Of the left-over items from the holiday season, CHRISTMAS CARDS may present the most perplexing puzzlement of all.
Christmas cards have become somewhat of a societal anomaly, after all.Where letters have transitioned into e-mails and passing thoughts get texted without enough thought, Christmas cards are one of the few remaining print expressions that actually still (most often) travel through snail mail – frequently from those who we’ve not truly heard from in ages past, despite potential social networking opportunities that often reveal very little beyond “it’s complicated.”
Perhaps because they’re a little more festive or maybe because we try to imagine the people opening their postal boxes, then opening our cards, we take a little more time in their preparation.After choosing a card (or making one) that conveys our personalities (or maybe our children’s growth), sometimes we buy fancy colored pens that glitter, or make a trip to the post office to buy season-appropriate stamps, or tuck a special thought or a little gift inside. Whatever the case, the recipient is left to understand that he/she was “special enough” to have been gifted with this extra effort.
Therein lies the quandary – what to do with this special endowment once the holiday season has passed. When the halls are no longer dutifully decked – and the house is no longer a jolly wreck…when everything around you appears sterile once more…what do you do with the remaining evidence of others’ thoughtful Christmas spirits? Do you just throw them into the trash – to be carried off and tossed onto a garbage heap? How very un-green (and red) of you!
Christmas Left-overs for Fun Recycling at our Home
How about some GREEN Christmas Card Re-Cycling Ideas that will continue to spread Christmas Cheer instead?
Okay, here’s the most obvious “re-cycling” idea. Choose some of your favorite cards and cut out pieces to make your own homemade Christmas cards next year. Don’t do it on your own though – how does that spread any Christmas cheer? Have a little card-making party. If you want to wear silly sweaters and do it with your BFF’s, fine. But instead of setting yourself up to say, “I thought we’d never come back from that one” (yes, that was an eye roll)…What if you included some young, glue-sticky hands in your fun? Invite the creative energy of kids to join you (e.g., youth group, boy or girl scouts, children’s church, foster kids, mission trip kids – wherever you might be able to get involved). You may have to hold onto these cards for several months, but by fall, these children could be making cards to give to special people and brighten their days. Up the ante by having the kids send (or deliver) the cards to folks in an elderly residential home or to soldiers. Look beyond yourself and share the spirit from beginning to end.
Re-cycle the blessing back to the individual(s) who originally blessed you. Place your pile of Christmas cards into a basket. Each night (or once a week – you can set your own reasonable time schedule), pull a card from the basket and resolve to pray for the name(s) on the card. Not only will you be blessing the sender of the card, you’ll be sneaking in another blessing for yourself once again. The card that keeps on giving…
Take your re-cycling efforts a step further. Mail that card back to the original sender, letting that person know you prayed for him/her. (Or if you are not comfortable with that, then just follow my lead from here.) Enclose a special note to the person(s) whose name(s) is/are in that card, letting that person feel the special touch of Christmas at an unexpected moment. You may not even know what’s going on in that person’s life; but I’ll bet he/she could use a blessing. How’s that for spreading cheer throughout the year?
Combine any of the above ideas for a whole new dimension of bless-ed fun! Help some kids cut out cards to make new seasonal cards. Can you imagine Santa saying “Hoppy Easter”? Or sending a partial card with a note to your friend, explaining the other parts of it were prayed over & sent out with a special note to someone in the armed forces or in an elderly living facility?
Create a collage of the fronts of Christmas card clip-outs onto a board and shellac it for a family member who either can’t be with you for the holidays or can’t be with you throughout the rest of the year. Send it to them as a writing/laptop board to remind them of your cheery love throughout the time you all are apart.
Come up with some new ideas of your own – and share them here for the rest of us to enjoy!
I first posted this story last Christmas season . Like all good stories (or not), I decided to make it an annual tradition – at least this year (mostly because I’ve been too busy lazy caught up in the awe of the season). This is one that deserves a hot cup of cocoa while reading it by the fire.
I need to begin this story with a very important disclaimer. By the time you get to the end, I can’t imagine that there could possibly be a dry eye among you. Consider yourself fairly warned.
I was driving down the road the other day with a couple of family members in tow. I’d give you their names, but it’s not easy to recall who always does or does not decide to go along with me on excursions I can’t clearly remember. Besides, you’d probably want to corroborate the details of this story with them – if you knew who they were – and, er, they probably wouldn’t want to be bothered with such disturbing distractions. Just take my word that this is how it all went down…
Early on in this outing, I realized that swerving to miss a large object in the upcoming lane was going to be called for. It was a green, bushy, triangular-shaped something or other that we managed to just barely miss while traveling 65 miles per hour down the Interstate. I couldn’t help but frown as my mind registered what sort of bundled-branched package would meet these specifications at this time of year. Sadly, it appeared as though someone had lost a Christmas tree. (No, I do not have a picture of this particular event, as I was driving 65 miles per hour up – I mean down – the Interstate and had to quickly swerve to avoid impact with this misplaced seasonal symbol. I’m going to have to ask you to help me out here, even if you weren’t prepared to be participative this early in the story.You’ll have to use your imagination on this one. Tis the season for that, you know. Ho ho ho.)
