Spirit Animal Award and Beauty Blogger Tag

Thank you to You’re Not Alone in this World Blog for nominating me for this award.

The Rules:

• Post the award picture on your blog.
• Write a short paragraph about yourself and what your blog means to you.
• If you could be any animal, what would you be?
• Pick however many people you want to nominate!

My Nominees are as Follows

.

Armchair Perfectionist

A Day in the Life of Maximus Octavian

Tessa Can Do it 

An Elephant Called Buddha

Anxious Penguin

Ask Grandmother Cottonwood

Bipolar1 Blog

Blahpolar 

Emerging from the Dark Knight

EmmaGC75’s Blog

Heart Words for Poetry

Hummingbird Redemption

Josefine Fine

Motivating Giraffe 

What my blog means to me

My blog is a way to reach out to people who feel lost and need to be validated. My followers are special people and I am glad to be able to connect with them. 

What Animal Would I Be ?

If I could be an animal I would choose a butterfly. They can fly wherever they want to and see all the beautiful flowers. They are like fairies.  They come in beautiful colors and no two are alike in color combination. 

Beauty Blogger Tag

Thank you to the Optimisitic Realist for nominating me for this beauty blogger tag

My 10 answers to the  questions :

1- For you, what is the meaning of beauty? Beauty is different for different people. Everyone has their own personal style and some people change their look based on their mood. There is no one “right” look. 

2- What is the must beauty product you can’t go a day without? The only product I use everyday is lotion on my face. I also love baby powder and I like to use eyeliner when I am in the mood. 

3- What is your opinion about the “perfect” image  social media’s putting out there, in the      magazines and etc.about the perfect body and  flawless skin a girl is supposed to have? I think it is detrimental to girls and women for the media to portray a “perfect image” of how women “should” look and how they should dress and wear their makeup. 

4- What makes you feel beautiful? I feel beautiful based on connecting with people in a meaningful way and by dressing the way I feel like dressing.

5. What made you create your blog? I did not know much about blogging when I created the blog. It was just out of curiosity to find something to do.

6- Do you have any tips when it comes to beauty? If yes, what are they? You should feel comfortable in your own skin. Don’t choose clothing or makeup to please others.

7- What is your favorite scent? Lavender Vanilla

8- Do you think that taking care of your hygiene is important? Yes because it helps your self esteem.

9- Do you see yourself as a full-time blogger? Why? Yes. I blog every day. It is part of my daily life.

10- Did blogging made any positive impact in your life? If yes, what is it? Yes. Blogging has helped my self esteem. It has helped me feel connected to other people.

My Questions for the nominees are the same as the questions I answered. 

My Nominees for the Beauty Blogger Tag are as Follows

1. Chantelle Elise Beauty Blog
2. Griselda Alamillo
3. xbeautifulchaos 
4. MaryKaywith Ashley
5. The Mom-Wife Life
6. Angel Marii
7. Chanel in a Nutshell
8. VenuSukraGirls
9. Lemonissle
10. The Snappy Sparrow
11. Blue and Silver
12. Pinkalicious104
13. Oliviabatt blog

 

 

JusJoJan Linda Gill’s Writing Fun !

This is for the JusJoJan writing prompt from Linda Gill’s Blog. You can see more about this writing prompt challenge HERE. The rules are very reasonable and allow for your personal freedom of creativity to flow, so go over and check out the rules and give it a try ! 

Writing prompt ONENESS

Oneness is a funny word because it looks wrong, when I see it spelled right in front of me. If you look at it in a different way, you can see O NEN ESS …as opposed to ONE NESS.

Or you might even see ON EN ESS, which is entirely different altogether. But now we are just being a bit silly. 

Personally, I like the sound of words that end in “ESS” because they sound so feminine and pretty.

For a master list of words ending in “ess” see this link HERE.  This is from the Word Info web site. 

Some of my favorite “ess” words are countess. duchess, mistress, and enchantress and sorceress.

According to the Word Info site,  these particular words came from the French language. The Word Info site says that they got this information from The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology, Robert K. Barnhart. 

Being a poet and a musician / songwriter myself,  I find certain words more appealing that other ones.

Some words sound more musical than others. Of course that depends on the kind of music you are writing. Other words fit better into poetry…again depending on the mood and style of what you are writing. 

