Tag Archives: blogging

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Resolved

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When Steve asked me on Sunday if I’d made New Year’s resolutions yet, I grumbled at him, “I don’t jump on that bandwagon.”  I had a sore throat that turned into a head cold and was definitely sending out the “leave me alone!” vibe.  I make resolutions to do better every single day of my life, and it often becomes an exercise in self-flagellation.  Someone I admire does this kind of thing much better than I do: visit her New Year’s post here. (plugging my daughter’s blog – I typed ‘blugging’ first; suppose I can coin a new word?)  

Actually, Steve and I had spent quite a bit of time last week discussing and deciding on goals for this new year.  We call it “pointing our canoe”.  One of the things I put on my list was to submit something to a publisher every month of this year.  Another thing on our mutual list was to plan a weekly field trip to learn and research and engage in our love of the land (land ethics, land management, environmental education) and to get outside every day for a walk.  I skipped the first two days of this year with a head cold, but I’ve managed in the last couple of days to walk to the car repair shop, the grocery store, the bank, and the cafe where we breakfast with his mom.  Now, this might not sound like a big accomplishment, but let me add one bit of info – I live in Milwaukee.  And this is what is forming outside my upstairs window:

tri cicle

That, my dear readers, is a tri-cicle (three-pronged icicle; just coined another word – where do I collect?) photographed through the screened window.  The center section of this bad boy is about 4 feet long now.   This is what outside is like here, and this is where I want to be every day.  I don’t want to make it more comfortable, I don’t want to avoid it.  My resolution is all about facing the world as it is and appreciating its wonder as a thing that I don’t comprehend or control.

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Blog Birth

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In a display of shameless nepotism, I am using this blog space to announce a new daily blog that I now follow: The Elsewhere Condition, written by my oldest daughter, Susan.  Grad student in linguistics, lead singer in a punk performance band, bride to be, and four foot eleven inch dynamo, she is an engaging writer and earnest soul.  Here’s a sample from Day 2:

My other goal for this year is to lead a healthier life, which is rather like saying that I want my novel to be about “good stuff.” What’s “healthy?” How do I know if I’m healthier? Healthier than what? Healthier than the grad student grind isn’t hard to do. I’ve fallen into a morose and processed diet, the cornerstones of which are coffee, cafeteria sandwiches, ibuprofen, and the kind of pastries that come out of vending machines. This is offset by forms of exercise which include running after buses, lifting bags of books, pacing the hallways of the English building, and vigorous hyperventilating. Clearly, I can do better than this, but I’m still working out reasonable and helpful parameters.

So now I have another reason to log on every day.  Check out The Elsewhere Condition.  That is all.

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Blog Of The Year – one star so far!

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Blog of the Year Award 1 star jpegNaomi Baltuck of Writing Between the Lines has nominated me for the 2012 Blog of the Year Award!  Apparently, this is an award which can be conferred multiple times.  I think Naomi has gotten nominated 7 times in the year she’s been blogging.  I’ve been blogging for a year and one third, and this is my first star.  Naomi is a published author and professional storyteller.  How cool is that?!  Her blog is a delightful place where family, food, twinkly lights, travel adventures and costumes all blend into a magic world of pictures and words that reminds me that the real world is actually that enchanted kingdom where our dreams come true.   In her Blog of the Year post, she cites a list of nominations that is currently serving as my map to blog exploration.  I have already discovered a poet to follow from her recommendations, and I’m looking forward to that enrichment!

To read more about this award, click here.

I just nominated a few bloggers for The Wonderful Team Member Readership Award, but I follow another whom I will nominate for this award: Elena Caravela.   Elena is an artist who shares her imagination in the form of sketches, watercolors, photographs, oils, and digital blends of all these techniques.  I am awed at her skills and humbled by her collaborative spirit.  When I write stories and poems for children (which I plan to submit for publishing as part of a New Year’s goal), I imagine her illustrating them because she is all about encouraging the artistic talents of others (see her blog & book: Portrait of a Girl and Her Art).   

