THANKSGIVING

Remember those you love, and give thanks for all you have. The smallest things mean so much, even a can of hash.

My small plate offered up at Michael Solender's Feast of Flash ==> THANKSGIVING



Peace, Linda

I Am Grateful For ===> Cathy Olliffe Webster!

Who busts up the murk of Monday with her pos-i-ti-vee-tee? Who can make me laugh and cry in the same post? Who always has a kind word and a generous heart?

My favorite newly-wed Cathy Olliffe Webster!

This third Canadian, whose gratitudes graced my blog nearly every day last month, is a dynamo of energy, compassion, and grace. She blogs from MUSKOKA RIVER, a place somewhere north I'd never heard of until I 'met' Cathy. We caught up in between stops on her whirlwind honeymoon with Dave. Their adventures included meeting up Laurita Miller, fellow writer and gratitude ‘winner’ (and please go vote for round II for her BRAIN DROPPINGS, Canadian Blog Awards nominated for the Canadian Blog Awards).

Here's Cathy waxing on the important things in life...

What three things are you most grateful for today?
Today is rather spectacular, not my average day at all. First of all, it's Monday and I'm not at work (I'm grateful for that, who wouldn't be?). I'm on my honeymoon with an incredible man who loves me no matter what.(So grateful for that.) And I'm staying in one of the world's most beautiful places, Gros Morne National Park on the west coast of Newfoundland. This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. If you can imagine a place where mountains covered with craggy rock and autumn leaves reach out to touch the Atlantic Ocean; a place dotted with charming fishing villages; a place where people are warm and wonderful – that's where I am today. And inside that beautiful place I am in a gorgeous boutique hotel, in the honeymoon suite, with a jacuzzi and a fireplace and wireless internet!! (Yay!) I'm grateful for all of it, today. I do believe it's the best Monday I've ever had in my whole life.

What gives you the most joy?
My family. My new husband, Dave, my children Angus and Sam. My wonderful mother, Dorothy. Writing also gives me joy, makes me feel whole. Gives me a reason to exist.

On a scale of 1 to 10, where when 10 is as blissed out as one could be, where would you rate your mean happiness?
I live life on an emotional rollercoaster sometimes, seeming to roll from highs to lows in a heartbeat. But, on average, I would say I'm a happy, positive person. Mark me in at seven.

What impedes your ability to attaining joy?
I'm my own worst enemy. I think I'm a very sensitive person, sensitive to the feelings and emotions of those around me, so it doesn't take much negativity to bring me down. I used to try to please everybody. But at this stage of my life I try to surround myself with people who are positive. It makes me positive, it makes me happy. And I love feeling that way.

I'm also prone to depression but I'm looking after myself as best I can. Here's my advice: see a doctor. Get some exercise. Get some sleep. Break away from people who drag you down. Surround yourself with loving, happy people. Do things that make you happy.

Wise words, Cathy -- giving love to those you love begats love back.

She emailed me today. Despite work stress and returning to oodles of stuff to do, not to mention cranky novel critique-ers, she remains pretty dang happy.

“Married life is awesome. Funny thing - it all felt weird until we got home from the honeymoon. Then I settled down and realized, hey, it's Dave, we're the same. We're fine! And now it's all good.”

THANK YOU Cathy for spreading your enthusiasm and good cheer across the cyberverse. Most of all, thank you for extending your friendship to me, a thousand miles away.

Peace, Linda

I'm Grateful for ==> Laurita Miller

Lovely Laurita.

When I think of Laurita, I think of sunshine. Of grace and generosity. At least that's her internet 'personality', though I hear first-hand that Laurita's the real deal. I'll have to head north someday to find out for myself.

Laurita weaves words from air, makes the prosaic into poetry. If you doubt me, please check out ESCAPE INTO LIFE, featuring 4 of her micro-stories, each an elegant literary truffle. Whenever I pop by her blog I never know what to expect -- a poem, a horror story, a love story, a description of her day -- but know it will be time best spent.

During the 30 Days of Gratitude Challenge, Laurita expressed the most heartfelt gratitudes. On the first day, she left a gorgeous gratitude: I am grateful for those people who take just one quick moment to point out the good in someone else. That one moment can make a world of difference.

I've thought often about this particular gratitude -- it's like a mantra of sorts when someone angers or disappoints me. It reminds me to make change through kindness rather than force of personality or power or strength.

Laurita had a few more things to say about the power of thanks. Here, in her own words...

What three things are you most grateful for TODAY?

Today, I am grateful that I live where I do. Clean air, clean water, and an abundance of beauty. I truly believe I live in the best place in the world.

Today I am also grateful for sunshine. And for my family. Always for family.

What brings you the most joy?

The easy thing is to say my family, but that’s true. I have a large extended family and we’re all close. They’re a bunch of silly loons and I love them all. Throw an hour or two of writing time into the mix and I am one happy woman.

