Whatever you are going through today, whatever you may face
Hold on tightly to the ones bringing love and grace
The strength that comes from someone who cares
The understanding hug that lets you face your fear
Hold on, look up, and be free in that love
Slainte, Lisa
I am stuck and need help. I have been rather fixated for the past day on the word “conundrum.” It’s one of those words that I really like, and I have on occasion tried to use, but truthfully, I really can’t wrap my mind around the full meaning. Here’s good old Webster’s words of wisdom:
“Have you guessed the riddle yet?” the Hatter said, turning to Alice again.
“No, I give it up,” Alice replied. “What’s the answer?”
“I haven’t the slightest idea,” said the Hatter.
“Nor I,” said the March Hare.
Alice sighed wearily. “I think you might do something better with the time,” she said, “than wasting it in asking riddles that have no answers.”
“Originality is not doing something no one else has ever done, but doing what has been done countless times with new life, new breath. – Marie Chaplan
Creativity, originality is placed carefully into all of us by God. Because He is like that, and we are made in His image. Whether it be music, writing, drama, art, decorating, gardening, caregiving, athletics (the list could go on indefinitely), we all have that originality within us. Find that thing in you, even if it is very small right now, and breath new life and new breath into it. Nurture it and let it come alive. What a blessing you will be to the sad, worn-out world that needs a spark of hope and life.
Shine! Slainte, Lisa
“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden…Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” – Jesus (Matthew 5:14,16)
Maeve Binchy, born 1940 and passed from this world two days ago in 2012, was my favorite Irish writer. She wrote fiction set in rural Irish villages, and filled that fiction to the brim with characters of all types, realistic daily happenings that somehow never seemed boring, and some of the best dialogue writing I have ever read. When you read her books, you felt as if you were transported to that Irish town, and had suddenly become close personal friends with the characters by the intimate writing voice she used.
I didn’t always like her characters or the choices they made…sometimes they made bad decisions that I didn’t agree with. But they were always real. Binchy’s characters weren’t flimsy, stereotypical fabrications; they seemed like people you run into everyday. People making good and bad decisions, people making decisions that affect the rest of their lives one way or the other.
So thank you, Maeve Binchy, for giving me so many wonderful reading hours beside your stories. I enjoyed every one of them, and will enjoy many more when I re-read them. Slainte, Lisa
The older I get, the more I realize how much I don’t know. Yesterday, my husband casually stated in conversation, “Don’t worry; it’s copacetic.” Copacetic? I was convinced that he had made this word up, or that I had misheard him. “What did you say?” I asked him. “You know, ‘copacetic;’ everything’s good,” he continued.
In all my years of living and reading, I had never heard this word. I mean, Ed & I have known each other since we were 14 and have run in basically the same circles, yet he was extremely comfortable in casually using this word in his daily conversation. Yet copacetic and I were strangers to each other. I was floored and wierdly excited about this turn of events. Yes, I am a word geek, truth be told.
Here is the meaning and pronunciation from Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary:
When Ed & Joshua are chilling out on the rocks, everything’s “copacetic.”
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