But I personally wasn’t feeling ‘ho, ho, ho’ over this incident. I was feeling ‘no, no, no’…this can’t be. What a terrible thing for some family (couple, crazy cat lady, whoever) to have traveled up the Interstate to have so lovingly picked out the perfect holiday tree (so they could curse stepping on old, hidden, sap-stuck pine needles that would painfully sink into the base of their toes by Easter) and to be on the way to take that new puppy home and unwrap it – so they could proudly re-wrap it in hazardous lights and decorations to the point that any Fire Marshall would blatantly and openly cringe – only to find it had escaped from the top of their vehicle somewhere between stopping to engorge their bodies with a dozen snow-capped Krispy Kreme donuts and home. I tried to imagine how I could help.
Perhaps I could…
turn around at the next exit, backtrack north on the Interstate, turn around again at the exit coming back in this southward direction,
stop my car in the middle of the Interstate with no worries of trucks that looked like they could turn into Decepticons barreling down the muffler of my little car that sips gas through a coffee straw,
strap that cumbersome tree onto the hood of my cargo-challenged car without the benefit of any twine (perhaps my un-remembered family members would hold it across their laps in the back seat and out both sides of the windows?),
and get it home so I could post it on a Lost and Found site until someone filed a Missing Christmas Tree report.
The site of the reunion would be tear-jerking. (Okay, my imagination gets a little outside of its own limits sometimes.)
About the time I was ready to convince myself that I could have this story all wrong– that maybe these people were driving through with their Christmas tree from the east coast and heading back to Colorado, where they’d be too tickled and too hungry with themselves to notice they were even missing the tree, I had to swerve to miss clipping another one…then another one. The next three were dotted, back and forth, on the opposite shoulders of the road. It was beginning to appear more like the driver of a Christmas tree delivery truck who was from Colorado – happily buzzing down the Interstate without a care in the world about flying Christmas trees in his rear view mirror.
This led me to a string of other theories (not to be mistaken with THE String Theory, of course, though that, too, could have been a possibility).
Some of my more plausible theories included:
Santa had gotten into the eggnog and rum cake early this year while thinking of the needs of the poverty-stricken who might otherwise be treeless. Of course, Santa doesn’t prescribe to the notion of welfare without work, as evidenced by his Northern elven sweat factory. Rather than allow these poor families to feel as if they were recipients of charity, in which they might feel looked down upon, Santa decided he’d create a challenge for them to claim these free Christmas trees. If they could dodge the oncoming traffic, heck, that was proof enough that they’d earned ’em – fair and square.
This was the work of a disgruntled member of the Elf Manufacturing Union (EMU – not to be mistaken with those freakishly frighteningly large birds, who are much more freakish than gigantic 20-point reindeer who fly and stomp across roofs; or with Eastern Michigan University, which is very close to the North Pole, from my southern state perspective). I’m guessing this elf was clearly upset because he was expected to labor during the holiday season. He was making his way south to apply for a job at Walmart. He’d laid out a trail of Christmas trees, so that he might find his rebellious little way back home if things didn’t work out any better for him at Walmart.
Colorado driver buzzing down the road with his package of holiday brownies – oh yeah, I forgot. We’ve already covered that one.
Perhaps a boyscout, who had been working on his Christmas Tree Ranch Handling merit badge, suddenly felt convicted over holding all those poor Christmas trees for ransom. Fed by the holiday spirit (and the 2 dozen cookies one of the moms had dropped off that he’d scarfed down in the last 5 minutes), he might have experienced a rush of compassion (okay, maybe it was just sugar) that caused him to throw open the corral gate and yell, “Run for your lives!” while barely escaping with his own before the stampede began. Some of the strays had apparently made their way out onto the freeway. It’s possible that this incident will lead to the discontinuation of the Christmas Tree Ranch Handling merit badge.
In any case, by the time I came back onto the scene from wrapping up my errands,I noticed that the southbound lane had been freed of all the Christmas trees. Just as I was about to wonder where they’d all gone…
When what to my wondering eyes should appear? Why! An F150 truck, its bumper hanging off its rear!
I noticed one of the concerned Citizenry for the Over-Forestation of Freeways (OFF) promptly dealing with the issue. (Incidentally, I’ve heard rumor that this group actually wanted to be the Federation for the Over-Forestation of Freeways, but when their president made application, it was denied because – for some strange reason – the court clerk took it as a personal offense that he wanted her to sign approval to F-OFF. More unfortunately, there is an insect repellent company who is rumored to have filed a lawsuit for use of its registered trademark name.) Nevertheless, this particular concerned citizen was not going to let that pesky little aggravation stop him from performing his self-assigned civic duty.
Upon spotting the poor, frightened tree from over the tipped-up end of his nearly emptied quart of beer, this in-the-seasonal-spirited gentleman yanked up on his emergency brake and selflessly turned a 360 in the middle of the freeway. He had to thereafter signal with his most visible finger for the trucker – who was leaning out the window while jake-braking and laying on his horn, urging this upstanding citizen as to how he might best go about his business – to go on around him and responsibly get back to his own. As Mr. Civic Duty got around to the rear of his F-150 truck with its holiday-tinted primer/rust mix, he joyfully threw his arms around that lonely, abandoned Christmas tree and adopted it quicker than if it had been his long, lost cousin, Earl, who’d just won the Powerball. He then tossed that tree into the bed of his pick-up, trading it out for about a 12-pack of empty beer cans that bounced off the tail gate and down the freeway behind him. I couldn’t help but think what a considerate and generous person he must be to want to leave those cans for someone to pick up later and exchange for the high rate offered in aluminum trade.
