Boredom

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At first glance I want to say nothing since I am the “epitome of boredom” itself! If you had a chance to look into my life you would agree. Let me explain. I lead a very boring life. There is no longer the pressure to perform as I used to. I went from churning out articles at an accelerated pace to next to nothing. Nowadays, the “daily prompt” is about as much excitement as I get throughout the day! I wake up looking forward to the questions that someone puts out there for us mere mortals to come up with answers if we wanted to that is. It makes for some good reading!

Now if there is one thing I hate or I find totally boring is the weekends. Paradise, as I know it, meaning the fields are no longer my own at weekends. It is more like paradise lost during these times when the locals decide to get out there in droves and from greetings to the masses (what I call more than five people) the place loses its beauty or its thrill and for me that is absolute quiet and peace where my mind is allowed to take off into its imaginary realm. I usually stay indoors at the weekends and that is totally boring but I am finding ways to combat that feeling. Meditation and working on things I need to get down and on me as a whole is working fine for right now and if that goes down the drain, I’m sure I’ll find other things to keep me occupied. Boredom is in the mind as I usually say, change the mindset and you’ll be just fine.

Daily writing prompt
What bores you?

Favorite Drink?

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I don’t drink alcoholic beverages. It is just my preference and I don’t think it tastes great either! Tried it once in my late teens. It was a beautiful looking glass of something red, an almost glowing liquid with an umbrella and a slice of pineapple for added effect and the guy I was dating at the time ordered it not knowing that I didn’t drink. It came, I drank it like a fool and got myself drunk! That was my last and only time coming face to face with alcohol of any kind. I’ve been to places where alcohol was served but I always refused. A stick in the mud? Call me whatever but I have willpower except for cheesecake of course!

I stick to coffee in the mornings and fruit juices and water throughout the day. I love tea too and I’m discovering that there is a tremendous variety to whet every taste bud on the market. Alcohol out but anything that does wonders for the body as a whole is a definite in.

Daily writing prompt
What is your favorite drink?

Favorite People?

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The people I like to be around with are those who cause very little stress, show up on time, are honest, show empathy, have loads of compassion but most of all they stand their ground and stick to what matters and don’t beat around the bush.

People who are kind and loving with laughter to share and you’ve got what my kind of favorite people are. Unfortunately, people have become jaded and such qualities are hard to find these days. Instead, there are those who think being cruel, putting someone down, cheating, slurs and behaving with no integrity are all part and parcel of good behavior. It reflects to the world we live in. Anything goes is the message and so we learn to adapt to a non-caring world.

My kind of “favorite people” are those who still stick to olde-world principles and do not budge when a storm rolls around and are still standing when it has long left the scene!

Daily writing prompt
Who are your favorite people to be around?

Favorite Pair of Shoes

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Yikes! This is a tough one for someone who owns a lot of shoes. I think I can give Imelda Marcos a run for the money! I don’t have a shoe tick but I used to collect shoes and loved looking at them staring back at me safely nesting in their cubbyholes! Recently I did get rid of several pairs simply because I am decluttering and working towards a simpler lifestyle, one that doesn’t involve too many material things and a muddled mind!

However, there is a favorite pair and it doesn’t carry a designer label but it is an old pair of walking shoes that has seen better days but I refuse to give it up because the comfort factor is there even if looks like it has seen the expiry date many times over. It’s the one I reach for when I head out the door to go for a walk and sometimes it is caked with mud but none of that matters. It is like a friend or is that a battery which keeps on giving! So why do I need all those other pairs of shoes? There are no answers just that women are complicated creatures with a mind of our own and it’s just because!

Daily writing prompt
Tell us about your favorite pair of shoes, and where they’ve taken you.

A Gift Like No Other!

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This one makes me emotional. As gifts go this gift didn’t cost any money but it went straight to the heart and has stayed there through the years.

I remember my five-year-old son was late coming home from kindergarten. It was a short walk from there to the house but he was about an hour late and needless to say I was climbing walls! I was ready to give him a piece of my mind when he rang the doorbell. A sigh of relief rushed through me but there was anger still there or fear or both. I opened the door ready to let him know that it wasn’t ok when he looked at me with those big innocent eyes of his and handed me something he was holding in his hands. It was a small bouquet of wild flowers and they were crushed and there was no life left to be seen in them! “For you mommy,” he said. “I picked them on the way back from school.” He took the wind right out of my sails and I was left speechless which doesn’t happen often. I hugged him tightly and the smile he wore said it all. He was in love with his mommy and I was the most important person in his life at that point in time. I took those flowers carefully and put them in a small glass of water with tears in my eyes as he watched me with love in his.

It was the start of many more gifts to come. The next one came when he went on a school excursion to a zoo. I had given him some money to get an ice but instead he bought me a necklace. It was the ugliest necklace I had ever seen. Some wooden pieces were strung together and in the midst was a wooden turtle! He made me wear it for days on end and I DID. Even though I had received much more expensive gifts from others, that simple ugly piece still has a warm place in my heart and takes the place of best gift of all time, right up there with those crushed flowers.

The gifts have stopped coming , he is a young man now but once in a while he still surprises me. Sometimes it isn’t about how much money is spent on a gift to make it special, all it takes is thought and caring to show someone how much they mean to you. And those gifts did exactly that.

