped her mother’s hand, feeling the dizzying affects of climbing.  Her mother clasped it gratefully.

“We are here,” the tour guide announced.  Stretched out on an endless horizon was a breathtaking view of steep mountains, a lush green valley, and a hawk soaring overhead.

“Heaven,” Sasha’s mother whispered.

Pictures could not do it justice.

~The end~

(Approx. 165 words.)

 

So how does this challenge work?     Find this blogging challenge at  https://flashfictionforaspiringwriters.wordpress.com/2017/07/17/fffaw-challenge-week-of-july-18-2017/      1.  A prompt photo will be provided each Monday pm to be used as a base to your story. Please include photo prompt with your story.

2. Linking for this challenge begins on Monday pm and runs to the following Monday pm.

3. Please credit photo to photographer.

4. The story word limit is 100 – 150 words (+ – 25 words). Please try and stay within this limit.

5. Pingback to the challenge post in your story’s post.

6. This is a flash fiction challenge (stories in 100-175 words or less) and each story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Therefore, no serial (continuation) stories. They become too complicated for our readers.

Working on a sequel to Made for Me! Ink…

 

 

So I decided, this time, I would do some pen and paper writing.  I’m working on a sequel to Made for Me!  Some are asking about a sequel already; others are saying, “Give your first book a chance to sell!”  I’m not sure which is the way for me; I’ll have to read more of the free e-book and the online article about self promotion for self-published authors, since I am also still self-promoting Made for Me.  Good thing I like to read, too!  By the way, if anyone has some really good tips on this self-marketing or “when to publish a sequel,” I will be most appreciative if you share!

This past week I have felt like I’ve been neglecting my blogging.  I have gotten involved in day to day life, my volunteer committee, my boyfriend’s art show tomorrow, and my day job!  But guess what, I have so many book ideas in my head right now.  I seriously could handle quitting the day job and JUST writing!  (I say that now, but my hand would get pretty tired).  Anyhow, I hope I am doing a good job at building up an author platform and setting myself up for later visibility and recognition as a writer.  It’s really a snowball…It just needs a little help to get momentum at the start, but then, it snowballs into an even bigger snowball!  Do I dare dream about becoming an avalanche like Stephen King?  It could happen, if I’m daring enough!  I wrote about a bucket list item 1-2 months ago.  I think I will always have a bucket list, because maybe my bucket keeps growing larger and larger!  That, my friends, is probably one of several things keeping me going right now.

What’s with this paper and ink?  Something about it just helped me get started sooner, but I can’t wait to get it neatly typed into the computer.  The nice part, however, of the paper and ink, is that pens are not as high maintenance as pencils, and that paper notebook is much easier to lug around from dining room table, sofa, car, to wherever because I-simply-must-have-it-in-case-I-think-of-something!  I spent far too many years doing the opposite.  I’d get a great idea, and think, yeah, I’ll remember that for when I have time to write.  Well, now I have time to write because I make the time!  I’m not gonna be the negative Nancy I was.  I will dream big.  My bucket will get bigger and bigger, because I plan to catch a lot of fish (The flying dreamy goal variety)!

Life is good, my friends.  I am dreaming, and writing.  This is truly living the dream!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Pursuit of the Sun

I’ve decided to add a new item to my bucket list.  Since I’m close to my late forties, now is the time.  I can think about retirement, I can dream.  And I’m certainly too young to think about being done with my bucket list!  Maybe this is an impossible dream, but I feel that is at the root of optimism, always dreaming one more dream.  There is always room for one more dream!  We are in an infinite universe; why not dream infinitely (by which, I mean, without bounds)?

A dream is one thing I can hold close to my heart.  But I am so excited, I want to share it!  I want to one day retire and be a sun chaser!  Evidently, since I did look up the term, sun chaser already signifies many things, such as a yacht, an awning, a movie about an escaped fugitive, etc.  So I seem to be giving new meaning to the word.  I literally want to CHASE the sun.  Yet, I’m not a runner.  Okay, CHASE may be an exaggeration.  And I’m honestly not running away from anything.  We also shouldn’t confuse this with being a sun worshiper.  I am not so much about the tan anymore; I love witnessing the sunrise and all that it represents.  It’s almost second nature to whisper a “Thank you,” when I do.

Let’s put this in more specific terms for my bucket list:  I want to witness the sun rise in at least fifty different cities.  I think it’s plausible!   I could even start on it now!

All of this came about because I am on Spring Break.  I’ve been dropping my sun off at work, and finding myself with time in which I could go home and sleep again, or do something different, like stop and witness the sun rise, walk the dog as the sun is rising, or simply gaze at the sky.  It is a beauty, and sometimes there is no time to realize it until you can get off the merry-go-round for a while.  I took a long walk with the dog the other day, documenting with my camera just which house the sun peeps up behind, and today, I stopped on the side of the road on the way back from dropping off my son at work.  The sky was full of jet contrails.  I documented with my camera just how different the sky looked.  I was not happy about it, but the sun rise was still beautiful.  Guess what?  I feel  like I did an important thing, just noticing how the sky looked.

This got me to thinking, on a positive note, how different the sun would look in different cities, and what  a pleasure it is to view it from different perspectives (i.e., different cities).  There are many other things on my bucket list, such as, going to Rome and seeing the Vatican along with much of the art of the Renaissance.  But this bucket list goal really has me inspired and motivated.  A miracle is happening every 24 hours and I want to see more of it!  My  goal will include getting to another city (how doesn’t matter; it could be an old camper for all I care), being awake to witness the sunrise from that viewpoint, maybe documenting by camera, resting, eating, living, traveling to the next city of choice and being ready for the next sun rise.  I could even just do this once a week for a year if I start now!  There are many possibilities for carrying this out!  How many people travel to a city and never see its sunrise?  I’ll tell you, sunrise in Las Vegas is quite a sight in that flashy city amidst the hills and desert.  Breath-taking.   What an honor it is to be awake at that hour with nothing better to do than to take in this beauty.  Lent is almost over.  Easter will soon be here.  What a perfect time of year to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection.  The sun rises again every morning.  And there is certainly at least one Bible verse that verbalizes the beauty of nature.  This one touched my heart:

Psalm 19:1

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”

From  http://www.biblestudytools.com/topical-verses/bible-verses-about-nature/

Indeed, they do!