As if he hadn’t already exhibited an over-abundance of holiday spirit and generosity, I truly came to understand the meaning of Christmas in my final glimpse of this remarkable citizen in his over-exuberant heroic act.
“Yeehaw!” he belched, as he floored it out of sight.
“I got this durned Christmas tree for freed – without a bar fight!”
I ask you, where else could I have witnessed such a spectacularly heart-tugging story during this special holiday season?
So, now I must say…
Merry Christmas to y’all! And to all a good night!
Ah, crud. That was a copyright issue, wasn’t it?
(Nope, nope. It has ya’ll. I believe I’m good on this one.)
I need to begin this story with a very important disclaimer. By the time you get to the end, I can’t imagine that there could possibly be a dry eye among you. Consider yourself fairly warned.
I was driving down the road the other day with a couple of family members in tow. I’d give you their names, but it’s not easy to recall who always does or does not decide to go along with me on excursions I can’t clearly remember. Besides, you’d probably want to corroborate the details of this story with them – if you knew who they were – and, er, they probably wouldn’t want to be bothered with such disturbing distractions. Just take my word that this is how it all went down…
Early on in this outing, I realized that swerving to miss a large object in the upcoming lane was going to be called for. It was a green, bushy, triangular-shaped something or other that we managed to just barely miss while traveling 65 miles per hour down the Interstate. I couldn’t help but frown as my mind registered what sort of bundled-branched package would meet these specifications at this time of year. Sadly, it appeared as though someone had lost a Christmas tree. (No, I do not have a picture of this particular event, as I was driving 65 miles per hour up – I mean down – the Interstate and had to quickly swerve to avoid impact with this misplaced seasonal symbol. I’m going to have to ask you to help me out here, even if you weren’t prepared to be participative this early in the story.You’ll have to use your imagination on this one. Tis the season for that, you know. Ho ho ho.)
But I personally wasn’t feeling ‘ho, ho, ho’ over this incident. I was feeling ‘no, no, no’…this can’t be. What a terrible thing for some family (couple, crazy cat lady, whoever) to have traveled up the Interstate to have so lovingly picked out the perfect holiday tree (so they could curse stepping on old, hidden, sap-stuck pine needles that would painfully sink into the base of their toes by Easter) and to be on the way to take that new puppy home and unwrap it – so they could proudly re-wrap it in hazardous lights and decorations to the point that any Fire Marshall would blatantly and openly cringe – only to find it had escaped from the top of their vehicle somewhere between stopping to engorge their bodies with a dozen snow-capped Krispy Kreme donuts and home. I tried to imagine how I could help.
Perhaps I could…
turn around at the next exit, backtrack north on the Interstate, turn around again at the exit coming back in this southward direction,
stop my car in the middle of the Interstate with no worries of trucks that looked like they could turn into Decepticons barreling down the muffler of my little car that sips gas through a coffee straw,
strap that cumbersome tree onto the hood of my cargo-challenged car without the benefit of any twine (perhaps my un-remembered family members would hold it across their laps in the back seat and out both sides of the windows?),
and get it home so I could post it on a Lost and Found site until someone filed a Missing Christmas Tree report.
The site of the reunion would be tear-jerking. (Okay, my imagination gets a little outside of its own limits sometimes.)
About the time I was ready to convince myself that I could have this story all wrong– that maybe these people were driving through with their Christmas tree from the east coast and heading back to Colorado, where they’d be too tickled and too hungry with themselves to notice they were even missing the tree, I had to swerve to miss clipping another one…then another one. The next three were dotted, back and forth, on the opposite shoulders of the road. It was beginning to appear more like the driver of a Christmas tree delivery truck who was from Colorado – happily buzzing down the Interstate without a care in the world about flying Christmas trees in his rear view mirror.
This led me to a string of other theories (not to be mistaken with THE String Theory, of course, though that, too, could have been a possibility).
Some of my more plausible theories included:
Santa had gotten into the eggnog and rum cake early this year while thinking of the needs of the poverty-stricken who might otherwise be treeless. Of course, Santa doesn’t prescribe to the notion of welfare without work, as evidenced by his Northern elven sweat factory. Rather than allow these poor families to feel as if they were recipients of charity, in which they might feel looked down upon, Santa decided he’d create a challenge for them to claim these free Christmas trees. If they could dodge the oncoming traffic, heck, that was proof enough that they’d earned ’em – fair and square.
This was the work of a disgruntled member of the Elf Manufacturing Union (EMU – not to be mistaken with those freakishly frighteningly large birds, who are much more freakish than gigantic 20-point reindeer who fly and stomp across roofs; or with Eastern Michigan University, which is very close to the North Pole, from my southern state perspective). I’m guessing this elf was clearly upset because he was expected to labor during the holiday season. He was making his way south to apply for a job at Walmart. He’d laid out a trail of Christmas trees, so that he might find his rebellious little way back home if things didn’t work out any better for him at Walmart.