So, blog on! all you artistic, creative souls out there.  “We are made of star stuff.” – Carl Sagan 

 

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Weekly Photo Challenge: My 2012 in Pictures

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This week’s challenge is to create a gallery of pictures representing 2012.  These are my favorite shots from each month’s posts, taken with my Lumix for the first nine months and then with the Canon Rebel.  Captions will appear as you hold your cursor over each image, or click on the first one to view a slideshow.  I think they make a nice calendar!  (And I’m really proud that I figured out how to put the gallery together again after WordPress changed the process a bit from their first version.)

photo credit: John Meyer
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Wonderful Team Member Readership Award

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wonderful-readership-award2

I received a gift from one of my readers this Christmas: the Wonderful Team Member Readership Award.  The kid in me who loved earning ‘A’s and other awards is absolutely beaming.  A gold star to show my Mom and Dad!  Pat myself on the head, spin around and pose with a smile!  Okay, now that I’ve gotten that ego bit out of the way…

I owe this honor to lisalday111711 who writes not one, not two, but THREE blogs featuring her photography, her stalwart Weimaraner, and her spiritual journey.  The award encourages recipients to do the following: 

  • Display the logo on his/her post/page and/or sidebar

  • The Nominee must finish this sentence and post: ”A Great reader is…”

  • Nominate 14 readers they appreciate over a period of 7 days (1 week) – this can be done at any rate during the week. It can be ALL on one day or a few on one day and a few on another day, etc., naming his or her nominees on a post or on posts during the 1 week period.

  • The Nominee shall make these rules, or amended rules, keeping to the spirit of the Wonderful Team Member Readership Award, known to each reader s/he nominates.

So here I go with item #2…

 A great reader is not a stereotype.  A great reader is anyone who begins a relationship with a writer.   To be honest, when I first learned that I had been nominated for this award, I thought “I am so NOT a great blog reader, and I haven’t even read this person’s blog!  Why on earth did she nominate me?!”  A while ago, I decided to purge my “follows” because I found myself getting way too many e-mails in my inbox.  I didn’t want to spend so many minutes every day feeling obligated to open and like and respond to every one of those posts.   I am one of those introverts who have traded a massive list of acquaintances for a few close, deep relationships.  I do not have a Facebook account, and I do not receive phone calls on a daily basis.  I am not a great reader of blogs for quantity, but I may be a great blog reader for quality.  I am looking for a relationship, for kindred spirits and non-kindred spirits who are honest, vulnerable, interesting, interested and willing to engage.  The fact that they post anything at all shows some inclination to self-revelation in all bloggers, so I don’t have to look very far.  And like picking out a Christmas tree, I don’t keep on looking after I’ve found a suitable match; after all, it’s cold out here and I’d rather settle down with some hot chocolate under the twinkly lights!  So, I don’t claim to have sorted through a million blogs to follow the very best of anything.  Maybe I simply develop loyalty quickly.  But that’s just me.  I like to discover a blog,  follow, go deeper and learn more about the person over time.  I am not the standard of The Great Reader; I am perhaps just A Great Reader to one person.  And that’s fine, I think. 

My Great Readers are very personal.  Some of them may not even be known to me, as the one who nominated me wasn’t.  How do I nominate 14?  I suppose I can only mention the known ones, the ones who identify themselves with ‘likes’ or comments or direct e-mails.  I am absolutely thrilled when my family members and friends far away read my blog.   My mother reads my blog faithfully.  It is how we keep in touch week by week, and she sends me her periodic responses by e-mail.  My late husband’s cousin in France is one of my readers.  My 2 sisters, my brother, my four children.  I have developed a daily comment exchange with a blogger who lives in the U.K.  We have grown quite close over the space of a little over a year.  She doesn’t accept blog awards, but I have her link in my sidebar.  I am hoping to meet her in person one day.  That’s 10 great readers right there.  Here are 4 more whom I follow, who also follow me, with links to their blogs:

R. from Wood Rabbit Journey

Doree from conquistadoree

Stephen G. Hipperson

Naomi Baltuck

These readers will visit eventually and can do as they please with this information as they accept my sincere gratitude and recognition for their readership!  I thank ALL of my readers for beginning some kind of relationship with me.  I am honored by your visits and hope that we can edify one another, be open to one another and “inter-be” (as Thich Nhat Hahn would say) with joy. Huzzah!

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May All Beings Be Happy

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Out of the technological complications of internet networking come some of the simplest expressions of human compassion, a wish for another person’s well-being, even if that person is a virtual stranger.  And it makes the sleek, glib, electric world a bit softer  and warmer.  I’ve made some sweet connections this week with a few of my favorite bloggers, all of whom live at least a couple thousand miles away.  I’d like to share them with the rest of you.

Mistress of Monsters is like another daughter to me, in a way.  She is getting married next week.  Here’s an exchange we had.  She turned it into a blog post.

Naomi Baltuck is an amazing blogger and professional storyteller.  She’s also a mom.  I see a kindred spirit in her…although she’s much more adventurous and accomplished than I am, yet.  I echo her wish in this post for the Weekly Photo Challenge prompt: Mine.

