Not As Easy As You Think

June 10, 2023June 13, 2023 ~ humoringthegoddess ~ 8 Comments

This article … oh… blog … is dedicated to those of you out there who have been sprinkled with a little A.D.D. dust. You know who you are.

And if you have to ask yourself if you have been, you have been.

I’ve been trying to get more active in my old age, despite the roadblocks my body and psyche keep throwing up to stop me. I am tired of being tired, sleepy, and muddled. I’m talking to my doctor this week about some of my medications, working on the drug angle as well.

We went camping lasy weekend, just the two of us. Oh, and the stink butt dogs. It was to be a couple of days of doing absolutely nothing (except cook and clean up). We were going to walk the dogs, picnic like we were in the wine country of France, and read. We needed to relax. Both of us.

Sitting still in a chair near the woods in the sunshine (or shade) isn’t as easy as you’d think.

You start out relaxed. Feet stretched out, cold drink on the table next to you, maybe a small antipasto to carry you to lunch. The birds are singing away, kids laughing in the distance, a cool breeze tickling your hair. You’ve got a book you’ve been dying to read and/or dying to finish. All is well with the world.

For the first 10-15 minutes.

You find you are a little too hot or a little too cold. The sun has moved and it’s in your eyes. Or the shady spot you’ve found is suddenly filled with gnats or worse. You unconsciously start wiggling you RSL foot (or leg or legs) and suddenly you lose your place in your book. You notice the kids at the campground next door or four sites down never quit screaming while they’re playing.

You get back into your book. This is the part you’ve been wanting to read since winter. And you start wondering what your grandkids are doing today. Or your sister. Or your best friend.

You come back to the book. Yes! Take a drink of your beverage and the waterdrops on the outside of your glass drip onto your pages. You don’t want to get up just to get a wipe so you use the bottom of your shirt.

Your restless leg or your blinking from the bright sun threatens to take all of your attention. And now that mosquito bite from yesterday right above your ankle is starting to itch like crazy and the dogs are licking themselves with that unbearable sound.

You manage another page, still trying to enjoy paradise, when some weird bird starts screeching from the tree at the end of the campsite, and you wonder — is it a bird or is it a squirrel?

What is going on here? Why are you letting all these minor distractions distract you?

You’re getting antsy and over reactive for seemingly no reason. And the more you fight it, the worse it becomes. It could be a form of your A.D.D. that you don’t have, or it could be your younger side getting bored.

Modern day men and women have a hard time sitting still for any length of time. We always feel like we should be doing SOMETHING. Just ask TV commercials or social media. They constantly remind you that there are tons of things waiting for you back home, and they can help. You know: doing laundry, washing floors, stopping headaches, wiping up spills, picking out a new cell phone. A thousand other things you should be doing instead of kicking back doing NOTHING.

Well, it’s up to us to work through this distraction of distraction. We work hard, run thousand of errands, work jobs and take care of children and do the dishes every day! We deserve a break! A silent break!

Let’s make sure we take that break. For our sanity, for our soul, and for our creativity. After all… even God took a break on the seventh day, didn’t She? Making the Earth n’ all that stuff was a lot of hard work. She deserves some quiet time, too.

Find the Lady a book!

Another Try…all and Err…or

July 4, 2022July 3, 2022 ~ humoringthegoddess ~ 9 Comments

Here it is, actually Sunday night, and I’m feeling agitated/messed up/peaceful/chatty/thoughtful once again. I’m sure you’re all here somewhere with me.

I have been thinking about starting some kind of routine/ritual both in the morning before I get out of bed and in the evening before I go to sleep. Something to refocus me: something to guide me, relax me, teach me; something to give my mental chatter and A.D.D. a rest.

I’m not much for religion these days — I held onto a little bit of it through the years, just enough get me through, but I think most of it disappeared when I lost my son.

I’ve tossed around several Goddesses for a number of years, along with spirit guides (who helped me write my books) and guardian angels who watched my back. I’ve looked for faeries to light my way, along with miracles meant only for me and words that blow through the pine trees that only I could hear.

So perhaps it’s time to take a break from the airy fairy and try some actual, old fashioned therapy.

I’ve thought about reading poetry before I get up in the morning. Not necessarily the creations of friends and newfound poets, but the old-fashioned ones. Robert Frost and taking the road less travelled and Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson and Marilou Angelou. Beautiful, soulful poetry. Simple start-the-day poetry. No preaching; just musical words.

A beautiful way to start a day, don’t you think?

Then, when all the madness of the day is done, instead of wasting time online on Facebook or some other mindless rot, I have started going to bed, listening to soothing music, and reading a classic, physical book. Not an iPad book, not a magazine — a real live book.

