This is one day that needs to be taken off the calendar.
The problem is that too many people speak, telling their side of their story, but no one listens. Thus, we have wars between nations, wars on the streets of our neighborhoods, schools, shopping centers, theaters, football fields, marathons, you name it, cause we feel we have a right to be heard. But who decides what is truth? I don’t know of any human being that can do that. Instead, maybe we need a day to be silent, a day to think about what’s coming out of our mouths, a time to remember that the words we speak shape our lives and affect the lives of others around us.
Therefore, I’m all for getting rid of National Be Heard Day. We don’t need it. Let us replace it with a NATIONAL LISTENING DAY where we listen to our sisters or brothers struggling to build a better life for their families, to the women working at the cash registers and barely making enough to support their families.
We need to listen to five, six, seven and eight-year-old kids working in factories and will never have the opportunity to know what real childhood is like; listen to those kids who are recruited for wars at an early age and learn how to kill without learning that life is precious and listen to those children that are malnourished because of lack of food.
Photos courtesy of Shutterstock
When we listen to the world’s heartbeats, our hearts will erupt into a change that brings a different kind of action, and the world will be a better place, and we won’t need to be heard.
That is enough for today. I need to move on. My two projects are calling me. I need to finish my reread, do some shopping, and relax. The European League is playing today. A pic of my palm tree with a new tiny leaf is below to make you smile. The leaf has yet to open, but I’ll let you know when it does.
Take time today to listen to the heartbeats of the world.
HAPPY NATIONAL OREO COOKIE DAY! DAY 6, MARCH 6, 2024
The Oreo cookie is the best-known American cookie. As a child, my sisters and brother loved to eat them. I googled Oreos to find out how significant their influence is on the American public and found it is enormous. I just discovered that nine out of ten households buy Oreos and that 7.5 billion Oreos are sold yearly. Nabisco created Oreos; as of 2015, 450 billion Oreos had been sold. So, it is America’s best-selling cookie. Also, its official National Eat An Oreo Day is held every year on June 19.
You’re probably thinking, we don’t have Oreos here in Europe. That is an American tradition.
Well, I don’t mean to disappoint you, but we have something similar to Oreos, but they aren’t called Oreos.
Ours are called Cookeo. Cookeo is a Vegan product produced in Germany, which is super for flexitarians like me. So, treat yourself today, have a warm cup of milk, and eat three or four Oreos.
Now on to work. I have lots to do, but I wanted to mention my fireplace again because I told you I wanted to go outside and bring in some wood yesterday. Yesterday evening was the Champions League game between Bayern München and Lazio Rome. Bayern had to win to go to the quarterfinals. I know you’re wondering what this has to do with my fireplace. Hold on, I’ll get to the point. 😇 I wanted to sit by the fire as I looked at the game, and I did. So, here is a picture of my living room with the fireplace lit.
Soccer is one of those things that gives me joy.🤩
I won’t tell you who won the game, but it was a great game. A few minutes before midnight, I turned in to get some zzzzzzz😴.
Have a great day, People. I have IWSG Day today, and I’m finishing up the first reading of my novella.
DAY 5, MARCH 5, 2024, HAPPY NATIONAL CHEESE DOODLE DAY!
Good Morning!
I don’t know what cheese doodles are, but I like to eat cheese, especially European cheeses from France, the Netherlands, Italy, and Germany. They are the best I have ever eaten, so I hope Cheese doodles are a food item. As a child, one of my favorite cheese snacks was cheese crackers from Cheez-It. I ate many little boxes of them, especially when I was at the university. Sometimes, they were my breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
That hunger for them continued until I became an expat in Germany. I soon discovered that they did not have cheese crackers, and I broadened my taste by switching over to the different types of cheeses offered in Europe, which was even healthier.
Cheddar CheeseGorgonzola
However, whenever I visit my family in the USA, I slip back into an old desire hidden within me. I go out and buy a box of cheese crackers. They have become precious to me because I don’t eat them daily. They are a unique delicatessen that I delight in.
Now, I must work. We have a cloudy day here, and I want to bring in some wood for my fireplace before it starts raining and read one more chapter of the novella I am writing.
Happy National Grammar Day, National Salt Awareness Day, and World Obesity Day
DAY 4, MARCH 4, 2024
Good Morning To All! First, here’s something to laugh about.😄 The day before yesterday, I had beautiful sunshine. Yesterday too. My co-host of the RNH Show (Raters Not Haters Show) has been visiting my blog posts during the challenge, and I wrote about how sunny the day had been. He commented on my blog post that I must have stolen his sunshine because he had nothing but clouds. I’m laughing because I try to steal all the sunshine I can get. 😂
So, now to my article for today.
I am enjoying the second year of the RRBC Challenge because they have intermingled it with prompts we can write on. Today, I am very interested in the three topics above because I had to incorporate them into my lifestyle.
As a writer, I must use good Grammar in my writing and speaking. The first thing people look at when reading a book is Grammar; believe me, even the poorest person in Grammar can tell when you aren’t grammatically correct. Now that is only my opinion.