Colorado driver buzzing down the road with his package of holiday brownies – oh yeah, I forgot. We’ve already covered that one.
Perhaps a boyscout, who had been working on his Christmas Tree Ranch Handling merit badge, suddenly felt convicted over holding all those poor Christmas trees for ransom. Fed by the holiday spirit (and the 2 dozen cookies one of the moms had dropped off that he’d scarfed down in the last 5 minutes), he might have experienced a rush of compassion (okay, maybe it was just sugar) that caused him to throw open the corral gate and yell, “Run for your lives!” while barely escaping with his own before the stampede began. Some of the strays had apparently made their way out onto the freeway. It’s possible that this incident will lead to the discontinuation of the Christmas Tree Ranch Handling merit badge.
In any case, by the time I came back onto the scene from wrapping up my errands,I noticed that the southbound lane had been freed of all the Christmas trees. Just as I was about to wonder where they’d all gone…
When what to my wondering eyes should appear? Why! An F150 truck, its bumper hanging off its rear!
I noticed one of the concerned Citizenry for the Over-Forestation of Freeways (OFF) promptly dealing with the issue. (Incidentally, I’ve heard rumor that this group actually wanted to be the Federation for the Over-Forestation of Freeways, but when their president made application, it was denied because – for some strange reason – the court clerk took it as a personal offense that he wanted her to sign approval to F-OFF. More unfortunately, there is an insect repellent company who is rumored to have filed a lawsuit for use of its registered trademark name.) Nevertheless, this particular concerned citizen was not going to let that pesky little aggravation stop him from performing his self-assigned civic duty.
Upon spotting the poor, frightened tree from over the tipped-up end of his nearly emptied quart of beer, this in-the-seasonal-spirited gentleman yanked up on his emergency brake and selflessly turned a 360 in the middle of the freeway. He had to thereafter signal with his most visible finger for the trucker – who was leaning out the window while jake-braking and laying on his horn, urging this upstanding citizen as to how he might best go about his business – to go on around him and responsibly get back to his own. As Mr. Civic Duty got around to the rear of his F-150 truck with its holiday-tinted primer/rust mix, he joyfully threw his arms around that lonely, abandoned Christmas tree and adopted it quicker than if it had been his long, lost cousin, Earl, who’d just won the Powerball. He then tossed that tree into the bed of his pick-up, trading it out for about a 12-pack of empty beer cans that bounced off the tail gate and down the freeway behind him. I couldn’t help but think what a considerate and generous person he must be to want to leave those cans for someone to pick up later and exchange for the high rate offered in aluminum trade.
As if he hadn’t already exhibited an over-abundance of holiday spirit and generosity, I truly came to understand the meaning of Christmas in my final glimpse of this remarkable citizen in his over-exuberant heroic act.
“Yeehaw!” he belched, as he floored it out of sight.
“I got this durned Christmas tree for freed – without a bar fight!”
I ask you, where else could I have witnessed such a spectacularly heart-tugging story during this special holiday season?
So, now I must say…
Merry Christmas to y’all! And to all a good night!
Ah, crud. That was a copyright issue, wasn’t it?
(Nope, nope. It has ya’ll. I believe I’m good on this one.)
More calories spread tabletop than we’ve eaten all year!
***
This was our lunch-time office party from last week. Hopefully, you’ll get some laughter from identifying some of the presents – maybe more laughter from the fact that you won’t be able to identify others. That’s a homemade mirror made from recycled coke & beer cans & bottle tops I’m holding in the center for your viewing pleasure!
***
Offered up in response to this week’s Trifextra writing prompt:
Charles Dickens, in A Christmas Carol, wrote “There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour.” We are giving you exactly 33 words to make us laugh out loud and spread some festive cheer.
I haven’t been able to visit the blogging community too often lately – mostly because I’ve been traveling across five states for the past few months, gathering the final data for 5 years of longitudinal research (otherwise lovingly, or sometimes not, referred to as my dissertation project). By the time I reached my final graduate from whom I would gather this data, I was feeling a great mix of emotions – – elation (that no more data would need to be collected), trepidation (that all this data still had to be analyzed), exhaustion (from gathering months of data across 5 states), and depression (that I may never see many of these folks again with whom I’d gotten to catch up – or at least it may be a very long time until our paths crossed again).
I wasn’t actually expecting to cry though.
But that’s exactly what I did.
After gathering my last set of data, I was pleasantly surprised to find that all of this particular graduate’s patients were completed for the day, so we’d have some fun catch-up time. Now this is a delightful, beautiful young lady; but the most special characteristic of E is her enthusiastic honesty. She’s never afraid to share her thoughts or even tell on herself, and this day was no exception. Because she’s such a warm person, she enjoys connecting with people. That’s exactly what she set out to do, too – connect with me on my level, telling me about her first whitewater rafting adventure (because she knows that’s something I love to do). By the time she had finished her story, also explaining how someone could’ve videotaped her to demonstrate all the things one should NOT do on a river, she had me holding my sides and tearing up in our shared laughter.