I am beginning to think our grandparents and great grandparents had it right. No TikTok, no television series we have to catch up on, no blasting rock and roll or video games till midnight. I mean, all those are wonderful activities — but not when we need to sleep.

Life is full of love and play and intellectual stimulation. Full of highs and lows and frustrations and dead ends. But it’s also a gateway to wonderful worlds, wonderful thoughts. We just have to find a way to get to them.

It’s the calming of the mind that recharges us. The calming of the psyche. The calming of the soul. We can deal with anything during the day, but it’s the dawn and the twilight that really connects with our soul. Our center.

We need to find ways to reconnect.

If you have access to Amazon Music, there are a couple of music playlists that work well for me: Studying Music: Music to Study By, Relaxing Piano, Study Music, New Age Music, Meditation Music, Classical Piano, Calm Music Piano: Soothing, Relaxing, Soft Background Music for Sleep, Massage, and More, and Study Music: Soothing, Calm, Relaxing New Age Music and Classical Piano for Studying, Meditation, Yoga.

Most of the music is minor chord relaxation music — I hope it helps you relax and dream as well.

Let me know how YOU reconnect with yourself.

Friday Night Thoughts

June 18, 2021June 15, 2021 ~ humoringthegoddess ~ 11 Comments

This ought to be a hoot, because I’m writing Friday Night Thoughts on a Monday morning.

What is your ideal Friday evening?

I’ve been listening lately to U-Tube videos of ambient music lately; hours of the same kind of background tunes you find in lounges, street cafes, and movies. Many have U-Tube videos/images in the background to match the ambience. They’ve got Victorian Libraries, Jazz Cafes, Lazy Summer Afternoons — even ambience built on Lord of the Rings or Hogwarts. Great for crafting, sitting on the porch, or reading.

So that makes me have to redirect and rethink my question, turning it into two questions.

What is your ideal Friday evening fantasy?

What is your ideal Friday evening that you can actually carry out?

My dream Friday evening would be sitting at an outdoor café in Paris, eating some decadent French dessert and watching the Eiffel Tower sparkle in the distance. I would hope there would be some hammy accordion music in the distance, but I don’t know if they do that over there.

My ideal Friday evening back here in reality would be sitting around a fire, (indoor or outdoor), sharing conversation and laughs with family and friends, watching the sun set, sipping a pina colada or blueberry vodka and lemonade or even a big glass of chocolate milk.

There is something magical about Friday nights. Maybe it’s because it marks the end of the work week, end of a school week, or that politicians, weekly news reporters, and movie stars have gone home for a quiet weekend and left us alone.

Saturday nights are often date nights, wedding receptions, trips to the city or countryside, get-togethers, and other big deals that can’t be held during the week. There’s always time to enjoy a little bit of jazz, a rock concert, or a symphony on the first true day of the weekend. It’s a dress up and glitz to the city or drive to the beach kinda day.

Of course, our Friday nights often turn out to be something else entirely. Kids drop by, you drop by the kids house, football games, grocery shopping — the distractions are endless. It’s the first night you can crash and (hopefully) sleep in the next day. Watch a little telly, a movie, catch up on your weekly TV series — the things you can jam into a Friday night are endless too.

But Friday nights are wonderful nights for reflection, too. For creative planning. For savoring the week’s bounty and planning your next step. It’s a time to shut off the past week’s work and domestic activities and plan something for yourself. A bath, a walk, a book. It’s the quiet of sunset, the fireflies of twilight, and the still of a crescent moon.

Take advantage of your Friday nights. They can be the first step on your magical ladder to tomorrow.

How do ~you~ spend your Friday nights?

Faerie Paths — Saturday Afternoon

February 20, 2021February 20, 2021 ~ humoringthegoddess ~ 10 Comments

What can be better than to get out a book on Saturday afternoon and thrust all mundane considerations away till next week. ~ C. S. Lewis

Music for Every Mood

December 2, 2017December 2, 2017 ~ humoringthegoddess ~ 12 Comments

I love music. I really do.

I don’t think there’s a state of mind, a physical or mental condition, social gathering, or house cleaning job that isn’t enhanced with music.

My first love of music (that I can remember) is my love for the Beatles. My parents weren’t much music affectionados, although my favorite memories are my dad listening to polkas Saturday and Sunday mornings while working in the garage, and my mom listening to Patsy Cline and Hank Williams.

My love of music has only grown and matured and exploded in the last 40 years. From orchestras to acoustical guitars, there is always something to fit my mood.

