Sometimes reality is pure fantasy since perceiving reality can be assessed on an individual basis making it seem, to others who may not share you perception, as surreal.

According to Webster – Surreal is a mixture of fact and fantasy. That also can be assessed on an individual basis depending on who is doing the perceiving. I think that a lot of my days may need a reality check.

In the mid 1900 a new movement for art and literature sprouted called surrealism. According to Webster – Surrealism sought to release the creative potential of an unconscious mind.  WHAT?

I loved art growing up and decided to be an art major until I got to college and became somewhat disillusioned by the modern art era of the 70s. I could not get my head around it so leaned back on my second love of building things – still creating but with computers instead of paint. Now that I am grown and understand my thought process better, what I should have studied is photography. Photography is a medium of reality that makes sense to my individual self. You can photograph the beauty of the skies, the mountains, fields of flowers or tiny reflective dew drops on the grass.

There is also the photography of surrealism but as I stated earlier, my brain can’t really go there without turning my head to the side like a dog when  he is totally curious as to what he is seeing.

When we talk about things being surreal in life I think it leans more on not fully understanding what was trying to be conveyed. It doesn’t makes sense to an individual person so they perceive it to be surreal.

OK, enough confusion for me for one day. In Shelley’s 30 Day Challenge she asked us to describe what about blogging we felt was surreal. I guess I am too knew at to know as a lot of things are still missing. But I will get there.

A shout out to the Carolina’s who are still in the hot seat of Florence. Both of my son’s families are in mid and west NC, so I am staying in close contact with them.

An encouraging note to all of us who are doing this part time, or for fun or for connecting with those on the other side of these computers, enjoy yourselves. Enjoy the experience and the sights unseen by us but shared by those who share what they see. In this cyber age, we can use this as a means to communicate and create new friends.

Regardless of the college sport you may be interested in, it’s the mascot the ties the the team and the fans together. Today’s mascots have a much athletic ability as the cheerleaders and cheerleaders are in a league of their, literally. And all of it ties in to the college team experience and the excitement and energy of the game makes memories you will not forget.

The colleges also use the mascots as ways to make money by creating toys that gans by to show their support.

Mascots are also wonderful inspiration off of the field doing many humanitarian efforts at hospitals that help encourage healing of those who are sick. So today’s post has a different type of encouragement for all of us as we love our football, whether it be college or pro, remember not just the players but all those who help increase our enjoyment of watching the game.

I tie this post into Shelley’s Quaint Revival 30 Day Challenge, Debbie Smyth’s Traveling with Intent Six Word Saturday and Linda G Hills Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

Come join in on the fun and find ways to inspire others.

When we normally think of loneliness we combine it with sadness and the weight bearing of not being loved. But I think we are totally missing the opportunity to be loved. When we are at our lowest point is when God can show up and bring us an immeasurable amount of peace. John 14:27 tells us of Jesus’ comforting words with “Peace I leave with you; My Peace I give you.”

God shows us in many way His love for us and sometimes in the quiet of the moment. I like to use these quiet moments to focus on my situation, my path or my next step.  Am I following my true self; am I still following the path Christ has led me to; am I being a light to someone who may be drowning in the darkness of what loneliness can explode itself to be.

It is my firm opinion that life is teamwork with numerous relationships created between you and God, you and your family and you and your neighbors and those neighbors may be across the world. There are 12 listed fruits of the spirit but the 6 I listed are my favorites and using these gifts, we can pull the most lonely person out of the pit of hurtfulness and despair.

With all the GOODNESS that is gifted to us by our God, it is imperative we share it with the whole team(and that means everyone, everywhere) especially when one of us needs that moment of encouragement, love and joy. Maybe just a big ole hug.

Today’s post is part of Shelley’s Quaint Revival 30 Day Challenge for new bloggers to help us get better at this type of communication. Come join in on the fun.

