by Tish MacWebber | Nov 19, 2017 | Weekend Warrior
Here is another weekend, wrapping up. Not close to being finished what we are working on, but we are going to get up and go in a few minutes to keep getting the living room reorganized.
I am happy to report that I was busy this weekend, it was relatively quiet, and mostly at home, so I got the downtime I needed after the excitement earlier this week. I also did some writing, which I had not made enough time for, and I was stressing over that too.
Friday night I came home and decided to join in some writing sprints for NaNoWriMo. There is a time set and we all write on our own. When the time is up we share a bit and tell our word count totals. Between Friday and Saturday, I did four of these, and I got over 10,000 words written for the novel. Editing will be necessary later, but the point of Nano is to get the word count. I am finally moving in the right direction again.
That is my highest word count on any novel writing to date. I am so pleased that from here on out I am beating my own personal record with EVERY SINGLE WORD.
I have spent time shredding paper in the living room, to have less clutter to deal with as we reorganize the living room. We have been planning to do this for a while, and it is finally happening. There may be pics next weekend as it should be done by then.
Today I started with a movie and breakfast out after. I wasn’t impressed, so I am not going to write about the food. I enjoyed the movie. We went to see Justice League. It was better than the critics are leading people to believe. We all enjoyed it. They are making me a fan of Wonder Woman all over again. Aquaman was well, um, yeah. Nice.
There was a new Deadpool trailer before the movie, and in typical Deadpool style, it was totally hilarious and had not too much to show about the movie. If they can duplicate the success from the first one in the next one, I am going to be very happy. But don’t bring your kids. Deadpool movies are NOT for kids. I am a fan, however, and I plan to go.
As I still have a list of things to do here this weekend, I am going to get back to it. I am feeling like we made enough progress that I want to keep the momentum going.
What did you do this weekend?
#WeekendWarrior
by Tish MacWebber | Nov 7, 2017 | Weekend Warrior
Another late entry. Good news is that I think things are going to slow down for a week or two. I sure hope so. I am trying to write a book this month, and I am falling behind.
Not to fear, tomorrow is a new day, and I will start making up time and words when I have less going on in my social life. Busy, busy, busy. I never had such a busy year as I have this past year. I am not sure of the exact date, but my original blogging journey started in November 2016. I am working on the website, writing a novel this month, writing down thoughts and ideas for my fantasy trilogy. Thinking about all of that makes my head spin.
I had things that needed my attention this past weekend. I was doing a little extra time at work late last week. Then I started my weekend at Houlie’s with a friend. He was helping me out with some rides, and I thought he deserved a thank you meal. We enjoyed the food. It is always good there. There has been a long stretch of road construction in the area, and it had been a while since I had my favourite Mozza sticks. They did not disappoint.
My friend and I ran errands, and then he left me for a viewing of the Silver Wave Film Festival 2017. I needed to be at the Midnight Madness showing of killer ducks and zombie movies. There were two short films and a 78 minute long movie. Short film 1 was called Duck Duck Noose. It was hilarious. I laughed all the way through it, with the rest of the audience. The title was a dead give away. Killer ducks indeed.
The second short film was described as a trailer. It was called Turned. It was a serious fictional documentary zombie movie trailer. It was filmed in Cape Breton (Horray for Cape Breton!) and it started with someone waking up after being bitten by a zombie. It followed her journey home, and her change from being a human to a zombie. It tackled some deep concepts in a few short minutes, and it was enjoyable to see a different perspective on the zombie apocalypse.
The headliner was Anonymous Zombie. It was filmed in New Brunswick, and my friend Kadi Oram was the Special/Visual Makeup Artist for the movie. I wanted to go to the movie premiere to support her and to see the movie. It was great. It was funny, gory, and almost spooky at times. There was a lot of action and clever plot twists from the start to the end. I was glad I made the effort to go and see it. It is the first time I was at the festival or any official movie premiere. I had not been home after work before going, so I was in my casual Friday work clothes. Kadi looked fantastic! I didn’t have a lot of time to chat with her, but I made sure that I told her husband that I enjoyed the movie. I sat right in front of the director. I wondered if he thought that I laughed in a few parts that weren’t supposed to be funny, or not. I have a wacky sense of humour, and I laughed lots while watching the movie. It was meant to be funny, so it wasn’t all serious, but sometimes I felt like I was the only one laughing at certain parts.