If there was a general happiness scale ranging from 1-10, where 1 is absolutely-the-most-miserable-a-body-can-be and 10 is blissed out to the max, where would you fall?

On average, I’d be about an 8. I’m pretty happy most of the time. Disgustingly so really.

What are your greatest obstacles to achieving happiness, however you define it?

Worry. I try not to, but it’s hard when you’re a mother. Worry about the kids is the biggest obstacle to happiness, for me. Most of it is unfounded, and worry is a useless thing anyway, but it’s tough when little pieces of your heart are running around out in the big world.


Thank you Laurita for gracing my blog and gracing our world.

Peace, Linda

I Am Grateful for... UMBRELLALADY!

Who is this mysterious Umbrellalady, who pops by blogs and leaves marvelous comments full of wisdom and kindness? This is the question I wondered myself, especially when I ran my 30 Days of Gratitude challenge and she offered up a gratitude nearly every single day.

I envisioned a kindly Mary Poppins, surrounded by children and animals, leaping through the air with a smile on her face. I found Kathy Bruederlin at her blog QUILT SEAMS JUST RIGHT, rambling about quilting, cooking, creating, maing wine, and life in general. Sounds good to me!

Kathy was the most prolific of gratitude commenters and found gratitude in many small things we take for granted. Now a chance for you meet this most wonderful woman from the North. In her own words...

What three things are you most grateful for today?
1) Just being, because I almost wasn't and that is pretty scary. I know I say this frequently but it is because I truly am grateful for being here every day and consider myself one of the luckiest persons in the world.

2) The cold rain finally quit. I hate getting rained on and we had a fire drill yesterday in the pouring rain. I guess the principal forgot to tell the new vice-principal that fire drills are supposed to only fall on dry days and she scheduled this one without this rather important tidbit of information. We had a few hundred teenagers and many very cold, soaking wet staff who were definitely not very impressed. (I am not called umbrellalady without a reason - my umbrella was quite happily in my bag that was with me!! I shared...)

3) Kiwi the dog. She always greets me at the door with a happy heart that she shares freely, which speaks for itself.

What gives you the most joy?
The fact that I am here and enjoy life, not only the good times but those lousy, rotten times as well. How else would you know if you were happy if you weren't ever sad? The other thing that gives me a lot of joy is sharing with and giving to others - sometimes to people who are close to me and other times just because I can help someone out.

On a scale of 1 to 10, where when 10 is as blissed out as one could be, where would you rate your mean happiness?
I would say that on average I am a pretty solid 7/8 (7.5?) on the happiness scale. I have a wonderful, somewhat quirky husband and two beautiful daughters who make my life so happy. I am a person who finds joy in the little things in life (like baking bread, doggy and kitty kisses - sort of, lack of mosquitoes), and in the big things are like winning a lottery, like a new fancy-schmancy sidewalk and small patio in the back yard coming up at the end of this month!

My mother used to say to tell me when I was a child, I was so happy I always woke up with a huge smile on my face. I actually remember this because I used to love waking up nice and cozy under my ballerina quilt and see the sunlight shining in. It always felt so darn good.

What impedes your ability to attaining joy?
My greatest obstacle to achieving happiness is myself - I am my biggest critic and am way, way too empathetic to other people's problems. However, if I got any happier, I would be more obnoxious than I already am, lol!

I can always tell when I am super happy because I start singing to myself. The odd thing is that I don't even realize I am doing it until someone asks me why I am singing. I guess it just feels good and it just spills out of me. Corny - eh?

Thank you for sharing yourself with me and the rest of the blogging community. Keep on spreading your cheer. And here's one for you...


louis armstrong "what a wonderful world"
Uploaded by GO-GO-STALIN. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.


Peace, Linda

A Month's Worth of Gratitude

A month ago, I was feeling low. Most everything sucked -- work, writing, petty colleagues and acquaintances, whiny, needy others. I wallowed in an existential pity-party, well-deserved I thought; I'd had a rotten two years. Then, I felt guilty because my life was pretty damn good. But I couldn't see the goodness, and that bothered me.

I read once in some self-help book or another that if you want to feel better, laugh. Happy people laugh a lot (though I'm not sure what comes first -- the laughter or the happiness). I figured -- maybe if I one thing to be grateful for every day, maybe my glass would feel less empty.

What a hard exercise! But, in the end, practicing gratitude on a daily basis has made me thankful for the richness of my life. I hope all of you who played along found benefit as well -- I profited from your honest, generous expressions of thanks.

But enough mushiness already -- on to the important stuff -- the WINNERS!

We're all winners, and my two charities -- hospice and the local crisis center -- raked up good. Between new followers and expressed gratitudes, we raised $133, which I'll round to make an even $150. THANK YOU everyone for taking time to drop a comment.