Today I had a headache, and didn’t feel like sitting in total silence, so I put on Easy Instrumentals. Nothing like a slow, sultry orchestral rendition of Midnight Cowboy or The Way You Look Tonight to massage my temples.

Cleaning house? 70s-80s rock, of course. There’s nothing like Lynyrd Skynyrd or Motley Crue or John Mellancamp or Rush to get your cleaning bootie moving.

Early morning wake ups? Light classical fills the bill. Work? Upbeat classical or New Age Jazz. Melancholy for my mom and/or ol’ Ireland? Gaelic Storm, upbeat Irish band, or the High Kings. Irish balladeers at their best. Can’t sleep? Aura or Spa, two meditation-type bastions for cosmic wanderings. Meditation? Electronic music, especially the space travel ones. Feel like I’m soaring past Jupiter when I get into the groove.

Late morning still trying to wake up? Swing Bands Big Bands. I have that on my flash drive for work, too. Nothing like Artie Shaw or Fred Astaire or Glen Miller. Writing? Smooth Jazz. Love those minor chords. Driving home from work? Semi-Oldies will do. Nothing like belting out Livin’ on a Prayer or Come Sail Away to shake the bad aura. Up north at the cabin? Polkas on Saturday morning, of course.

I have some friends who don’t listen to music much. I don’t know how they get through the day. There is something inspirational, celestial, about becoming one with the song and the singer and the band. You let the aura of the music world take you somewhere happy and safe. Oldies? My teenage years. Gaelic Storm? My Irishfest and Irish heritage. Rock and roll? My life. Big band, Sinatra and all? Days of future passed.

Let the music tempt you, grab you, and take you away. Explore new musical worlds, new bands, new interpretations of old classics. No one cares where you go when you listen to music — everyone goes to their own place, anyway.

The talent of the musical world is unmatchable anywhere else. TV and movies don’t let you choose your world –only music does. Go and listen to some tonight.

Elvis will be proud.

Staying On Task

August 28, 2015 ~ humoringthegoddess ~ 13 Comments

I could live like this.

Forever.

Up at the cabin: wake up at 5:30 when hubby goes fishing; turn over and go back to sleep; wake up at 7, let the dog out, go out to the livingroom, open doors and windows and let cool air whip through the house, fall back asleep on the sofa till 9; take shower; read; grab a donut; go to library and do research for an hour; come back, have lunch; take a nap; write; go for a walk to lake; eat dinner; write; watch movies; sleep. Repeat. And Repeat.

Then the discombobulation starts. Go to bed. Try to sleep. Since I napped off and on all day, writing plots and ideas now come to the forefront. Get up. Write blog. Write Foreward to new book. Go to sleep at 1 a.m., something I’m trying desperately to change back home.

I came up to escape — to get away, to rest, to write. I’m under constant pressure back in homeyland to learn more, move faster, drive more carefully, clean more thoroughly — all that wonderful stuff that all of us do. So when we travel four hours to my father-in-law-now-my-son-and-our cabin, I do my best to unwind. To unplug.

Somehow, though, unplugging turns into disconnect in a heartbeat.

In my defense I could say my body sees an opportunity to catch up on its sleep/rest, and will be damned if anything gets in the way. That’s why half the time I’m pleasantly lethargic up here. The boys always go fishing; good for them. I hit the second hand stores; good for me. But all my plans for writing often get sidetracked by reading (I’m on the 4th Game of Thrones book now), baking, napping, and listening to the windchimes on the front deck.

Is this the world of the writer? Those who pound out best seller after best seller? Good, hard work followed by a nap in the breeze? If so, I’m pretty much a lackey in that department, too. Cool summer/autumn breezes and birds singing and no traffic and a lake in the distance aren’t always the inspiration for a murder mystery or a science fiction invasion.

I feel like a loser. 16 good hours of writing in 2 days boiled down to 2 hours of research, one hour of writing, one hour working on a friend’s website, and 12 hours of screwing around. The peace and quiet is so overwhelming it overtakes my good intentions.

I think it’s more I’m not as diciplined as I used to be. At home I squeeze writing inbetween playing with my grandson, watching TV, doing laundry and dishes, and yelling at the dogs. And it seems like I get more done.

I’ve screwed off enough for two days. I will go up and delete the word “forever” and replace it with “after retirement.” Until then I need to keep the mind sharp, the words flowing, and the blog pics amazing.

I’ll do that right after my nap.

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Aquariums

November 23, 2014July 16, 2016 ~ humoringthegoddess ~ 3 Comments

Nothing soothes the savage beast (or is it breast?) than watching fish swim. There is something about their slow, undulating movements that simplifies the most pretzeled logic and unties the tightest knots.