Tag: life

One-Liner Wednesday: Life-long learning

We need to remember across generations that there is as much to learn as there is to teach.

Gloria Steinem

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/05/08/one-liner-wednesday-taking-bunny-pics/

JC’s Confessions #29

In the first few seasons of The Late Show, Stephen Colbert did a recurring skit, then a best-selling book, called Midnight Confessions, in which he “confesses” to his audience with the disclaimer that he isn’t sure these things are really sins but that he does “feel bad about them.” While Stephen and his writers are famously funny, I am not, so my JC’s Confessions will be somewhat more serious reflections, but they will be things that I feel bad about. Stephen’s audience always forgives him at the end of the segment; I’m not expecting that – and these aren’t really sins – but comments are always welcome.

It’s been a hard few months.

More than a few?

Hard to keep track…

When I wrote this post at the end of October, I was re-organizing to structure my time for more poetry and less volunteering, but B’s COVID diagnosis in November, which turned into two weeks of him isolating in part of the house, leaving me responsible for keeping the household going, followed by daughter T’s shoulder surgery/aftermath in December left me with a lot to do, not a lot of holiday spirit, and very little creative brain availability. Thrown on top of this was the unexpected return of the threat of shale gas development, which we thought had ended with the New York State high-volume hydrofracking ban nine years ago, this time in the guise of an unproven scheme to use supercritical carbon dioxide to extract methane from shale and sequester carbon. This necessitated the reactivation of the coalition that won the fracking ban back then and hours of conference calls, research, and emails. Oh, and what I thought would be one or two local interviews for my alma mater turned into a series of zoom interviews across the region, taking a lot more time and energy than I had expected when I said yes to the opportunity. (There’s also some other personal and family health stuff going on, which I won’t go into here.)

I’ve been struggling with prioritizing and keeping my attention where it belongs to finish tasks. My best intentions to simplify have met with the reality tsunami and washed out to sea.

I am, though, not suffering as much as I was last January when I wrote JC’s Confessions #26. Then, I realized I was still grieving. I am in a different place in dealing with losses now.

We are spending a couple of weeks in February visiting our family in London, UK. This will get me away from most meetings. If I’m lucky, I’ll get a little bit of poetry time in the early mornings or late evenings to continue work on revision of my full-length manuscript. I’m attempting to line edit the whole thing and, perhaps, re-order it to prepare for work with a professional editor in April. It’s felt like fits and starts so far but I have worked on about 20% of the poems to this point.

I have followed through on my commitment to post daily for Just Jot It January but will be pulling back the post pace for February and trying to devote that time to poetry.

So, yes, organizing my time and following through on plans is still a work in progress.

And, come next January, there is a possibility that some version of this Confession will recur.

Or, maybe, I’ll finally stop feeling badly about having to re-vamp, re-adjust, postpone, and re-jigger my life so often.

I can hope.
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Join us for Linda’s Just Jot It January! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/01/28/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-28th-2024/

One-Liner Wednesday: wholeness

Wholeness does not mean perfection: it means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life.

Parker Palmer

Join us for Linda’a One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2023/11/01/one-liner-wednesday-that-feeling-when-2/

One-Liner Wednesday: heaven and hell

We can participate in heaven by living in harmony and respect with all of creation or in hell by bringing greed, selfishness, and disease upon the whole earth.

Carol J. Gallagher

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2023/08/23/one-liner-wednesday-deep-thoughts/

One-Liner Wednesday: remembering Tony Bennett

When asked if he got tired of singing “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” Tony Bennett replied, “Do you ever get tired of making love?”

This homage to Tony Bennett, who passed away last week at the age of 96, is brought to you through Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays. Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2023/07/26/one-liner-wednesday-whats-the-hold-up/

One-Liner Wednesday: race in the US

But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.

US Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson from the recent decision regarding affirmative action in college admissions on the basis of race

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2023/07/05/one-liner-wednesday-sometimes/

One-Liner Wednesday: shoulds and oughts

In moments of insecurity and crisis, shoulds and oughts don’t really help.

Richard Rohr

This reminder is brought to you as part of Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays. Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2023/05/10/one-liner-wednesday-in-the-age-of-the-internet/

SoCS: perfection

Ugh.

Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “perfection.”

Not my favorite concept.

When I was young, I was taught to do the best I could…

Which is a lovely thought and a worthy goal but it made it easy to think that the best I could do should be perfect, so I became a bit of a perfectionist.

It’s exhausting.

And futile.

As I matured, I began to expect that perfection was a chimera, that there was really no such thing.

When my first child was born, I was convinced of that.

Well, not immediately.

I had dutifully followed all the advice from my medical team and from What to Expect When You Are Expecting, which was a hot title at the time. Still, somehow, my membranes ruptured at 36 weeks, so my precious daughter arrived early, officially classified as premature, although only by a few days, and, after being home for a couple of days had to be re-admitted to the hospital for light therapy for jaundice.

It was not perfect and I was scared and blamed myself, figuring that I must have done something wrong.

It took a while – well, maybe even a long while – to realize that, sometimes, things just happen without a discernible cause.

I then realized that there was not ever going to be a perfect way to do something as complex as raising a child – and then realized that there wasn’t really a perfect way to do much of anything.

I did still try to do the best I could, though, which often means things turn out pretty well.

Except when they don’t.

But, hey, nobody’s perfect.
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This Stream of Consciousness Saturday post is part of Linda’s long-running series at her blog Life In Progress. Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2023/02/03/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-feb-4-2023/

One-Liner Wednesday: woman power

The moment a woman comes home to herself, the moment she knows that she has become a person of influence, an artist of her life, a sculptor of her universe, a person with rights and responsibilities who is respected and recognized, the resurrection of the world begins.

Joan Chittister⁠

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesday and Just Jot It January! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2023/01/11/one-liner-wednesday-jusjojan-the-11th-2023-a-squirrel/