Category: Just Jot It January

Thanks, Linda!

This should probably be my Sunday post, but it’s never too early for gratitude…

A huge THANK YOU to Linda for creating, organizing, and shepherding Just Jot It January!

I’ve actually not missed a day (yet), which is unusual for me as I am not generally an every day poster. I do intend to post for the next two days, but tomorrow is Stream of Consciousness Saturday and, perhaps, by Sunday I will finish a post that I have been intending to work on for the last several weeks, but which still has only a few sentences completed.

I love that Linda is so creative in her ways of building and connecting the blogging community. I’ve found new blogs to follow through Just Jot It January and am grateful that other bloggers have visited Top of JC’s Mind because of it. I have gained some new views, likes, comments, and follows, which are always much appreciated.

For those of you who have been seeing this graphic

JJJ 2016

on my posts this month but haven’t joined in yet, the invitation still stands! Visit here first:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/29/just-jot-it-january-29th-ghost/.  To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here.

Again, many thanks, a round of applause, and a standing ovation to Linda! (You can imagine a cute, celebratory gif here. I am lucky to get regular photos and badges to post correctly. Images that move are too scary for me!)

Saint Francis Prayer

Because I have been (somewhat uncharacteristically) posting every day this month as part of Linda’s Just Jot It January, I have been more proactive than usual in planning my posts. I had a topic picked out for today and had written most of the post in my head.

Then, today happened.

My mom asked me this morning if I could send her a copy of the Prayer of Saint Francis, which a friend who recently passed away had chosen for her prayer card. I wrote a note to remind myself to do it and set out on a day of errands, a meeting, and an appointment.

I wasn’t expecting it, but it became a day when human needs for peace, love, compassion, healing, strength, and joy were placed before me again and again.

The best that I can hope to offer is to share the words of the Saint Francis Peace Prayer, which, while it is a Christian prayer, can also speak in large measure to people regardless of their belief system.

Prayer of Saint Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled, as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Shared for my mom, for Wilhelmina, and for all those in need of any of the gifts that Francis calls for in this prayer.

In peace,
Joanne
*****
To join Just Jot It January, visit here:   http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/28/just-jot-it-january-28th-serendipity/

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here.

One-Liner(ish) Wednesday: outsider

“The ability to respect the outsider is probably the litmus test of true seeing.”
~ Richard Rohr

During this time of tensions, if not outright hostility, between some individuals and groups that they deem as “outsiders” due to differences of race, ethnicity, religion, ideology, gender expression, etc., this quote is especially meaningful. It reminds me to show respect for everyone, even when disagreeing on fact or principle with their viewpoint.
~ JC

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesday! Find out how here:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/27/one-liner-wednesday-it-really-sucks/

This is also part of Linda’s Just Jot It January. Visit here:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/27/just-jot-it-january-27th-mendaciloquent/

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here.

#Blesstival on Love

My friend Jamie of Sophia’s Children has begun a blessing wave for 2016. It is called a Blessing Sadhana or Blesstival and this post is my contribution to the wave.  Everyone is invited to join in! You can read more about it here:  http://sophias-children.com/2015/12/23/blog-blesstival-add-your-blessing-to-start-the-new-year/

The blessing that I would like to share is Love.

Love with a capital L encompasses all that we love but extends beyond those we know to those we don’t know, to those who came before and those who will come after us, to all creatures, to the earth itself, to the universe.

From my religious tradition, I name this Love “Divine Love” or “God” but other cultures and traditions name Love in other ways, such as Great Spirit or the Universal. Secularists or scientists may speak of the Unified Field or Energy or simply the Universe.

Fans of Douglas Adams may know Love as the real answer to “the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.” Forty-two was just shorthand.

It is a profound sense of connection and unity that has been expressed by religious thinkers, philosophers, and scientists over the centuries.

One of the spiritual authors I have read in recent years is Richard Rohr. He writes an online series of daily meditations and his theme for 2016 is Love.  Here is an example of a recent daily meditation by Richard Rohr on Love.

As I have been contemplating writing this blessing post, I have been noticing Love everywhere, including this piece from Ilia Delio, another favorite spiritual writer.

I have been thinking about the universality of Love more often since attending a conference on Interspirituality, where I was privileged to meet Jamie in person. Whether one comes to it from a spiritual, philosophical, scientific, or secular viewpoint, our connection to one another and to Creation as a whole is profound.

I wish everyone the blessing of Love for 2016 and beyond.

Signing off with Jamie’s usual closing,

Big Love,
Joanne
*****
I want to spread the Blesstival as far as possible, so this post is also part of Linda’s Just Jot It January. You can find out more here:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/26/just-jot-it-january-26th-oneness/

mochi ice cream!

