January 18: Writing Prompt #18-Free Association

Write down the first words that comes to mind when we say . . . home. . . soil. . . rain. Use those words in the title of your post.

     One of the first things I bought upon moving to the NW United States was a pair of good shoes for slogging around in the wet weather when visiting all the beautiful forest and mountains WA is well known for.  My husband and others I know from the NW wondered how I would do moving from a warm, tropical island to a state famous for its cloudy days, wet weather, and cooler temperatures. When first visiting my husband’s family in OR, I was so surprised at how much the temperature dropped in the July evenings and how cold it could feel in the early morning, then warm up to “just right” later in the day.  I was also surprised at how green everything was, even when visiting in February one year.   Despite living in nothing but humid, 85 degree weather year round for well over a decade, these seasonal changes did not bother me when I considered moving back to the U.S. In fact, now that I am here, I am (so far) really enjoying the fall, winter, and spring and welcoming the variety. All I experienced was summer for 17 years…believe it or not, it can get old after awhile. 

     I love to read Facebook posts of people wishing it was summer. Maybe I will get to that point after 17 years of seasons, including cold weather, but for now, I am finding joy and contentment in all the wonderful differences between a tropical lifestyle and a NW one.  Just like this morning when I opened up the sliding door onto my back patio just to feel the cold air and take in the atmosphere of the day. It was drizzling, and the rain mixed with the cold and the wetland behind our house brought in this fabulous earthy smell that I love. It’s a smell I never realized I missed, but if and when we ever leave the NW and move onto to adventures elsewhere, that smell will be one of the things I will remember most about what it was like to live here, just like I’ll never forget the balmy heat that wrapped itself around my face the day I stepped off the plane and into my life in the Marshall Islands. 

“But godliness with contentment is great gain.  For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.” 1 Timothy 6:6-7

January 17: Writing Prompt #17-In a Crisis

Honestly evaluate the way you respond to crisis situations. Are you happy with the way you react?

    Once again, the answer to this question would be one that has evolved over the years. When I was younger (say in my 20’s), I would say, “No, I am not happy with the way I react in a crisis situation,” but today, at almost 40 years old, I can say that for the most part, I am satisfied with the way I react in a crisis.

    For example, when my oldest son, Sweet Pea, was still a baby (around 9 months if I remember correctly), I was visiting my mom, and we went out to a buffet style pizza place called CeCe’s Pizza (haven’t been back since by the way), and Sweet Pea and I had a cream style pasta.  Not an hour after we arrived home, my mom was rocking Sweet Pea to sleep, and he began violently throwing up over her shoulder (and on her shoulders).  I was standing next to her, apparently in shock, because I just continued to stand there until mom asked me to get her something. So, I went to the bathroom and brought her a hand towel or wash cloth or some other such tiny, useless thing for cleaning up such a large and nasty mess. Finally, mom had to take over and help me (and herself unfortunately) as I simply could not pull myself together and figure it out.  Of course now it is a story we tell about with lots of grins and giggles, but I think back at how inexperienced I was with how to deal with a crisis at that time (even as small as that crisis was).  Now that I work full time with children and have raised my own two boys for 13+ years, taken lots of first aid, CPR, and other crisis management and safety type classes to prepare me for any possible situation (including how to react if an active shooter comes into a facility where I work), I feel much more comfortable in my efforts to react well in a crisis. 

    To illustrate, this week I called my youngest son, “Mr. Gant,” before he headed off to school as I do every morning around 8 am, but this time the phone was busy. It was busy for another 10 minutes or so, and when I finally reached him, he was all tears as he told me that he had cut his finger, it was bleeding a lot, and he didn’t know what to do.  Well, since I couldn’t see whether or not he was overreacting to the situation, I told him I would come home to check on him.  I asked him to sit or lie down on the couch, continue to hold something (I believe he had Kleenex over the cut) on it, and just relax, and I would call him from the car.  Once in the car, I called him (hands free, of course) and talked with him off and on through the entire 28 minute commute to the house. He remained calm the whole time, and once I arrived, I found everything was okay, so we fixed up the cut, and I talked to him about what to do next time and how to determine whether an injury was serious enough to require stiches or a call to 911, etc….

     When the boys were younger, I would not have been able to handle even a small crisis calmly like this, but experience, time, and hopefully a little more wisdom (and a lot of help from God) has taught me that getting worked up in a crisis only makes things harder on everyone and staying calm helps all involved.  There’s only so much I can do about these situations (going back to some of my earlier posts on letting go), so why make it worse.  I’m not saying I ALWAYS react calmly in a crisis, but for the most part, I am able to handle myself much better now a days than ever, and hopefully my reactions will only improve more over time.  I know it’s hard to get older (as evidenced by my own growing physical aches and pains), but there are definitely some pluses as well…crisis wisdom being one of them. J 

“Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding?” Job 12:12

January 16: Writing Prompt #16-Toot your Horn

Most of us are excellent at being self-deprecating, and are not so good at the opposite. Tell us your favorite thing about yourself.