I have to admit that my weakness in writing is my Grammar. Therefore, I don’t let any story, fiction or non-fiction, except for this challenge, go out of my office without sending it to my editor. I am picky about who edits my work. I don’t choose a friend or family member. I don’t like having someone who has a problem with being honest with me about my work. I want to hear where the flaws are, and if you can’t tell me that, then you won’t be my editor. Sure, somebody can hurt my feelings, and yes, sometimes I don’t accept the critique quickly, but that is okay because my editor is editing according to the highest quality standards she has. So, what do I do when sentences or paragraphs I have fallen in love with are corrected? Well, I set the story aside and think about it. I read my editor’s point of view over the suggestion I’m mumbling over, or I do a short Zoom meeting with her, and the majority of the time, I come out agreeing with her because I know she has my best interests at heart and she knows what she’s doing. Therefore, when it comes to Grammar, I am thankful that I don’t use AI to edit my stories; I use the flesh and blood human being type who has gained years of experience and doesn’t mind passing it along. Hurrah for human Grammar experts!
Overeating salt is another thing I didn’t take seriously until I arrived in Europe. I noticed many cooks seasoned their food with different herbs and spices and not much salt. I was surprised. The food was delicious but didn’t have a salty taste. Then I came across a non-fiction novel that showed that people who eat salty meals have a high rate of having strokes. That shocked me because I always added extra salt to my food. I changed my eating habits immediately. I no longer ran out to get a hamburger or french fries from a fast food store. I thought twice about buying frozen dinners because I began reading the back of the packages and was astounded at how much sodium is in a frozen meal or a hamburger. Knowing these things brought about a radical change in my eating habits, and I also started cooking. Now I cook fresh food almost every day, and my weight dropped. I still have my curvy hips 🙂 I still have weight, but it is a weight I can live with, and I feel good.
A Fresh German soup with green beans, potatoes, carrots, onions, and sausage
Preparing String Beans the French Way
This brings me to World Obesity Day. I enjoy eating when I cook. Cooking and seasoning my food with herbs and spices stirs my appetite. Oh, and I love chocolate, especially a German chocolate cake with rich dark chocolate. This means that if I don’t do something like making sure I get exercise, such as walking, I gain weight. The good thing for me is that my house is built so that I have to walk up and downstairs when I go to my kitchen, and my office is in my basement, which is 12 stairs down from the hallway entrance to my house. When I go shopping, I park far away from the grocery store or any other store I plan to visit. I hear you asking, readers, why don’t you shop twice a month and save time? We have tiny refrigerators here in Germany, and I usually go shopping three or four times a week, and that is good because I get out of my office, I see people to talk to, I can grab a cappuccino or espresso or Latte Macchiato and watch people. Thus, I have found ways to exercise and not gain weight. As I said above, I have accepted my weight and don’t plan to live on an everlasting diet that doesn’t allow me to enjoy my food.
Standing before the Public Library last year in May with my niece.
Happy National Day of Unplugging (from Social Media) and World Hearing Day!
Good Morning! At the moment, I am writing this article as two squirrels decide to greet me by walking on the glass roof of my patio. The sun is shining brightly, and I look forward to summer. Yes, I know spring comes after winter, but here in the country I have chosen to live in, it seems like we only get two seasons: winter and summer.
We have two choices to write about today—the National Day of Unplugging (from Social Media) and World Hearing Day. I have written a short take on these topics because they interest me.
First, I don’t Unplug on the National Day of Unplugging. If I did, I wouldn’t be sitting here writing this article. I have set times that I go on Social Media, and I am usually there for thirty to sixty minutes twice a week. Sometimes, I have to break that time up into fifteen-minute intervals throughout the day or even ten-minute intervals. I don’t let the time factor and the fact that I have to make exceptions and adjust the time to get things done bother me.
I have not developed the perfect way to deal with social media, but I’m a writer, and social media is one of those things that go with my career. Besides that, I am an expat and want to keep in touch with my family and friends on different continents. Therefore, having a small Social Media network keeps me in the loop with the ones I love.
What I have learned is to use my smartphone to its maximum ability. That means silencing my phone in the mornings and while working. I don’t even receive notices from the different platforms where I have accounts during my time of silence. So, I unplug each day at the times I set up.
Now to World Hearing Day.
I treasure that I know or have known people who cannot hear. They are beautiful people, and I have written a couple of flash fiction stories about them because they learn to sense things on a deeper level than people who can hear. They learn to compensate.
I think of Helen Keller, who lost her sight and hearing at a very young age and had to fight to find herself, and I wish I could be as strong as she was with my hearing, sight, and speech intact. I admire Helen Keller, and her books fascinate me. They still do today. Thus, I have learned not to go out of my way to ignore people who have hearing disabilities. One can learn much from them; the greatest we can learn is to shut our mouths and listen, which reminds me of one of my all-time favorite songs, THE SOUNDS OF SILENCE.
Finally, here’s a shout-out to a woman that I love dearly. Our parents raised us, and she has a birthday today. When I visited the USA last year, I had the privilege of staying at her home for a week, and she and her adorable husband, Claude, and their dog, Colby, spoiled me rotten.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! CHRISTINE ELIZABETH PIERCE-HOLMAN! I love you, Lady! Enjoy your day, and may God bless you in everything you undertake to accomplish!