Onward to Saturday. I volunteered at the Pet Expo with Boston Terrier Rescue Canada. I was a part of a team, so my presence was only required for 3 hours. A piece of cake. or in this case, a cookie by donation. 🙂 They had the giant chocolate chip and Skor bits cookies again. Fantastic investment of $2.00, and it goes to the rescue.
They were huge and delicious. I went back for more on Sunday, and they were sold out!
I was glad to help, and knowing that it was just a few hours made it easy to pitch in and do my part. Here is the booth. They have a lot of variety!
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BigMac Salad for Lunch
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Cheeseburger Pie
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Cheeseburger Pie
I then went home, after the volunteering shift was over, and I was hungry. So Roy and I went to Houlie’s. (twice for me on the weekend) We got wings and nachos. I didn’t forget the Mozza sticks, I never miss them. It was good, and Roy decided that he likes the breaded wings better. We got 2 flavours, and one breaded, and one not. Now we know. The trick will be to remember.
We met up with the friend from earlier in the story to go and see Thor Ragnarok. If you like this type of movie, it will be a great choice. Stan Lee had a speaking part, and was unexpected character-wise, even though he is expected to appear in all of his movies. There was a new character that was a lot of fun, too. No spoilers here, just go see it. You will be glad that you did.
Sunday had a few errands and an online write in. I did some NaNoWriMo writing in the write-in. It was a way to get back on track. I am falling behind again, but the night is young. I am going to sign off for now. I am sorry it was a little late this week, but that is a wrap. What did you do this weekend?
#WeekendWarrior
by Tish MacWebber | Oct 10, 2017 | Treasure Seeker Tuesdays
The unedited Tuesday Treasure Seeker photo, which I took myself, at King’s Landing.
Welcome to the first “Official” Treasure Seeker Tuesday! I wrote it that way because there was a preview story a few weeks back when I was getting ready to launch this new category. While I am still holding the reins and the keyboard, I thought it would be great to write about the Treasure Seekers (YOU!) and me. We can start having adventures together while I am writing my books and working on this blog.
The first one involved thinking up a picture for this weekly category. I am aiming to make it a weekly story, like Trust Your Gut Thursday, and Weekend Warrior. I am hoping that it doesn’t become too much for me. Time will tell, as I am managing the blog commitments as best as I can so far, and the previous categories are still progressing. If I need to scale it back, it may be twice a month instead of every week, but we will see how it goes.
The struggle for finding the right picture for this category began with an online search for treasure, gems, treasure chest, maps, amongst other various thoughts and combinations. While I was looking through many pictures and not finding what I wanted, I remembered that I had the picture I shared above. It was taken at Kings Landing Historical Settlement a few years ago when I went for my first time. It is quite the experience, to walk around, and see the farms and the people in costume playing the roles of people from our distant past. We enjoyed our tour of some of the village and had a meal at The King’s Head Inn Restaurant before heading home. It was the first time I tried Naughtea, which is a local honey mead made with green tea from Pollen Angels. It is lovely.
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Pollen Angels Naughtea
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The King’s Head Inn Restaurant
Here are a few pics of my visit that day.
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Welcome sign
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A Mill by a pond.
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The pond in the other direction.
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Horses in the field behind a working water pump and log trough.
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A working water pump and log trough.
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Herb Garden
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A view of a lake.
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Historical General Store
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A Local horse and wagon for when you need a break from walking.
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Another horse picture. I like horses.
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I have used this pic in my Lyrics pages. Have you recognized it?
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Out for a walk
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Look at all the pretty roses!
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A Lady’s Flower Garden
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This garden has 4 flower beds, the left two are a mirror image of the right two. The path for my main pic is in the background here.
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There were two “secret garden” hedge tunnels in this garden.
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The original pic for this project.
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Some of the flowers.
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A close up of two of the four flowerbeds. With the path pic in the background.
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It’s putple. It’s a flower. Pretty!
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A table set for dinner.
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I was tempted to work on these projects.
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A well made bed.
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That wallpaper needed to be in a picture. The bureau, mirror and bonnet just happened to be there too.
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A quilt on a frame ready for a group to work on it.
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I liked the way the curtain was held in place.
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A fancy bed
Now you can see where the inspiration for this picture came from. I think that Kings Landing Historical Settlement is a gem, waiting for people to visit and take in the experience. Now on to the “official” Treasure Seeker Tuesday business at hand.