And then there’s that rascal, Stuart.  He’s a gritty city photographer who travels to exotic places like Brazil and Spain and has just taken up residence at a farm for the winter.  We inspire each other to keep open to possibilities.  Here’s his post. Our exchange is in the comments section.

I’ll be taking about 3 weeks off from the blogosphere beginning next week, but I will be thinking of all of you.  May All Beings Be Happy.

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Last Day of the Year

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I started this blog 365 days ago.  Today is the last day that I can claim to be “in my 40s”. 

“What have you learned, Dorothy?”  “I’ve learned that if I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own backyard.  ‘Cuz if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with.  Is that right?”

Umm…not exactly. My initial post said,”this blog is dubbed scillagrace to symbolize ancient elegance of manner, action, form, motion and moral strength.  It is my goal to post entries worthy of the name.  It is my goal to avoid being dogmatic and prissy.  I want to challenge myself to go deeper into subjects that explore the ancient grace of life.   It is a lot of name and a lot of subject, to be sure.  We’ll see how it goes.”

Did I go deeper?  Did I go beyond my own backyard?  Here are my top ten Most Used categories: Awareness.  Photography. Philosophy.  Nature.  Relationships.  Writing.  Psychology.  Sociology.  Education.  Spirituality.  I have 200 followers, but the most “likes” I’ve ever gotten on any post is 24.  Which I suppose goes to show that you can’t please all of the people.  Not even once.  But statistics don’t tell the story.  Numbers have no meaning; it’s the narrative that goes along with them, the interpretation, that gives any statistical information its significance. 

Here is an ancient grace of life: deepening a relationship.  I have made new friends in far away places through this blog.  I have re-connected with people I haven’t seen for some time.  I have bonded with my mother in a new way, and I’ve even come to know myself better.  That will probably remain the enduring value of this blog.  I have grown up this year, and I hope to continue to do so as I go on aging. 

Last year…

I am planning to continue to blog, but probably not as often.  I am planning to get a new camera for myself and to spend more time writing.  I will be going on a 3-week adventure in October when I end my season as a living history museum interpreter.   There will be more change, more grace and, hopefully, greater awareness to come.

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The Kreativ Blogger Award

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I have been nominated for The Kreativ Blogger Award by Naomi Baltuck of Writing Between the Lines. I learned more about her life in her latest post and recognized more places of resonance between us.  Receiving this honor from a published writer and professional storyteller gives me a bit of a thrill, to tell the truth.  Thank you, Naomi!

The rubric of the award suggests that I publish 7 facts about myself and then nominate 7 other bloggers for this award.  I never consider these customs obligatory or binding, so we are all free to do with it what we will.  Think of it as a collection of beads on a string, something to fiddle with if you are so inclined.  Here goes:

1)  My work life as of now includes hours when I am engulfed by a corset, bustle, petticoats, and a prairie bonnet.  I sew pin cushions and crochet rag rugs and play the pump organ.  It also includes time when I sit in my underwear at my grandmother’s cherry table in the dining room, listening to Big Band music from the 30s, bantering with my partner Steve, and cleaning up used books for shipment to new readers.  And at times it includes working one-on-one with an individual who wants to learn more about vocal technique, singing, performing, and discovering the bag of sonic tricks they carry around in their bodies.  I am never going back to work in a cubicle again!

2)  I find looking at the sky a life-changing event. 

3)  I don’t have a TV, a dishwasher, a washer or a dryer anymore.  I also don’t have a mortgage.  Suits me just fine. I do live with approximately 30,000 books.

4)  I haven’t gone to a salon for a haircut for at least 3 years.  I trim off the ends myself every once in a while.  Steve’s hair is almost as long as mine.   A senior visitor to the living history museum where we work asked him brusquely the other day, “When was the last time you got a hair cut?!”  “1882,” he replied. 

5)  I sing along to Broadway musicals while driving 35 miles to work.  I sometimes sing along to Dvorak’s New World Symphony, too, not that there are words to it.  One of my favorite lines from a musical is this:  To love another person is to see the face of God.  For 3 pieces of cheese, tell me what musical that’s from!  (My father used to dole out precious morsels of expensive Camembert or Bleu if we were able to answer Bible questions after dinner, while he was finishing his wine.)

6)  Two of the people I have loved most in my life died right next to me.  My sister Alice died in the driver’s seat while I sat strapped into the passenger’s side.  We were taken by surprise.   That was 3 days before my 17th birthday.  My husband of 24 years died beside me in bed while I lay sleeping.  His kidney dialysis machine and sleep apnea machine made an uninterrupted white noise that covered any disturbance I might have heard, if there was one.  I suppose I have yet to experience a death while fully conscious.  I expect to get a closer look some day, and I want to be able to face it squarely.  