Enjoying the day in Gatlinburg, Tennesse with my sister, Chris, and Claude, her husbandColby, the Pup wearing his beanie, I knitted for him.
Have a great Sunday, People, and take the time to go out and listen to the sounds of nature.
Today, I’m celebrating National Read Across America and Europe Day. I have expanded this holiday to include Europe. Reading has always played a significant role in my life. It’s funny because I had nothing to read at first but the Bible and the second-class textbooks that we received from caucasian schools when I entered school at five years of age. I discovered we had a library when I was eight, but it was too far away, and we didn’t have a car.
The Wallace Branch Library was built to serve African Americans in 1935. It was located in downtown Augusta in the Augusta section known as the “Colored Section” on Gwinnett Street. That has all changed. The street has been renamed Lucy Craft Laney Boulevard, and the library is now a part of Augusta’s history and is in the historical section of town. To say that I loved that library is an understatement. I remember my parents driving my sisters, brother, and me to the library and leaving us there while they went shopping after we finally got a car. I could stay in that library all day long and never get tired. By the time my parents picked us up, I had loaded myself with books I chose to read. Robert Louis Stevenson, Frank Yerby, and poetry by James Weldon Johnson were among the books I chose, although some of Johnson’s poetry was forbidden in the South.
Therefore, I am a huge promoter of people learning to read and disciplining themselves to read at least four books yearly. I am thankful that I can read today in English and German and a simple, straightforward book in Italian. To read gives me a warm glow within.
This morning, the sun was shining so brightly that I let it entice me to get out and take a mini walk. It is still shining, and I look forward to returning to my office sometime next week or the week after.
I have been working in my dining room because of the extreme energy prices. The prices shot up higher than we expected after Russia attacked Ukraine. I am smiling because my sisters and friends in the United States ask me how I deal with the fluctuating situation with the energy. I usually answer them with a simple sentence: I trust God, and with Him, I got this.
Have a lovely day today. I hope you celebrate today by reading a book you love. It doesn’t matter whether it is a print book or an ebook. Just read! Let yourself drown in a story that makes you feel good. That is what I will do this evening.
Today is SHARE A SMILE DAY, so give someone the gift of receiving one of your smiles.
Enjoying dawn and the first part of the day are my best highlights during a twenty-four-hour day. I look out the window above my bed into my ceiling and smile. Gratitude swells in my heart, and I am thankful I live on a quiet street without traffic and fewer kids. Not that I dislike children, but my tendency to sleep at irregular hours is sometimes disrupted when I hear workers working on the children’s playground behind my yard or the loud voices of the kids. Depending on the time I go to bed and when I wake, most of the adults have gone to work.
My life rhythm has changed since I participated in the first RRBC Blogging challenge. Before, I had a habit of writing in the early morning, but now I write three hours during the day and three to five hours during the night. I usually get seven hours of sleep now instead of six, so that has changed, too. It took me a few weeks to recognize that my inner clock was ticking differently. But as I began to listen to my body, I knew that I would have to get used to a new schedule for living and adapt myself to what my inner clock desired if I wanted to continue smiling through life.
I like smiling at people. Wednesday, I went to my knitting group. It is slowly, and I mean a gradual slow, moving toward nine degrees Celsius, so I walk in with a coat and a beanie cap on my head. One of the ladies asked if I was cold, and I answered, “Of course. It’s wintertime,” and they laughed. It was about 8 degrees Celsius, but for them, it was like spring because the sun was shining. For me, it was winter. Unknowingly, I do many things here in this cold country that make people laugh.
Take care everyone. I have work to do before I enjoy my evening.
Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening, People,
The second RRBC “A DAY IN MY LIFE” Blogging Challenge begins tomorrow, March 1, and ends March 30, 2024, and I look forward to it. The first RRBC Blogging Challenge tested my endurance greatly. What will happen this time? I don’t know, but I expect to experience many beautiful surprises. There will also be a special gift for some lucky person who follows the Challenge and leaves comments. A randomly selected visitor will win an Amazon Gift Card for $25,00 at the end of the Challenge. So take advantage and drop by the authors participating in the Blogging Challenge. You will enjoy it; who knows, you may be that visitor who wins.
I woke up on this side of life this morning, still walking out my story. This side of life makes me aware that I’m still breathing. Looking out the window built into my roof, I saw rain.
After getting cleaned up and dressed, I gazed out the window again; I saw sunshine. The weather had changed quickly in three-quarters of an hour, and I could perceive this change. I lifted my head toward Heaven and said Thank you!
I was in my right mind. I could think; I wasn’t walking around with a wild look in my eyes. I knew where I was and what I was doing, and I could comprehend and contemplate.
My awareness of my surroundings made me look out of my glassed-in patio doors as I read my Bible, and I smiled and thanked God for His faithfulness to me, one of the sheep of His pasture.
Oh, the joy it brings my heart to say I am in my RIGHT MIND. Yes, and for that, I am truly thankful.
