A TToT. Just because…

Last weekend was not a great weekend. Kinda weird. Naturally, a song immediately came to mind (after the “oddest” experience of the afternoon). Geez. How appropriate. And damn catchy. The song? FFDP’s “A Little Bit off Today“. [If you listen to the song via the link or vid below, know there are a few words some may find offensive. Heads up.] In my younger years, every now and again I’d write to a melody of whatever might be playing in my head at the moment. Today, as I literally ran down a steep (you know – the steep that sends you so crazy fast you hope your body can keep up with your feet?), big ass hill, a couple of words popped into my head. And it immediately began reading internally with the aforementioned melody. Today’s Thankfuls begin with those words:

1.) Ran down a hill today, a pretty big hill today, didn’t even stumble
ran down a hill today, pretty big hill today, didn’t fall and didn’t tumble.

Sun catchin’ in the wind today, was a pretty nice day today
danced for life and everybody,
sun catchin’ in the wind today, it was a pretty nice day today
walked it long for everyone

Ran down a pretty big hill today, didn’t fall and didn’t tumble
ran down a pretty big hill today, kept me honest, kept me humble
Sun catchin’ in the wind today, was a pretty nice day today
danced and walked for everyone

2.) The beauty of this day. Before a storm.

3.) Music

4.) Six Sentence Stories and the writers past and present. All enhance my creative landscape.

5.) Ten Things of Thankful and Dyanne! Lizzi, the creatoress of this hop has passed the torch. Dyanne is our current successor host of this most wonderful of blog hops. Go Dyanne!

6.) My job. The security it offers in a time of uncertainty for so many.

7.) The ability to move, walk, see, hear – to have my senses intact (I think I’ve got them all, lol)

8.) Used bookstores.

9.) the Wakefield Doctrine.

10.) This day. The only day.

 

Thankful. Grateful. A Ten Things of Thankful.

Practice. Everything is practice, isn’t it? You know, the things we want to do well? Because if we do something well, we feel better about doing it, better about ourselves. The energy that comes from that is infectious? contagious? No, no, that sounds like a cold or a virus. The more appropriate word is inclusive. Today, I practice sharing my thankfuls. Thanks to Kristi and her new Co-Hosts, Clark, Dyanne and Pat, there is a venue for the sharing and it is all inclusive. Thank you guys, for providing the platform. And without further ado, I shall dive into Thankfuls #2 – 10.

….which is to say, yesterday. Yesterday was a most perfect day. Not a cloud in the sky, it’s color a softly shaded blue, a gentle, comforting breeze to offset the sun’s magnificent glow and heat. Perfect.

3.  Listening to my body. When my brain begins to overflow with suggestions, when it begins projecting and trying to figure things out in advance, I try to be mindful so that I immediately cease and desist! so that I can allow my body to guide me. It has not yet failed me 🙂

4.  YouTube! It truly is amazing and wonderful. I have discovered so much “new” music recently. Wonderful.

5.  All the wonderful participants at Six Sentence Stories. It gives me great pleasure to provide another platform, vehicle, for writers to share in their creativity.

6.  the Wakefield Doctrine.

7.  Sappy movies. What a nice escape sometimes 😀

8.  Employment, transportation, sufficient food, a roof over my head.

9.  The hydro massage beds at my gym! The thought of a massage at the end of a good workout is often the only thing that gets me to the gym, lol.

10.  Today. This day and the will to remember to live… in the moment.

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Sunday’s Six Sentence Story Word Prompt!

Welcome to GirlieOnTheEdge and Sunday’s posting of the prompt word for this week’s Six Sentence Stories!  Doubling like an oreo today, I joined in the festivities over to the Ten Things of Thankful 6th Anniversary Celebration. Check it out! In the meantime, it’s business as usual here at the ‘Edge. You guys ready to go another round of 6’s? I said…ARE. YOU. READY!!! What say we get right to posting this week’s prompt. Have a wonderful day today and I’ll see everyone later in the week! And hey, one of my thankfuls always, is you all. Thank you for joining me each week and sharing your creativity and humor 🙂

Rules of the hop:
Write 6 Sentences. No more. No less.
Use the current week’s prompt word.
Come back here on Thursday, link your post…
Spread the word and put in a good one to your fellow writers 🙂

PROMPT WORD:  EXTENSION

“The more you leave out, the more you highlight what you leave in.” 
― Henry Green

 

Ten Things of Thankful. 6th Anniversary Edition.

