Tag: dailyprompt

Being in love for the first time at age 36, I think a stick on the ground could make me laugh!

I have been saying “no” a lot more recently just to start setting boundaries for my own needs. If my goal is rest, I can keep it so. If I’m full of energy, I can help others until I feel the need to stop and say no. I don’t want to feel obligated to help, but to do it with joy when I can.

Weather that is changing is the most fascinating. I have always been excited when odd cloud arrangements created the most unusual lighting, like lighting from the north or even the sudden illumination from lightning. As kids, we’d love running around outside in the pre-storm breeze smelling petrichor. Strange shapes in the clouds or the tension building before a storm really hits are lovely anomalies. Morning sun off an ice coated landscape with trees creaking or and plants reaching to the ground in unnatural ways is like a rare treat to be appreciated. A nice summer day is well and all, but sometimes I want something unexpected and different.

My high school English teacher Mr. Ball cut no corners and challenged me greatly in my writing, grammatical understanding, language use, and influential reading. He was essentially a college-grade instructor who had a take-no-crap attitude but also allowed us more freedom as we took on higher responsibility. He also taught us about the violent fun of the children’s game “crack the whip”, accidentally hit a student with a candy bar, and eloquently let the lawn mower know what he thought of him mowing during school hours.

I love going to Japanese hot springs too much to get a tattoo. My skin looks good already, and most hot springs in Japan do not allow people with tattoos in due to their cultural connection to the yakuza/ organized crime.

First word that came to mind.

I would love to bike across the country! Hopefully it is a scenic path, or I can put it on the car for an occasional rest.

I had a green bike in Japan named Charlie-kun which was my main mode of transportation when not on a train or bus. There’s a lot of freedom with bikes and more time to pull over for excursions & to breathe in the fresh air. Charlie-kun may also have enjoyed the freedom while rolling down slopes into rice patties. I joked that Charlie-kun was my boyfriend whom I wouldn’t let in the house and I made him sleep outside.

When dealing with a bad day, I think it’s helpful to go out of your way to treat yourself well. If your friend or family member was having a bad day, what kind of things would you do to cheer them up? A lot of times if something bad happens, we seem to blame ourselves and it leads to more irritation. But if we had more compassion with our own mistakes or struggles then maybe we would end up in a better place. Having compassion for others when they make your day more difficult can help – try to wish them well or pity them. Sometimes I try to decide to be positive and think of how many blessings I am ignoring, or if it’s a train wreck of a day I try to look at it with humor. Leave work stress at the door, and rinse it off in the shower or by meditating. After a rough day I can treat myself by buying a nice meal instead of cooking, scheduling a massage, or buying more plants. (I have a tendency to “stress buy” plants.)

Sometimes my curiosity for a topic on my mind or from an article I read will peak my interest, and I’ll do a Google search which often leads me to reading a lengthy Wikipedia page. That page may bring up a  topic or two which are new to me, and I open another window to explore it in more detail. This process can take hours to get through, but it’s worth it as I slowly work my way back through the open tabs after veering far from the original topic.

I am compared to a giraffe for either my height or awkward sense of grace when I run through the grasslands.