But those aren’t the tears I meant.
Sharing a celebratory stage moment together on E’s graduation day.
As I stood to go, telling E how very proud I was of all she was accomplishing in her career and all the wonderful life experiences I knew she had ahead, she stopped me from leaving with these words (as well as I can recall them): “I don’t want you to leave without me saying this to you. You need to hear it from me because it’s important for people to know how others feel about them. People need to feel special, and I want you to know what an impact you’ve made on my life – and I don’t just mean in my career. I mean, I appreciate everything you taught me about my profession, but that’s not the most important thing I learned from you. You’ve made an impact on me way beyond that. I think you’re an incredibly strong person in your faith and the way you deal with hardships in life. I’ve watched how you’ve handled things you couldn’t control and didn’t give in, and I look up to you for that. Thank you for letting us see you for who you really are. That’s the kind of person I want to be.”
I was floored.
I never saw it coming.
I’m a hugger, but it’s hard to make me cry. (I even have a twice-broken nose to prove it.)
I cried. (Must’ve been fatigue setting in.)
E was right. Everyone needs a good dose of encouragement, and I wish I could say that I’ve always had the opportunity to tell others exactly how I felt about them (well, the good stuff, anyway). Even if I’ve gotten it right sometimes; sadly, I know I’ve missed many other opportunities. This lovely, young lady didn’t miss hers this time around, and she made me feel something I can’t even quite describe. (Sad testimony for a blogger, I know.)
E taught a good lesson of her own that I hope sticks with me for life. She’s the kind of person I want to be, and I thank her for that. Because of her, my new goal is to set out to make many others do exactly what I did.
Yep, I hope I can make you all cry – – like babies.
Carl Sagan is credited with saying, “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”
So I thought, ‘Who isn’t up for a good geography lesson on the earth’s layers – while hanging out at the dinner table, eating a worthy illustration made of ooey-gooey pie?’ I figured we could have our pie and live on it too!
The ingredients & recipe for Earth Pie were originally written in response to:
Trifecta’s weekend Trifextra Writing Challenge forty-nine: As you’ll recall from your elementary science class days, the structure of the earth can be divided most simply into three sections: core, mantle, crust. (Diagram is below.) Give us 33 words from it. Interpret the prompt however you wish–literal, metaphorical, or somewhere in between.
Image courtesy of Danilo Rizzuti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
And while we’re talking about the Earth, did you know there are still people dying on it every 60 seconds from a disease that is strictly related to poverty and that is both treatable & preventable?
That disease is malaria – and it especially strikes out against young lives. Of the children who die under the age of 5 in Africa, approximately 1 in 5 of those is from malaria. (The photos above were taken in South Sudan, where many of these children live – and die.)
Just $10 could make a difference in saving that 1 life. Here’s a little more information, if you’re interested in celebrating Earth Day on behalf of people who struggle to survive on it daily:
Michael Pick sent up a WordPress photo challenge this week (from the cell phone). “In today’s challenge wewant you to grab an image from your world that holds the promise or portent of the future. It could be…
Anything that involves the present and a hint of the future all in one frame.
We spend so much of our lives thinking back, or looking ahead, and even though a photo captures only one moment in time, with a bit of thought it can freeze the process of moving forward, or the promise of things to come. Your challenge this week is to seal one such moment in amber.”
This is my teenage son, getting ready to start his high school baseball career as a freshman. On the evening I took this photo, we just so happened to be playing with dry ice in the sink. I grabbed up my cell phone to snap a pic. My camera position on the other side of my fountain, along with the dry ice smoke between me and him, and the flash captured by his pupils, all made for an interesting futuristic illusion.
I guess if you’re German, Liebster really isn’t all that fun for you to say, since you’re used to it and all. But I’ve been having a blast repeating it to anyone in hearing range today, trying out all sorts of inflections with it. I’m even thinking of driving by our Volkswagen plant and yelling it out across the parking lot this afternoon. No worries. If I pronounce it as well as I did mijn Nederlandse, no one will understand it mixed with muh Southernese anyway. (You can check out my post, Hope Be Dam’ed, if you’re the slightest bit interested in that story.)
Upon first receiving notice of this good fortune bestowed upon me by Mama Bear Musings(who was kind enough to take notice of my blog & who you can visit by following her link), I may have had some delusions of grandeur, thinking it might be akin to an Academy Award. That being the case, admittedly, I panicked a little, worried that my designer dress might end up on People’s Worst Dressed list; or that I might trip up and do a face plant on the red carpet; or, worst of all, that I could potentially leave someone important out during my acceptance speech – you know, like maybe Jesus (because I’m sure any accolades I earn are top priority in his day, probably coming in a close second to feeding his sheep). And yet, here I am…not the least bit ashamed at being a showy braggart.
In truth, the award sounded suspiciously like a crustacean at first, leaving me a little concerned that perhaps Mama Bear was suggesting my blog be returned as a bottom-feeder within a vast sea of ramblers (then covered with kelp for good measure).