And what great gratitudes you left for me to ponder -- flip-out footrests in new love seats, tea in the morning, breathing, kids who let you write, colleagues, friends, and family, decent shower pressure, the wonderful cyber community of writers, and woodpeckers with attitude. It was difficult to choose only three winners, but here they are...

The Most Heartfelt Gratitude: Written by a writer with a romantic and compassionate soul ==> LAURITA MILLER

Day 1: I am grateful for those people who take just one quick moment to point out the good in someone else. That one moment can make a world of difference.
--A random act of kindness can make a broken day better.

Day 9:

This morning I'm grateful for coffee
It's all that keeps me awake
I drink cup after cup
as soon as I'm up
It's all for my sanity's sake
---Without coffee, I'm an unhinged woman with a throbbing head.


The Quirkiest Gratitude: Should come to no surprise to those who know her ==> CATHY OLLIFFE

Day 9: I am grateful that it's Sunday morning and I don't even have to have a bath today if I don't want to.
---Yes ma'am, love those mornings when PJs rule. This made me grin.

Lady Luck winner: Also no surprise, as this woman left more gratitudes than any other individual ==> UMBRELLALADY

Day 17: I am grateful for technology as well, except when it rings in the middle of the store.
---Or when it chirps in the middle of my husband's sermon!

On Day 23: I am grateful for all the wonderful crabapples that make such great juice.
---I asked for the 'how-to' and you delivered on your blog -- thank you!


CONGRATULATIONS to all three winners!!!! Please, shoot me an email with your snail mail addie and your favorite color, number, and word, I'll gather up your goodies and ship them to you.

And it occurs to me now as I consider shipping those goodie baskets -- every single one of you lives in Canada! How cool is that?

Peace, Linda

Gratitude #30

Today I am grateful for cooler weather, for three days to slow down and recharge from an over-busy week, for friends and family. But most of all I am thankful for all of you who expressed thanks this past month.

Look for details later tonight or tomorrow on dollars raised and winners -- I'm still reading through and quantifying the many wonderful responses. Amazing words that keep me grounded in the here and now.

Thank you.


Peace, Linda

Gratitude #27

The world's full of glass-half-empty types, folks who drain the room of positivity like a vacuum sucks dust. Here's to those who persist in their vision, in refusing to let the dogs get them down, who BELIEVE in themselves and the goodness of humanity.

Got gratitude? Well there's just THREE -- count them -- THREE more days left in the 30 Days of Gratitude celebration.

Add a gratitude of your choice and up the size of the checks I write for hospice and the crisis center. And you might win a goodie basket full of wonderful readerly items, plus an interview with moi.

***

The Writing... it goes, it goes. Editing's so slow. Got a hundred pages of PURE to clean up, then I'll throw in a drawer until I start my next GOTHAM novel workshop in October. I'm still managing to eke out a shortie fiction piece every week for 52/250 and #fridayflash. Look for a funky collaborative story coming soon at The Bijou. A noirish piece, my friends will be so happy to see me stretching into other genre.

The Marketing... sigh. Sigh, sigh, sigh... I have sent out 17 submissions and am racking up rejections faster than a fly finds poop. Which makes me feel like poop.

The Reading... have I said how much I LOVED The Corrections? So much I've ordered Franzen's Freedom. Meanwhile, starting in on Tinkers, the thin volume which netted the big kahuna of writing prizes earlier this year, and am thick into Dave Carr's Night of the Gun, a fascinating memoir of a journalist's spiral into - and out -- of addiction, gifted to me by writing buddy and friend CHRYS (thank YOU!).

Peace, Linda

Gratitude #26

THE KIDS ARE BACK IN SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





Kind of bittersweet. My son started middle-school while my daughter entered the 3rd grade. Different schools, different buses, different schedules.

Peace, Linda

Gratitude #25

We always have a choice: to act in love, or react in fear.

It takes courage to take the positive road, to say no to naysayers, to give with an open heart. To care for every human no matter what his or her station in life. To stay true to your conscience. To act on behalf of the common public good, and not one's self.

Today I am grateful for Don Fedder, a colleague, a friend, a mentor. He always chose love. Thank you for shining a light on my little life, and on so many others. Rest in peace, friend...

Gratitudes #23 and #24

Gratitude #23: I have time to sit down and think -- what am I grateful for?

Gratitude #24: I am thankful for my husband, who has surprised me in so many little ways this weekend. All good.

Peace, Linda

Gratitude #22

Today I give thanks to my students -- they teach me more than they may ever realize.

I'm also grateful to all of you; every gratitude YOU express yields one more dollar to help others needing food and needing relief from pain. Want to join the celebration? Read the details HERE!

Peace, Linda

Gratitude #21

A hearty thanks to the teachers and mentors of the world. I am so blessed to have so many wise and kind individuals help me achieve my dreams -- personal, professional, and artistic.

