Tag Archives: dailyprompt

Twice -Walked Tails

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Daily writing prompt
How often do you walk or run?
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I owe “my” walking regimen to the house quadrupeds, of which there are three.

The director’s cut version:

You can call it persistence, insistence, or pure consistency (who doesn’t love a routine?), but when the sun rises, so does the restlessness of the four-pawed roommates.

Quick background: our dogs have almost always been exclusively rescues. Currently, there is the patriarch and all-around Chief of Police, a foxhound/pibby/beagle mix with a taste of long-haired dachshunds and a nose for trouble. Then, there is the female – a mixture of shepherd/blackmouth cur and skittish horse – the most velcro (to my better half) dog known to man. Finally, there is the Pomski, technically a rescue because he wasn’t thriving with the other pack he had been homed with. His Pomeranian/Husky designer threads have certainly managed to shine since joining our local paw patrol.

And it’s Loki – the Pomski – who lives up to his name by being the first up and ready for a mile around the neighborhood every morning, while engaging in trickster-y hijinks. Pratchett (named for Sir Terry, of course) might as well be Vimes of the Watch for his intensity in investigating the mailboxes and stones around the yards, sending and receiving data and information with endless flow of pee-mails. Stormie is least willing to accompany the boys, unless her mother figure accompanies the group, which she does most times. Even so, she backs up her rumbles of suspicion with hackles of unexpected intimidation.

They have dubious pack manners when we encounter other sentient beings, ranging from trying to jump up for pats, to grumbling and rancorous lead tangling. They generally act as though the concept of walking on leashes was something I sprang on them that very morning. More than once, my watch has asked if I’m OK after my fall (I didn’t fall).

The radio edit:

All that to say that I manage at least a mile, usually two (weather – especially heat or rain – permitting) everyday. Given the predictable tomfoolery and shenanigans my three amigos get up to most days, it’s more like a full-body workout.

Cinematic

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Daily writing prompt
What are your top ten favorite movies?
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I like movies. No, no, no, don’t just nod your head. You need to understand, fully understand: I really, really like movies.

I always loved books, too, because of the stories they could tell. Movies, whether original stories or adaptations, brought another dimension to the tales that loosed my mind to accept and appreciate others’ interpretations.

Usually.

I’m sure I don’t need to go into the value of escapism in troubled times, or social commentary in the face of oppression. “Life is Beautiful”, “Slaughterhouse-Five”. and “Catch-22” artistically conveyed the social, political, and very human issues which affect us all at one point or another.

I must add, though, Bill Denborough’s English class comment to his snobbish professor and classmates: “Why can’t you guys just let a story be a story?” Stephen King’s protagonist clearly identified with criticisms received by a lot of books, movies, even music. Everything doesn’t have to be an indulgence in ennui and self-loathing, or effect a multi-layered diatribe on the ills of existence.

All of which is to say, my top 10 movies are a smorgasbord of pure escapist piddle and finely-layered, sometimes thought-provoking celluloid (or digital bytes). Bear in mind, these are the top 10, and the general order may vary, based on my mood of the day, the unseasonable weather, or the current political doomscape.

1) Bullet Train

2) The Thing

3) Jaws

4)The Great Race

5) Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning

6) Cabin in the Woods

7) Shaun of the Dead

8) Close Encounters of the Third Kind

9)I Love You, Man

10) Raiders of the Lost Ark

Phrases, Turned & Unturned

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Daily writing prompt
What do you enjoy most about writing?
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A well-turned phrase is like a well-tuned musical instrument. Like a painstakingly optimized piano, phrases carefully crafted stay with me indefinitely. Some are humorous, some are ominous, some are uplifting.

I find that falling into a phrase which resonates with myself and others is my favorite part of writing. I say “falling into” because sometimes it seems the idea I’m working to produce appears at my feet like a well broken-in pair of sneakers, comfortable and welcoming, ready to tread over new ground.

Let’s be honest with ourselves: we’ve read books, articles, blogs, all forms of the written word penned and gathered in the most stilted, awkward, off-putting phrases and sentences and paragraphs. I’m not even talking about “It was a dark and stormy night” level of hackery. While we’re at it, let’s remember that as far as imagery goes, that’s not approaching the least palatable.

When a writer pours time and effort and – come on, you know it’s true – love into their work, it engages the reader in ways that writing passionless copy never could.