 

 

What a fun things to do…blogging. It is such a fun way to say HI across the entire globe and when you add pictures you are showing your new friends what you see as beautiful, what scares you, what inspires you and so on. As the old saying goes “A picture is worth a thousand words” and its true. Pictures take you on a journey of imagination and tie the photographer and the viewer together in shared companionship. With this particular post I am going to share some of my liked photos(can’t really have a favorite) and some of the photographers. The photographers that are tied in on Word Press I will include their link. Go visit their work and enjoy the photography.

First lets think on the beauty of nature with majestic mountains, exquisite sunrise, or the delicateness of flowers. These were either mine or from friends on Facebook.

This challenge prompt was tied to Shelley’s Quaint Revival 30 Day Challenge and her photos for todays challenge were nice. Especially the cloud which I reposted.

Another cloud formation I though remarkable is actually a satellite photo from Dave in the path of Florence. For those in this storms path, know there are many praying for you and wish you to be safe.

Other pictures from here in Iowa from the combination of major summer storms combines with Gordon tropical depression on the rivers in the area. Water can be devastating and its power needs to be respected.

With storms in our life we need to understand we all have to learn to help each other and in todays post by Paul he showed the importance of protecting pets in the way of storms by reposting an article by Mary Jo DiLonardo.

On a lighter side of our animals are the fun pictures we post showing the love and silliness of our pets and what they do to make us smile. My dog Mimi is exceptionally…umm…gifted?

All in all pictures are a medium to our soul. They make us feel what the photographers are seeing and feeling which enhances our blogs and make people more interested in what we are trying to say.

I love the photos of Debbie Smyth of Traveling with Intent. Check out her blog as she has wonderful photographs from around the world.

Then closer to home there is Dan Antion of No Facilities as he shares his walks with Maddie and better yet on Thursdays does a challenge on Doors  and this amazing challenge is tied to Norm’s challenge. Challenges are fun as they help you to grow, laugh and see the world from a different angle. Plus there are many other bloggers who I enjoy that  have no listed.

So as you continue on with blogging add some soul so that we can tie closer to your heart. May you have a great weekend and those in the path of Florence I pray for your safety.

Tomorrow is a big day. I have hopeful anticipation…but what if the answer is no…oh the agony of it all. It has been 5 weeks since surgery on my foot to correct some bone alignment which was causing bunions. Simple surgery, only 1 1/2  hour but the balancing on 1 foot has gotten old real fast. Yes, I have this little cart but I am home bound due to stairs. The Dr. told me I would be able to drive since it was my left foot, yay, but that requires me being able to get to my car. Oh yea, steps again. That’s a negative ghost rider.

Have you ever tried balancing on 1 foot to get on and off the toilet. Its rather comical to watch the gyrations of spastic movement. Stitches came out last week and if x-rays are good then I can do some minimal “heel” walking.

I fuss at myself for being whinny as I watched a boxer on TV the other day walking and running around on his front legs with no issues whatsoever.  Due to a deformity at birth he lost both back legs. And loving people understood the importance of his life and gave him a home and a chance to be loved and to love. There is nothing like the love of a dog when  he has been given a second chance at life. They know it.

We get so use to being able to do the things we can do that we get frustrated when  we no longer can do our normal routine. It gives you a real wake-up call if you consider the permanently disabled. So I am hoping to learn from this experience and be more aware of those with physical issues for others and help in any way that I can.

As we go through this life remember what is really important – Love. And that can be done with no limbs at all if need be. Always remember how very blessed you are and what a wonderful blessing you can be to someone else. God always has a plan and He uses all of our situations to open our eyes to something he is trying to tell us. Let us not miss the lesson.

One Liner Wednesdays is Linda Hill’s fun way to share each other ideas. Come join the fun.

