One of my 2017 resolutions is to do more art so one of the things that I’ve done in the past week has been these two art pieces. The second one is similar to my I’m ^still With Her word art that I did in the fall after the election, which I’ve been enjoying more and more.
goals
Be Resolute
StandardMy New Year’s Resolution is to be Resolute.
I’m tired of every year having the same resolution; the same goals – lose weight, walk more, be kinder, yell less, pray more, write more. Every year, I do all these things, but then I falter. Something comes up. I fall back into old habits – like drinking soda before 10am.
This year has been a year and a half, and it’s finally over. I’ve talked about the deaths, and the bad, but it wasn’t all bad. Remembering the good is just as important, if not more important.
Perspective.
My charge to myself to be Resolute is in part political, part activism, part kindness, and part mercy, and through all of that, there is my faith and my writing that I want in the forefront of who I am.
Standing up and speaking out.
I don’t know if I’ll be more political, but I don’t see how I can’t be with what’s coming in the next twenty days, but I will let it go in honor of celebrating this first day of a new year; the first page of a new book, yet to be written.
I will be writing a lot about the first amendment and the press because I think those are the two things that will be most in jeopardy in the nest year.
My recommendation is to follow journalists, and if you read opinion pieces or opinion pundits, know that is what and who they are. Be informed.
Dan Rather
Ezra Klein
Vox.com
The Washington Post
Connie Schultz
Planned Parenthood- they are very active politically on many women’s issues
ACLU,
and Random Acts for good measure because we will need more kindness and random acts than ever before.
What Am I Working On?
StandardI sometimes wonder…
Am I a writer or an author?
A blogger or a freelancer?
A memoirist?
A dabbler? Professional?
A nobody?
Sometimes, I don’t know what I am or what I’m doing here and elsewhere. Maybe one day it will come to me or all fall into place or whatever it’s supposed to do.I know that there are things pulling at me, and I have stories and half-written anecdotes and notes since my high school and college days. Fan fiction gave me a language and a society – a camaraderie that is often not found, even in the writing groups I’ve attended. Not belonging because of the subjects or the philosophies or the age difference – I tend to be either the oldest or the youngest. Neither one is preferable. They are both on the outside looking in.
Some of my writings are avoidance; conversely, some of my writings are avoided, each with a labyrinth of excuses and reasons, one more valid than the next.
I recently heard something on one of my favorite television shows. It’s funny to admit or even to say out loud to those who aren’t in the fandom and therefore don’t understand the inspiration that I get from this program and its cast and crew.
This isn’t the first time that their words have helped me move forward with a less than tangible hand to hold and shoulder to lean on.
“You wanna know the secret to living a long and happy life? Follow your heart. You do that, all the rest just figures itself out.”
– Mildred (played by Dee Wallace) to Dean (played by Jensen Ackles)
Happy New Year!
StandardEndings flow into new beginnings with my favorite New Year’s marathon, favorite t-shirt, favorite drink, and a new passage to explore.
A Blog Audit
StandardLast week I pushed the wrong button and accidentally changed my theme, so I spent two days looking through, and decided on this one. I wanted the color green and I like having a sidebar. It forced me to change whether I was ready or not. Sometimes, a good thing. I’ll be keeping this one.
As for other aspects of the site, what I’m looking to do is create more of a website feel rather than a blog. I have a few pages and I plan on adding more. The pages are for information and links. I currently have the opening page as my posts, but once I set up a Home page, I’m going to redirect to that static page rather than the posts which are listed in the sidebar anyway.
I’ve started an index divided into subjects so readers can find what they’re looking for.
I want it to be my original writing and photographs with helpful or informative reblogs. Simply, I want it to be mine.
I want the site to be a resource, to use what I know, what I learn and to share my experiences, especially the things that have changed me: depression, parenting, equality, spirituality; perhaps make someone else’s journey just a little bit easier and give them company on the road.
I’m still not sure how to join it together and bring out my best, like a tapestry woven with many layers and hidden threads. But I’m happy to experiment.
Welcome.
Blogging 201: Three Blog Goals
StandardI talk often about how I feel like my generation missed a boat or two. We don’t have a cutesy nickname like Baby Boomers or Milenials or even GenXers. It’s like time forgot us. We are sometimes a sandwich generation taking care of parents and kids but that’s about responsibility; there is no community.
We are in-between generations. We are in-betweeners. Eh, not loving it.
The people in my age group went to college, got jobs, had kids, some stayed home, some stayed in a career and both got crap for it. Pensions disappeared, job security became non-existent. We ignore illness until it can be ignored no more.
I’m 48 and the first time I felt at home with friends was in 2011 where our ages ranged from 20-45, experiences ranged equally, only two marriages in the group, one with kids. I fit.
But I also kind of fit with the PTA set; most there were about ten years younger than me, but it still worked.
I also fit with my church where my closest friend just turned 85.
I’m at home on Tumblr when most of my age group thinks it’s a gymnastic group.
I’m equally opinionated on politics and fandom, and I haven’t found a place that blends my passions; that’s what I try to do here. I’d like to continue that, but I’m not sure how to describe it without using potpourri, which I don’t want to use.
I write conversationally, but I also want to be taken seriously, especially in the areas that I consider myself an expert or authority.
I try to balance family, depression, church and writing plus whatever else pops into my head. I’m trying to form a new generational home seemingly alone.
And this is only the part that spewed out this morning on this very bright, white snow day.