If that’s the case, then Eugene Uttley, at Welcome to Uttley’s Take!(who is a premiere haikuist – okay, so I sort of made that designation up. What would you call a haiku artist-writer type, if you’re so smart?!), must have thought I was doubly deserving for being called out as such – as his came to me while I was furiously working to get my makeup and hair designers lined up.
I was relieved to discover that it actually meant something much nicer and more thoughtful than what I had originally conjured up. Once it dawned on me that it was German, I thought, ‘Hey, my maternal grandmother was German, but I never heard her call me by that name.’ I’m not sure if that says more about her as a person or me…
I was more relieved to find out I didn’t have to shell out any shillings for my hair or makeup (which would really defeat the purpose of getting to blog in your underwear casual clothing, wouldn’t it?)
So here’s the deal with the Lobster – I mean, Liebster Award.
This award is given to up and coming blogs with less than 200 followers (See? I’m a cheater already. I think I’ve gained a few more than that in the past couple of weeks); the person nominated needs to answer eleven questions and nominate eleven other bloggers, ask them eleven questions in turn and then comment on their blogs to let them know they’ve been nominated.
Ok, maybe it sounds a little chain letter-ish. (I hope you’ve figured out by now that, as usual, I’m just carrying on in gist!) The real reason for this award and the 11’srule is to build community with fellow bloggers. I’m thrilled to do that, as each day, I’m privileged to either meet someone new or to learn something new about a fellow blogger. And that’s what makes this such a cherished award!
So here were my 11 questions from Mama Bear, in informal interview format.
1. What are your thoughts on life?
Some days I think, “Life stinks.” But mostly, I’m in awe as to how life is formed and the beautiful ways in which it can be lived and shared with others.
2. What was your favorite toy from childhood?
My basketball. I shot that thing against the old goal post in my driveway from the time I couldn’t make it until the time I always could. That was my down time, my processing time, my lick-my-wounds-and-heal time, my way to get away from the rest of the world time. It served as a good memory of how my life once looked when my mom was full of health, running up and down the court with a whistle in her mouth, as I paraded around the gym as a little girl. And on the best occasions, it was my family time with my dad.
3. Which do you prefer; Star Trek or Star Wars?
Wow, you ask tough questions. Well, I was a long-time Trekky (or is it Trekkie? this makes me look like an imposter) of The Next Generation, when Jean-Luc Picard was Captain of the Enterprise. And I loved the remake of Star Trek at the theaters in 09. But then there’s Hans Solo, Chewie,Yoda, C3P0, R2D2…How can you ask me to make such decisions?!
4. What is your favorite fruit?
Raspberries – they have that sweet and tart thing going on. (So do kiwis, but they have to be peeled.) I found some wild raspberries once while trekking the Upper Peninsula and thought I’d stumbled into hiking heaven. I usually keep a stash in the fridge at work (’cause 1 cup’s only a whopping 64 calories or so).
5. What is your favorite vegetable?
Celery – with peanut butter slapped in the middle. (Here’s even better caloric news. Celery is a negative calorie food. Okay, so peanut butter isn’t…what’s your point?!)
6. What scares you the most?
Realizing that it is possible to fail as a parent – that you can try your very hardest and give your all to succeed at this ultimately important duty; but there’s always the potential that you could’ve missed one of the most essential lessons – and then not know until it’s too late.
7. Do you prefer coffee or tea?
Tea, but only the way my son makes it for me: Brew the tea. Add a little OJ, drain the pineapple juice from a non-sweetened can of rings, a little almond extract, a little vanilla extract, some organic sugar to taste, and fill remainder of the large container with water. (Let the pineapple rings float around if you’re feeling fancy.) It’s like taking a sip of sunshine into your mouth!
8. What is your favorite genre to read?
Well…I enjoy any story that comes with some meaning attached and where the characters are able to overcome themselves along the way. A little action and some romance thrown in always keep it fun, but the story needs to be about something more stirring than sex and violence. In and of themselves, those are easy to find on their own, without deeper meaning, in the real world. (That sounded better than, “I’m not sure,” didn’t it?)
9. Do you prefer living in the city or country? Why?
I can operate between realms, but I’m a country girl at heart. When I leave the city each day and head into the suburbs, there’s a magical spot of country sitting square in “the between” where I often pause or pull over to enjoy the pastures. My favorite get away is off in the mountains where creeks abound and rivers wind through – and where I try to spend as much of my free time as possible to revive my soul.
10. Where is your favorite place to vacation?
I probably just answered that above – where I can find mountains and rivers with white water to explore and quiet, clean air to breathe.
11. What is your favorite bird?
Hawks always capture my attention when I see them soaring high overhead. I’ve often fancied the idea of flying, but there are some other things I appreciate about the hawk. Hawks are pretty daring, setting some impressive feats in both carrying prey and mating in mid-air. Mates are usually monogamous, with the two working together to create and improve their nest, as well as share the burden of caring for their eggs. Seems like a pretty good system to me.
And, my 11 questions from Uttley (if you’re actually still reading this!):
1. What’s one activity that gives you great satisfaction?
<Blushing> I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to answer that in this forum.
Okay, I’ll behave. Completing my first novel a few months ago brought me tremendous satisfaction. (I might have even greater satisfaction if I could figure out how to break the Query Letter secret code or handshake.)
