Category: blogging

Welcome, 2026!

After a rough 2025 for many of us, I hope that the new year will bring an increase in peace, security, freedom, and safety for each person.

We began our new year’s celebration yesterday with a midday dinner with son-in-law L’s parents. So much delicious food!

We opted to return to our hotel early in the evening before things got rowdy. We figured we could watch the festivities in Central London on the television if we managed to stay awake. I’m sure at E and L’s new home in East London there will be a lot of banging on pots and pans at midnight, along with personal fireworks. Granddaughters ABC and JG napped in the afternoon so they could be awake for the arrival of 2026.

They followed the Filipino tradition of having a bowl of 12 different, round fruits to welcome the new year.


This marks the first post for Just Jot It January 2026, an initiative organized by Linda Hill of the “Life in progress” blog. You are welcome to join in the fun at any point and can find details on her blog. I’ll write a bit more about it as the month goes on.

Happy New Year, Everyone!

One-Liner Wednesday: dragon?

While the zebra left the creche, a Lego dragon has joined the scene, along with a mushroom at the baby Jesus’s feet and a mysterious magnifying glass.

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/12/31/one-liner-wednesday-happy-2026/

One-Liner Wednesday: well wishes

Whether or not you observe a holiday at this time of year, I wish you love, peace, safety, security, and joy!

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/12/24/one-liner-wednesday-all-i-want-for-christmas/

One-Liner Wednesday: FDR on economic progress

“the test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”
~~~ Franklin Roosevelt, second inaugural address

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/12/03/one-liner-wednesday-i-dont-think-this-is-mathing/

Reblog: Carol Mikoda’s Outside of Time now available!

Originally published on the Boiler House Poets Collective site here: https://boilerhousepc.wordpress.com/2025/11/26/carol-mikodas-outside-of-time-now-available/

Photo caption: Carol Mikoda reading from Outside of Time at the North Adams Public Library (photo by Mary Beth Hines)

When Kelsay Books published Carol Mikoda’s Outside of Time in October, she celebrated with a reading at the North Adams Public Library. Carol was in residence at the Studios at MASS MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art) as a member of the Boiler House Poets Collective. Participating in the reading marking the tenth anniversary of the Boiler House Poets were fellow Kelsay authors Joanne Corey (Hearts), Jessica Dubay (All Those Years Underwater), and Mary Beth Hines (Winter at a Summer House), along with Merrill Oliver Douglas, Judith Hoyer, Kyle Laws, Deborah Marshall, Eva Schegulla, and Wendy Stewart.

You can read and hear more of Carol Mikoda’s work on her Substack, The Yellow Table.

One-Liner Wednesday: Thanksgiving

As we here in the United States are preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow, I’m giving thanks for all the people who visit my blog, especially those who have stuck with me despite my irregular posting as I deal with personal and family health issues. ❤

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/11/26/one-liner-wednesday-what-did-you-do-yesterday/. Also, congratulate Linda on the publication of her new book, which came out yesterday!

One-Liner Wednesday: healing thoughts

In the face of so much suffering in the world, today I’m sending healing thoughts out to people I know, such as a friend’s spouse and three local poets who have been involved in recent motor vehicle accidents, and the millions upon millions around the world suffering from illness, hunger, violence, and danger of any kind, wishing I could do more to heal and protect them.

You are invited to also send out healing thoughts and to join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays. Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/11/19/one-liner-wednesday-my-theory/

One-Liner Wednesday: MCOB Lessons & Carols ’25

For people in Broome/Tioga County NY area, two opportunities to hear the Madrigal Choir of Binghamton‘s iconic Lessons & Carols for Christmas over Thanksgiving weekend.

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/11/12/one-liner-wednesday-are-you-seeing-this-on-your-blog/

One-Liner Wednesday: autumn dogwood

Thought I’d share fall photos of the Kousa dogwood at our house and its fruit, after showing its greenery earlier.

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/11/05/one-liner-wednesday-this-is-why/

SoCS: alarm bells in the US

Vote for Democracy #48

(Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash)

I’ve been experiencing life here in the United States with increasing alarm.

The cruelty, lawlessness, and incompetence of the Trump administration continues to accelerate while the suffering here and abroad continues to mount.

I will spare you a stream-of-consciousness list of all the component parts of this catastrophe, but the destruction by Trump of the East Wing of the White House presents a decent metaphor – lie about what you are planning and rush in and wreck things.

Millions upon millions of people here are fighting back to save our democracy and have a chance to re-build it and slowly repair to the extent possible the global damage inflicted but we haven’t been able to turn the tide yet. I don’t know how long it will take but we won’t give up.

Joyce Vance published her first book this week, entitled Giving Up is Unforgivable: A Manual for Keeping a Democracy. It’s what we need to do.

We won’t give up.
*****
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “alarm.” Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/10/24/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-oct-25-2025/