When I visited with daughter E in Honolulu for five weeks last year, one of our favorite treats was mochi ice cream, a Japanese-style bon bon made of pounded sticky rice wrapped around ice cream. The shops in Honolulu had many different flavors, a number of them tropical fruits.

When I returned home, I tried to find mochi ice cream. I finally found some green tea ones at Wegman’s, but my body doesn’t react well to tea, so I did’t buy them.

Yesterday, I happened to walk by the case and there were vanilla and strawberry mochi ice cream available.

I bought a box of strawberry and ate one after dinner last night.

It was delicious, but the memories of eating them with E made it all the sweeter.
*****
This post is part of Linda’s Just Jot It January. Join us! First here first:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/25/just-jot-it-january-25th-prestidigitation/

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today.

Just when you thought things were as complicated as possible…

Last week, there was “breaking news” that former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin was endorsing Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination. She has been campaigning with him this week in her own inscrutable style.

I thought things were about as complicated as they could be with Clinton and Sanders close in the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire and Trump still leading the giant Republican field with Cruz in second place.

And then billionaire and former mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg, upset that it might turn into either Trump or Cruz versus Sanders in the general election, announced that he was considering running as an independent candidate, which he would finance on his own up to one-billion dollars. He will decide by early March after he sees the outcome of the first few state contests.

Bloomberg has been a Democrat, a Republican, and an independent. I am uneasy at the prospect of him running in the general election totally on the basis of having enough money to fund a campaign, without any participation of the voters.

If Trump gets the Republican nomination, Bloomberg enters as an independent, and either Sanders or Clinton get the Democratic nomination, we would have all the major candidates with ties to New York, which is a little strange.  (Although Bernie Sanders has spent most of his adult life in Vermont, you can still here the accent of his native Brooklyn when he speaks.)

I had already felt that this political cycle was chaotic.

I can’t come up with a word to adequately describe it now.
*****
This post is part of Linda’s Just Jot It January. Join us! Start here:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/24/just-jot-it-january-24th-compelled/

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today.

 

SoCS: an even keel

It’s hard to be on an even keel when the water is choppy and there are rocks and storms and all manner of unexpected happenings.

There is an old saying/blessing/curse, “May you live in interesting times.”

Times in both the public and private sphere are definitely interesting.

Is it odd to wish that, at least once in a while, things were on an even keel instead?
*****
Join us for Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday! This week’s prompt was odd and/or even. Find out more here: http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/22/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-jan-2316/

SoCS badge 2015

It is also part of Linda’s Just Jot It January! Visit here to find out more:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/23/just-jot-it-january-23rd-oddeven-socs/

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today.

Stay safe!

This morning, I am thinking about all those facing severe weather. There is a blizzard approaching the mid-Atlantic region of the US. Seventy-five million people will be affected, including my sisters and their families and B’s brother and his family. The forecast calls for a large swath of 2-3 feet (0.75-0.95 meters) of snow coupled with strong winds.

I live further north where we will only catch a few inches, if anything at all.

I am also thinking of others in the United States and around the world who are suffering from floods, droughts, tornadoes, cyclones, mudslides, avalanches, dust storms, and all other weather disasters.

I wish everyone safety and and the swift arrival of whatever aid they need.
*****
Join us for Linda’s Just Jot It January! Start by visiting here:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/22/just-jot-it-january-22nd-felicity/

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today.

Hate to say they told you so, but…

So the US stock market – and most of the other major world stock indices – have been tanking lately. Part of the reason given is the low price of crude oil, at a time of oversupply  and the added stress of Iranian oil entering the market.

Middle Eastern oil is cheap to produce and can still make money at $27/barrel.

US oil, especially shale oil, can not. Production costs can be double that amount, so, as one would expect, there has been a huge drop in the number of new wells being drilled.

To make matters worse, the companies were borrowing the money to drill wells, betting they could make enough profit to pay make loan payments and keep drilling.

Some economists and fossil fuel sector experts, such as Art Berman and Deborah Lawrence, had warned of a “shale bubble” which could burst, causing a wave of bankruptcies in the drilling sector and massive troubles for the banks loaning to them.

Their predictions are coming true.

We can’t say we weren’t warned.
*****
This post is part of Linda’s Just Jot It January. Join us! Start here:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/21/just-jot-it-january-21st-mittens/

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today.

One-Liner(ish) Wednesday: Mary Oliver on poetry

“Poetry is a life-cherishing force, for poems are not words, after all, but fires for the coal, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread for the hungry.”
— Mary Oliver

I love this quote on poetry. One of the greatest compliments I have received as a poet was being told that one of my poems reminded someone of Mary Oliver.

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out how here:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/20/one-liner-wednesday-its-not-what-you-think-2/

I am double-dipping this week with Linda’s Just Jot It January, hence, the uncharacteristic commentary on the one-liner quote. Find out more here:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/20/just-jot-it-january-20th-surreptitiously/

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today.