Month: July 2021

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Writing From My Heart, Walking For My Heart …

carolyncordon

Physical exercise, especially when getting the heart rate pumped up at least a bit, is a good thing to do, every day a so, if possible. As a writer, I know I spend too much time sitting, rather than moving around …

But I’m trying to keep on at least walking the 5 times a week as advised by the government. And I’m keeping on writing about these things, to give encouragement to others to do the same. Writers don’t have to be advisors to the world, they can just write for themselves, if they want.

But I’m the kind of person who likes to help other people, as long as it doesn’t involve doing anything related to housework type things! I don’t even like doing my own housework, so doing it for others? No thanks, not unless it’s necessary!

photo I took when out for a walk the other day, eucalyptus tree of some kind, flowering, lovely!

Writing about things to help people though, and writing from my own heart, that feels a much better way to help. I am the editor of the monthly newsletter that goes out to the town of Mallala, and I sometimes put information about getting out there and walking, being more active and such things.

People seem to enjoy reading this newsletter, and let me know, and that really makes it all worthwhile, the getting information, and putting it all together, then printed and distrubuted. It’s a task I took on when I was working, and kept on doing it when I finished that job. Being a volunteer is a thing to be proud of!

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Learning in Life, Battle for What Matters

carolyncordon

I wrote about some of the ‘battles’ I currently have in life, some not that important, but of interest to me, others vitally important, battles for better health. Life is made up af a large number of things, and battles against, or for, various things will be there.

Some people seem to drift through life, and never seem to have any problems or battles. But we can’t always know about the battles that may have taken place to get to that point, or that are still going on in their background.

Other people seem to take exception to things readily, and are constantly battling against things, family, friends, neighbours, the government, their workplace, and so on. Some of those battles may be better if they weren’t happening … But people will make up thier own minds about such things, and battle or not, as they see fit.

But if you choose what you battle against and feel you are battling for good reasons and causes, and have the ability to do so, without causing yourself too much damage, well done. The battles fought, and one are the theme for many an epic story, and so too are those battles that were lost.

Remember this, and you can turn anything that happens, any battle fought, and you may have a great story there, waiting to be written! Nothing in life is wasted, if you’re perpared to go deeply into the things in your life, and examine the bits and pieces of what really happened, and why.

And if you do that, and find there were battles for no good reason, then hey, welcome to the world, you’re not the only one doing that! Choose wisely, learn, battle hard, the rewards when you get it right may not be what you were expecting, but they’re there for you anyway. Value them.

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Bad Things, Good Things

carolyncordon

A day of bad things happening, possibly fatal days even, who knows, but I’m trying to think more on happier things, and stay positive in my mind. I always prefer to focus on the good things in life, it helps me to stay in a good ‘place’ in my head …

So today, I wrote this article and I hope it might brong some positive thoughts to those who might read it … Commenting on the bad, but looking at happier things will help me, and may help other people too, and if I can do that, it will bmake me happier!

At the moment, Graham is in the kitchen, working on our tea, and Missy our dog is in there too, ‘helping him’! Missy’s way of helping is dealing with any food that might accidently end up on the floor, she’ll gobble it up super quick!

It’s winter, it’s supposed to be cold in winter, in South Australia, and even though I wish it was a bit warmer, I am able to keep warm enough, and I know that means I am a lucky person. Thinking about those who don’t have a home they can keep warm enough, what a sad thing that would be.

If there are ways I can help such people, I will do it, if I can, financially. Life is not a game, it is an ongoing challenge to meet our own needs and those of others, as best we can … And that is the Stoic way of life I have been working towards these past few years.

I’m not there yet, but I am improving all of the time, and I say that thankfully, not boastfully. I am far from perfect, but when I can make anything better, I will try to do that. That is my goal in most things … Perfect people don’t exist, but good people do, and I try to always be one of the good people.

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Lockdown, Stay At Home, Don’t Touch!

carolyncordon

Oh this horrid Coronavirus, what trouble you are causing us here in Australia. We currently have over half of the population in lockdown, in the hope of containing, and so eliminating this terrible Delta strainof the virus that has been such a bad thing for so many of us.

Our politicians are trying to help us all keep safe, and keep industry going too, in their own (sometimes odd and not very helpful) ways. I say people before profit, and feel a government might want to go that way to, at least a democratic government, and we are supposed to have in Australia, but sometimes I wonder about what it is we currently have …

But anyway, I’m fine, currently staying home, consuming too many calories, not doing enough exercise, and showing the result of that on the bathroom scales … I’ve been weighing myself every day first thing in the morning, and the results have been interesting. I can’t hide anything from those scales! I can’t remember why I got started on that, but I’ll keep it up, maybe I’ll remember the reason for it.

I can use the information I record, in a variety of ways – in a book to come, fiction or non fiction, or as a reminder that weight loss can happen, if and when I obey the rules – fewer calories and more exercise, equals weight loss! (I’ve been recording any what I call ‘extra steps’ too, when and if they happen. Extra steps is when I switch on the pedometer on my phone and go for a walk for exercise).

