I’m thankful for this reminder that the small actions we take are important in ways that we often cannot see.
“It is a serious thing, just to be alive on this fresh morning, in this broken world.” ~ Mary Oliver
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Category: musings
SoCS: Top of JC’s Mind
…because, seriously, when the prompt is “mind”, how could I not?
I started Top of JC’s Mind almost two years ago because several people told me that I should start a blog. I had originally planned to call it Top of My Mind, but that was already taken, so I put my initials in the title instead.
I know that I couldn’t contain myself to a single topic, so I set out to write about whatever is on the top of my mind, but that isn’t quite true.
You see, the top of my mind is a pretty crowded space. If I wrote about everything that was on the top of my mind in any given day, I wouldn’t have time to do anything else.
So, I write only a bit of what is at the top of my mind – and those bits have been distributed differently than I originally envisioned.
I had thought that I would write a lot about fracking – or anti-fracking, really – because I spent many moons writing commentary on it as part of the anti-fracking grassroots in New York State. And there is some writing in that vein, along with climate change and other environmental themes, but, with the (mostly) ban in place, that has slowed down, perhaps much to the relief of readers, as well as fracktivists.
I also thought that I would post more poetry than I do. The reason is that I am trying to publish in literary journals, nearly all of whom will only consider work that is not previously published. And, for the most part, that means that if they can google it, they won’t accept it, even if it is only out on my little blog with a dozen views. Consequently, I don’t put too many of my poems here unless they have appeared elsewhere first. Generally, the rights revert back to me after publication.
I have written more about family and personal experiences than I intended, largely due to circumstances. A year ago, our elders, Nana, Paco, and Grandma, all ran into health challenges and the top, middle, and bottom of my mind were all pretty much filled up with care-taking and concern. Then, there are the more fun family things to post, like spending five weeks in Hawai’i with my daughter E.
I do want to get back to posting more about topics, such as feminism, politics, and religion/ethics. The life of the mind is important to me. I just wish there was a more direct and faster way to get my thoughts onto the (computer) page.
Although that would be overwhelming.
No one needs that much Top of JC’s Mind.
Except for me, of course, for whom there is no escape…
*****
This post is part of Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday. This week’s prompt is “mind.” Join us! Find out how here: http://lindaghill.com/2015/08/21/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-august-2215/
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A (Fitbit) walk to the farmers’ market
I wrote recently about my newly acquired Fitbit. I have decided to stick with my low, but attainable, goal; I’d rather make my goal and overachieve than always be struggling to make a high goal and feeling badly when I couldn’t do it most days.
I am getting most of my daily steps in by walking while I telephone my mother in the morning and by taking a walk in the evening with B.
Today, my morning call was short and my evening walk may not happen because I have a poetry meeting, so I decided to walk to the farmers’ market this morning. I wanted to buy some apricots and lettuce. I grabbed a cloth bag and a little purse with just my essentials, as my pocketbook is too heavy to lug around on walks.
As often happens at the farmers’ market, I bought more than I intended to. There weren’t any apricots, but there were lovely prune plums and some early apples, which I knew that T, who will be home for the coming week between her internship and new semester, would enjoy. And I didn’t want to run short of carrots and maybe a fresh tomato would be a good addition to the salad I am planning for dinner tonight. Oh, and look at that lovely selection of summer squashes, picked nice and small the way I like them!
The next thing I knew, I had a hefty amount in my bag to carry home. About halfway there, my Fitbit vibrated to let me know I had reached 5,000 steps. I had to shift my bag from arm to arm as I walked, relying more on my left side as my right arm has been weakened by some orthopedic problems.
When I got home, I weighed my bag and found it was eight pounds.
I want brownie points for the extra calories I burned carrying it home!
(And I will resist the urge to indulge in any actual brownies.)
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Sunday blast from the past
…although “blast” may not be the right word.
It happens that the lectionary readings at church today contained two texts which I have set to music.
The Hebrew Scriptures reading from Proverbs chapter 9 contains part of the text I used in composing an anthem for the dedication of the Church of the Blessed Sacrament in Johnson City, NY and the Gospel reading from John chapter 6 is the basis for my piece “And I Will Raise Them Up,” which was also written for the choir at Blessed Sacrament.
