Pollyanna

I have a dear friend who laughingly calls me Pollyanna, because I’m an unabashed optimist. I admit it, I am. However, I’m not a blind optimist, but if I have a choice to see the silver lining in the cloud, I do so. Though, as an amateur photographer, I also like the dark shadows of the cloud.

If the glass is filled to the halfway mark, is it half empty or half full? My answer? It depends what’s in the glass! If the liquid is something I love, then it is half empty and I want more. If it’s a foul tasting medicine I have to drink, then it’s half full, and I can’t get it down fast enough!

It’s like email. Is email an advantage or a disadvantage? Or is it neither, just being ‘is’? I love email, it allows me to keep in touch with friends across the country, it allows me to submit manuscripts in a less expensive and more expeditiously manner, but if I let it, it is also a great user of my time.

I have many friends who send me many forwards, and I admit, I do not always read those forwards. If I have to scroll through 27,386 prior addresses, I hit the Delete button. If it’s a forward from my Conspiracy Theory buddy—I hit the Delete button. If it’s a forward from some of my friends who want to convince me that their political party (or religious affiliation) is the ONLY political party, (or religious affiliation), I hit the Delete button. There was a time when I might enter into a discussion with these people over the emails, but no longer. I just accept that they care enough about me to send me their dire and fright-filled warnings, delete said missives, and send them back something light and totally off their subject. Is my in-box half full? Or is it half empty? (How many emails will my in-box hold, anyway?)

I guess if I have to choose, I’d rather be Pollyanna than Scrooge. Besides, I’m lazy, and it takes fewer muscles to smile than to frown—or so I read somewhere.

My Gratefuls:

1. Friends who send me emails

2. The Delete button

3. Telephones

4. US Mail

5. Popcorn

My Wonderment:

Clouds. I love clouds. Sometimes they are animals, sometimes they just are. Sometimes they fill the sky, sometimes they just give a bit of interest. Is the sky half full or…?

Reflecting Pool at Oklahoma Memorial Site

Looking down on Cottonwood AZ from above Jerome AZ

Blue Bird, still waiting for happiness instead of making his own.

It dropped down to the low 50s last night. Admittedly, it feels good, but I fear we are in for an early Fall. I’m just not ready for summer to be over. Hopefully, this cool spell is just that, a spell, and we’ll have a few more weeks of summer.

Now that Brother Rat has been here a few days, I’m beginning to come back down to earth, so to speak. I can only say that receiving my first sold and published novel (not a vanity publication!) is a high that rates right up there with becoming a mother and flying a 747 in a simulator (I flew it OK, but broke it on landing;-).

But I’m coming down off the mountain now. There are meals to be cooked; dishes to be washed, and I have to figure out what to make for Winter Gifts! I try to make my gifts. It would be a lot easier—and less expensive!—if I just went to the store to buy something. Alas, I enjoy making gifts, and I think (I hope!) my friends enjoy receiving something made with love. For those who live locally, I usually give homemade jams, but I like to give something else, too. Last year I made calendars with some of my photos. The photos were taped on so when the month was over, the people could remove the photo (I used low tack tape) and put them on a note card to share with friends should they so desire.

Lee and Nancy, two of my Sisters of Choice (SOC) come over in September or October depending on their work schedules, they bring whatever fruit they’ve collected and frozen to add to my freezer full of fruit, and we spend three days madly making jams and butters and ketchups. We call it our Jam Session. Last year we put up 240 jars of jam in three days. Nancy found a pectin that takes very, very little sugar—far less than the Low Sugar stuff on the store shelves. In fact, we tell folks that once opened their jam needs to be refrigerated because there isn’t enough sugar in it to act as preservative. (Nancy has a friend who just laughs. She claims she opens it, and eats it straight from the jar, and all at one sitting!)

One of the most popular things we make is Plum Ketchup. Everyone curls a lip at that, until they taste it. We are now getting requests for it! Yes, it goes on meats just like the red stuff you buy. It also goes on peanut butter. Or just bread. It is truly wonderful stuff. Honest. Trust me.

My Gratefuls:

1. My children, Sonja and Aaron

2. My Family of Choice

3. Coffee in the morning

4. Squirrels who scold me for coming onto my patio

5. New followers of my blog

My Wonderment:

Sitting outside on my patio before the sun is up, drinking a cuppa. I love listening to the birds wake, and have noticed the correlation between their waking and calling, and the sun rising. I’ve often wondered—if the birds do not wake first, and call the sun, will the sun stay down and not rise? (Oh, the puzzlements of life ;-). Yesterday, I saw several hummingbirds and two of them actually sat on a bare tree limb for several seconds! Now, if that’s not a wonderment, I don’t know what is.