Daily writing prompt
Share one of the best gifts you’ve ever received.

My Approach to Budgeting

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I have one simple approach, put a certain amount in savings each month first then I pay the rest of the stuff.

Most of my budgeting is done from a journal meaning no fancy computer spreadsheets like my ex used to do. He could show you down to the penny where the money went and he loved looking at the colorful graphs which showed the ups and downs for the month. He was or rather is a physicist so everything is science-based and often a headache to the less complicated mind! I have a simpler approach. Pay what is due and don’t overspend. Make no debts is my other rule. Living debt-free is liberating so I stick to that whenever possible.

So far it is working out pretty well and since I live in a village where clothes don’t rule the person, I don’t fork out money like I used to. Just a few simple pieces, stylish but more appropriate for the life I lead currently and it works out perfectly fine for me. Having control of my own budget is a great feeling versus letting someone else control it for you and that is one of the perks of not being married!

Daily writing prompt
Write about your approach to budgeting.

Am I Patriotic?

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I don’t know and I haven’t given much thought to it. I care about what happens to my country, I take pride when it strives and there are achievements made but I also sit up and take notice when someone or a group of individuals try to bring it down.

I have a deep abiding love for my country and a sense of attachment to it so you can call that being patriotic I suppose. Unlike the friend who passed away, he took it one step further. He was a “hero” in every sense of the word and a true patriot to boot. His mission was to protect and serve the country he loved at any cost even if it meant laying his life down for it. I am in no way close to that.

So I think I am patriotic in one sense and in another perhaps not so much.

Daily writing prompt
Are you patriotic? What does being patriotic mean to you?

Broken the Law?

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I must say I am getting to the point that I wake up each morning wondering what the “daily writing prompt” is going to be today. It never fails to amaze me the questions you guys come up with! However, it gets my mind thinking after breakfast and it is a good start to the day.

That said, I can say with all honesty that I have never intentionally or unintentionally broken the law. I am a Ms. Goody Two Shoes type and following the rule of law is written into my DNA. However when I was 17, I met a guy and he invited me to this party. I didn’t know what kind of party it was at the time but I found out soon enough. They were passing “brownies” around. I took one thinking it was just a brownie! I had never done cigarettes, drugs or alcohol for that matter before then so I had no clue. Within minutes, I was out of my mind! I was hallucinating and got really scared. I could hear them debating if they should take me to the hospital and a few minutes later they turned the shower on me! Luckily I got home safe that night, mad as hell but none the worse for wear.

It was a scary experience but it taught me to stay away from ALL that is not good for me. Some say, I have a stick up my you know what but that’s okay I don’t mind. To answer your question I don’t think that I broke any law but according to my parents I DID!

Daily writing prompt
Have you ever unintentionally broken the law?

The Strength of a Woman

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If there ever was a biography about me, that would be the title. It speaks to who I am and where I stand today. I am a petite person but as I wrote in one of my posts, I am a survivor and it took strength to stand back up and to face the world and life again.

I lost my mom to murder. The loss filled me with rage and yes hate and brought my life to a standstill. I wanted revenge at any cost. I learned that I could give up or I could learn to fight an unjust system through my writings. I did that and even though it changed nothing meaning the outcome of the verdict, I learned that there is power within and the will to survive anything. A few years later, I lost my younger brother. He is a cold case. The handsome young man was found floating in a pool of water and was too far gone for evidence of any kind. His killer or killers were never brought to justice. It took me years to let go of guilt because I was faraway at the time and couldn’t help him. I watched my long-term marriage go up in flames because of infidelity and it brought me down to my knees. Standing back up from this blow seemed like it would never happen but it did. Accompanying someone dear to me to his deathbed was the next journey I would have to take and I told myself I couldn’t do it or what was asked of me but I did and I am still standing.

I took to writing about injustice and that became my rallying cry or rather my way of dealing with the pain that was within. I have written about injustices of every kind both here and abroad and especially of the killings of black men by law enforcement. I have written about racism and racist practices and I have stood up with courage to speak out when I see injustice forgetting that this tiny frame is just that, tiny, but I have a megaphone and that I have a tool to get the word out. Strength is my powerhouse and the will to survive is built into the core of who I am as a person.

Daily writing prompt
If there was a biography about you, what would the title be?

What a Question?

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What were my parents doing at my age? I don’t know!

I left home a long time ago. Both parents are no longer here. Dad died of a heart attack even though he lived a healthy life but that didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Mom as I have mentioned before died an untimely death at the hands of an immigrant who came in as a cleaning woman and who later took her life for some money and a few pieces of jewelery.

If they had been alive, I think they would have still continued a similar lifestyle. I come from a very religious family meaning Sundays at church and the rest of the time keeping close to the Bible and its teachings. I was glad to get away when I left to continue my studies because claustrophobia had started to set in but they taught me some good lessons that have stood the test of time and for that I will always be thankful.

Perhaps if life had been kind, they would be leading a quiet life carrying on their mission of spreading God’s word. Since it was not, I know they are at peace wherever they are.

Daily writing prompt
What were your parents doing at your age?