Just Excuses

Apology

Sorry, I have been rather distracted lately and have not been as regular with my blog postings. I am working on getting another book published and it is in the final stages of editing so I am eating, sleeping, living with that book constantly.  I cannot seem to get my mind on much else these days and that is beyond silly.  Guess they call this the "one track mind syndrome" and I have it bad.  It is not as if the book is in "stall motion"! It is just me and I know that!

I do have other very interesting projects on the go. I am just too lazy to get going on them. I know the book is just a poor excuse so shame on me!!!!   You cannot beat time. You have capitalize on every moment you have and make the most of it.    I am just stalling and I have is no decent excuse for  it. Nobody can move my projects for me except me! So bear with me while as I stop making up excuses and get on with living again.

EXCUSES --- BE GONE!!!

Paying it Forward

SNATCH THE MOMENT

With the weather kind to us, and the sun smiling down on us, and it is indeed difficult to feel anything but grateful for all our blessings.

I watch the news and see people are flooding on the Canadian prairies, burning in the far north and and in the American south, fighting typhoons out in the Philippines and living through horrific wars and strife in other parts of the world.

Here in our peaceful area, I hear our people complaining about oppressing heat! Granted I do not enjoy the 30 above heat either. But I am one of the fortunate ones. I do not have to actually go out and work in this heat.  If I did, I would be complaining too, but luckily, I can hole up in an air-conditioned building and wait it out. So my complaints could easily be classified as "juvenile whining".

Not so for the  problems of the millions of the really unfortunate people who are facing "real" problems. They cannot escape their hardships no matter what they do !!! My heart goes out to them, but that is of no consolation to them! We can only watch their suffering on a TV screen and empathize and sympathize and wish that somehow the world would right itself (but it doesn't!)

So to those of us who can, let's snatch the moment and make something good out of it --- for ourselves, for others out there.  Let's plant our piece of good where we find ground for it. If that stifles one senseless complaint and puts a smile on even one face, then we we have done "our part"!
In this world, that is all we can do. But it is better than contributing to the depression with complaints about things that are of little importance!

Family Problems For Birds

Even Birds Have Family Problems

This spring a pair of magpies set up their home in a tree in our back yard.  Having been part of this kind of scenario in the past, I was expecting a raucous summer once those eggs hatched, but even I did not expect the piercing mayhem that has been inundating our eardrums for the past three or four weeks - at at all hours of the day and much of the nights as well.  Obviously even magpies have problems with their kids  -  well into their teens and beyond - according to the "bird time frame" that this piercing squawking has has been going on for - like - forever!.


Those young magpies have to have entered their "teens and beyond" by now but they must be worst "problem children" of the  bird kingdom because, surely by now, they should have grown up so that their parents can relax in peace! This has obviously not happened and those young magpies  are like some people's families.  These "bird kids" just refuse to "fly the coop"! Their poor, haggard, parents are still trying to teach them how to fend for themselves and they are apparently failing miserably at that task. It sounds to me  like  those young magpies will never, ever, grow up and will forever be depending on their parents to supply them with all the basic needs of life!

I think this family of magpies is the perfect example of  the "true dysfunctional family" of the  bird world!!!

Sochi Olympics

Well Earned Success

Finally I can post this.  I had posted it before but then I realized Sochi was still in the limelight with the paralympics - those undauntable  super-achievers  that, in the face of all odds stacked against them, they just refused to roll over and give up!!!!  All participants of all the Sochi games deserve our utmost respect and admiration! 

Below is my original post:

Now that the Sochi Olympics are safely over and all the athletes are home free and in their own beds,  I feel I can finally, and enthusiastically, congratulate all the hard working participants  on  their well-deserved successes, whether they came home with, or without, medals. Their very courage to aspire to compete in those games was worthy of great admiration.  In fact, just going out there to compete in the first place, was an admirable feat, given the much publicized  predictions of eminent catastrophic tragedies awaiting them there.

I don't know if there were others that felt like I did, like I was holding my breath, fearing for their safety.  I was almost afraid to watch the broadcasts lest I should see some traumatic atrocity or disaster that I would have trouble forgetting.  In fact, until everyone was safely home, I dared not talk about it. Finally, I feel I can relax and express my relief.

