motivation

#WednesdayWisdom: Whatever you’re doing, you’re still doing better than donald trump’s blog.

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So apparently, given it’s low, low readership, donald trump’s blog is no more. One month of shouting into the void–though more likely one of his minions was doing the shouting in a trump mask–and it is gone.

And yet millions of us whisper into the void for years and years, undeterred. Sometimes it’s the void you want to talk to.

And sometimes an audience of a few means more than an audience of thousands.

But that’s not something anyone would expect trump to understand. No, he believed he was adored by millions, believed millions clamored to hear every “pearl” from his lips. But bots don’t read blogs.

They could visit, though. I guess he got downgraded in his follower package. He’s not as useful as he used to be.

And here’s my own little pearl, for which you are no doubt raptly waiting: no matter where you are in your project, whatever it may be, you have still made more progress than trump made with his blog. You have shown more patience; you have demonstrated more perseverance.

So go you. And have a great Wednesday.

Check out  my full-length novels: 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird and FREE!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

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#WednedayWisdom: A quarter-inch forward is still forward

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I get it. I feel it too, I wanted to crawl back into bed the moment I got out of it, pull the covers over my head and wait for a new reality. Only that’s not how new realities are made.

And I said to myself, “I bet Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg never went back to bed.”

And she had a myriad of valid reasons.

We may be walking face-first into a hurricane of lies and hypocrisy and a kind of evil it’s basically impossible to wrap your brain around, but the only certain way they win is if we don’t try at all. If we believe them when they tell us it’s futile, then it most certainly is.

Any forward progress is forward progress, no matter how slight. Remember that, and have a great Wednesday.

Check out  my full-length novels: 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird and FREE!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

Wishy-washy Wednesday

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Had one of those nights with my thoughts piling like rocks in my head, one thought after another, and they felt like they were still spinning underneath my dreams.

Not a restful night of sleep last night.

It’s another bright day, though, not as sunny as yesterday but mostly sunny, and I think warmer. I’d like to feel inspired, motivated but mostly I just feel…blah.

It’s one of those blah days.

I’m going to need my list. Only a list will get me motivated. Or annoyed enough at the lack of crossed-off items to get me crossing off.

Well a list and coffee. Which is getting cold. Give me a second, I’ll be right back.

OK, it’s reheated. Where were we? Ah yes.

Stagnation.

Perhaps bright-eyed and bushy-tailed is overly optimistic these days. Perhaps. There’s a lot going on.

Sometimes one foot in front of the other, even with the smallest distance between them, is all a person can muster. Sometimes just standing still is a step forward.

You know what I mean.

So off I go into the expanse of the day, having sufficiently talked myself into medium. Have a wonderful Wednesday.

Check out  my full-length novels: 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird and FREE!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

AccountaClub Friday, December 21, 2018

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Just noticed that, at least for the month and date, we have a palindrome. Cool. The things you learn by typing.

So it’s another Friday somehow. Wild week, it lasted about a month and yet suddenly it’s over.

Maybe, besides all the chilling world-stuff, it felt longer because I had such weird dreams every night. Very vivid, very tiring.

While sleeping. Seems unfair.

But that’s not what we’re here for, now is it?

I’ve really been enjoying my organization of a couple of weeks ago, along with my new Roombie, so I highly recommend it if you’ve been thinking about that closet or cabinet that always irks you. I still have spots to go through, mostly now because I’m loving my new systems. Yay.

Writing-wise, I’ve made a tiny bit of progress in my erstwhile NaNoWriMo manuscript, I’m hoping to dig further into it today. My organization has led me to rethinking my furniture, and how and where I write. So I’ll be musing on that.

And exercise-wise, 5 days, 5 live workouts! They had some technical difficulties, the picture was out of focus for a few days this week, but at least the workouts were there when they were supposed to be. So it was a good week fitness-wise. Though today I was expecting and looking forward to something yoga-y, and it definitely was not.

So, how was your week?

Like my political side? Read my opinion pieces here.
Check out  my full-length novels: 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s free!
Peruse Montraps Publishing

Testing out Tuesday

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Haven’t had enough coffee yet for this blog post. That’s where we are this Tuesday morning, with me not yet at that coffee sweet spot.

The only problem with that coffee sweet spot is it’s so easy to shoot right past. Sip.

Clunk the cup back down.

Continue typing. Pause. Sip. Clunk.

There’s a fraternity in my head yelling “chug chug chug.” I don’t think this is what they mean. They should wander back to the right end of the imaginary universe, like some movie where the raucous college is the background to a tepid yet pretentious love affair.

Hmm.  I should write that.

Anyway, back to the blog.

On this Tuesday, it’s gray again and we don’t even have November as the excuse. I’ve got more organization ahead. Yay.

But it’s so great and so helpful when it’s done.

So I’m venturing off into Tuesday. I hope yours is both wonderful and productive.

Like my political side? Read my opinion pieces here.
Check out  my full-length novels: 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s free!
Peruse Montraps Publishing

#AccountaClub Friday, September 7, 2018

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accountaclub-woodIt’s that time again, AccountAbles! Here we are, another Friday, another week in bizarro universe down. Very down.

Extremely down.

But that’s not why we’re here. Today’s the day we talk about how our weeks have gone, and what kind of forward progress we’ve made on our stuff.

I’ve done some editing, but not as much as last week. The weather’s been very gloomy and rainy, and often when it does this it messes with my head, triggering a headache. And when I have headaches, I have problems with words, so not the ideal time for editing.

