Where Do You Want to Go?

 

“When I write something that really happened, people read it and say, ‘Sounds like bullshit.’When I pull something completely out of thin air, I hear, ‘Wow, that was so real.’”—Steven Pressfield.

 

 

 

Where does this leave us?

 

Write what’s real, or make it up?

 

But don’t lie and say it’s real if it’s not.

 

Pressfield’s point is, Write everything as though it is fiction, even if it’s true.

 

I’m trying to learn to write since, for some stupid reason, I feel compelled to do it.

 

I remember the day it began. Well, not the specific day, but the place. I had driven my two girls to school, a 45-minute drive from home. One daughter was in the first grade, the other in the third. Sometimes I didn’t want to drive right back home, and often I would stay away the entire day. It took 45 minutes to drive back home, do a little work, then drive 45 minutes back to pick them up. That’s when I started to write.

 

Bless their hearts, they gave me a profession. 

 

 As I sat on a hill above Fashion Valley in San Diego, California, having just ordered orange juice and coffee, I asked one of those pertinent life questions. I had graduated from college and had my children. Now they were in school. My question? What do I want to do with my life?  

 

“Well, I’d write if I had something to say.”

 

I wrote my first little children’s story that day. And I haven’t shut up since. I am not a verbose person, but I enjoy putting words on a page. 

 

Am I an illustrious writer? Nope. However, I have filled copious notebooks since. I didn’t know about blogging then—come to think of it, neither did anyone else. 

 

Some 40 years later, I had a book published. I remember reading that it takes 20 years to become a writer . I said I would do it, but I wanted a guarantee at the end of those years.

 

Life doesn’t come with guarantees, but I’ve had a damn good time with the process. This adventure has taken me to fascinating places. I studied and wrote about Cosmology—which is the origin of things. I told another writer what I was writing about, and he thought I said Cosmetology (About make-up and hair.) 

 

I studied metaphysics and came to some understanding about where I was regarding religion and such subjects. I wrote about Africa, and I made up stories. Then, somewhere in the midst of it all, I became involved with horses and self-published a book called, It’s Hard to Stay on A Horse While You’re Unconscious, that no one can manage to spit out the title. To my detriment, I was rebelling against the need for short titles. However, it was pertinent, and in Hawaii, Mrs. Chiropractor got it right off the bat. You can’t navigate life too well when you are unconscious. 

 

The unconscious part is both philosophical and literal. Sierra, my mustang, once knocked me in the nose, and I didn’t know what happened until I woke up on the ground. And there followed a week where I had racoon eyes.

 

I’m still trying to learn how to write. I still can’t keep my fingers on the correct keys, but so what. You plunge ahead, right?

 

So, Natalie Goldberg (Writing Down the Bones) was correct when she said, “Writing will take you where you want to go.”

For This I Am blogging--a P.S. to this weekly post--keep scrolling

To pass on information such as this in case you missed it.

 It came from a reader.

Thank you. Thank you.

 

Ivermection and Cancer

 

•       Ivermectin is already approved by the FDA as an anti-parasitic medicine and has helped save millions of lives from both parasitic and viral infections

 

• It has been prescribed nearly 4 BILLION times for humans since 1987

 

• It has demonstrated effectiveness in treating several different viruses including HIV, dengue, influenza, and Zika

 

• It has been listed as one of the World Health Organization’s Essential Medicines

 

• t is safer than aspirin and can be obtained in many countries without a prescription

 

• It is 86% effective for prevention and 72% effective for early treatment of C-19 according to real-time meta-analysis of 83 studies

 

• And it kills CANCER cells.

 

And when my daughter and her family caught Covid 19, I wanted to purchase Ivermectin, and already had a prescription.

 

The pharmacy refused to fill it.

 

You figure.

 https://templetonwellness.com/articles/covid-and-cancer-ivermectin-connection/

The Giving Tree

Pink dogwood tree outside my window.

 

I fell into a slump last week. You may have noticed that my last week’s blog, May 3, didn’t have much content. The girls, though--yep, they were girls about 30 years ago--singing  What a Wonderful World were exquisite. (Bette Midler, Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn). Maybe you missed it, I didn’t post it until Wednesday.  

 Why am I doing this? I asked myself.

 I’ve been blogging for nigh on how many years” Fifteen or so.

 And who in the heck needs another blog?

 People have their own research.

 However, do I need to express myself?

 Is that my creative outlet?

 Yep, and fifteen million others need to do that as well.

 And then I decided I was worthy of leaving a few footprints on the planet, however small, large, or muddy.

 

 This morning we gave our apple tree a proper burial.

 It split in half yesterday. It was an old tree leaning precariously over the neighbor’s yard. Then a great gust of wind gave it a shove, and it crashed smack dab on the neighbor’s lawn—a beautiful landing.

 The left portion lies parallel to the ground, then branches upward into the sky. We left it to see if it would survive. The tree was in bud, so it was pretty. What a way to go—in glory.

 I praised it for being a good tree, and husband dear dragged out the chain saw and cut it into pieces that Daughter Dear and I could load into the pickup. (How do people manage without a truck?) This morning, Husband Dear and I took it to be recycled, and I told it that, in the future, it would be someone’s vegetables.

 We left a couple of logs that could be yule logs if someone would haul them away.

 We never liked the apples that tree produced—sorry to say, but a nice man gathered them from the ground and took them to feed his pigs, who did like them, so again the tree contributed.

 We give our gift, right?

 I found how much some physical activity helped my mood. I’m sorry the tree gave so much to accomplish that, but going to the recycle place, meeting friendly people, happily unloading, was a shot I needed.

 Right now, I’m about to believe in spontaneous generation. Suddenly, from some unknown source, house flies appeared at the window of my Wayback office as though they were hatched there. I’ve killed a few dozen, but more magically appear. They look the same as the others. They fly the same and are a bit sluggish as the others. They must be different flies, for I have carcasses to prove it. Time to get the hand vac.

 My little dog likes to come here with me. I’m glad. I didn’t know if she would want to be out of the house, but having a heater under my desk has proven to be a happy place. Before I leave for my office, she dances, telling me it’s time to get to work.

 The sun is out. As I was shopping this morning, someone commented that we’ve had terrible weather. It’s been raining, I thought, but I didn't say "It's supposed to rain in the spring"

Much of the vegetation around our house had been here for years. The house, however, has been remodeled. And speaking of trees, there’s a very ancient pink dogwood outside my window that was cut down to bare branches when we bought the house, so we didn’t know what it was. It isn’t as abundant in flowers as some of the younger trees in the area, but it’s giving its gift too.

What Are We Doing?

You know what? We came here to have a grand vacation, but it doesn’t feel like going to Disneyland.

I hear the word STRESS all over the place.

Form this ancient person, listen to this: I never heard the word “stress” when I was growing up. And we lived through wars and depressions, political turmoil, prices up, prices down. I think the first time I heard the word stress, it referred to metal being stretched to the point of breaking. Is that what we’re feeling these days?

We laughed and yep, grumbled about world conditions, but there was a fun interspersed.

I want life to be fun again.

 

 If you are a writer you might find something of interest on my other blog:

https://www.bestdamnwritersblog.com/

 

I love this: To Celebrate Earth Day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHRGYLutYAY

 

Meryl Streep, Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, Olivia Newton John, and other women singing It’s a Wonderful World