Turning a phrase moves the story along as much as a MacGuffin because it can ping a part of the brain and releases that flow of participation that makes a reader an ACTIVE reader. And what slow-witted book troll prefers to wallow in sallow language, when there is an impetus derived from reading a piece that sends the enthusiast down the syntactical path to a rewarding conclusion?

Turning the phrase isn’t, by the way, about cleverness, although sagacity doesn’t hurt. At least in my view, the content of the work is tantamount to its linguistic frippery. Phrases which turn to move the machinery of the passage are the gears that drive it, and a little ingenuity never hurts to speed things along.

That’s enough of a reason for me to want to turn the page when I’m reading, and enough, I hope, to make my readers want to turn theirs, too.

Dragonflies, Damselflies, Hummingbirds, & Bumblebees

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Daily writing prompt
What do you love about where you live?
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There’s an edge-of-civilization feel to my spot in the cosmos. There’s a house, a nice one. with indoor plumbing (a must-have) and even a storm shelter. But just beyond the yard where the dogs have established their dominance, there is an area dominated by neither human nor human’s best friends. Coyotes, Bobcats, and the usual assortment of copperheads and rattlesnakes rule this open wilderness. More about this in a bit.

There’s a lantana plant outside a window on the southern side of our house. There are two honeysuckle plants overgrowing their trellises in a wild profusion of tangles and blooms. Between the Yaupon holly bushes are a variety of Ocotillo cacti, blooming in explosions of dark pink flowers at the end of their elongated stems.

In a constant whorl of yellow and orange and black are butterflies, Cloudless Sulphurs, Giant Swallowtails, Tawny Emperors, and Monarchs. They poke the blooms with their proboscis, holding on to the petals daintily with their legs, occasionally fluttering their wings to adjust their grip, then to move on to the next nectar pot.

Bumblebees – what a perfect description! – tumble and wobble between blooms while sourcing pollen by crawling deep within the blooms to find the anthers of the stamen. Their rear legs and bottoms protruding from the periphery of the petals wiggle with their efforts, a comical display that belies an intensely focused workday.

Meanwhile, hummingbirds buzz the honeysuckle and ocotillo flowers, pulling the sweet nectar for a refreshing drink while they – perhaps unbeknownst to them – perform the secret mission of pollination for the immobile botanicals.

Dragonflies and damselflies, in a prolific spectrum of color and markings, flit between the garden’s offerings, dipping for a quick drink as they light on the pond, a nanosecond in which to quench their thirst on a hot August day.

Cardinals, Swifts, Mockingbirds, and Crows, sometimes common Black Hawks swoop and dive around the yard and garden, too many really to focus on here.

There are others, to be sure. Red wasps, honeybees, yellow jackets, and the infrequent (thankfully) hornet, nature’s angry missiles, bouncing noisily off windows and sonically disturbing the air around them with their D-day buzzing.

Which brings us back to the Barrens, the place of mesquites and springs and cottonwoods beyond the verge of our yard. It’s not barren, really, we just call it that because it’s just unsubdued by encroaching human processes. So I include it in what I love about this sanctuary, because it IS wild, and because its residents sometimes visit. In our tamer parcel of the Milky Way, whether you’re an opossum or a darner, you’re always welcome to visit.

I just wish there were more Fireflies…

Goooooals!

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Daily writing prompt
How do you plan your goals?
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Goals are important. As unlikely as it may be that you would make it a goal to survive the night in a safe, warm bed at home. some mornings it still feels like an accomplishment.

Goals come in different flavors, as we all know. There are daily goals (clean house, or do laundry, or exercise an extra fifteen minutes). There are weekly goals, and monthly and yearly goals. We’ve had educational goals, career goals, life goals.

I’ve often found that when formulating a goal, writing it down with clarity and forethought solidifies the essence of the intent. That’s not to say that circumstances don’t change, or crises arise, or someone has forgotten that they promised to take a friend’s Meals on Wheels shift that conflicts with the goal. Just an example, by the way. Really, it’s a completely made-up hypothetical.

Anyway, the point is to not be afraid to edit the goal. Don’t set it aside. Don’t give up.

But don’t leave it on the back burner; I edit and replace my goals all the time. That 10 pounds I’m losing over the next 12 weeks? It’s become 5 pounds that I’ve gained in six weeks! Those writing prompts I was going to faithfully complete EVERY SINGLE DAY, are now being completed AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK!