I wanted to make a picture that invited the Treasure Seeker inside, to invite us to look for what lies beyond what is apparent in the picture. This group and category are meant to be about more than meets the eye. Not just the flash of the bling, but also about what really matters to us as a Tribe. So when it came down to deciding on this, I reached out to friends and the “Official” Treasure Seekers Group on social media.
I am learning so much as I work on this blog. I am not the type of creative that needs courses to prove what I can do. I jump in, and likely because of the way I approach my projects, I feel like yelling and pulling out my hair sometimes, but I figure things out. Usually the hard way, first. I am neither a photographer nor an editor, but I do the best I can. Sometimes, people guide me to where I need to find the tools I need to accomplish what I need to do. Other times, people pitch in and lend a helping hand.
That is what is so great about my whole blogging adventure. I have friends that I know personally, and friends from around the world that are willing to help me out when I am stuck on something. It humbles me when people open their hearts and minds to help me figure things out. It also amazes me when a friend has the very answer I am seeking. I treasure you all. (See what I did there? I couldn’t help myself)!
There were a lot of attempts by myself to get this done. I am now going to insert a slideshow of my own photo editing journey, then I will share the work of two friends that pitched in to help, crediting their work and sharing their online links for you to check out what else they are working on.
Here is my progression:
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Great Vibes Font in Purple
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Great Vibes Font in pink
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Great Vibes Font in yellow
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Great Vibes Fontin peach
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Lobster Two Font in Purple
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Great Vibes Font in purple, larger font
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Great Vibes Font, in brown, large.r font
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Great Vibes Font in brown
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Great Vibes Font in purple with a misty effect
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Lobster Two Font Yellow
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Lobster Two Font Bold, Italics
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Lobster Two Font in purple Italics
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Lobster Two Font in Brown Italics
They are made with two different fonts. I thought Great Vibes was a really pretty font. I chose the other font, Lobster Two because it was a bolder font. The Great Vibes was hard to read for some people, and the Lobster Two seemed to be easier for people to see on this pic. I was then offered help.
Kirsty Allen, who hosted my first guest blog story, offered to give it a whirl. You can find my introduction to that guest blog story here. There is a link to the guest blog story at the end of my introduction story. Kirsty is an author also. You can find her blog, The Ramblings of a Madwoman with her writing and tips for other writers in this link.
Kirsty submitted two edited pictures for my review.
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Kirsty Allen 1
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Kirsty Allen 2
She used a different font, similar to the pretty Great Vibes I was working with, but it was even more elegant. She also shared that she used, “…the wonders of Photoshop. Basically, I applied a filter in the second image, increased the contrast, and played around with the colour balance of the leaves to give them more of a blue saturation.” I don’t understand what most of those terms mean, but I can see what they look like after she applied them.
Another friend, a former roommate Noa Price, also wanted to help. She is living abroad now, and we were friends before and after we were roommates. If she lived closer, I might be seeking her help out more often. She is an artist, so she has a different background altogether. She has studied her art in both New Brunswick, Canada, and also in Australia. Her photo editing programs include adobe photoshop, but she shared that she prefers to use inkscape for illustrator and gimp for photoshop. After a few trial runs, she sent her edited pictures for me to review.
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Noa Price 1
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Treasure Seeker Tuesday: Photo by Tish MacWebber; Photo Edited by Noa Price
Noa did some editing work on the original picture to fill in the hedge adjusted the colouring of it. In her words, “I changed it a bit leaving some of the path so people would “come in” and also made 70% opacity just behind the hedge so any text would be easily readable without losing the bush appearance. ” You can see other examples of my friend Noa’s work at Noa Price’s Designs website.
After I carefully reviewed all of my options and considered the comments from social media gathered after this project, I made a final decision. It was certainly a process, and as you can see, I am putting a lot of thought and effort into this picture, to get the correct one for this purpose.
This is the one I chose:
Noa Price 2
While I was working on this project, I played with different fonts. Lobster Two seemed to be one I kept going back to. Up to this point on my blog, I have used the font, Lora, with a tiny sprinkle of the font, Cabin Sketch. I realized that Lobster Two really resembles my own personal handwriting style while working on this project, and I also really LOVE eating lobster. It is my absolute favourite food on the planet, closely followed by chocolate and pizza. So for me to see all of these things lining up, I have to go with my gut on this, and it is telling me that this will be the Treasure Seeker Tuesday picture moving forward. Also, as I am building a new website, I think it is fair to expect a major font change on the new website. At least until I find a chocolate or pizza font to mix in there. I hope that you agree with this picture as being the overall winner, and I look forward to writing in this category in the future.