Now basking in the glow of success for all the athletes and  for Russia itself in averting any possibility of disaster,  I have to offer a congratulatory salute to  Russia, to its security, to the Olympic athletes and to all the people who braved the odds to attend the spectacular event.  

Kudos to you all!!!!!!!!

Helplessness

Strife in Ukraine

As a Ukrainian, I find it very hard to watch the news now.  Seeing the strife in the Ukraine and how many people are caught in the crossfire of the political struggles there is truly painful to see.  I am not now radically political nor have I ever been, so I do not profess to know who is right and who is wrong over there.  If I had a solution for them, I would certainly offer it, but as it is, all  I can do is watch helplessly from behind a television screen and empathize with their pain.  What I do know is that many innocent people are getting hurt, probably on  on both sides of the issue and that is where the tragedy lies.

I have never been to the Ukraine myself though I have traveled alot.  I had the good fortune to be born in Canada under peaceful conditions, but I am still Ukrainian and it hurts to know that Ukrainians are having to suffer  that way.  However, it really does not matter what race or what people or wherever in the world they live. Strife is strife and people are people regardless of the where they come from.  We all bleed red blood and pain is still pain.  Whether it is east, west or in between, it is the innocent that always suffer most.

Oh, for a world of perfect peace, where there is no evil and no pain! I wonder if God is looking down on this world and thinking He should just start from scratch again!!!!!

Titles

Redundancy of Titles

I was reading some material on the net today that really hit home with me. It was a bunch or “writers” responding to an editor who was trying to encourage them to write by infusing them with confidence in themselves. The gist of the message was that  you need to believe yourself “a writer” in order to become one. Most of the responders to the message had problems with calling themselves “WRITERS”.

Before I published, I, too, was reluctant to call myself a “writer”.  I feared being ridiculed because I felt it was too presumptuous of me. I have since published my books and I don’t know if that is the reason or if I am just now starting to see straight.  When asked what I do, I now can confidently say “I am a writer”. I don’t view it as some prestigious title or award. I am simply answering the query about what I do.  I write – consequently – I am a writer! No big deal. You lay bricks – you are a bricklayer. What is this thing about  titles??? Why are we so hung up about “titles” all the time? We do what we do – consequently we carry the label.  No biggie! Why do we intimidate ourselves by attaching so much importance to things that really do not matter at all in the grand scheme of things?

When I started writing, I did not know if I would publish, but my motto was “even if I never publish, at least I will have had a whole lot of fun trying!" And I did have fun! And it had absolutely nothing to do with pronouncing myself a “writer!” Let’s lighten up folks.  We’re all just people who do things--- and liking to do what we do is just icing on the cake! 

A Lasting Legacy

A Lasting Legacy  -  Nelson Mandela

The world has lost one of its greatest icons!  I know many people, worldwide, are mourning his loss.  What he stood  for. and the lengths he went to, to stand by his beliefs, will forever be a tribute to his memory.

His philosophy of equality for all peoples is an inspiration to the world - not just this or that country. I just read one of his quotes the other day that said "A winner is a dreamer that never gave up".  That man certainly had a dream and he definitely did not give up on it.  May we all aspire to emulate Nelson Mandella!

Appreciation

Humble Pie

Seems like my menu for this whole week is strictly Humble Pie  - all the way!

I had planned a lighthearted poem for this posting but  I have to forego that notion.  I just do not feel lighthearted at all tonite.  I feel far too humble to be able to spew trivialities from such a full and grateful heart as mine is at this moment.

I had a very interesting day today.  A friend asked me to accompany her for an Appreciation Luncheon at a Group Home where she works with  handicapped people. If seeing those unfortunate individuals did not debase me enough, seeing the sensitivity and compassion of those care workers certainly cut me to the core.  Their unfailing patience, their cheerful and positive attitude, their calm  understanding and love for their charges truly strummed my heartstrings.  How fortunate the world is to have such people in our midst to take on such benevolent work!

Let’s all just take a good look at our lives and count our many blessings - whatever they may be. Things could be so much worse!