Just remember, it’s like tennis: it’s all in the follow-through.

And the footwork.

Also, practice.

Keep it fresh: Edit, don’t forget it!

The Soil of Imagination

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Daily writing prompt
Scour the news for an entirely uninteresting story. Consider how it connects to your life. Write about that.
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“I’m with the banned.”

A recent Independent edition of On The Ground, “The Town Torn Apart by Books”, focused on one of my neighboring communities, Granbury, Tx, and the restrictive book bans in the Granbury ISD.

What occurred to me, as I was watching the eight-minute report, was that banning books is as much about avoiding ideas that don’t match a particular worldview as it is to try to extirpate community members who follow a specific lifestyle.

Ideas are dangerous, make no mistake. The genesis of heliocentric theory, generated by Copernicus, helped us develop the idea of a sun-centered system, eliminating the ego-driven Earth-centric universe ideas. The idea of a country, able to throw off the shackles of unreasonable tyranny and govern itself was revolutionary 225 years ago. The concept of an algorithm driving an individual’s reality was unheard of just 20 years ago.

But here we are.

Ray Bradbury said, “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”

“I believe that reading and writing are the most nourishing forms of meditation anyone has so far found. By reading the writings of the most interesting minds in history, we meditate with our own minds and theirs as well. This to me is a miracle.” Kurt Vonnegut understood the value of the banned book: his masterwork Slaughterhouse Five has been banned on at least 18 occasions.

One thing I learned from being a child: if you take something away from me, you create a driving need to reacquire it. Denial is a carrot on the stick.

One thing I learned from my dogs: if you take a toy or treat away and put it on a high shelf, the dog’s focus will never drift from it.

One thing I learned as a parent: children are drawn to whatever is forbidden.

Books won’t change children; parents’ actions change children. Ideas are like weeds: they take hold where no other plants flourish.



…a warm puppy.

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List 30 things that make you happy.

Bumblebees

Pumpkins growing out of last year’s jack-o’-lantern

Civil discourse

Butterflies

Senior dogs, junior dogs, rescued dogs

Toddlers in mid-discovery

My wife’s smiling eyes

Selflessness

Standing stones

Hedgehogs in the garden

Hiking the unbeaten path

A new book (by John Connolly)

Bicycling with my favorite Rush album in my airpods

Dragonflies

A baby’s belly laugh

Cool morning swim

Listening to Joe Walsh’s “Indian Summer” during the approach of a late July thunderstorm

Campfire ghost stories

An unexpected diner on a remote highway

A moonless night sky

The first breath of autumn, including chimney smoke, football cheers, and owl hoots

As a side: a pile of freshly raked fall leaves for jumping into

A new novel (by Stephen King)

Shopping for treasures in faraway places

Hummingbirds at honeysuckle

Golden hour afternoon haze

Moments of mindfulness

First morning coffee

The sound of moving waters

Gratitude

Baby steps

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Daily writing prompt
Describe one habit that brings you joy.
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Let’s be honest with ourselves: joy can be a little hard to find.

I’ll be honest with myself: other people who are truly joyful seem pretty hard to find, too. Maybe it’s my algorithm. Maybe it’s my circle of friends and acquaintances. Or, maybe, a little cynicism creeps in and discounts what others experience as joy.

The path to finding joy, I think, is to not overthink. This is unfortunate, because overthinking is my superpower.

Let me explain my thought process: take ten seconds – heck, take five – and do the simplest thing that crosses your path. Pet a dog. Wave at a baby in a stroller. Let that car you tied with arriving at the stop sign go first. Literally smell a flower (avoid the corpse flower, if in bloom). Make a rock totem outside a random office building.

Don’t think about it, simply follow your impulse to something that makes you smile, inwardly and outwardly.

The shortest pathway to joy is following baby steps.

Drivers’ Ed

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Daily writing prompt
What are you curious about?
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Someone made a decision some time ago to drop DE from the curriculum of most high schools. Checking traffic accident data, the increase in crashes and fatalities from crashes has risen dramatically over the past 10 years.

I’m curious about why the course was dropped in the first place. Was it insurability? Was it cost? Was it the lack of instructors? Is there a vast conspiracy to cull the herd? Isn’t the ability to safely operate a motor vehicle among other motor vehicles at least as important as the ability to climb a rope in the President’s fitness test?

Asking for future generations.