If there are any topics or ideas that you would like to explore in a future Treasure Seeker Tuesday, please send me an e-mail or leave a comment below. I can’t wait to see what we can discover together.
by Tish MacWebber | Oct 8, 2017 | Weekend Warrior
Happy Thanksgiving from Canada! I am indeed going to stuff myself full to the brim of turkey dinner at a friend’s house today. I am thankful that I don’t have to cook a turkey this weekend, as it is still warmer than seasonal temperatures here and I would absolutely melt. I did see a turkey roasting pot at Walmart yesterday that looks like a crock pot for turkeys and claims to be self-basting while the turkey cooks. If that works it might be something that goes on my wish list. If you have tried this out, let me know if you like it.
I am cleaning this week. I realized that I need to get into the cleaning again, before November. I have been inspired to participate in NaNoWriMo after I decided not to do it this year. I am going to write about cats and Susan, and the theme is superpowers, not superheroes like I thought, but I will make it work. I have asked friends to send me cat stories for research. I have an idea of what I want to write, and how, but was worried that I may not have enough information to write it all from the original idea. I will use my own superpowers to win this year, I know it!
I have yet to complete the website setup. I am working on it this month, but I now have more going on than I did before. Since I started this blog in November last year, it seems fitting to make my move a year later. I wanted to test my writing abilities before making this leap. I think I can safely assume that it is not a passing fancy and that I am totally committed to keeping it going. I am about to add my new third category this week, and I am really excited about it. It is also going to have a few surprises, in terms of nerdy author geeky things.
Along with working on concepts and ideas for my NaNoWriMo novel, I have taken up the fantasy trilogy project. I do not want to fall too far behind on it and am working on it every few days. I am happy to say that a challenge I am in (are you surprised that I started another one? No? I am in two right now, with one to catch up on when I finish these two) has fired up my writing for the book one of the trilogy. I started a little bit of free writing and got some plot and character ideas going. That was all I needed to pick it up again. Who knew? I didn’t. I told you that I even surprise myself sometimes.
Weekends are supposed to be fun filled. It was. I also went to the Northside Market on Saturday, and am now as I write re-organizing furniture in my mind in the Master Bedroom/Craft Room. I have made some progress, and want to finish it tomorrow so that I can move more craft supplies back out of the living room and into the neatly organized space in my Master Bedroom. I hope to get this done because I am on a deadline. I have to push through this week and work at work and clean at home so that I can really focus on the writing. What do I need to finish before then? After the cleaning is done, then I move on to website building, including an online store (exciting and terrifying at the same time) and moving the Blog to the website. If I am going to get this all done before November, I need to be focused on progress and getting things finished.
By the end of the week, on Friday, I want to kick back and relax after a week of doing double duty. Then I can implement the maintenance cleaning schedule and have a monthly and weekly chore list that keeps things from reversing into chaos again. I know that chaos is a true sign of a creative mind and that it is not always a bad thing, but I am trying to change my ways for the better, and fight my way to be able to feel like I can spend more time creating and be happy about it. Not feeling guilty and not doing anything because what I want to do can’t be done until I do what I need to do, which I don’t want to do, and then I fall into the nasty non-productive loop of living in chaos and getting nothing done at all. I have a plan for tomorrow, and I have to set myself up to succeed before I give up on it all. I know what I have to do, and it is up to me to do it.
What did you do this weekend?
by Tish MacWebber | Oct 7, 2017 | Guest Blogging
When someone comes to visit me, I will offer them a cup of tea or coffee, as a host. I chose this picture in particular because it has vibrant colours.
As a Blogger, you generally love to read and write. A part of the craft is to continually learn and challenge yourself to become a better author. In doing so, one often subscribes and follows numerous blogs within the community.
I have been fortunate enough to start on this path with a lot of help and guidance from my friends, and peers. I have enrolled in free online workshops and found some that I think are worth saving up to participate in. Through one of these challenges, I launched a free Guest Blogging invitation to the world.
While I haven’t been overwhelmed by people looking to share in this opportunity with me, a few people have approached me, and today I have the pleasure of sharing a story that another blogger wrote. I do think as we are reading each other’s words and having online conversations about each other’s work, that we are well on the way to becoming friends.
I am a member of several different writing and blogging groups and communities online. I am loving the support that I get from each one, and how they are all unique in their own ways. I met my next Guest Blog Writer in one of these groups.