Now this..this feels at once foreign and familiar! And good 🙂 I’m sharing my 10 Thankfuls today in honor of the 6th anniversary of the Ten Things of Thankful blog hop. Why, yes! That very one. Birthed by Lizzie, the Considerer, inherited by Josie Two Shoes and devised to Kristi of Thankful Me, we are here in celebration of a most wonderful idea turned movement, without question, beneficial in ways not always immediately realized. So, shall we?

First up:  the community that is the blogosphere. Specifically, all the most awesome, crazy (in the fun way, lol), generous people I met back then and all of the fabulous, creative people I am meeting now.

2nd: That it no longer rains here every Friday! You could tell it was Friday (or, you knew the weather forecast in advance) because it had rained on Friday for 8 consecutive weeks. Like clockwork.

3rd: Six Sentence Stories.

4th:  Here’s an odd one. Driving to nephew’s soccer game (tournament time) I noticed a whole lotta geese in the median on Rt. 50 in Fairfax. (yo! Kristi Campbell, you know where – right around Jermantown Rd.) A whole lotta geese and their little baby ones feeding in the median of a very busy highway. What the hell. I had fingers crossed that on the way back I would see no dead bodies. I did not.

5.    Thanks always for job and vehicle, being able to afford the necessities.

6.    My health. While I have a couple of minor issues, it is nothing compared to what many suffer, endure, battle, conquer each and every day.

7.     Computers/laptops. What a portal! What an asset! What a wonderful vehicle for widening and enriching my world.

8.     Music.

9.     the Wakefield Doctrine.

10.  That’s right! I’m invoking Rule 1.3. The SBOR/BOSR says I can 🙂

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Sunday’s Six Sentence Story Word Prompt!

Hello everyone! Welcome to GirlieOnTheEdge. Today, I release, let fly, heave ho the prompt/cue word to use for this week’s Six Sentence Stories. I was asked recently, in an interview with D. Avery of ShiftnShake, how I chose the prompt words for the SSS. Well, this week’s word(s) came pouring into my head waving wildly – pick me, pick me! As I considered each of them (nowhere near computer, paper or pen), I decided to file them in the memory bank. If you’re familiar with “my people”, (clarks),  you know we carry around endless caravans of information in our heads, mountainous piles of “hey, maybe I might need this one day”. Thrown on that pile, I went to retrieve the word that screamed the loudest and realized, I’d forgotten it. Not the others. Just that one 😀  Please find below the runner up prompt word to use for the June 6, 2019 edition of Six Sentence Stories 🙂 Have a most excellent week all! Oh hey, if anyone sees the forgotten word trying to bum a ride, leave me a comment or e-mail me. We’ll use it next week. Ta, ta!

Rules of the hop:
Write 6 Sentences. No more. No less.
Use the current week’s prompt word.
Come back here on Thursday, link your post…
Spread the word and put in a good one to your fellow writers 🙂

PROMPT WORD: EXERCISE

Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.
– Rudyard Kipling

Twofer Sunday! Yeah, it is!

‘Morning, ‘afternoon and welcome to GirlieOnTheEdge. Typically, Tuesday is “twofer” day, but I’m stretching the rules a bit. Today, they’ll be 2 posts at the ‘Edge. This one and the Six Sentence Story word prompt post, so stayed tuned 🙂

Sundays for me can go either way – a slow, moderate approach to the day or a crazy, oh my gosh, so much to do before the weekend ends, day. I’m opting for something somewhat in the middle (you sure that’s not possible?)

D. Avery is a writer who runs the shop at ShiftnShake. Some of you know D as a regular at Six Sentence Stories. A published author, her latest release is Ever After, D has recently introduced a new feature at her place called How D’ya Do. It’s an interview series featuring varied writers in the blogosphere who offer writing challenges and prompts. You should check it out. And not because I had the honor of being the last interviewee 😀 Thanks, D for having me over last week!

Always and Forever. Ten Things of Thankful.

Good morning everyone! Welcome to GirlieOnTheEdge. Kristi has opened the doors again this week to the blog hop known as Ten Things of Thankful. I’ve got a bunch so why not begin now?!

Safety while traversing 1,200 miles since last week. Drove back to the homeland for a visit. What? Why, yes! that is 2 Thankfuls right there!!