Last fall, I started a new format for my blog/website. I gave myself a series of weeklies. Monday through Thursday, I post on a topic – I offer prompts for writing or reflection, a photo, a quotation and the recs that I think help many. I try to collect them all with a weekly theme (beginning this year), so my goals are mainly continuing that.
In September, I began to use a Mead day planner to plan out my site and that’s been working well.
Goal 1: In addition to the daily serial post, I’d like to post a second one related to the theme that I’ve decided on for that week. This week’s theme I’ve titled Groundhogs, Spring is just around the corner. On Fridays, I want to try writing a Reflection each week.
Goal 2: I’ve been published in local small-presses, and self-published a chapbook and a variety of newsletters. I would like to write for money. I’d like to start by monetizing my blog, but I’m not sure how to go about that. I’d like to learn.
Goal 3: Increase my quality of photography and writing and continue learning my craft to gain readers and continue growing as a writer. As an aside, I’d like to expand into travel writing.
Claimed by the Corner Office
StandardI immersed myself in Supernatural on Netflix while I did the one chore claimed by today – cleaning my office. I would call it success. I filed all the papers (except church papers and kids’ drawings). I have 2 magazines that need to be shelved. I forgot to put my 2014 jar back (but I will do that tomorrow after I drop off birthday cupcakes at school).
I’m very happy with my space.
Tomorrow I’m going to take everything off the mantle and dust and then replace and rearrange a bit. I may share some pictures.
I used my Amazon gift card today to buy Vicki Vantoch’s book, The Jet Sex and once this posts I will begin reading it. *excited*
Tomorrow is filing the slips of paper from the 2013 jar and properly setting it up for 2014. I will begin writing in my new journal. I will print 2 pictures of my closest friends&family to keep in it. I will set up my green notebook, which is catch-all for all my brain’s ideas. I will start deciding on my resolutions/goals for this year.
Lots of questions for next week’s RCIA class. Today I read the handout on the rite of election and now my stomach is in knots. Next week, I also have a memoir workshop. The prompt is basically do whatever you want. Sometimes that freedom is worse.
First official day after the holidays. I feel pretty good.
Happy Birthday Baby
StandardHappy Birthday Baby
Today is my baby’s birthday. She turned 8. She chooses her own clothes and today’s was a black tulle straight line dress with gold sparkly stars, black leggings, neon rainbow striped socks and a rainbow leopard print headband. And she pulls it off.
Target had half price girls’ clothes, so her birthday presents were more fashion statements. For Christmas we gave her a fashion design sketchbook, and she loved it. I think she sees a future career.
Today was also my weekly RCIA class and the Mass was the Epiphany Mass. It was a very musical Mass with the Three Kings giving their gifts to the Christ child. There were also refreshments and social time in the gathering space. If I don’t know people, they just randomly introduce themselves to me. It seems as though everyone knows me since I’m the only RCIA candidate this year and I know next to no one. Next week the Christmas season ends with the baptism of Christ.
I really love the program. I have not only learned so much, but it’s validated things I’ve always felt, but couldn’t put my finger on or figure out where I believed them from.
It’s very satisfying to find that my current state matches the mismatch that I’ve always felt in my life. Perhaps there was no other time when I was willing to listen until now.
The kids (finally!) go back to school tomorrow if the weather holds out. I plan to clear out the piles of paper in my corner office (so called because it’s literally in the corner of my living room). I have some plans to edit and publish (post) some of the pieces I wrote in November plus post the small ones that I did as part of an Advent Online writing retreat. (I’ll link you to the website when I post them.)
I’ve said it before, so I apologize for the redundancy but I’m feeling good about this year’s prospects for my writing.
Still feeling my way around this 365 project. I’m not sure if it’s going to be this – journaling about my day, maybe a small to-do or to-write list to give me some incentive to sit down and do it so it can be posted.
I also realize that the more I write, the better I’ll get and the more consistent I am will also give me a voice; my voice. I think that’s what I’m looking for: my voice.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
StandardIt is 2014, and we are in the midst of a snowstorm. I got a text this morning that the schools were closed due to weather. Good thing the schools were already closed due to Christmas vacation. Maybe they were testing the system out.
I can feel things already this year. It’s only a day old and I feel better than I did last January 2nd.
I count New Year’s Eve as a small part of 2014, so I was pleased to talk to my friends who gathered at my best friend’s house for their New Year’s celebration while I was five states away with my family. I have to say I would have liked to have been actively loved, but I did enjoy getting accidentally called while they were singing Carry On Wayward Son. I will say again here that WK made me cry in the good way and I will hold her words in my heart all of this year. I was able to have my closest friends and my family close by for the last day and the first day of the year and that is a good feeling.
I’m starting my good news or something jar with slips of paper. I already have a slip in there.
I’m also starting a daily bloggy/journal thingy. Very late on the 31st I posted a quotation: “Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one.”
I’ve decided to post something, probably short daily and tagged with 365 and then I’ll see what I’ve got at the end of the year.
I’m still working on resolutions, but they will be more like goals and hope-to-dos and I’m planning on more moments of self-accountability.
I plan to focus on three main writing topics in addition to whatever pops into my mind and my memoir workshops and fandom and they will be Depression, Faith and my House, more specifically my horrendous home-buying/mortgage experience. All of these are where my heart and mind always went to in my daily life and not only will talking about my experiences help my own therapy, I think that I can offer things to people suffering through depression with how I’ve been helped.
I’m looking forward to this year, and I haven’t felt that way in a very long, long time.
So, good tidings and blessings and happiness for the next 363 days and beyond that arbitrary calendar date.
KB