Syl DiNada was interested in Guest Blogging when I put out the invitation. We started chatting, and Syl was more interested in sharing than hosting. As it is an open invitation, I decided that I would see what came out of our discussions, and reading my new friend’s blog.
Let me tell you, the artwork that is prominently featured in Syl DiNada’s Blog is phenomenal. I can visit just to look at the pictures. Truly inspirational and magnificent. Well worth checking out. The writing, well, we definitely have different outlooks on life, and that is absolutely wonderful. I love reading different things, and Syl puts a lot of thought behind the artwork, and consequently the writing for the blog. I rather enjoy the visits, you should take a peek, and find something to read there.
Here is the Guest Blog share from Syl DiNada.
Wednesday, 25 January 2017
Sharing the Self
Z: “Syl, I like your avatar but seriously, what do you look like? Why are you standing behind a mask and yet trying to convey true words?”
Y: “Z, I would just like to say we live in a world where we sometimes put too much importance on how others look. An Avatar can be a way of allowing a much larger audience to pay attention and really hear what is being said.
Personally, not for myself, as I honestly don’t care how someone looks, but I
care what is in their heart and how they convey that.”
Syl: Yes, Y has it pretty much. Although I really do make the majority of my
posts with just me in mind.
But really, at the time I signed up for FaceBook I did not own any pictures of
myself. I don’t use a phone either and had no digital camera. I just don’t
have much interest in personal pics, never have. (Yes, I know it’s hard to
believe in this day and age, but some of us have never taken a selfie.) So I
used this avatar pic of mine. And ofc…”There is More…”
Pictures of faces have a very particular effect on cognition. They instantly
convey an impression of someone. Pictures of faces are limited in what they
can convey, particularly when someone is outside of the typical cognition
pattern. I feel pretty confident that I am very much Not what a picture of my
face looks like.
I mean you will see a fairly regular face. But I think I can say without any ego
that I am not very regular at all. Not better or worse, just quite different. This
is something I know for sure from an objective standpoint.
So any picture I put up of me will actually be *Inaccurate.* It won’t, and can’t, tell the whole story. Lol, I struggle to tell my story when I make an effort to do so.
For instance, a friend whom I chat with regularly, asked and made some specific comments about how it all started for me. And well, they completely
miss-assumed how it all began. So I had to explain. Lol, a few hundred thousand words, or half a dozen books later, I am still not done telling that story.
Haha, nothing for me is simple anymore, and that was just a straight-up
chronological story, telling about my early days as a philosopher, as a boy.
(Yes, I was a philosopher as a boy.) So really, I can’t put up a picture, it
would be a falsehood.
And besides, I am not sure why folks assume some other profile pic means hiding, That avatar pic actually says a lot, but that is a whole other post by
itself. I would say my posts reveal more about me than most pages I have
seen.
I am sharing my very essence. That is about as intimate as one can go. To
share what one’s favorite colour and food is, means nothing at all really. In
order to truly know someone, we need to know what matters to them, what
is important, what resonates with their Inner Being, with their Core.
It is knowing what they *Aspire* to. Not even ambitions really tell us about
someone, those are typically relatively superficial, and often artificial. But
what someone’s Heart and Soul truly *Aspires* to, that is *them.* Knowing
someone, one could say, is getting to know their Soul and Heart, not their
temporary and arbitrary likes and dislikes. We have to go past the surface
superficialities to really get to know someone.
Besides, I don’t feel what I Share for the most part “belongs” to me.
Concepts, thoughts, ideas, Perspectives and all the More I Share, belong to
everyone. In this way I feel I am Sharing what is Us. I truly make every effort
to live in Attunement to everything around me, to everyone and everything in
my life. I try with everything I have to live in Attunement with the World and
the Universe. Perhaps I need a picture of a community, a large community,
that would be more accurate. <3 <3
***
And well, there is another reason also… I am way too handsome to post my
picture. I would get err….unwanted attention if I did. 😀 😀 😀
However, in amongst all the art in my posts, somewhere, there is a picture that does resemble me. <3
Syl DiNada is a Philosopher-Writer focusing on the Application of a comprehensive Practical-Personal-Philosophy.
Creator of: The Philosophy of Appropriateness and: An A+ Philosophy.
Thanks for letting me share your story from January, Syl DiNada. I look forward to reading more of your writing, and further conversations. If you are reading this and want to get in touch with me for Guest Blogging opportunities, here is the invitation.