(Sorry to go heavy on you folks again.  I’ll lighten the load next time, I promise.)

Commercialism

Today's TV Commercials

I am not the greatest TV fan.  I watch TV as a break from doing something more worthwhile.   Other than news broadcasts, I do not spend too much time on TV.   Light comedy is a good diversion,  the old-time kind, (the modern ones are far too racy for me.) I also like the animal shows and occasionally a good clean movie will get my attention, but for the most part there is always something much more worthy of consuming my precious time.

I do know that commercials are a necessary evil of our time though I must admit I often wonder if they actually generate sales or repel them, especially those annoying ones with the animated gadgets that talk and whine.  No wonder people go to Netflicks nowadays. It is a means of escape from the stupidity!  I do not subscribe to Netflicks myself because I spend so little time on TV, that even  two bits would be wasted money, but I can certainly appreciate their value and understand why Netflicks are such a big hit!

I think the best thing modern technology has given us is the mute button on our TV Remote.  I have often complained about modern technology leaving us old folks too far behind, but that mute button makes me take it all back. I think those old-time TV commercials made some sense, or made you laugh or at least caught your  attention somehow, without insulting your intelligence.  Now we hear of somebody dumping garbage into a room or a car and then bringing "REAL" people to sniff it after some spray has been added to the mix!!!!!! I don't know about you, but do you actually have UNREAL people in your community, - or even in your country?!?!?
I didn't know we had them in ours either.  But obviously they do exist --- in our commercial world!!!!

Philippine Disaster

Unimaginable  Tragedy

You cannot watch the news these days without seeing those unfathomable tragic scenes of desolation and total ruin in the Philippines.  Seeing the devastation of that nation makes you stop and think about how frail and minuscule we are in the global picture and how fragile our lives (and our good fortune) are in the big scheme of the world.  In the blink of an eye, we can lose EVERYTHING, and life, itself, is certainly on that list.

I talked to a lady today whose son has been living in the Philippines over the last few years.  She is beside herself because she cannot connect with him.  She has no way of knowing if he is alive and suffering somewhere or if he is one of those thousands who perished.  Communication  is mediocre, if existent at all to the ravaged areas and I am certain that this lady is only one of many, many, many, who are feeling that same kind of helplessness.  And just think of those who were in the direct path of the typhoon!!!

How do you even begin to live normally after such a catastrophe???  How can we help - or even begin to? Donations,  important as they are, seem almost trivial against the magnitude of such colossal proportions.  I just hope that all the monetary donations reach their intended destinations and that they offer at least some relief to those unfortunate folk ravaged by this disaster. My heart goes out to all the people affected (directly or indirectly) by this disaster. Hopefully no unscrupulous scam artists are cashing in on this calamity.  That would be the ultimate tragedy and injustice!  

 

Remembrance Day

Remembering

 I was watching the news a minute ago and much of it had to do with the Remembrance Day Ceremonies across the nation.  That is all well and good.  I totally support it.  But I feel that it does not go far enough.  While I know that losing someone in a war is an indescribable tragedy that lives on forever in the families that are left behind, there is just as much pain for the families of the soldiers who come back injured or maimed in some way.  That kind of pain is often not visible or recognizable but most definitely no less real. It is ongoing, constant, unrelenting and  and all too often never-ending.

Those are the tragedies of war that are, in many ways, almost worse.  Nobody wants to acknowledge them - certainly not the military!  Those wounded (mentally or physically) are the forgotten casualties and quite often uncompensated ones.  It  almost seems as if the "lucky" ones are the ones that perish, because their suffering ends there, and they are even recognized and honored for it! The ones that come back maimed whether it is physically or mentally, are forgotten and often left to fend for themselves when they are least equipped to do so.

While I honor the sacrifices of the fallen, let us acknowledge that there are more tragedies of war then just the fallen!

Ongoing Education

Continuing Education

Lately,( more than usual???? or am I just venturing into too many  uncharted waters lately?) I seem to  have been pestering my computer guru/mentor with a myriad of how-do-I do-this and how-do-I-do-that questions.  She seems to have the patience of Job with me, but I am always afraid I am close to pushing her over that final edge!  This "on-going" education is tough on my old brain and it's much worse on my insecure self-confidence.

