Cattitude and Gratitude

It's Wordy Wednesday time at Blog-a-Rhythm! Woohooo! Once again, I am motivated to produce, knowing that deadlines come even faster based on time zones in India and that the Linky will be locked in no time! I thought I'd better get in gear and do Wordy Wednesday, especially since it's my prompt this week.  I had fun writing this, remembering the turbulent teen years where you could be an emotional wreck one moment and in a state of bliss the next. Emotions were so heightened and raw and you felt like the whole world was scrutinizing you, looking at every flaw, which they weren't of course. You often felt insecure about friendships, worried about being slighted or cast aside for someone more interesting. I constantly fluctuated between admiration and jealousy towards my best friend who was so much more outgoing than me and more popular with the boys. I was so shy I didn't even have a boyfriend as a teenager. As a teen, everything was such a huge deal and ...

Everyone loves to get praise and hear that they are wonderful. Who doesn’t love that? Especially we writers who spend many a lonely hour hunched in front of our computers or over our pads of paper as we toil away trying to get our ideas just right.   It gives us a boost and makes us feel good. I wrote a stinker of a story lately. Yes, folks it does happen to me occasionally. I know it’s hard to believe. EHEM…face reddens and whistles while looking other direction… Now where was I? My online critique partners were honest with me and told me that my latest creation was contrived, clichéd with cardboard characters and the plot was silly and   implausible. OUCH! Nothing sugar-coated about that. No one likes to get criticism and most of us try to avoid it at all costs. But sometimes you have to hear it in order to improve. I found it hard to take at first but now I can see they were right. I write so much better than that if I put my mind to it. That p...

There is a delicate hint of fall in the air with the shorter days and a coolness to the mornings.  From my window, I can see that the bird activity has changed these past few weeks. All the baby birds have gone which makes me sad as I miss watching their funny antics, especially the baby cardinals who were hilarious. They grow up way too fast. Sigh. The berries are gone on the honeysuckle bush so there are no more gorgeous cedar waxwings. I miss seeing them. The hubs says he will plant more bushes for me next year. I'd love to have a whole yard full of cedar waxwings as I think they are one of the most beautiful birds I've ever seen. Thank goodness for my photos to freeze these special moments in time.  I was entranced to see this handsome young purple finch at the feeder yesterday. As you can see, he is starting to change colour from his brown speckles to his brilliant red plumage. What a beauty he is! Soon he will be migrating south so I am grateful to have captu...

I signed up for the Cherished Blogfest Challenge a while back, forgetting that I’d be on vacation at my parents’ place. It’s a bit more challenging to blog while on vacation with all the routine gone, but it can be done. Looking at the huge stack of photo books I’ve made of our visits over the years gave me an idea to use them as my cherished objects. I believe it’s important to preserve the memories by getting the photos off the camera and computer. By creating these books, people can look at them and cherish the memories for years to come. Open a photo book and disappear To another time, another year, Memories come spilling out So much that I’d forgotten about, We’re older now and the boys have grown It’s amazing how the time has flown, I cherish the books more than silver or gold I will cherish them as much when I grow old. I am participating in the three day #Cherished Blogfest.

These quizzes are always good for a chuckle or a grimace, depending on if you like them or not. I enjoy reading other peoples' answers and learning a bit more about them and of course I enjoy doing them for that narcissistic high I get talking about myself. Hehehe! Just kiddin!  I like quizzes. Didn't you ever do all those silly quizzes in Tiger Beat and Seventeen when you were a teen? I know I did, even if they were completely silly which they usually were. I occasionally do some on Facebook but some are really silly so I try to limit myself since I waste enough time on Facebook as it is. Feel free to read or not. If you want to do your own quiz, feel free to do that, too. Photo Credit to MIPhoto at Morguefile.com. I do have a photo of my orange tabby Kobie draped across my computer from a while ago. I didn't want to spend a lot of time searching for it since all my old photos are in backup files on my other computer which is a pain in the butt.  This one...

I'm connecting this blog post into the 3 Day Quote challenge I'm doing. I found this quote by Roma Downey who played that angel on the show "Touched by an Angel" back in the 1990's. Do you believe in guardian angels? I like to think we have them. Often there have been times when I was in trouble and someone would come help me just at the right moment.  Or I would be just about to have a terrible accident and it wouldn't be that bad such as what I describe below. Here is my poem about having a guardian angel, based on my experience a few weeks ago where I attempted to take a photo of my shadow on the farmers' field while I was riding a bike.  I did manage to get this photo as I went hurtling into the deep ditch. I don't recommend trying it though!  I was lucky and my guardian angel was there to save me as I could have been badly injured. The camera and bike could have been damaged, too, but luckily we all escaped unscathed.  Pretty darn luc...

I have been tagged by Chicky Kadambari to take part in the 3 day Quote a Day challenge.  This seemed a natural challenge for me since I am a quote nut anyhow and love positive and uplifting quotes to start my day. After all, our attitude dictates our day so why not try our best to start off with a positive mindset? I even joined a Facebook group about quote bombing as I was intrigued by the idea. People print out quotes, cut them apart and leave them around or give them out to people in the course of their day. Sounds kind of fun. I might try it. I subscribe to quite a few quote sites. One of my favourites is Jonathan Lockwood Huie’s site  http://www.jlhuie.com/ He never fails to inspire and his quotes always get my day off to a good start. Here is one of his quotes for today made into an inspirational poster out of one of my cloud photos. I love making inspirational quote posters as they take the quote one step further and have that much more of an impa...