Writing Prompt: Your Box of Memories

Writing Prompt: Your Box of Memories

This is a season of remembering for me. When spring and summer roll around looking at my calendar, I see empty space surrounding dates that once held joy and promise.  To anyone else, the numbers that line up in perfect calendar order are just that, numbers and days waiting for plans to be made and events noted.

 I have scribblings all over my yearly paperback calendar and would be in big trouble if I lost it.  I don’t trust myself using only the electronic version of noting my dates, I need to flip the worn pages of my spiral-bound calendar and see one month on a full page.  I’m a long way from being a millennial, and I know it. What I really need to do is write my dates using my erasable pen, as the designated spot allowed for each day is quite scribbled and marked up. As a side note, don’t write checks using your erasable pen, ask me I know why.  

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I've Discovered a New Word!

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I've Discovered a New Word!

“Remember that lovely evening surrounded by friends at home, maybe with a glass or cup of tea and baked goods on the table.  There were candles, the rain was beating on the window outside.  There was laughter, conversation, and a feeling of comfort…you were present in the moment together.  There was no before or after that mattered.  That’s hygge.”

   ~ Unknown

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What’s Next for 2019? (My New Book!)

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What’s Next for 2019? (My New Book!)

I’m not the kind of person who has trouble looking back to review a year that’s over.  I enjoy the process. I’m thankful for my calendar which records the appointments, dinner plans, travel dates, to-do lists, phone numbers, and any other random thing I don’t want to forget.  I must write things down, or I never remember what or where I’m supposed to be or do.  I don’t think it’s a result of accumulated birthdays, I’ve always had a partial sieve for a memory.

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Why I Wrote My First Book - Pt. 2

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Why I Wrote My First Book - Pt. 2

In preparation to publish my second book Write Your Way Through Change - a 21-Day Devotional Journal for Grief & Major Life Transitions, I want to share the reason why I wrote my first book.

My first book, Hello Nobody is what came from my desire to tell my own story of grief and life transition. I wanted someone to know that if I can make it through, they could too.                                 

The hardest trials actually uncovered my faith.  I was raised in a Christian home, brought up in church, youth group and even attended a Christian College.  I believed God was good and had good plans for me.  I asked Him into my heart and life, in a personal way when I was 16 years old.  I knew He was real.

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Give Thanks on Thanksgiving

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Give Thanks on Thanksgiving

America is the only country I know of that has a national holiday set aside for the purpose of giving thanks.  Starting in 1691, a day has been dedicated to food, family and friends gathering together.  The Plymouth colonists shared from the bounty of their harvest to celebrate with neighbors, a feast. 

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Why I Wrote My First Book - Pt. 1

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Why I Wrote My First Book - Pt. 1

Everyone has a story to tell and there is someone that needs to hear it.

Have you ever found yourself in a place of life transition, change that you didn’t ask for or want?

 I have and that’s what happened to me.  I suddenly found myself facing life alone in the circumstance I didn’t ask for.

I realized when faced with unwanted choices in life, there’s a choice to be made.

The first thing I learned is that grief isn’t fair.  It can hit you more than once and can take prisoners.

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The Benefits of Porch Sitting

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The Benefits of Porch Sitting

It’s that time of year again.  My screened-in porch gives a new spot for living.  This week I washed the furniture, vacuumed all the cushions of winter partials and scrubbed the floor with a solvent that left a squeaky clean feel to bare feet.  The ceiling fan ensures a soft constant breeze.  Today the humidity is cooperating and is comfortable.  The wind passing by comes in ribbons of strength that have tree leaves dancing and shaking, lifting their heads to sound like the waves of the ocean. 

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What’s the Promise?

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What’s the Promise?

The sky turned gray and dark as I drove along the mountain highway.   Large clouds filled the heavens warning me an angry storm was brewing overhead.  It wanted a fight and was flexing its muscles in shades of deep grey that seemed to boil and churn with blackness. 

1st Mother's Day Without My Mom

1st Mother's Day Without My Mom

The month of May has the distinction of hosting a national holiday, Mother’s Day.  The modern celebration was first established in 1908, by Anna Jarvis as a memorial for her mother Anna Reeves Jarvis.  She died in 1905 and a day was proclaimed to honor the sacrifices mother’s make for their children.  The rest is history.  We honor our Mom’s the second Sunday in May.