My state, South Australia is currently in lockdown, and so I have to stay at home, except for medical things, and getting necessary items from the shop. This means the Festival my writing group had organised has had to be cancelled, including the launch of my new book, Plague Invasion, an anthology of poetry and prose creative writing on the subject of Covid-19, the thing that has halted the planned book launch, How Ironic!

Author’s feet and photograph

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This time of having to be in lockdown is messing with my head, and I feel discombabulated. It could have been a great time to get a lot of my current work in progress written. It’s a cosy murder mystery, and I’m about a third of the way through, but my head just doesn’t want to settle down and think about that … I have an online writing group meeting later this afternoon though, and I often use the writing prompts we’re given at that group, to write a little more of that novel, so we’ll see what happens …

The group usually meets every Thursday, at a hotel in Gawler, the Prince Albert Hotel. But they aren’t open for such things now. They’re still selling food and drinks too, I suppose, but only as takeaway, no sitting down to eat, not until this current 7 day lockdown is over, next week. Strange times, as I posted on my Facebook page this morning, these are strange days for sure …

But I’m here, I’m well, no-one I know has caught Covid, and I hope things stay that way, this seems to be a horrible disease, with long lasting effects we are only beginning to learn about. I’d love to know how things are for other people, particularly those in other places, in other states, or overseas!

Please leave a comment! Pretty please!

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If You Were An Animal, Which Would It Be?

carolyncordon

This is a question I asked myself the other day, because I was looking for something to write on one of the ‘platforms’ I’m currently using to try to earn some money. But of course these online platforms are hopeless for actually making any real money, unless what you write ‘goes viral’ and I sure as heck don’t know how to write like that!

‘Going Viral’ at the moment doesn’t seem like a good way to think about things, not with Covid lurking around, or rather Covid affected people doing, sneaking over borders when they whould be in lockdown at home, or somewhere else, away from other people …

Anyway, back to my initial question … This is the link to what I wrote, where I indicated that I suspected I’d be a Sloth, if I were an animal. But as I talk about that, and in thinking about the idea further, I ended up with a quite different animal, an Owl. This seems a much more impressive animal, a wiser one. Nobody ever thought on a Sloth as being clever.

In fact most people might consider the Sloth to be a rather icky creature, if they’d heard of the oft quoted idea of the Sloth peeing and or pooping on itself as it hangs around in trees, all of its life, there in Central America … I’m not going into the details of that, I have my lunch almost ready for me to eat right now, a healthy bowl of dried fruit, nuts, and seeds, with a coffee to come later, and I don’t want to be put off my food, (or my coffee)!

This idea about ‘making money’ on this platform where the article is, Vocal, which is the second such one I’ve begun writing for happened when a writing group friend mentione it, so I thought I’d take a look. I’ve been blogging on WordPress for some years now, and before that it was Blogspot. But these two now (to me) online platforms are something quite different.

With my blogging, it has been just me on my own, trying to connect with the broader world. With these online platforms though there is a whole online community present already, both writers and readers (although I suspect many are both). So I gave it a go, and why, I got some readers, and made a tiny bit of money. Even better though, I got some comments, and I found other writers whose words I liked, so I left some comments on their posts.

It has the feel of a kind of community, even though there are many only there for the money. I have no misty-eyed ideas I’ll make lots of money there. If I get some kind of payout at the end of the month on Medium I’m happy enough, even though I’m yet to have made enough money for a coffee … And on Vocal, you have to reach a certain amount, and I’m not even halfway there yet, and only making a cent a day, unless the Platform gives out a random encouragement payment …

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Heading back to the animal I’d be, and the idea as a possible writing prompt. It might work more I think, as something to help look back at who I am, and what I believe to be important. I may have used it as the prompt to get that Vocal article written, but I don’t think that article will lead to anything bigger, brighter, or that interesting really, to the greater world.

I did put in a bit of information about some animals though, so who knows … So I ended up conceding that I’d like to be an Owl if I was to be an animal. It was an interesting winding thought path, heading from Sloth to Owl. And really, isn’t writing often that, a thought path, taking you from idea to execution, when what is sopposed to one thing wants to slide off to be something else …

What do you do, when that happens? As friends and readers of this blog may now, I have a murder mystery I’m writing (slowly!). I use our writing group writing prompts to write another piece of the first book in what I had envivioned would become a collecion of such books, all using the same setting and characters, with more characters thrown in if and when needed.

I love my setting, and my characters, but the murder and mystery parts of the book aren’t really taking off in any way … I feel more like a lazy Sloth with this, rather than a wise Owl, but who know what might happen. If it all crashes down and doesn’t happen, I won’t be feeliing wise at all, will I?

I there is an animal that starts off with a big idea, then lets it all settle back down into a little pile of nothing much, that’s the kind of animal I would be, if I were an animal!