I took this picture in the Cactus Garden in Phoenix this last spring. I have no idea what kind of a hummer he is, but he is green.

And this Ibis wanders my girl friend’s back yard in Port Charlotte, FL...

As well as a family of Sand Hill Cranes. It was great fun seeing Mom and Pop and Baby strut around the yard. There are a couple of ‘gators in the pond, but they didn’t appear too interested in the birds. Pop was on lookout while Mom walked Baby up and down the shore.

It's Here! It's Here! Brother Rat is Here!

I am sooooo excited! My novel, My Adventures as Brother Rat has finally made it into print, and my copies arrived yesterday afternoon. This has been a long time coming. I wrote the original short story some 25 years ago, and folks kept telling me it was really a novel, and, well… they were right. I just had to retire to see it. And write it. And re-write it several times!

It was bought and published by a small independent publisher, Sam’s Dot Publishing in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. You won’t find it in your favorite bookstore, but if you want a copy, you can order it from http://www.genremall.com/fictionr.htm#brotherrat or, if you want a signed copy, email me at: lenoragood@charter.net. The price is the same - $10.00 for the book plus $4.00 shipping and handling for a total of $14.00.

Of course, I’m biased; I think the book is worth $14.00.

My Gratefuls:

1. Brother Rat is here

2. Brother Rat is here

3. Brother Rat is here

4. Brother Rat is here

5. Brother Rat is here

My Wonderment:

After waiting and waiting and waiting BROTHER RAT IS HERE!

I’ll try to be a tad more serious in later posts, but right now, I’m just flying way too high on natural endorphins!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the story, Brother Rat is a young woman who was orphaned as a young child. She was taken in by the Healer to the King of Wu and wanted only to become a Healer, but after a series of dreams, she must become a Warrior and takes the name of Brother Rat. The story takes place during the Warring States period of Ancient China, when Yueh invades Wu. It is being marketed as a Young Adult novel because there is no gratuitous sex or violence. There is violence, but it is not glorified—the message being that war sucks bilge water and should be avoided when possible. Unfortunately, it is not always possible.

Ah, it has been a few days since I’ve posted. Primarily, my lack of posting has been due to several projects that needed completion. Plus, I admit, a certain amount of laziness when not working on the projects. Laziness is allowed now and then—it’s good for the soul.

However, my laziness was not totally unproductive. I read several pages of Lift Up Thy Voice by Mark Perry. This is a book about the Grimke family, or at least some of them, who went from Slaveholders in Charleston SC to Civil Rights advocates. (I am reading the book as research for a story I am writing.) Anyone who likes US history, especially leading up to the Civil War, should find this book interesting.

Speaking of writing, November is NaNoWriMo time—aka National Novel Writing Month. For those of you who have ever wanted to write a novel, this is a great way to set about doing it. For further information go to: http://www.nanowrimo.org/ . NaNo is free to join, and for those who need the prompting and companionship of other writers is a great way to meet those writers in your part of the world. They consider 50,000 words a novel. The great thing is, no one cares how well or how badly it’s written. The important thing is to write it! You can go back and clean it up later.

And, yes, I have written two novels this way, and they are both just about ready to try to find a publishing home. Check out their website. It may be just the prod you need. Good writing.

My Gratefuls:

1. Finishing of

projects

2. Digital cameras

3. Electric/timed steamers for food

4. Meeting new friends either literally or electronically (welcome to my Family of Friends, Tom)

5. The annual rain of falling stars

My Wonderment:

I woke entirely too early this morning (3.30), so got up and wandered outside to see if I could see the rain of stars. No, I couldn’t, but I did see the memories of past rains. The sky overhead was quite cloudy, which as you well know makes star gazing just a wee bit difficult; however, there was a giant hole in the clouds just above my house and I could see a great many stars on the black sky. As I moved about my patio, looking for the shooting stars, I saw with my peripheral vision something running toward me. Not wanting to step on it, or be tripped by it, I stopped moving and looked. It was the shadow of my arm. The moon had broken through the clouds, and was literally pouring enough light down I could have sat outside and read a book! Instead, I sat and just watched the stars in their stationary orbit, and the clouds as they moved slowly about then I went back to bed. When I got up this morning there were no holes in the clouds, instead there was a delightful rain of water (not stars) falling all about my home.

One of my finished projects; a table runner called All Around the Country With Friends and Family.