But some editing. So that’s something.

And the exercise continues! Five days this week, three of them live, even though doing them live wasn’t actually a goal. I was just up and ready, so why not?

So that’s all I have to report this week, nothing earth-shaking, nothing enormous, just one foot in front of the other, even though there were many wobbles.

How about you? How are you doing?

Like my political side? Read my opinion pieces here.

Check out  my full-length novels: 

Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   

Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 

 Her Cousin Much Removed

 The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.

And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s free!

Peruse Montraps Publishing.

Back to school time, minus the school

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back view blur close up depth of field

Photo by Porapak Apichodilok on Pexels.com

As I drove up Lake Shore Drive yesterday, toward the top of the Drive where it ends, I looked over to the packed beaches on their final official weekend, and it felt like five minutes ago they officially opened. Summer is a blip.

Don’t get me wrong, we still have summer temperatures, but I’m thinking of sweaters and cute boots, and then cute boots giving way to real boots that have to stand up to a frozen slush I swear no other city makes just the same way. The school supplies are picked over, shiny backpacks nearly as big as their new owners on their way to fulfill their destiny.

Back to school time.

I’m not going back to school, but still the force of it lingers, it grabs us all, students, parents of students, or completely student un-adjacent. Time to buckle down. Time to get serious. Time for new things, new challenges.

Spring is an undeniable start, a clear beginning with new life bursting forth everywhere. But Fall is its own kind of start. An introspective one.

The New Year isn’t the only time we can begin again or choose a new mountain to climb. Pick your peak.

Like my political side? Read my opinion pieces here.

Check out  my full-length novels: 

Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   

Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 

 Her Cousin Much Removed

 The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.

And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s free!

Peruse Montraps Publishing.

 

I don’t wanna.

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boy child clouds kid

Photo by Porapak Apichodilok on Pexels.com

Do you have that little voice in your head, too? The one who, when faced with a task, even a not-unpleasant task, says, “I don’t wanna?”

My I don’t wanna is throwing a huge tantrum today. Huge.

I woke up very groggy, but still managed to do my Daily Burn 365 live workout. I wasn’t sure I could, I felt heavy and like my limbs were still in bed, but all of a sudden I was doing it then sweatily all of a sudden later I was done.

But as I stood there waiting to get started, that voice greeted me. I don’t wanna.

And I shut that brat down.

One of the things I’ve gotten from yoga–and by now, you know I’ve gotten a lot–is that our thoughts are just thoughts. We can think they’re reality, but they aren’t, necessarily.

(As an aside, if you’re curious, this comes from Bernie Clark and his yin yoga classes. I don’t think it’s this practice specifically, but here’s a free beginner yin class to try.)

So that voice can say I don’t wanna. It can scream it, it can pound its tiny little fists, it can stomp its internal voice feet.

But we don’t have to listen. We can acknowledge it and do it anyway. There are so many obstacles in life, we don’t have to be our own.

Guess what else that voice didn’t wanna do?

This post.

And here it is. You show that little voice what’s what today.

Like my political side? Read my opinion pieces here.

Check out  my full-length novels: 

Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   

Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 

 Her Cousin Much Removed

 The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.

And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s free!

Peruse Montraps Publishing.

Insight over Nail Clippings

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By Anishshah19 (17th Century art) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

It’s weird when a Wednesday feels like a Monday. All the Monday vibes, none of the Monday placement in the week. It’s still a two-cup-of-coffee-kinda day, and my nails have gotten to that length where they’re annoying for typing.

A symbol of the cycle of time.

Though it’s not really a cycle, is it, when the week gets all turned around like this, days out of order. Arrgh, excuse me for a second, I’m off to perform a partial nailectomy. Hmm, that sounded more ominous than I thought. See? They were quite a distraction.

Let’s say a nail reduction and call it a day. And it worked, too.

Unencumbered now, my fingers are stretching their legs all over the keys, and the ideas are getting leggy with them. So that’s something to consider.

Sometimes a small physical change can unlock a mental one. A walk can spark something, can give you ideas, can get oxygen into those specific nooks that needed it.

A new place to work — even if it’s a different spot at the same table — is a whole new perspective. That chair that digs precisely nineteen minutes into writing may be the reason you can never get past the 1000-word mark in a session.

Don’t give yourself obstacles you don’t need. Don’t miss the chance for change to, well, change things up.

Sometimes it’s as small as hacking at your nails with a nail clipper.

Sometimes.

Check out  my full-length novels: 

Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   

Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 

 Her Cousin Much Removed

 The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.

And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s free!

Peruse Montraps Publishing.

Let’s talk about Monday.

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Hans Baluschek [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

And here we are, back again at Monday, the week as new and fresh as the hint of cool underneath the breeze. Mondays can feel like the end of something sometimes, but they aren’t really.

On Monday morning, you haven’t missed a single item on your to-do list. On Monday morning, there’s a bright, full week of planning, of room, of time. On Monday morning, the coffee is particularly punchy.

We, as humans, have the prerogative to forge fresh starts whenever we need or want them. You could pledge to healthy eating and exercise on a Wednesday, if the spirit so moves.

Yet there’s something about a Monday. Mondays are the days of determination; willpower secrets itself away in Mondays. On Mondays, we face the world with shoulders squared and backs as straight as we can muster. We look the week in the eye.

And we say “I can.”

Hey, did you see a real-life scientist scienced Aunty Ida?

Check out  my full-length novels: 

Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   

Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 

 Her Cousin Much Removed

 The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.

And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s free!

Peruse Montraps Publishing.