7)  I relish all kinds of hedonistic experiences now with less guilt than I was taught.  I believe Shame is a great thief of holy joy.  Doing nothing but gazing into the faces of the babies I bore was perhaps the beginning of his undoing in my life. 

Whether or not these can be considered facts is debatable.  No matter.  More beads to share:

Stephen G Hipperson takes excellent photographs.  Enjoy!

The Ache to Bloom is a new blog by a young writer of passionate expression.  She’s also one of my children, and I hope she’ll write more.  

These are the only two blogs I have begun to follow since the last time I nominated favorites for an award.  You can see the other 15 here.

Thanks again, Naomi!  And now to the post I promised on June 16…..

  

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I Love My Mom

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My mother makes a very satisfactory leader of my Fan Club.  She is, undoubtedly, First Fan, as many mothers are.  The hallmark of her grace is in the way she embodies this position, not simply as a role, but as a genuine expression.  I never get the feeling that she encourages me out of obligation.  I believe she really likes me.  What a stroke of good fortune!

This morning I got an e-mail from her titled “catching up on the blogs”.  I felt her heart bubbling over like she had just emerged from an afternoon reading a favorite novel.  She had associations, appreciations, memories, connections to share, like her synapses were fireworks going off.  From a reader to a writer, this has got to be the highest praise.  She started off by remarking, in all caps, that there has to be a book in this somewhere and that she wants an autographed first edition.  Aw, Mom!

My mom is not a literary push over.  She has a degree in English from Radcliffe (now coed with Harvard).  She devours books regularly and always has.  Her typical posture these days is sitting in her high-backed rocker with knitting in hand, book strapped in on her reading stand, mind and fingers flying.  She used to hide away in her bedroom with a bag of snacks and emerge an hour or so later with renewed energy to tackle her household obligations, sporting a kind of secret glow.  Get her talking about one of her recent historical sagas, and she will enthusiastically engage for hours!  I love seeing her pull thoughts that have been carefully laid aside like unmatched socks and bundle them together with a flourish of discovery and pride. 

She recently told me that her doctor mentioned her good prospects for living another 20 years.  That would make her 97; she wasn’t sure she’d want to live that long.  But think of all the books you could still read!  Or that could be read to you, if the cataracts cause the eyes to fail.  I can still hear my father’s voice reading to her behind the bedroom door.  His partnership to her intellectually was so rich, until Alzheimer’s whittled his brain away.  I wonder if she feels the same phantom guilt I have in enjoying a healthy body and a sound mind after our husbands’ deaths.  Well, I suppose consciousness is a responsibility to approach with reverence.  We live, we feel, we think, we read, we make connections still.  May we both bring life and light to the world like fireworks, Mom, as long as we are able. 

Mom (photo credit: DKK)

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The Versatile Blogger Award

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Today is a landmark blogging day.  This is the first time I’ve done two posts in the same day.  This is my 250th post, and the reason I’m making this extraordinary blogging effort is that I’ve been nominated for The Versatile Blogger Award by J.G. Burdette.  This is the first time I’ve been nominated for any kind of writing award…unless you count an essay that I wrote for the American Association of University Women that netted me a $100 scholarship and designation as Senior of the Year in high school.  The surprise is magnified by the fact that J.G. Burdette only stumbled upon my blog this morning.  Her (that gender is my assumption) interests are history and crochet (at least that’s what she blogs about), and she seems to be enjoying my Old World Wisconsin adventure.   It looks to me that she does a lot more research than I, so I’m flattered that she is finding my posts interesting!  Thank you for the nomination, J.G.!  Here’s a photo just for you:

Now that I’ve thanked my nominator and included a link to her blog, the other “requirements” of the award are that I share 7 things about myself and that I nominate 15 other bloggers for the award.   I’ve wondered about this award ever since I began noticing it on other blogs I visit.  Does it indicate the versatility of the writer, or does it simply mean that the award is versatile and may be given out to whomever you please?  I’m going to tend toward the latter and nominate blogs for no particular reason other than my own whim.  But first, 7 things about me.  How shall I go about this?  Shall I be historic, random, whimsical, poetic, raw?  If you’ve been reading my blog, you already know quite a bit.  Maybe I’ll just go with the moment.