     I believe my favorite (and at times in my life my least favorite) thing about myself is my inability to be anyone other than who I am. Let me give you an example: I’ve only worked at my job for about 10 months, but in that short time, my co-workers always  seem to know what’s going on with me.  Normally, I’m very happy and relaxed in the workplace, lots of smiling and laughing, but there are days when I have something else on my mind or I’m not feeling good.  Earlier this week my knee was bothering me as I overdid it the day before on my jog, so this gentleman I’ve only met one other time comes in to deliver some tables to us, and he is chatting with me in the same way he did when I first met him. Then, he says, “Are you okay today? You seem like something is wrong?”  Wow, I don’t really even know you! Just because I was a little quieter than usual does that means something is wrong….or was it the expression on my face…I’m not sure, but I think it’s a combination. Basically, I can’t hide who I am or what I am feeling. 

     I would not be a good con artist or actress, and as far as manipulation skills, I have none.  I can’t even tell a little white lie without a “tell.”  Not that I want to be able to do those things, but sometimes I don’t want to have to answer the question of what’s wrong, either.  So, my favorite thing about myself is my favorite thing about the friends and people I currently surround myself with…genuineness.  I’ve had enough experience in my life with manipulative people, with those who pretend to be one person, but actually turn out to be another (Jekyll and Hyde syndrome). There will always be people who chose to be someone else…who don’t know how to be comfortable with themselves or others, but I can choose who to spend my time with, and I can choose how to conduct myself, so I am proud that I am unable to be anyone other than me!  J   

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

January 15: Writing Prompt #15-Polite Company

“It’s never a good idea to discuss religion or politics with people you don’t really know.” Agree or disagree?

     It depends…I don’t think it’s necessarily a good idea to discuss religion or politics with people you do know much less those you don’t know. It all depends on how emotionally attached you are to the topics and whether or not you can listen without judgment, even when you strongly disagree.  I’m writing this blog post in America, and to me, that means I’m writing in the land where I can say what I want without fear of retaliation or judgment  and know that there are others in this country who agree with me and others who do not, and that’s okay.  How boring would the world be if we were all exactly the same and thought just alike about everything?

     My dad loves to play devil’s advocate with any and every situation presented to him (for debate or not), and he’s very good at seeing the other side, even when it’s not something he personally believes in himself.  He taught me how to argue my point (even if I am wrong) and how to debate the other side of things, and that was very frustrating when I was little because I didn’t understand. I just argued with him, and he argued back, and I didn’t see it as a learning experience, but it was.  I allowed myself to become very emotional about anything and everything that he said to me, and that was not the intention.  If I was still that little girl, I would agree wholeheartedly that it’s not a good idea to discuss religion and politics with someone you don’t know (or even someone you do), but NOW, I would say it’s not a problem to discuss (up to a point) religion or politics with someone I don’t know (or even do) because I am not in a place of being so emotionally attached to all of it. I can state my opinion and recognize that not everyone is going to agree…there’s always going to be another side, and that’s okay. It’s not my job to try and change their minds, only to allow them to express themselves and look for the positives and focus on discovering what it is I love about a person even though we are different.  I don’t always get that same respect in return, but I refuse to give anything less.  Love covers over all of it, and it’s all that really matters in the end….

“If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13

January 14: Writing Prompt #14-Ripped from the Headlines

Head to your favorite online news source. Pick an article with a headline that grabs you. Now, write a short story based on the article.

     I knew it was going to happen…that I would come to a writing prompt that I didn’t connect with or felt uninspired to complete.   This is it…at least the first one. I’m sure there will be others with 365 days of prompts to write through.  Being that I have lived overseas with limited technology the last 17 years, I do not yet have a favorite online news source. I’m still getting used to how to use my phone and the idea that the news can be found online instead of through the newspaper or TV.  I get up at 4 a.m. every day in order to be to work before 6, and I still turn on the local news channel on TV in order to check out the weather and traffic and any other big news. I will read news articles friends post on Facebook sometimes, but other than that, I don’t go to the computer to get news. Maybe next year this prompt will be more relevant to my life as I get used to using wi-fi and the luxuries of technology at home. 

    Anyway, I thought this prompt might be the perfect opportunity to poll my blog and Facebook friends for your favorite online news source and an article that particularly moved you lately.  I would LOVE to hear from you. What news source do you go to online and if you were going to write about one of the stories you’ve read lately, what would it be?