In my next life, I promise (or hope) to come back as a technical genius that knows all the answers to all the questions and has a monumental and completely unshakable self-assurance that cannot be toppled by anything or anybody!!!!     There just has to be an easy way to get all my ideas on paper without struggling or faltering.  I just gotta find it!!!!

The Value of Research

The Value of Research

I was just reading Kristin Lamb’s blog and in her advice to writers, she was emphasizing the importance of researching the material you are writing about in order to avoid advertising your ignorance of your subject to your readers.  She cited a passage where an author wrote a story that involved guns but because of the author’s ignorance about guns, the author said something that was grossly inaccurate and impossible!   I can relate to Kristen’s frustration with the author ignorance. 

I once was reading a book (by a well known author) who wrote a novel that involved ranching and farming.  In her novel, this author frustrated me not once, not twice, but several times with her ignorance by talking about “castrating cows” and rounding up cattle from a distant mountain pasture in the space of a couple of hours and of shooting bear with a “shotgun” (without even the mention of slug shot). 

 Now as a long-time farmer, I was ready to pitch the book across the room just like Kristen did whenever the “castrating cows” and those expeditious cattle drives were mentioned.  That author obviously had absolutely no knowledge of farming or ranching and gave no consideration to the fact  that someone with a farming or ranching background might read her book and catch her glaringly obvious faux pas.

  

I know that it is difficult to have a working knowledge of every subject but is it not possible to just go generic and just say “castrating cattle or even livestock”?  The specific word “cows” could thus have been avoided and the author’s obvious ignorance camouflaged. The specific time lapse of the cattle drive could also have been simply avoided without detriment to the story.  

Research takes time and effort but sometime it is time well spent and Kristen had a good point there.

Gifts To Appreciate

A Crucial Luxury

I just got off the EPL site (Edmonton Public Library) where I browse for my reading material.  I am so glad to see that  there is a good selection of audio literature available to the people that have vision deficiencies. Just fifteen years ago, I could not fathom the importance of audio books.  Today I cannot fathom life without them!  In my memoir book, I called them a "Crucial Indulgence"!  That is what they are - Crucial - to those of us who have lost the luxury of simply picking up a book and enjoying the message within.  There are many of us that just cannot do that anymore.  Audio books are our lifeline!  When your eyesight is undiminished, you can navigate those tiny cell phones and all the information of that tiny microcomputer that puts the knowledge of the world at your fingertips.  Not so for us that are sight handicapped.

There are many authors that do not do audio books and that is a pity.  From personal experience, I know that I am limited to the rather few authors that do audio books.  I am so grateful that there are a good number of very good authors that do cater to us.  However, I am certain there are many good authors whose books I will never enjoy simply because I cannot read a book. My very own books are only in the printed word so far, though it is still my dream that I can somehow eventually get them onto audio, simply because I I feel I owe it to my similarly afflicted readers.

Therefore I say to those that still have the gift of good eyesight  --- Cherish it!!!   It can be gone tomorrow , no warning, no reason, no reversal!  Believe me, I know.  It happened to me.

On Racism

In The Footsteps Of our Race

I was watching CNN the other day and the topic was about racial prejudices and the plight of blacks and other minority races.  As a Ukrainian growing up in the forties, I can almost empathize with those who are on the receiving end of racial prejudice.  Mind you, I grew up on a farm in a very rural setting and was surrounded by other Ukrainians so I was not subjected to the painful bigotry and racial slurs that my father spoke about.  When he came to Canada, Ukrainians were ostracized and ridiculed. They were the “Bohunks”,  the “Galicians”, and whatever other derogatory term the superior English cared to label the poor peasant immigrants and  that came to Canada at the turn of the century. 