1.  I just finished doing laundry at the laundromat.  I’ve blogged about that before.  Today, there was an unsatisfied customer who phoned the manager to complain.  He was yelling at his wife, too.  I was trying to be invisible, but he must have seen me anyway, because he helped me get my bundles to the car.  So I guess what I can tell you about me is that I am not invisible after all.

2.  Because I ordered season tickets to the Lyric Opera in Chicago, I got a brochure from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra today asking me to subscribe.  There are a few concerts that Steve especially wants to go to.  What I can tell you about me is that even though I have a Bachelor’s degree in Music, I know a bachelor with no degree who knows much more about the subject than I.  I am reading the program calendar aloud and trying to pronounce the conductors’ and soloists’ names, and he’s finishing my sentences.

3.  I imagine my bedroom is a tree house.  I sleep with the windows open and listen to the birds.  The leaves of the maples are fully formed now, and I am soaking in green light.  I hope to turn into a bird some day and fly like I do in my dreams.  

4.  I miss my late husband.  I miss my kids.  I wonder about what that means.

5.  My glasses are blurry.  I got some hairspray on them that I can’t get off, even with Goo Gone.  I’ve been coping for a couple of months, and finally, I called about ordering replacement lenses.  I learned that would cost $330 — more than I paid for the whole set of glasses, with frames, at the two-for-one sale.  I decided to keep coping.  I’m cheap. 

6.  I’m looking for community.  I don’t have a lot of friends.  I’ve never had a lot of friends.  I prefer fewer relationships and greater depth.

7.  Today is not a sunny day.  That often effects my mood.  I want to say something outrageously funny, but it doesn’t seem possible.  Here’s a true fact: my bed has bright orange sheets on it.  That’s about as outrageous as I may get today.

  Alright.  Glad that’s over.  Now I get to talk about other bloggers and what I like about them.  The nominees are:

1. Helen Cherry, author of 1500 Saturdays and Helen’s Photomania.  She probably already has this award, but she is my first and most faithful blogger friend, so she definitely gets nominated here.  

2. Stuart Hyde of SHPics.  Not only is Stuart an excellent photographer with an interesting perspective, he’s a cheeky wit whose comments always make me laugh.

3. Karen McRae of draw and shoot.  It wouldn’t surprise me if Karen had won dozens of awards, but it would surprise me if she advertised it.  She is an artist whose work emanates purity and ethereal truth…if that makes any sense.  Just look at it and clarity will descend on you.

4. Sarah M. Lawton, the adventure mum.  She just got back from an elephant excursion in Nepal, and I am living my dream adventure vicariously through her.

5. Mistress of Monsters.  This creative crafter reminds me of my daughter.  Her posts about making everything for her wedding by hand, in her own inimitable style, hooked me in.  It seems like her blog is now more about her business life and less about her personal life; nevertheless, she’s an appeal person.

6. My daughter, the Approximate Chef.  Not that she’s had time to post an entry lately, with grad school and work and singing in a punk band and all the rest.  She’s actually the Versatile poster child. 

7. Elena Caravela.  Artist, children’s book illustrator, art advocate.  She’s gotten “real” awards, for sure.

8.  Am I only half way done?  This is taking a lot of time.  I’m letting Helen have two spots.

9. Frangipani Singaporenicum.  She’s blogging about her mother’s journey into dementia.  She’s a great story-teller, honest and loving, from a culture that’s exotic to me.

10.  A Circle in the Path. Not only does she have a mother with dementia, she now has a 93 year old “uncle” living with her, and a daughter and granddaughter across the street.  I relate to her as a woman trying to hold all the people she loves, and herself, together…in all senses of that word. 

11. The Nature of Things.  I like returning to my old “stomping grounds” in Illinois when I visit her blog. 

12. Jeffrey Foltice of Photo Nature Blog keeps me in touch with the area around my grandmother’s cottage on Lake Michigan.

13. Susan Ezell of SKEdazzles already has awards, but she gets nominated again because she used to live across the street from me in California, and her photos bring me back to that slice of paradise.

14. Anita Mac is a much more experienced traveler and athlete than I will ever be, I think, but I like to go along with her on her travel destinations bucket list.

15. Suzanne Rogers is one crazy nature girl.  Her window into the woods lets you see out on the world of squirrels and woodland critters and in on a person who’s in love with her surroundings.  

Technically, I suppose the next thing to do would be to contact these people and tell them that they’ve been nominated.  This is the part that can be something like a chain letter.  Not everyone will want to receive it.  They will probably appreciate visits, though, so do go see what they’re posting.  Thank you, blogging friends, for all the things you’ve brought to my attention.  I appreciate having travel companions on this spinning planet!  Let’s keep in touch!