Moonrise over the Horse Heaven Hills; taken up at the wind farm. Title: Lovers Tryst

Moonrise over the Ed Hendler Bridge (between Pasco and Kennewick—and yes, I played around just a smidge with the color) Title: Moon Goddess

Back in the days when I was a good Bible Toting Christian, I read several books by Father John Powell, SJ, which I loved. Unfortunately, I no longer remember the titles of them, but I do remember many of the lessons. (If you’re interested, you can Google him.)

One lesson, and I believe a recurring one throughout his books, was our own responsibility. I copied something he wrote and put it on my bathroom mirror where I saw it every day. I may no longer have the words exactly right, but I do have the lesson. Sign on my mirror: You are looking at the face of the person responsible for your happiness today!

Many people have said the same thing, just in different words. The truth is, we and we alone are responsible for our happiness this day and every day. Happiness is a choice, though it isn’t always an easy choice. I know it was hard for me to learn to be happy, but I’m oh, so glad I made that choice and learned that lesson. Thank you Fr. Powell!

Yesterday’s Gratitudes:

1. Memories of Fr. Powell’s books and lessons contained therein

2. Breakfast on the patio with my friend, Judy

3. Finishing the quilting of my table runners (sewing the backs on is today)

4. Cooler nights so I don’t have to run the a/c

5. Publishers that take electronic submissions of poems and stories

Yesterday’s Wonderment:

Sitting outside and watching the play of light and shadow as the breeze danced with the plants. Enjoying the patio of O’Henry’s Go Go all to myself for almost an hour before people started coming. I had a chance to read, and to stop and watch the shadows and the filtered light.

Apricots from Judy’s tree:

My neighbor’s Poppy:

A little wind, a little rain…

Ah, the weather cooled down a tad yesterday. About 7pm it actually began to rain a wee bit. Of course, I sat in a restaurant enjoying dinner with my gal pals, and didn’t notice until I left that my car window was down about 4 inches. Fortunately, the rain remained gentle until I could get it rolled up.

I admit, it was very nice to come home and open the doors to get some fresh, and cooler air into the house. And as I stretched out on my bed, listen to the wind play the cedar tree outside my window like a flute. Now that was a lullaby!

Yesterday’s gratefuls:

1. Cooler temperatures

2. Gentle rain

3. Gal pals with whom to share a nice meal and great conversation

4. A quilting foot for my sewing machine

5. Nice breeze

Yesterday’s wonderment:

Standing on the walkway by the Ice Harbor Brew Pub watching the water birds swim in the Columbia River, and following the clouds as they swam under and around the birds. Or did the birds swim over and through the fallen clouds? And marveling at how clean and fresh the air felt and smelled. Again, I am so grateful I live I live here.

So, we had a little wind here, last night. On Friday the 13^th of August 2004, when I lived in Florida, we had a lot of wind, winds at 155 mph, actually, and this was my pool during the eye of Hurricane Charley.

And this was one of many little frogs that visited me regularly while I lived in Florida. I do miss the wild life of Florida, and the thunderstorms, but not the hurricanes or the humidity! Those I don’t miss at all, thank you very much!

Quilts

Yesterday was a tad cooler, and today is supposed to be in the 80s. I can deal with that. I can even enjoy that. There is a slight chance we’ll have water falling from the sky today, a larger chance it will happen tomorrow. Either way is fine with me.

For fun, I came up with a writer’s prompt, which I sent to some of my writerly friends, and then wrote my own story. Perhaps you’d like to write your story (no need to share unless you really want to;-). The prompt: The cats are always barfing up hairballs and other weird things, so when I saw…. This is the first sentence of your story, so when you finish the sentence, finish the story. The important thing is: have phun!

Yesterday’s Gratefuls:

1. My sister of choice, Nancy—and the unexpected “Christmas” package I received in the mail from her! Christmas in August is better than Christmas in July. Honest. Trust me.
2. Duotrope.com—the best (at least that I’ve seen) search engine for markets for stories and poetry
3. Friends like Judy. She shared her apricot bounty, again.
4. Canned beans. Oh, how nice that I didn’t have to stand over a stove for hours cooking beans last night.
5. Plastic wrapped chicken in the grocery store. How delightful I can buy what I want, and not have to waste so much chicken.

Yesterday’s Wonderment:

The imagination of fabric artists who can design a print that fabric companies will buy and produce and then sell to people like me. The wonderful imagination of quilt designers who can design a quilt, make the quilt, and write instructions easy enough even I can follow to make a quilt.

My quilt: My Prince

Luke's Quilt - he picked out the fabrics, Grandma made the quilt