Kicking Back

Spending a little time today just kicking back.  Working in the yard; planted some snapdragons, and weeded the bed between rain showers.  I'm catching up on blogs that I like and trying to comment.  I love to let my friends know that I was there, not just peeping in the shadows.  And I am doing a little maintenance to my online shops.  Should be reading a book, but don't have one I am interested in right now.  I let my library book expire.  Shucks!  Will make dinner for my grand boys a little later.
What is your Saturday looking like?

Green?

Ever woken up hearing plink! plink! splash, drip drip drip, coming from the nearby window.  Such a soothing sound. So quiet in your darkened room, snuggled under the coverlet.  You lie there and listen . . . drip, slash, plink, plink, drip. It begins to have a rhythm . . .  (three short plinks) . . . plink, plink, plink . . .  (lower pitched) slash . . . (two shorts) . . . plink, plink, (and a plonk)  . . . drip.  It's been awhile since you've heard rain, such a comforting sound in a dry season.

In the early morning, you go to the window and look out, looking down on the garden plot.   More splash, drip drip drip.  This is a promising sound, saying:  "Come on!  Here we go!" . . .  it promises things like "Go! Be green!"  The promise of a future --"Go! Be fruitful".  You hear it calmly rolling in waves of hopefulness.  And whether it is a fruitful garden that you want, or it is a fruitful future life, the question today is: Do you believe that things are going to change and get "green"? Wondering what that "greenness" will look like?  Visualizing a new beginning today . . .

Can you see it?

Others and Myself

Day Two:  Thoughts about people

I had a discussion with my brother about the nature of humans. I have thought on this subject and have taken it a bit further in discussion with others.  We are made up of intellect, emotion and will to form personality.

These three should be balanced to make a well rounded, functioning personality.

Some people are not balanced.  There are jokes about those who have "a big head" thinking that they know everything.  And some of those, that are all about intellectualism, are not emotionally able to handle differing opinions than what they have learned with their intellect, trying always to reason their way out of a differing opinion.  Data is important to them, and data only.  BTW, IQ measures this mental capacity.

Some people have no emotional capacity.  (There is a whole study on emotional capacity called EQ.)  Some have been hurt so badly that they protect themselves and refuse to feel.  And might I say, some others have only an infantile capacity to have empathy for others. What they think funny, or even right is the only correct answer--others must feel like they do!  It makes no difference to them how others might feel; it  may seem to others that they are cruel.  I wonder if they have no capacity to put themselves in the shoes of another.

In regard to the will, some people are not able to make the yes or no decisions of the will that determine their future.  (Little known fact:  "If not 'yes' then it is automatically a 'no', or,  Failure to make a decision is a 'No' decision.  'Yes' takes action and is most times hard, where 'No' can stay in the status quo.)

Why am I bringing this up, because I am thinking about it.  Where am I in each part of my personality?  Do I spend an inordinate amount of time honing my intellect with education and ignore my emotional reactions to others?  Am I pleased with where I find myself?  Do I need to make a few changes? Exercise my will? Where am I headed?  For that matter,

Where are you headed?

Late 'Lenten Season'

Day One: Purpose of 40 days and nights

Writer's block has to end!  I have written a little bit on my second novel, since my last blog post back on February 1st!  (Not ready to share about that yet).  Now, in an effort to really end my block, I am setting aside a block of time (literally) just for listening to the spirit of inspiration and doing some writing for the next 40 days- sort of like a season of Lent.  I know, the Lenten season and Easter is over!  "It's late April, of goodness sakes! You missed it! You're really missing it, since Lent is a season of fasting not inspiration!" says the religious person.

But I am a spiritual person.  Yes, the Lenten season, religiously, has been a season of penitence and fasting to remember the suffering of Christ. But I said my 40 days was going to be "sort of like" the Lenten season. Not all 40 day seasons are for subtraction; some, in the Bible were for proving and adding. Christ spent 40 days in the wilderness to be tested.  I need to be tested to see if I can write consistently everyday for 40 days!  I'm proving myself!  [2 Tim 2:15]

Also, Elijah spent 40 days and nights in the wilderness resting!  He was exhausted from his confrontations with the King, Queen and the people of Israel.  He spent 40 days and nights on vacation (traveling to mountain of God--Mt. Horeb) and resting from his usual life.  I will be resting and 'vacationing' from my usual routine that keeps me so busy that I don't write!  [Isa 28:12, Mark 6:31]

This blog is about sabbatical events,  various sabbaticals that I take from my usual routine. (I seem to not be able to function without some "time outs"! :)  Besides, this is how this blog was started; it started when I took a sabbatical back in March of 2014.  So, come along with me on the newest of my Sabbatical ventures as I rest, vacation and get inspired to write! It may only be a few words of inspiration, to write about later, but I will write a post everyday--a diary of my 2016 Sabbatical.  Enjoy the journey with me!

Writer's block or embroidery 'block'?

Well, it seems that my focus is on embroidery!  I just can't seem to sit down and write.  I am thinking about it, processing my plot line in my head, but haven't made a decision, so just can't sit at the computer and write!  So what do I do with myself?  I've been working on embroidery to keep my hands busy.  I finished this hoop yesterday.

(I was introduced to Portulaca, commonly known as moss rose, when I lived in Missouri.  I had never known it before then; it's a favorite there.)

This hoop had been in my UFO bin (unfinished objects) for over a year!  I think it turned out nicely, but I would prefer to have my novel turn out nicely, instead!