2. What’s one thing you do that you kind of wish you didn’t?
Snort sometimes when I laugh – because then I have to say “oops, I snorted” – and my dad gave me this terrible nickname, “Snort” because of it (at least that’s my best guess as to why I got pinned with that)
3. What’s one thing you don’t do that you kind of wish you did?
Held my tongue on occasion. One of my colleagues says they can always count on me to say what everyone else is thinking. (Transparency only serves those well who appreciate clean views, you know. Everyone else is afraid they’ll fly into it & break their necks, like an overzealous bird.)
4. When was a time in your life when you took a chance (something risky)?
My dad would’ve said from the moment my feet hit the floor every morning. (I’ll have to tell you sometime about the day he caught me flying over the wall, off my bike, in midair – the bike he told me not to ride down our very steep hill, incidentally.)
5. When have you surprised yourself?
When I find myself being more patient and allowing things to work themselves out – without my interference. I’ve actually gotten much better at that lately – and it catches me by surprise each & every time.
6. When people meet you, what do you suppose is one of the first things they notice?
I’m told it’s my smile – that it’s contagious. I hope that’s true because it’s a purposeful expression that’s meant to infect my world.
7. Once people get to know you, what do they learn about you?
That I love deeply and beyond offense (and, yes, some have even taken advantage of that)
8. What has been your most memorable travel experience?
Traveling to the Holy Land.
9. In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, can you compose a limerick about yourself?
There once was Jody, this chic who thought, at times, she was slick.
Others were quick to burst her bubble,
when she oft got herself into trouble…
Then she learned “grace” – the mangy dog’s new trick.
10. What’s one song the lyrics of which really speak to you?
Van Morrison’s “Someone Like You” (yes, I’m a sappy romantic at heart)
11. Form or function? Product or process? Fashion or comfort?
I want it all!
There! All questions answered…
which leaves me with the toughest duty of all in finishing out my obligations for accepting this award (yes, I’m cheating and combining the two into one because…not only do I have to come up with my own set of 11 questions, I have to decide upon 11 wonderful bloggers to nominate for the award. How is that even possible among the awesome group of people I eavesdrop upon every day? (For starters, I guess I need to figure out who doesn’t have thousands of followers…)
So here’s my (not all-inclusive, by any means) list of some “up-n-comers” whose blogs I’ve recently been lurking around in enjoying /or/ some “has-beens” (as in, “they has been ’round this here bloggin’ community lots longer than I has been & I dunno’ how many gazillions or so followers they now has”):
And here’s my bonus “lister”, where I know for a fact I’m “out & out” cheating – but I cherish the transparency & thoughts of this blogger so much, I’m going to list her anyway. Stop in & say hi to Traveling Marla for me (& tell her I sent you!)! Send her well wishes too, as she’s about to move from the U.S. to South Africa, so I know she’ll have some exciting new shares coming up!
Okay…here are my own “Set of 11” for you, my dearies…(If you’ve read this far, feel free to answer & send a trackback because if your blog wasn’t named on that list above, well by golly, it should’ve been!)
In less than 15 words (which means no more than 14, btw), why do you blog?
What’s your No. 1 pick of your own set of posts that you’d MOST want to share with the entire world (which means more than just your Great Aunt Sally)? (Throw us a link in please.)
Are you more often a “Liker” or a “Commenter” on blog sites? Why do you think that is?
You’ve been granted the opportunity to meet anyone who has ever existed. Who would that be TODAY (because I understand that you might be in a different mood tomorrow) and why?
What’s your favorite time of day and why?
What do you believe the most interesting/unique thing is about yourself? (You’re allowed to cheat by asking someone, if you don’t know!)
How do gargoyles on buildings strike you? (Please don’t say by falling on your head – I’m actually after your feelings on this one!) 😉
If you were out of staples with no promise of future access to refill, would you use your stapler for anything? (Please expound beyond yes or no.)
If you could be the very best at something, but everyone would despise you; or mediocre at something and everyone love you – which would you choose? (Again, a little explanation is always a gracious addition.)
What burning desire have you yet to accomplish?
How do you intend to fulfill your dream in #10?
Wishing you well in all your endeavors, and surely hoping to hear some of your thoughtful responses.
(Er, you do understand this isn’t about weight gain, right?) And, by appropriate southern states terminology, it’s actually ‘The Next Big Thang,’ but when you’re braggin’, you wanna’ make sure the rest of the world can understand you too.
I’m actually not bragging on myself nearly so much as I am the person who took the time to throw some encouragement my way by making this nomination – and some other folks who I’d like to take the time to pass the baton forward and maybe some of them will run with it.
I greatly appreciate the gift of exhortation, and especially appreciate MommyVerbs directing her particular gift towards me. She told me to “Engage the Day!” Thank you so much for “verbing” me!
In her post, she explained that The Next Big Thing involves bloggers who either have a book under their belt, or are in the process of writing one, or should be writing one. What a great compliment to receive!
And, yes! I do have a novel I just recently finished! Thanks for allowing me the opportunity to share. My best current share is that I finally figured out how I wanted to classify its genre this week – as mystical realism. I’m currently working on its sequel, as well as another unrelated novel between work on my dissertation. But this first novel is closest of all to my heart, and I can’t wait for it to find its way into yours!
