My faithful "reader" Dixie Doo

Would you rather have more blog readers or more blog comments?
I think I would prefer more blog readers to more comments.
It would be similar to having secret admirers, wouldn't it? 
I'd like readers to leave my blog with a thought provoking idea.
Maybe go out and make a difference in some one's life. Change the world.
Or become interested in blogging.
Maybe participate more in the kitchen because of the inspiration received from the awesome food blogs out there.
Preferring blog readers over blog comments, could mean that I prefer one sided conversations.
This reminds me of my relationship with Dixie Doo. She's always so glad to see me and listens intently to whatever I say. She encourages me silently.
I appreciate the comments and encouragement I've gotten so far.
I often wonder why I'm participating in daily blogging. Is it for the comments, readers, to improve my writing and/or document part of my life?
I began with the idea I'd document interesting and memorable events in my life.
Then I got started with the daily writing prompts. Which leads to reading other's blogs.
 Reading other blogs leads to noticing how talented and popular many of the bloggers are. Then I notice all the other bloggers' readers and comments. And then I desire more comments too. Then I fear criticism. What a vicious cycle this could be.

I keep playing rock songs

Would you rather have invisibility or the ability to fly?


Fly like an eagle, of course!


I've already experienced invisibility in this lifetime.


Hasn't everyone had the experience of being invisible to someone in their life?


Soaring like an eagle could change your perspective.


What once was large, becomes very small when placed in a bird's eye view.


I often stand too close to my problems, and they look very large.


When I take a larger view of my problems, they often return to a manageable size.

Space songs

Would you rather travel to space or go deep into the ocean?

 I recently considered  what it would be like to be several hundred feet under the water. Since I've never learned to skin dive, I can only imagine. I have to admit that I love water and the ocean, but I'm not crazy about being submerged. I am a little too claustrophobic. Just the thought of being under something that large gives me a heavy feeling in my chest.

Then I began to think of music.

My first thought was Major Tom and David Bowie's "Space Oddity".

Then Elton John's "Rocket Man"....what are the lyrics to that song?

What about the powerful theme from Star Wars?

There is "way more cooler" music devoted to space than underwater.

When I googled 'songs about outer space', I came up with a long list of familiar titles and artists.

Googling 'songs about under water' gave me far less results.

I'm comfortable with my choice tonight. I'll go to sleep with Jiminey Crickett singing in my head:

When you wish upon a star

Makes no difference who you are

Anything your heart desires

Will come to you

If your heart is in your dream...

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Quiet, contemplative kitty

Here sits the beautiful, quiet kitty.

Not many people know that I have a cat.

She's shy and elusive.

I like the effect of this photo.

It reminds me of photos taken through a screen window.

This one is merely taken from behind my dirty glass door.

If you look above and to the left of Kitty, you can see my grandchildren's finger prints.

I like thier fingerprints on my glass, it reminds me that they have been here.

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Lauren Kate's book signing

I recently had the opportunity to attend a book signing  by Lauren Kate for her new book in the Fallen series. Though I've not read her books, I was interested in hearing what she had to say about writing. I remembered when her mother in law told me that she had written her first book that was to be published. And now she's about to release the fifth book in the series. Her books have been translated into 30 languages and the whole family took a world wide book signing tour last summer.

In a popular time of teen vampires and werewolves, she said that she is known as the 'angel writer'. The main character of the series is a fallen angel, who has chosen to give up everything for the love of a young woman on earth. Lauren took us through her thought process as she perceived the idea for the book and then the research process to gather the background information.

After extensive research, she began to wonder when she would be prepared to begin writing. There didn't seem to be an end to the research. Lauren suggested that once you start questioning if you're ready to write, then it's time to write. She suggested that you could possibly never feel adequately prepared to begin, but that if you were questioning yourself as when to start, then this was her encouragement, to start writing.

Another suggestion she offered was to plan out chapters with an outline. Her plan to avoid writer's block was to write every day. She said that she felt it was better to write seven pages of something she was not happy with than to have written zero pages. She stated that daily writing had worked out so much better for her than only writing a couple of days a week when she was 'inspired'.

The final suggestion reads like instructions from my mother, finish what you start. She said that is the difference between people who say they are writing a novel and those who have a finished novel sitting on the shelf. The published author finished what they had started, then had the courage to send it out into the world.

She said that she received 67 rejection letters before publishing her first novel. Her words of encouragement, were it only takes one person to say yes, then everything can change instantly.



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Yesterday at the Pharmacy

Would you rather make your own choices or have someone make them for you?

"Hmmm....it all depends, depends on whether I know about it, or if I don't know about it," says the Bear.

I totally agree with him. If I have knowledge and experience about the issue of choice, then I'm confident in making choices myself.

I'm also comfortable enough with others, that I could trust them to choose for me in instances where I don't have enough information.

Most days, I'd prefer to make my own decisions.

On the days when decisions are numerous, sometimes I'd like for someone else to step in and make them for me.

Yesterday at Walgreen's pharmacy, I couldn't find what a nurse friend recommended for my sinus cold.

I was left to make a choice on my own. There were so many choices I was almost overwhelmed.

The many choices made  me want an ice bag for my stuffed up head!

Fish out of water

How do you feel about uncertainty? Is it exciting or scary?

It just depends on the situation as to how I react to uncertainty. Be it a scary movie, I like the idea of the uncertainty, but still fear the scary scenes.

If I know the outcome, as in a roller coaster ride, then it's exciting.

Typically for me, most everything uncertain is scary. It's some natural instinct that prevents me from being comfortable with change, which usually involves uncertainty.

I have numerous positive examples of situations that involved uncertainty.  I projected the outcome of the situation in the future based on fear, and then the end result was not scary at all.

Just as an example, I was headed to the local farmer's co-op one day for fish day. This is the day that a fish producer sells fish. Not the fish market and not fish for dinner. Fish for the livestock pond.

I had no idea how this event took place. I recognized that I was fearful of the whole experience, just thinking about buying large fish to put in our pond. Especially how I was going to get the fish home. I was told that they would put the fish in a bag. Now these were not gold fish I was buying, they were grass carp and about a foot long.

I was terrified to carry the fish home in my car in a bag. So I decided I could take an ice chest to put the fish in.

Turns out that it was not as scary as I had imagined. Truth is, it was not scary at all, well maybe a little. The fish in the bag scared me. I was afraid the bag might break, then I'd be stuck with a half dozen foot long fish out of water.  I don't like to handle wildlife!
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