“At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.”
— Albert Schweitzer
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Posts Tagged ‘Thoughts’
Be That Spark
Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, creativity, Thoughts on January 19, 2025| Leave a Comment »
If We So Choose
Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, #ChooseYourFuture, books, creativity, inspiration, Octavia Butler, predictions, Thoughts, Writers, writing on January 17, 2025| Leave a Comment »
My mother sent me an article about Octavia Butler, one of a number I’ve seen recently in the wake of the LA fires. Butler was an award-winning sci-fi and fantasy author know for her all-too-realistic versions of the future. Although she died in 2006, a week of devastating fires in LA fit right in with her vision of 2025.
In fact, she was once asked how she was able to predict the problems of the future as accurately as she did, and her answer is a telling lesson for writers but also for people who want to make a difference.
“A Few Rules for Predicting the Future” by Octavia E. Butler – Seven Good Things
“I didn’t make up the problems,” I pointed out. “All I did was look around at the problems we’re neglecting now and give them about 30 years to grow into full-fledged disasters.”
Ouch.
But that’s not all Butler said. I recommend you read the essay in full. It’s not long, but it packs a punch.
“Okay,” the young man challenged. “So what’s the answer?”
“There isn’t one,” I told him.
“No answer? You mean we’re just doomed?” He smiled as though he thought this might be a joke.
“No,” I said. “I mean there’s no single answer that will solve all of our future problems. There’s no magic bullet. Instead there are thousands of answers, at least. You can be one of them if you choose to be.”
I so choose, and I hope you do, too.
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Expect Reckless Posting
Posted in Funny, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, food, free reads, short stories, Thoughts on January 16, 2025| Leave a Comment »
I’ll be working on a cake recipe this weekend, and I’m thinking about it now. As I mentally work my way through possible iterations and prepare to release this recipe into the world (or at least the personal archive that is this blog), I’m thinking of this funny piece:
Look, I get it. You thought what you posted was innocuous. Still, did you stop to think about everyone who has ever lived and how it could make them feel?
I mean, it’s cake and not chili, but no, no I did not.
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Are You Super?
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, citizen scientists, history, Library of Congress, Thoughts on January 15, 2025| Leave a Comment »
It turns out I’m super, and you might be too!
The National Archives needs Citizen Archivists who can read cursive
“Reading cursive is a superpower,” said Suzanne Isaacs, a community manager with the National Archives Catalog in Washington, D.C.
If you’d like to help the Library of Congress decipher History (yes, with a capital H), consider becoming a volunteer Citizen Archivist.
Because History is cool, and so are you.
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Alessio Fiorentino on Unsplash
A Moment of Zen
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, chill, Thoughts on January 13, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Need a moment of calm in your day? Try building a rock tower.
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Real Heart
Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, creativity, Thoughts, transformation on January 12, 2025| Leave a Comment »
“Any fool can be happy. It takes a man with real heart to make beauty out of the stuff that makes us weep.”
― Clive Barker, Abarat
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Ways to Help LA
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, community, disasters, donations, helping, Thoughts on January 11, 2025| Leave a Comment »
If you are watching the LA fires as I am, you may be moved to help. There are a lot of options, but it’s hard to go wrong with cash for food and shelter.
World Central Kitchen is my go-to charity for disaster relief, plus there’s the Red Cross and other organizations helping on the ground right now. Here’s a New York Times article with links to charities, other information, how not to get scammed, etc.
How to Help Victims of the Fires in Los Angeles
Raging fires have left five people dead, destroyed or damaged thousands of homes and other buildings and consumed thousands of acres. Here’s how you can help…
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One Step
Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, #noresolutions, just life, Thoughts on January 10, 2025| 1 Comment »
I recently heard that the second Friday of January is the day for broken resolutions (colloquially known by the uninspiring name of Quitter’s Day). This year, that day is January 10th.
Oh wait, you may be thinking, that’s today.
Indeed.
If you signed up for a gym membership, started a diet, or otherwise laid out an optimistic Plan for a Future New You™, you might be losing steam about now.
No worries, it happens. I’m here to say that even if you slept through your “definitely getting up an hour early and going to the gym” alarm, that’s okay.
What matters is not whether you are holding fast to the letter of whatever law you set for yourself, but how you think about the type of person you want to be this year.
I don’t really do New Year’s resolutions but I do appreciate the chance to take stock of where I am and what I’m doing (or not).
A personal example: Am I writing as much as I’d like? No, but I’m working on it, and starting a new year gives me a chance to step back, reassess my current approach and think of ways to improve.
So whether you went to the gym today or not, wrote or not, checked off your resolutions or not, imagine what you want your life to be like. At the end of the day, the month, the year, what do I want to have done?
Today, take one step in that direction. Then take another. If those steps take you to the gym, great. If they keep going to some new and better vista, even better. Just keep moving, one step, then the next.
Your life is waiting for you.
“A good beginning makes a good end.”
— Louis L’Amour
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The Power of Imagination
Posted in Entertainment, Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, #ChooseYourFuture, #wotf39, LA fires, risk management, Thoughts on January 9, 2025| Leave a Comment »
I write science fiction, but I don’t always like living in the future.
Consider the fact that a century ago, many of the innovations we find commonplace were the stuff of dreams.
I do love advances in things like clean air and water, energy, infant mortality, waterproof shoes, effective moisturizers, trash collection, the postal service, public libraries and so much more.
The sci-fi-level post-apocalyptic wildfire situation currently playing out in Southern California? That, I could do without.
I’m not a Californian but I am an American, a North American, and a human being. Extreme weather events also aren’t uncommon anymore. That, plus the fact that one of the fires surrounding Los Angeles is less than two kilometers from the hotel we stayed in for the Writers of the Future workshop helps make these events even more concrete.
I feel for the people in the fire’s path today, and for the risks we all face tomorrow.
It’s also easy to imagine bad outcomes when we see them in the news. It can be harder to remember the good already incorporated into our lives, and what could be waiting for us up ahead.
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The other night, Mr Man and I realized that we’d never seen Bullitt, Steve McQueen’s 1968 classic movie. It was a well-told story but also a trip down memory lane. I spent a good part of the show saying things like “Oh right, you could smoke most everywhere back then” and “Hang on, that’s how they used to track your pulse?” or “Looks like seatbelts were optional” and “So much of this plot revolves around the fact that you had to stop to find a phone” and “Lord, that is a lot of smoke coming out the back of those giant gas guzzlers.”
The movie’s world was certainly recognizable, but in the way your grade school classroom might be, years later.
Things change, much as it doesn’t always feel like it.
Let’s try to make it change for the better.
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Tips from The North
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, #ShovelSafely, Thoughts, winter on January 8, 2025| Leave a Comment »
I’m sad to say that my part of Canada is a little short on snow at the moment, but that isn’t true for many parts of North America.
If you happen to live in one of the regions recently hit with unusual amounts of snow, and you find yourself wondering how to tackle it without needing physical therapy after, you may find these tips useful!
Stuck shoveling snow? Tips to safely shovel snow and walk on ice
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