#3 Mimi’s TToT this week. Her post is a reminder that life is, without doubt challenging, and at times overwhelmingly so. But she is on the money that it’s all about perspective. How do we keep perspective?

#4 The sun shining brightly this morning. Absolutely magical today.

#5 Hypo grat alert! I can’t seem to e-mail photos from my phone to my laptop! Keep getting an alert someone is trying to access my account! Yo! It’s me, Girlie, e-mailing Girlie. *sigh*

#6 Insert here (in your imagination), the photo I can’t seem to insert. Rest assured I’ll be back this weekend to insert it because dammit! I have to figure out why I can’t!! Simple enough to do: e-mail photo, download to laptop, insert into post. What am I missing, lol??

#7 Oh, yeah...insert another invisible photo right here.

#8 Spring! It has finally arrived! Kinda sorta 😀 While the forsythia have bloomed where I live, the temps are not quite “springlike”. No never mind, spring is also attitude. And there’s plenty of that all around me 😀

#9 Six Sentence Story Blog Hop. Thank you everyone who has participated for so long, and for all the new folks who have found their way to the hop over “hill and dale”. You all are truly an inspiration 💖
P.S. Prompt word for this week’s SSS will be published tomorrow 🙂

#10 This moment. A day, lying in wait, for me to celebrate. Enjoy your day, my friends!

 

Did someone say Ten Things? It’s a TToT

Hey! So what do you guys think? Do certain people have a proclivity for the “odd” or do “odd” things happen to all of us? Is it simply a matter of noticing them? Subjective perception of the event? You could say, given the person’s worldview (the Wakefield Doctrine), how an event/interaction/experience manifests for an individual will determine how they react to it.  To wit, how I relate myself to the world determines my interpretation of events/happenings and my subsequent reaction. As a clark, I take notice to some events that for lack of proper adjective, I would describe as “weird”. Take for example my experience yesterday at my “new” gym. I finished my workout. Per usual, I signed up for a 10 minute massage on the hydro-bed. Cool. Attached to one side of the bed is a flexible, movable, swing arm holding a screen about the size of a typical laptop. On it, you adjust the speed and pressure of the massage roller. It also shows time elapsed. For some reason, I noticed for the first time there was a “Massage Settings” option (full body, upper body – neck shoulders, lower body) on the left of the main screen. I tapped it, confirmed it was set for full body at my usual Speed 3, Pressure 3, and returned it to the main screen. Take me away Calgon, lol. I closed my eyes, slowed my breathing as the roller moved up and down my body, my mind quieting, total relaxation beginning to take hold. 4 minutes in, eyes still closed, I noticed a significant increase in the volume of the bed/rollers. Within a nanosecond, I felt incredible, painful pressure on my back that sent my eyes flying wide open and catapulted my body up and over to the right. Holy guacamole! I looked at the screen and the pressure read 8 and the speed 7!! So not good for a thin, brittle boned woman such as myself. As the machine roared on, I quickly tapped the screen until it read Pressure 3, Speed 3. A return to normal. All good. Eyes closed, beginning to relax again…see where this is headed? Again! Loud noise, painful rollers on my back, what is the deal?? I pull up the pre-set screen, it reads Pressure 8, Speed 7. ??? I reset, hit activate (again). This time? I would be alert for the sound of pounding, killer rollers. This happened a total of 3 times within 10 minutes. Needless to say, not a relaxing massage, lol At the end of it all, I smiled remembering the tanning bed scene in Final Destination 3. [Heads up: movie clip has some nudity & for sure, it’s gory]
Here’s some thankfuls…

1. films, without which, I couldn’t entertain myself when those “odd” things occur 🙂
2. a day off from work 2 Wednesdays ago.
3. dare I not jinx it now but…very little snow this winter.
4. return of the small bird that sits on the deck railing in the mornings. lessons from nature.
5. Six Sentence Story Blog Hop and all who’ve made it a most enjoyable weekly event!
6. the Wakefield Doctrine.
7. good health and physical mobility
8. access to the internet and the people who populate it. virtual or not, they add to my world.
9. flat irons.
10. this day. my only day.

Heart rate Not Detected….it’s a TToT.