I got real tickled while reading Shelley’s post this morning on going gray. Its something we all do – some gracefully and some dragging and fighting it with all we have. When we are kids we say ‘when I grow up…’ but we never think about ‘when I get gray…’.  I started going heavy gray about 15 years ago and went straight to the salon to fix that problem. My profession at the time kind of looked at gray as being old and useless. They would never say that but even the plant manager(a man) kept his hair dyed. When I changed jobs(and moved across the country) that stigma was not really there plus we had to wear hair nets, white ones. So after a few months I realized fixing my hair was a waste being in a hair net all day and then also realized no one is even going to know what color my hair is so why color it. I fix it once a week for church and they don’t care what color it is or even if there is hair. Then I made peace with the hair length. All 60 years of my life I had short hair. My mom had short hair. Both of my sisters had short hair. Its what we did. Well, since I am noted as the rebel in  the family I have let it grow. Now its long, gray and unfixed. Having natural curl to it makes it an easy ponytail and I am done. Yay!I think society puts too much emphasis on being young and beautiful when being refined and graceful like a good wine is much more pleasing. You don’t have to put up with some of the nonsense of social queues. If people mess with you just say “move before I move you” then you can whop them with your cane. All joking aside, we should never begrudge the gift of white/silver lining on our heads that God gave us to show others our wisdom of life and the peace it can offer.

I had real misgiving when I retired in February. I was not ready to retire but was being forced out by new management. I was not sure if financially I was going to be OK(still not 100% at peace)but am trusting God for His guidance and the gift of peace He bestows upon us when we are willing to accept it.

So with all that said, I accept where I current am, in peace, and wish to those who read this to feel the peace of God as he showers His love upon you.

Shelley’s Quaint Revival challenge for new bloggers is a 30 days challenge with daily prompts to help newbies think and rethink about what they are doing in learning how to blog. I am appreciating it since I am way new(July 2018) and have already learned a few tricks. But I am fully aware that I don’t have enough knowledge about blogging to even fill a thimble.

For those not familiar with sewing – it the silver thingy – it’s very small. That’s how much I know about blogging but I like it better than some other communication/social platforms as you get to be more creative and see other people’s creative flares.

So I really don’t have a lots of surprises as this is still so knew but I will say that the genuineness of people is surprisingly refreshing. I have chatted with people in England, China, South Africa, Canada, India and of course the US since that is where I am if that seems to make a difference. I am not fully aware how all of this works. And then since I don’t know where some people are from, I could be talking to places I am not aware of. And that is fun as well as interesting.

I think another surprise is how similar some of us can be across the world. The love of flowers, photography, street art, music, Christ, and of course dogs. Dogs and Christ were my main filters but I have expanded with all of the art interest that I am seeing. And that is what I like best about this is that the sorting process is true to form. If you don’t want to see certain information or opinions, you don’t have to. With Facebook for instance with no filters except you friends and since this is an election year politics and opinions are rampant and angry – don’t want to see it thank you.

And I think another surprise for me (being a quieter person more than a in your face type person) is the positive feedback I have received about what I write. Now that I have retired I am trying to see if I am a good enough writer to actually publish the book I just finished. Yea, it a subject that’s out there in the imaginary fiction world but it’s still has a gentle theme. Would people really be interested in reading a book about dogs in heaven that talk like people. Told you it was out there. So we will see.

As we all continue on this journey of blogging, may we all see the genuine goodness that we all can be and create a positive force that stretches across the globe.

Have a great week.

What makes you smile? When you are in one of those downward moods , what do you think about to help you recover your sanity and smile again?   Maybe it is goofy pictures… or maybe its seasonal memories. Christmas is coming Yay! I love decorating for Christmas and it makes me happy and does make me smile but it is not the thing that bring life back to my face when I am down.

Things that bring in those kinds of smiles are usually emotional things or things we are passionate about.

Today’s post I hope brings a smile to everyone’s face as it is a collection of photos of my dogs and such that make me smile and laugh. It’s Monday and we all need a smile to start the week. Enjoy.

 

Below are various pictures of the King and Queen as they own their various thrones along with postings from Pinterest that especially made me laugh.