Words for songs, need to sound the way you want them to, and also fit into the rhythm of the song. Poetry also has a rhythm to it. Certain styles have strict rhythms and other are more flexible, or can alternate rhythmic patterns. 

Music is listened to, so the way the words appear on a page is not as important.

Poetry however, is often read from the page, so the appearance of the words and how they create the shape of the poem, can be important.

I sometimes choose certain words because I like the way they make the poem look, in addition to the way it sounds, when the words are flowing off the tongue.

To me the word ONENESS looks like it is spelled wrong.  

However, I did actually use this word in a poem I wrote quite awhile ago.

I will copy and paste the poem at the bottom of this post. Since I had already written a poem with this theme, I did not choose to write another one for this post. 

The concept of ONENESS offers all kinds of possibilities to write about. You could have many people given that same concept to write about, and you would get just as many points of view and perspectives about oneness. 

But only one of us wrote about how the word looks on the page….just because she just had to be different !

 

The Oneness of All

Posted on September 20, 2015 by gentlekindness

 

Why do they tell me

Who they think I should be?

I know who I am

I’m Annie 

That’s me

I know what I like and I

know what I don’t

 Sounds

of the ocean

 Smell

of the grass

 Taste of sweet kisses

Touch of a hand

Two spirits connecting

Compassion

and love

Priorities

In the right place

Where they go

True hearts when they break

Tears when they flow

These things are important

I know it is so

So don’t try

to woo me

With gossip

and shame

Manipulation, by trying

to make me feel

less than sane

The truth

is quite plain

Mundane conversation

Just bores me to death

I am drawn 

 to the people

With truth on their breath

I speak what I feel

And I speak what I know

Humanity’s oneness

Should be

the first goal

Love unconditional

Mercy and grace

If you look

in your hearts

You will see

a natural trace

Of truth

as it is

And truth

that is all

What matters

forever

The oneness

of all

No one deserves less

No one should feel invisible

We were born with a wholeness

And propensity to dream

For what you can imagine

is an endless stream

You can create your own life

and You Matter 

It’s true

The feelings you feel

Are telling

something to you

Blogger Recognition Award

Awards

Okay I am catching up on awards now.

Thank you goes out to  Hummingbird Redemption for nominating me for the award

Here are the Rules:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you.
2. Provide a link to the award creator. I don’t know who it is, or I certainly would!
3. Nominate other bloggers.
4. State why you started your blog.

Here are my nominees

Kimberly Qae Blog

Silver Girl

Lil’ Red Writing Hood

The Foureyed Poet

An Elephant in the Room

A Glimpse Inside a Troubled Mind

An Elephant Called Buddha

Bad Cacophony

WillowDot21

A Chronic Pain Life

Hocuspocus13

I started this blog just to explore something new. I did not know anything about blogging and I was actually just checking it out. I know this is supposed to be an amazing story about a vision, but I actually did not have one at that time. 

I developed my writing style and ended feeling called to write about certain topics as I went along. I am very thankful for the blogging world and especially the opportunity to meet all of you ! 

 

Are Your Posts Complete When You Finish Writing?

It never ceases to surprise me that I cannot correctly predict which of my posts will be more or less popular with the readers.

I can post 4 or 5 different things in the course of a day, and when I look at my WordPress stats page, the one I really expected a lot of likes on gets 1, while the one that I jotted down off the top of my head ( yes. like this one💕) ….and I thought nothing of ….will get 40 likes.

When you are blogging, it is not always the posts that you researched for, the ones that you edited 3 times, or the ones that took you the longest to write…that people enjoy tbe most.

No matter how long you have been blogging, or how good your writing is, you can never really predict how your readers will respond, or what will draw new readers.

It is part the fun of blogging …..the unpredictability….and waiting and watching to see what will happen with the words you spilled upon the page…..or painfully bled upon the page….

So intersecting. Do you find this to be true for you?

Let me know what you think, and how you feel about the surprise when something you did not think much about gets many more likes and comments than you ever would have anticipated.

Blogging is a dance between the writer and the reader. You never can be sure what will catch people’ s interest and attention. Anything that people can really relate to tends to draw comments. But you never can know if the readers of the day will relate to what you are thinking about and feeling. 

Sometimes you just stream thoughts or feelings and they seem to connect right to other people’s feelings, thoughts or imagination.