Good morning all! And what a morning it is at the ‘Edge. I feel compelled to write a Ten Things of Thankful post today. What is it that “compels” me to write? What is the little thing, masquerading as spontaneous creativity, that suddenly has me “needing” to write a TToT? That’s just it. It isn’t one thing.  It’s been a series of events; somewhat of a snowball of a morning. I began by checking e-mail. As soon as I open it, I’m completely overwhelmed – when the hell am I going to delete some of these?! So I click on a couple….yeah, yeah, yawn, whatever…then I come to the tweet notification e-mail. That’s when I thought I heard a knocking on the door. Thank you Kerry! It was your tweet February 5 that started the ball rolling. ToT numero uno :D.

TToT 2 – Sense of humor. This morning’s title was inspired by an event at my new gym last week. I’d been pedaling easily 20 minutes on the recumbent bike and at a pretty good clip. Put my hands on the handles to get my heart rate. Holding, holding until the following message started scrolling across the screen: “Heart rate not detected. Resistance being reduced”. I laughed out loud.

TToT 3 – the Wakefield Doctrine. (sliced bread?, whatev)

TToT 4 – Six Sentence Stories. I know Kristi, as host of the TToT, can relate when sometimes I wonder, “why did I agree to do this?” lol. And then I remember all the wonderful reasons, like meeting new writers, reading new writers, expanding my world just a little bit more. And the regulars? Damn! I continue to be so totally impressed by the writing skills and the commitment and the…everyone is a pleasure to know 🙂

TToT 5 – Good health.

TToT 6 – Technology!!! Yeah, it’s got it’s negatives but I sure am glad to have access.

TToT 7 – People in my life to tell me the “hard stuff”.

TToT 8 – Sunshine.

TToT 9 – Music.

TToT 10 – I woke up today. ‘nough said. Life is now. Today. Only. Ready set, go.

 

 

Officially Unofficial, it’s a TToT

The morning has dressed for Winter. Blue sky trimmed with bands of wrinkled white clouds their bellies lined grey, it is the first full day after the official beginning of Winter. That is where I beg to differ. The way I see it? This is the first unofficial first day of Winter’s end. That’s right, lol. Just go ask Clark. He’ll tell you unequivocally, Winter is over. Go ‘head. Dare you 😀

I woke this morning fairly early for a day I could sleep in. Not only Saturday, it’s the Saturday before Christmas and the beginning of a mini-vacation. I don’t have to return to work until next Wednesday. Sweet. A longtime believer in the body knows first, I was pouring my second mug of go-go juice, when I was accosted by a few creative “punks” taunting, “Gee, Denise, no pressure, why not sit and write a spell, huh?, huh?” Floating in a pressure free zone, they knew words tended to coalesce easier, you know, when they don’t have to appear. When they don’t need to perform.

Now what?! Seems I’ve scared them away. No nevermind. Cat’s out of the bag. I’m on alert now! (and no. won’t give in to the notion I’ve “wrecked it somehow”). Since I’m also one to not (intentionally) follow convention, not naturally blend in, I would like to take this opportunity to say Thank You to some folks and to shout out to the Universe my appreciation in this official, unofficial TToT:

Kristi, creator of Thankful Me. Even though we be on holiday hiatus, thank you for bringing us all the Ten Things of Thankful Blog Hop.

Clark. For the Wakefield Doctrine and providing living proof that commitment and practice produces results.

Zoe. She handed me the baton and challenged me to lead the Six Sentence Story Blog Hop. I’m thankful she did!

Six Sentence Story current (and past and on hiatus) participating writers: Mimi, Paul, Reena, Clark, Deepa, Pat, Dark Netizen, Neel, Rene, D. Avery, Sa, Ira, Deborah Lee, Val, Lisa, Kristi, Dyanne…I know I’m leaving someone out – my apologies! Bottom line: I totally enjoy bringing everyone the writing challenge that is the SSS and so appreciate reading your work. It’s not only an entertaining endeavor, it’s an opportunity to learn, to discover, and to enjoy getting to know people I’d otherwise never know!

Cynthia aka Sageleaf of Intuitive and Spiritual. She is a bright, shining beacon for my people 🙂 Talented and creative, I’m lucky to call her friend.

The Internet/Techonology. See above!

Family. In all its iterations.

For a warm place to live, transportation to take me where I want/need to be.

Health, vitality, opportunity to increase both.

This day…This day, my gift…This day my opportunity…This day, my only day.

Thank you all for giving me a bigger world.