It’s as though all that happened in another lifetime.
Ten years ago, the parish that I knew, loved, and served disintegrated. A remnant of it existed for a while longer and eventually merged with a nearby parish. Its complex of buildings closed after a second devastating flood within five years. They have been sold to a nearby Christian college, which will eventually re-open the church as their chapel, although, as is common, the altar, stained glass windows, and other religious accouterments were removed before the building was sold.
Today, knowing that the tower windows are gone is especially poignant. I had chosen the texts for my anthem for the dedication of the renovated and expanded church building dedicated to the Blessed Sacrament based on those windows, which depicted three aspects of the Eucharist – nourishment, healing, and presence – using images from Hebrew Scriptures. The Proverbs text we heard today, in which Wisdom prepares and invites everyone to a feast, was the basis of the “nourishment” section and the source of the title, “Wisdom Has Built Herself a House.”
It was sung publicly only once, at the dedication of the church. It’s unlikely that it will ever be sung again. It exists only on mute, hand-written pages and as an echo in my memory.
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Fitbit – getting started
When I was visiting my daughter E in Honolulu, her workplace started a new fitness program and gave them all new Fitbits. E already had a Fitbit Flex, which she offered to me and I gratefully accepted.
I waited to set it up until I had gotten through the jet lag and backlog of stuff I needed to deal with, so I’ve only been using it for a week and a half. Given that I haven’t been diligent about exercise for months and months, I decided to start with a modest step count, 5,000/day, only half of the default value of 10,000 steps.
In order to make my goal, I went back to walking while I talked with my mother on the phone every weekday morning. Coupled with evening walks with B and running errands, I have been making my step count, including one especially active day when I made it to 10,649!
Today has the potential to be the first day I don’t make my 5,000 step goal. I seem to have pulled a muscle in my thigh, genuflecting at church this morning. I went for a short walk with B, trying to stretch it out, but it just seemed to hurt more, so I came home and iced it.
I’ll have to see what becomes of my goal today and this week. I don’t want to make my leg heal more slowly by pushing too much.
Leave it to me to have a liturgical injury…
Evening update: I did manage to get 5,000 steps in, albeit more slowly and over a greater time span. I’ll have to see how sore my leg is tomorrow to ascertain if I can make my goal or need to declare a rest day.
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SoCS: the fight of the bumblebee
It’s not often that I run away from something – okay, it’s not often that I run, period – but this past week, I did.
I was out mowing the lawn, using our electric rechargeable lawn mower, which I convinced my husband to get a few years ago so I could help with the mowing. I had trouble even starting our gas-powered one and wanted a lawnmower with a smaller carbon footprint. So, while I don’t have decades of experience with lawn-mowing, I’m not totally new at it either.
While we live in a suburban-style neighborhood, we and many of our neighbors have more rural-style lawns, meaning that among the grasses there are other plants, some of which flower. Depending on the month, our lawn has wild strawberry blossoms, violets, creeping charlie, dandelions, clover, and other flowers blossoming. Where there are flowers, of course, there are bees and we are used to seeing them as we mow. They generally buzz away from the mower to find another flower that isn’t in its path, with bumblebees being the mellowest, just moseying slowly away.
I was really surprised, then, when a bumblebee came around the corner of our shed and headed straight at me. Startled, I ran away, even tripping and falling in my haste – and getting grass stains on my pants.
I felt sheepish about being chased away by a docile bumblebee and, determined to finish the little patch of lawn left, went back to the mower. After a couple more episodes of bumblebee-chasing, I realized that they were flying in and out from under the shed, which meant that they must have built a nest under it. By that point, I was almost done and was staying away from the shed, so I thought I was safe.
But, no.
One of the bumblebees, obviously upset by my continued presence, followed me back to the garage as I headed back to it to plug in the the mower, got under my shirt-sleeve, and stung me.