The post I wrote about having a reader from Malta was so popular and I was pleasantly surprised. Everyone jumped in and wanted to tell me where they were reading my blog from.

It was quite fun as everyone shared their part of the world or part of their country. I never would have anticipated that. The comments made the post more interesting.

Sometimes as the readers get involved, and add thoughts and feelings and experiences, to the comments, it is like the writing itself is continuing without you…..like you began the post and your readers and continuing it.

In this way, if you think about it, the posts you write are never really done….until the readers make them bloom and blossom into something more. 💕

 

💙Bloggers and Readers from Interesting Places

On my stats page it says that I had a reader from Malta. I have never heard of that country. It is so cool to have people reading your blog, from places you never knew existed.

If this is you, please feel free to leave a comment and tell us something about your country. We would love to hear.

In the mean time I will be sure to look up Malta tomorrow. You see? WordPress blogging is even improving my geography. Lol….💙💕👭👭👭👭💕💙

Versatile Blogger Award

Thank you to Peace from Panic for this award nomination.

My Nominees…

Vulturesti

Life and Death in the Intertidal Zone

Heart words for poetry

 This Mortal Flesh

Yesterday After

Love

Kay Salady’s Poetry

The Raven’s Nest

Spyro’s Blog

A Place to be Real

Tell me About It

Josefine Fine

My Nominees may choose from the several badges I have posted here. They are all different versions of the Versatile Blogger Award badge that I have come across over time. Some people like certain colors and designs , so I thought I would share the choices here. Just copy and paste to your blog. 

The rules:
•Thank the person who gave you this award and include a link to his or her blog.
•Select fifteen (15) blogs/bloggers that you’ve recently discovered and/or follow regularly. (Choose blogs you find excellent!)
•Nominate those fifteen (15) bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award, including a link to the original VBA site.
•Notify your nominations!
•Finally, don’t forget to tell the person who nominated you seven (7) things about yourself.

Seven Facts About Myself

1. I was born in Germany but I am not German
2. My grandmother on my father’s side was Polish and her parents came to the US from Poland
3. I have 4 sisters of which I am the oldest
4. I was a music major in college – guitar and voice
5. I used to play in local rock bands and played solo at restaurants and bars
6. I love Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Jethro Tull and ZZ Top
7. My bunny sleeps in a cage next to my bed to keep me company and hops around my room when I let him out….actually when he rings his bell for me to let him out !

 

 

Writer’s Quote Wednesday – Ralph Waldo Emerson Quote

Do not go where the path may lead,

go instead where there is no path

and leave a trail.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

This post is for the Silver Threading Blog Writer’s Quote Wednesday. You can see her post HERE.

Ralph Waldo Emerson was a “think outside the box” person and I have always admired that about him. He was one of the first people I read about in high school that encouraged thinking in new ways, even if those ways may not be regularly accepted by the crowd.

If my memory serves me correctly, I chose Emerson for a project but reading him was not given on a class list. The public schools that I have experience with do not encourage “outside the box” thinking, but rather conformist thinking that serves to make proper drones for society.

There are individual people in the world that want others to conform to their beliefs and the narrative of reality they create. This also occurs on a much larger scale with governments, and some certain churches and offshoots of religions. In some ways certain moderate to large organizations use brainwashing tactics to control and manipulate their members. 

I believe that the more we allow people to think for us the less we are creating our own perceptions of reality. The more we just agree with the reality and the narrative that other people write, the less empowerment we have over our own lives, our own beliefs, and our own path based on our individual values. 

It is very important for each of us to evaluate things for ourselves. When someone tells you “YOU should….” then you can think about what they are saying and decide if you really SHOULD or not. 

I love the advice that Teal Swan gives in her talks, which is to ask yourself one simple question…”What would someone who loves themselves do?”

This is not to say not to care about other people. Nor am I saying to cross other people’s boundaries.

What I am saying to to Not Allow Other People to Cross Your Boundaries.

This includes interfering with your beliefs and also interfering with your ability to act in accordance with your own beliefs and values. 

Your writing will flourish once you begin to write from your own emotions, thoughts, beliefs and values. Even fiction stories can come out of one’s own perceptions and imagination. 

Your writing should be YOU in some way. It should be unique because you are unique and there is no one quite like you anywhere in the world.