I did not hear those terms myself but I do remember being strapped for saying even a single Ukrainian word while I was on the school grounds.  Use of Ukrainian was cause for corporal punishment. In fact when I started school, because I knew no English, I was relegated to be a total mute for months, until I became proficient in the English language.  When we moved to the village for my grade nine, I was often teased for my Ukrainian accent.  (I still have it, I think, but in today’s multicultural society, I don’t think people notice it - or care anymore.) I do know that I have always felt that I needed to work harder than other folks to overcome the stigma of inferiority. I am still super-sensitive to those jokes and songs that depict Ukrainians as being dim-witted, slovenly, whiskey-swilling drunks in dirty coveralls and babushkas that are the source of “stupid” jokes in more sagacious society.

The way I see it, I don’t think any race, black, white or purple, has a monopoly on smart or stupid, good or bad, neat or slovenly, compassionate or mean, superior or inferior. Every race has its share of the good and the bad.  Every now and then, some person will rise out of the populace and leave some indelible imprint of him/herself that we find  fantastically great and admirable or absolutely terrible and atrocious.  The rest of us are then left to either try to bask in their shadow or to forever try hide from it. Both are difficult.

Would not life be wonderful if each and every one of us was judged solely on our own merits rather than on those of someone else - a single person or a whole race?  

I'm A Wannabe

I'm a Wannabe

 Since I read my first "book" (The Boxcar Children) so many, many , many years ago, I have dreamed of someday writing a book.  It would be so easy, I thought. I had dozens of ideas floating inside my head and I was convinced they were all fantastic!  (Youthful ignorance and unrealistic optimism, you know.)

From the perspective of youth, almost all things are possible.  Without the sobering influence of past failures and bitter experiences to hamper or reign us in, it is easy to dream big - even unrealistically big.  Which is a good thing.  Youthful optimism takes us onto uncharted pathways that can lead to major breakthroughs in many different fields of endeavour.   Great discoveries and monumental accomplishments have been realized because somebody "dreamed the impossible dream".  Nothing ventured,- nothing gained still holds true, no matter what age.  The optimism of youth is the power behind our countless successful ventures.

If we want something badly enough, we make it happen.  It may not be the ultimate dream of our family, our friends or even the average Joe on the street, but if it is OUR dream, it is worth striving for, worth OUR sacrifices and trials and even bitter disappointments.  Each mistake is a lesson we can capitalize on and utilize to our advantage.  It promotes advancement toward maturity and ultimate wisdom .  We all need to get there. Some get there sooner and others later but success in achieving our dream is everybody's goal.

I may never be someone else's idea of a successful writer, but I have achieved my ultimate goal.  What I aimed for and dreamed about, I have achieved. I still have alot farther to go and I may never really get all the way there, but I am on the road.  To me that is success!  

What are you dreaming about?????  Aim high!

Regaining Perspective

 New Perspectives

I have been feeling rather drained of ideas and energy since my bout with some ill health lately.  Because of it I had started to question my future in the writing field.  There is nothing worse than losing your drive and your hopes and dreams, even if they are merely a hobby and not "your life's work".  That can be a very a  lonely and unproductive state, a state of self-deprivation which is most definitely self-perpetuating.

Hobbies are important. They provide us with purpose,  something to strive for.  We all need that.  I was browsing the Internet and I ran across Kristen Lamb's Blog on  http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/ I had seen it before but it had never impacted me as strongly as it did this time.  It was as if she was speaking  directly to me, telling me to hang in there, not to give up, to keep pushing ahead against the hopelessness and the lethargy and the indifference.  It made perfect sense and it hit home with tremendous force.

We Ukrainians have a saying that translates "Not wanting to do something is far worse than being UNABLE to do it".  That is so, so true.  Determination to do something can overcome many disabilities.  So I am through bemoaning my fate! Self-pity BEGONE!!!! I am going to complete that novel that has been sitting half-finished on my computer for months.  Look out folks!  It's on its way!!!!  Thanks, Kristen.

Positive Power

 Positivity At Last

Okay after all that complaining about computers! Even I am tired of listening to me.  So I promise!!!  No more!  I am going to count my blessings.  And I do have lots to count.  Sure I have had  a few hiccups in my life, but who hasn't? So out with the negative and in with the positive!!! It has been a very busy June so far and  maybe if the weather  holds out, I may finally get a day to pull a few sneaky weeds from among the veggies on Tuesday.  That should give me a nostalgic thrill and a  high from yesteyear.