I’m getting ahead of myself though. Apparently, there are some specific questions that I’m supposed to answer in order to officially accept such a Big Thing – Next. So…here goes:
Its background comes from many personal life experiences, one of those being the loss of a daughter for whom I wanted to provide with her own life venture; another coming from the loss of my grandmother’s Irish father to her in her childhood. The mystical portion was the impetus, sparked by a recurring dream from various times in my life. And its setting in the reality context of the story (versus the supernatural one) came from my ‘little-brother-like’ nephew’s shared fascination in our family’s Irish heritage, which he was studying prior to losing his battle with leukemia in his early twenties. I wanted us to be able to make this trip to our ancestors’ homeland together, and I wanted (perhaps needed) a way to express restoration in the midst of loss.
What genre does your book fall under?
As I earlier mentioned (bragged?), I’ve just decided it belongs under the genre of ‘mystical realism’ (more often referred to as ‘magical realism‘ – but Ireland is a mystical place, as are the book’s experiences).
Which actors would you choose to play in your movie rendition?
Funny how my characters have lived among me for these past three years to the point that I can see them clearly in my mind. However, I can’t place a finger on specific actors that match those characteristics. I would want the Donnellys to all be authentic Irish actors.
Setting: It begins briefly in Dublin, then transitions to the Lietrim/Sligo region of the Irish Republic.
What is a one-sentence synopsis of your book?
My tag-line rolls into three thoughts. Here they are:
Restoration. All souls need it in a broken world. So much so that some unknowingly seek it out – not only for themselves, but also for others.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I’m in the process of query letter submissions to literary agents. This process is helping me learn to better summarize my overall project, but I know I still have much to learn in the area of appropriately marketing my work (since it wasn’t written as the product of a business mindset – which may be the greatest struggle for many writers).
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
The concept for this novel was birthed in early January 2009, and although I had completed a massive amount of it within months, I had to set it aside due to the demands of my doctoral studies. I got around to penning the final words on September 1, 2012, when my characters (and one of my test readers) demanded resolution to their story (or just their freedom from being held captive in my brain – who could blame them for that?).
What other books would you compare this story to?
I’m fairly certain I was strongly influenced by all the Sidney Sheldon books I read in my earlier years – his many female protagonists, with their unexpected adventures and romance always in the way, so to speak (but I guess Sheldon’s Genie is the closest he got to mystical). 😉
Though there are a good number of mystical reads around, and a good number of suspenseful adventure journeys that include a romantic element, I haven’t personally run across a similar read to this. (If I had, I wouldn’t have felt compelled to write about it, I suppose.) The main characters are interconnected from an historical past of which they aren’t even aware; while being influenced from a mystical dream that has occurred their entire lives, yet neither can bring themselves to reconcile (much less admit to) such a connection in reality. This element of uncertainty/denial actually serves to move the story forward.
Who or what inspired you to write the book?
At the Water’s Edgebegan as a personal expression for processing some losses in my life, while honoring those precious loved ones – all of whom have inspired me, one way or another – throughout my own life’s journey. This is a surreal tale, though, combining both natural and supernatural elements to speak to the importance of relationships with both those in our present and the ancestors of our past. After all, what’s life without a little magic sprinkled in?
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
Readers are likely going to feel pulled along in indecision with Danielle in the decisions she’s going to finally have to face, both practically and relationally, as they become drawn into the lives and experiences of the Donnelly family with her.
I’ve included excerpts from the Irish bard of my story’s area, W.B. Yeats, particularly seeking to embrace his style of sharing the love of his land, drawing his reader into both the content and context surrounding his subjects.
It’s my hope that, through the descriptive aspects of the landscape, the people, and this region’s poetic elements, readers particularly of Irish emigrant descent might allow their souls to make that magical, ancestry-laden connection with the Emerald Isle.
And now…I would like to tag these folks as…. “The Next Big Thing!”
Marla at TravelingMarla surely has a fun, inspirational book in the works on her transformative experiences.
Joe’s a Poet and He Knows It (joe2poetry) – with a book of poetry! And he’s bloody Oirish too. 🙂 (I may be pushing it again.)
Tom at Cobbie’s World continually inspires me and others with his observant and gracious comments and feedback. I always enjoy reading his shared thoughts and bet you would too.
There are, of course, so many more talented bloggers whose work I read & with whom I have the privilege of interacting. It’s an exhaustive list. I’d invite you to peruse my “Whispers & Shouts” section for some of my more prolific commenters, as these are generally the ‘writer-types’ who actively interact on my blog.
And if you have a recent project in the works or under your belt that you’d like to brag about, have at it in the comments section! We’d love to hear about your ‘next big thang’!
The weekend Trifecta Writing Challenge, Trifextra, asked me to choose 1 of 3 images provided on the Trifecta blog site and give a 33-word response to it. This week is community-judged.
So be sure to follow the trike link to vote (or to enter your own piece). No, there aren’t any prizes. It’s all in good fun – and great exercise for the birdbrained (like me!) or beyond…
humanTriumphant 