In the not-the-most-mature reaction, I screamed, batted it to the garage floor, and hurried inside the house. I called my husband and told him I was scared and didn’t know what to do. Because my mom is allergic to bee stings, I had grown up being scared of bees and had only been stung once by a yellowjacket when I was a child. My husband, on the other hand, has been stung many times over the years. He calmly told me to take a couple of benadryl and ice the sting. It was getting near time to come home, so he said he would leave and be there in a few minutes.
The ice helped with the pain and, when he arrived, he made sure there was no stinger in my arm. He looked up some information that confirmed that bumblebees, unlike some other species, don’t have barbed stingers, so, good news – the stinger doesn’t remain lodged in the victim but – bad news – they can sting multiple times without dying. They also are not aggressive unless they are defending a nest. Yup. Got that fact right, too.
I am all healed up now and none the worse for wear. I haven’t needed to go back out to mow, but, if I ever have to run away from a bee again, I’m not going to go back out and try to finish.
I learned my lesson.
*****
This post is part of Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturdays. The prompt this week was to build the post around a word that ended with “-ay.” Join us! Find out how here: http://lindaghill.com/2015/08/14/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-august-1515/
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How many read your blog today?
I think that everyone should read Tric’s blog! You can tell her I sent you. 😉
I was toying between that title or perhaps, ‘How not to increase traffic to your blog’. I’ve been blogging over two years and for the most part have enjoyed every day of it. However in the last month, due to life, holidays, my children annoying me and my husband expecting me to feed him, I’ve had less time to write, to read and to post here on wordpress. This has naturally meant my usually high stats, (not!) have nose dived, leading me to wonder, and wondering is not always a good thing!
For as I wondered I grew envious (and bitter). Why do I not have a following of thousands reading my blog? Am I not interesting? At times funny? At times inspirational? Ok perhaps not.
This week I read a couple of posts from bloggers who had big stats. They were kindly telling me, and everyone else, but I…
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SoCS: ready or not
I put off starting to write this post, thinking I would surely feel more ready later on.
Well – no.
Sometimes, you wake up feeling ready for anything.
Today is not one of those days.
It’s more a day to peruse emails and play games and go for a walk or just sit.
Not ready for much of anything – or at least much of anything that involves deep thought.
Maybe tomorrow.
*****
This post is part of Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturdays. This week’s prompt is “ready.” Join us! Find out how here: http://lindaghill.com/2015/07/31/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-august-115/
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SoCS: vision
Last week, I had my annual vision exam. I have worn glasses since I was seven. I was near-sighted as a child, but now I have far-sightedness, too, related to age.
And my in-between vision is not great either, so I have been wearing progressives, which try to help you see well across all distances.
Last year, I finally gave up and got a special pair of glasses called an office lens. This pair of glasses is not good for long distances, like driving, but they are really good for short and intermediate distance, so I can read with them and, most importantly, use them when I am at my desktop computer without having to tilt my head at a weird angle and make my neck get a crick. However, they still let me see clearly about ten feet away, so I can use them for walking around the house without having to switch glasses every time I get up from the computer. I really love these glasses and I find my eyes are much less tired at the end of the day because of them.
I am thinking of replacing my progressives that I wear most of the time with bifocals so that I will still be able to drive and read and do kitchen work and such. Using my desktop is my main intermediate vision task, so I will switch to my office lens for that, but have the bifocal for general wear and being out and about.
And, someday in the future, I will need to have cataract surgery and will probably see better with the new implantable lenses than I have seen when I was six.
*****
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is: “vis.” the post should “use a word, or tie your post’s theme around a word, that contains the letters VIS, in that order.” Join us! Details here: http://lindaghill.com/2015/07/24/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-july-2515/
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I feel for you
I think WordPress, Facebook, and other social media should institute a new button.
When someone has written a beautiful post on a difficult, tragic, or emotional topic, I don’t always feel qualified to comment, but want the writer to know that I have read the post and that I sympathize with them. I sometimes hit the “Like” button, but it always feels a bit unsettling. I don’t “like” that they are grieving a loved one or that they are dealing with chronic illness.
I want a button that says “I hear you.” “I feel for you.” “You touched me.” “You are not alone.” “I don’t like what you are going through, but I am thinking of you and sending you good thoughts.”
Anyone else with me on this?
Joanne Corey 