As well I am eagerly anticipating a trip to Newfoundland late this summer. That sounds like such a great adventure.  I have never ever been to Newfoundland and I hear it is a fantastic part of Canada,- in the beauty of its spectacular scenery, the unique richness of its heritage and in  the friendliness of its people.

I have made many trips within North America and  worldwide in my forties, fifties and sixties.  Before that, I had to stay home raising kids and farm animals and attending to  other  farm field work. Now I am relegated to basically staying close to home in a one-bedroom apartment or to spend time at my daughter's garden.  I spend my time writing and now it is my books that are travelling all over the world, which is the next best thing, I suppose.  My life has evolved well and and I am pleased with it.

Little did I know, when I was swathing that grain on that Manitoba farm, fantasising about world travel that I would be looking back on those times through the pages of my own books  that are being read  around  the whole world, including Australia, Great Britain, Ukraine and   all of Europe and North America,     How great is the technology of our our world!

 So far, I have not written too much about my travels yet but it is still get on my agenda. God willing, those books will come too. I  enjoyed travelling  and I loved all those countries that I visited.  The places and the people in them, were truly a lasting education.  I am so grateful for the opportunity to experience them all!    

OOOOps

It’s not me, it’s my computer

Modern technology has been a blessing and a curse in my life. It’s like that old adage men use when talking about their wives. “You cannot live without them  but living with them is not the greatest  picnic either."  I think when guys s complain about “the little woman", it’s just that  mucho phrase  they use because all the other mucho men expect them to use it.  Only in extremely rare cases are such comments made in earnest.

 

But I am not joking when I say that I truly have a love/hate relationship with my computer.  I truly cannot live without it but there have truly been several times when I said very unladylike things to it, or about it, and too often, even called it some very unflattering names. Because I am still struggling to maintain a facade of a genteel dignified and proper lady, I will not divulge that terrible secret to you .

Granted my computer is as old as I am “in computer years”. Still I have not abused it (except verbally when necessary).  Otherwise, I have not overworked it by asking it to search the world for minute unimportant information, "just because I can!" or asked it download complicated files or to perform the myriad of tasks that it is supposedly capable of doing simply by the push of a tiny button.  I use my computer for typing text, emails, and occasionally to surf the internet when I require some kind of information.  The relatively few other tasks the I insist on it performing for me probably constitute utilising probably only about 30-40 percent of its total capability.  So what is the problem here?  Why won’t the thing cooperate???? 

I  finally gave up fighting with it.   I bit the bullet and bought a new one.  It wasn’t that I was being cheap.  I just did not want to start learning a new program.  But enough is enough!  I did not even bother to give that old thing a decent burial!  It's behaviour of late did not warrant that kind of respect.  It can draw comfort from the fact that it will not be taking any more verbal abuse from me for the rest of its days. 

 But I am saving that evocative vocabulary for my new computer.  I’m sure, it too, will be requiring a reprimand every so often. It would just be expecting too much from any computer to to have it always behave rationally.  Computers just naturally toss in a hissy fit every now and then. It would be a shame to waste all that colourful terminology.  It took me years to perfect it!!!!!

Just Whining Again

Woe is Me

Seems like I'm still flying by my shirtsleeves.  I honestly don't know where the week went.  I certainly have little to show for it.  And it is not as if I have been sitting around doing nothing! I have been busy all the time but I suppose, like many other retirees, I fill my days with meaningless chores, trips and exercises that leave little or no imprint.

Shopping trips, visits to the libraries, lunch dates with friends, snooping through malls, often repeated trips to places where I should have accomplished two, three, or more things but did only one and forgot (or was not aware) about the others, account for alot of lost time but very minimal impression and certainly nothing to brag about. (Oh Me, Oh My.)

Hey, but we don't sit there and complain that we're bored!!  Honestly, I have heard that complaint from some retirees.  So I may have to repeat trips, and I may sometimes do useless and meaningless things, but time marches on in my world.  It certainly does not drag!!!

Except winter!!!! Winter has been dragging far, far, far too long.  So I AM COMPLAINING!   LOUDLY!  Who's with me on this??????????