 

And some funny from other places.

Have a great week.

Today’s word challenge  from Shelley’s Quaint Revival is world with the thought would you be a world travel blogger. There are so many wonderful bloggers who have such great pictures and stories of there travels that it makes you want to go there and see it for yourself…maybe.

I thoroughly enjoy Debbie Smyth and her photos of Travel with Intent. I strongly suggest you follow her fabulous photos as she travels with pictures from seaside beauty, architectural wonders and magnificent stain glass windows

Then I have wonderful friends who traveled recently to Switzerland with beautiful pictures of the mountains as well as other wonderful things they saw.

Then there are pictures from a friends brother who has an exceptional eye of nature around the United States.

Then of course a few that I have taken with my phone. Not near as breath taking as those above but I did enjoy their beauty.

But with travel in mind, I think I want to see more of the US before I think of travel abroad. I thoroughly enjoy the pictures others share, the books I read of exciting places but I think I enjoy being home more.

I love seeing God’s hand in nature from the mountain views to the tiniest flower opening its petals to the sun.  I have always wanted to go to the Black Hills but they were just to far from where I lived in Georgia/Alabama. Now for 6 years I have been in Iowa – not that far anymore and still have not gone. Guess the traveling gene is just not in me.

But to all of those who love to go, please continue to share your fabulous pictures. They are much enjoyed.

We like to think we are in charge, that we know how to handle adversity, that we can control things around us but in reality we are at natures mercy. If the sky is blue, sun shining then if we can we are out in it. Regardless of the temperatures. If the ground is covered in snow then we may be skiing or building a snowman. If is hot and we are near water we are splashing in it or at least have our toes in the sand.

But when Mother Nature rears her ugly side it can be fearful. And since I live in the US, I can only speak for things I see here but I am sure similar situations happen across the world. Here in the US, natural types of disasters are divided by location and land type or weather probabilities. For instance, your coastal regions are susceptible to hurricanes. The Midwest, due the airflow combinations from the gulf combined with air from the Rockies, has strong possibilities for tornadoes and the far west with strong winds and arid conditions make an easy target for wild fires. Then you have the Ring of Fire as the continental plates bang against each the creating earthquakes and volcanoes.

This past week brought two such disasters right to some of our back doors making us fearful realizing the power of out of controlled nature and showing off who really is the boss.

In Paul Handover, Learning from Dogs, post of Too Close to Home, it shows just how fast and scary a wildfire can takeover your home making you flee for your life. Fortunately for Paul and his family it was a near miss. Bit near misses are scary knowing that at any moment to have to be ready to run.

This week in the Midwest, all the storms that we have had have combined now with a tropical storm has caused our rivers to become scary monsters flooding our homes, businesses and making some people flee to higher ground.

Now the east coast is facing a possible hurricane that could swipe up the entire coast line from Georgia to Maine. Yesterday as I was watching the Weather Channel, there were 9 tropical events ranging from depressions to full blown hurricanes in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Nine, that is crazy. Being raised in south Georgia/north Florida, we learned that if the development of storms during the early part of the season for hurricanes is slow, then end of the season could be very rough with either many storms and single massive storms like Katrina. Nature calls the shots and brings us along for the ride, be it fun or scary. And all we can do is hope for the best helping each other as we go.

Shelley’s Quaint Revival  challenge for this month is improving you blogging skills  with the question of today’s word being boss and the thought being ‘who is boss of your blog’. As with mother nature above, is there really a single ‘boss’ that drives what we write. I don’t think so. Our thoughts and ideas come from life that happens around us. Are we the boss that puts those thoughts into word form, absolutely but I think we draw from the love, tragedy, inspiration and beauty that surrounds all of us. We all see a different side of nature and life, then when we share it with each other we come together with the passion of like mindedness into one accord. May we all come together to inspire, encourage, uplift, help rebuild, love, laugh and enjoy each other and what we do.

Have a great week.