I found myself grinning on the metro ride into work this morning when, flipping through my Poets and Writers, I saw this article -- Face the Fear -- by Rachel Kadish. You'll have to read the entire column in the paper version of P&W.

A faculty member of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Lesley University, Rachel is an amazing, moving writer who creates unforgettable characters (Read: Tolstoy Lied: A Love Story and From A Sealed Room). I'm the lucky one; she taught me much last summer when I attended a writing conference.

Who has influenced the way you live? Who has taken the time to teach you a skill or further your genius?

And don't forget to pay it forward every chance you have. Peace, Linda

Gratitudes #17 and #18

Gratitude #17: I am so thankful to have a few days without the internet -- without the constant barrage of information, life feels deliciously slower.


Gratitude #18: I am grateful for the technology of the internet, of computers, of fiber-optics and wi-fi and cyberspace -- how else could I have possibly enjoyed all of YOU?

**

We traveled to North Carolina to visit family, and I left my laptop behind. On purpose. Just lovely. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend; I'll be catching up tonight with the last 48 hours.

Peace, Linda

Gratitude #16

Today I am thankful my husband and children are gathered in North Carolina with my mother and my sister and her family.

Nothing, I repeat nothing, is more important than family.

No matter how you define it or form it.

Peace, Linda

Gratitude #15

The sun is shining.





Half-way through
30 Days of Gratitude and we've raised over 75 buckolas for hospice and a crisis shelter. THANK YOU kind readers for your generosity and your amazing gratitudes.

Peace, Linda

Gratitude #14

Some days it is enough to be grateful the day is over. Today is one of those days.

**

Freebie read ==> WONDERFUL essay by the fabulous Tim O'Brien (The Things They Carried) on the characteristics of an unsuccessful story. The missing ingredient to what makes a story sing might surprise you. TELLING TALES, courtesy of The Atlantic.


Peace, Linda

The BOFF is HERE! -- Gratitude #13

Today I am grateful for the #fridayflash community and its founder and fearless leader Jon Strother at Mad Utopia(@jmstro). Intrigued by the potential of social media, Jon singlehandedly created a virtual community of short story writers who tweet their wares around the globe every Friday. You can view the collected stories gathered in the Best of Friday Flash - Volume 1.

I am honored and humbled to be included in this anthology with folks I admire -- as writers and as exceptional people -- writers I admire, and for having a small part in the anthology's creation. BOFF is a labor of love, one which honors the spirit of #fridayflash. Most of all, I feel blessed to be part of a caring, compassionate, and generous community and lucky to call many of you friends.

Peace, Linda

Gratitude #12

Thanks for the rain, gentle drizzle and thunderous clouds; the raspberries and hardy kiwis fat for the picking.


My last day of staycation. The past week I did a lot of writing, jam making, and not much more. I had great plans -- go clothes shopping, coffee with friends, clean out my closet -- but in the end I enjoyed spending my days reading, writing, taking naps and walks, doing some yoga, and hanging out in my garden.

Next week, the students return, and my own children return to school at the end of this month. I smell autumn in the air, hear it in the long chirrup of the crickets finding their way into my basement, in the withering of the daylilies. Peace, Linda

Gratitude #11

A heart is not judged by how much you love; but by how much you are loved by others. (Wizard of Oz).


Today I give thanks for Frank Baum and his fantastical creation The Wizard of Oz. His story has so many layers, so many universals. Last night we watched the film in its wonderful Technicolor glory, and this afternoon we watched our talented friends play characters in the The Glyndon Area Players stage production. Bravo!

I find it fascinating that the two witches -- one good, the other evil -- are played by two Unitarian Universalists.

The weekend's winding down == what's your joy?

Peace, Linda

Gratitude #10

Nothing makes my family happier on the weekend than finding a great yard sale. Everyone wins -- the buyer snags a bargain, the seller cleans house and makes a few Uncle Sam-free bucks, and the neighbors all hang out together.

Today's finds include:
--Lea: Collectible barbies still in their boxes -- $2 for 3
--Will: lacrosse stick, ball, and extra shaft -- $5
--Henry: a huge art history book in pristine condition -- $1
--Me: William and Sonoma cookbooks -- $1 each -- and a sweet porcelain vase less than 2 inches tall handpainted with blueberries -- $2

Yard-saling means getting up early. We traveled from our home to historic Ellicott City and Sykesville, then into the Roland Park neighborhood of Baltimore. We splurged on brunch at Miss Shirley's, home of the most eclectic breakfast menu (Smores French toast, smoked salmon club sandwich, and polenta cake topped with wilted spinach, grilled portobella, and egg).

So what are YOU grateful for today? Joing 30 Days of Gratitude fray -- your gratitude, posted below in the comments, means I send another buck to hospice and the local crisis shelter. And you might win a prize yourself.

Peace, Linda