Solid as a Rock, #SoCS

Welcome! To the:

Special Mother’s Day Edition

of

On the eve of Mother’s Day.

She is everything any child could have wanted in a parent, and this was apparent, to me, for as long back as I think I knew what being a mother meant.

Steady. Dependable. Wise.

Mother’s know best. She seemed to be the one that statement was written for.

Of course, as I grew up, I began to see her as a person, just as fallible as the rest of us, but just shy of perfect, but this, I realized, was much too giant a burden to place on the one woman I look up to and admire above any other.

It’s apparent, to anyone else who meets her, that she is one hell of a parent, of a mother.

She has been, to me, giver of life: teacher, advocate, guide, voice of reason, comfort, rock, sounding board, confidant, compass, conscience.

If you were to look up “parent” in the dictionary, her picture would be there.

This week’s stream of consciousness writing seemed like the perfect time to let her know what a huge influence she has had on the woman I’ve become.

I have a million examples I could include here, but I have a better idea for that, still to come. But, just for today…

She is exactly the kind of woman, daughter, wife, parent, friend, human being I’d want to be, if I only could be, would be, ever were lucky enough to be.

Happy Mother’s Day Mom. Xoxo.

Just Jot It January: Don’t Stand By, Let’s Talk, and the Obscure #JusJoJan #BellLetsTalk

Just Jot It January, #JusJoJan

If I had remembered that yesterday was Tuesday, that Linda would be looking for a prompt word from someone and I had earned the honour, I can guarantee

mendaciloquent

would not have been my choice. This should be interesting.

🙂

        This word didn’t appear on any of the usual dictionary sites in the Google search I did. Most times, when I look up a word for its meaning, there’s Dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster. Not this time.

There was also someone with a Twitter name that included the word in it. Really?

This prompt word is so obscure that my dictionary app on my phone didn’t even have a definition.

It reminds me of Maleficent.

I appreciate being introduced to just such a word, but instead I will just jot down a few thoughts I’ve been having today. Maybe, somehow, a line can be drawn to connect these thoughts to “mendaciloquent”. See if you can find it.

I bailed out of a group for writers on Facebook today. I couldn’t keep up. I need to find writers and blogs more organically than a list I am given and told to like and share. I have met writers through Facebook groups, but I feel like I can’t compete with some of them and the speed in which they are writing, sharing, and being published. This is art, creativity, the world of writing.

Okay, well it’s just January and I was published on The Mighty already. I can’t be doing so bad, but then why does the doubt still nag at me?

Then a conversation was had about writers and how they are generally so desperate for validation, to be read by others, that they are willing to give their work away, for less then they deserve. Some feel this isn’t right. I can’t say I disagree.

When do you decide your work and time are worth more? I’m kind of already used to not feeling good enough.

Also, today is Bell Let’s Talk Day, talking about mental health and it’s Holocaust Remembrance Day as well.

Both things are distressing to me. However, someone just pointed out that today is also Chocolate Cake Day and that stressed is desserts spelled backward.

🙂

I don’t have true mental illness. My depression, if you can call it that, is episodic and depends on how I am dealing with my blindness or my chronic pain or whatever.

I still know the pain and the suffering and the isolation and the hopelessness. I know that when something goes on and on and on it takes over and is harder to fight. I just don’t know about these big corporations who are being so generous as to donate such-and-such for every text, tweet, or share of the #BellLetsTalk hash tag. I guess I am often suspicious of big corporations and companies.

I am currently watching an interview. The man being interviewed is a bit of a boring intellectual sort, but the discussion is over Hitler’s book. (I won’t say its name.)

It’s selling again, upon a new release. I know these texts must be studied, as I said when a well-known Canadian killer wrote a book recently, but it won’t be by me. I wish it had never been written by a maniac in a jail cell in the 1920s, but it was. What happened happened.

Oh wait…would you say Hitler was mendaciloquent? From the way the word is being used in a few other blogs, I think I am correct to say that. Okay, well there you go. I used the word. Pheeeewwww.

I wrote posts devoted to Bell Let’s Talk Day and Holocaust Remembrance Day on my blog last year. It was my attempt to sort through my experiences being in a relationship with someone with depression and then 2015 was seventy-five years since the freeing of Auschwitz concentration camp near the end of World War II.

Both of these are difficult topics for me to think about let alone write about and share, but I couldn’t not.

However, I was weighed heavily by both.

It was hard for me to see someone I cared about struggle, but so many people do.

As for the post I did on the Holocaust, I was under a dark cloud all day last Holocaust Remembrance Day. I was glad it wasn’t the same day as Bell Let’s Talk last year, but this year it is and I am full of thoughts on both subjects.

I don’t know what to say about obscure words, but I don’t quite know what to say about anything when my mind is this bogged down.

I want to heal those who are suffering, from whatever it may be, but I know I can’t. It keeps pulling down on my spirit, so I need to do things that make me happy, and keep moving forward.

I am looking forward to February, but until then…

Just What is Just Jot It January?

And here is the writer who supplied this most difficult word for a prompt:

The only writer with the word “mendaciloquent” right in her blog name.”

SoCS: On With My Onomatopoeia Post

STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS SATURDAY

This week’s prompt is: Onomatopoeia, but you could have guessed that one, right?

😉

***

I didn’t automatically love English class, or what was called Language Arts in the beginning.

I wasn’t particularly talented in the subject. I didn’t get top marks. I probably did okay.

It was a slow build-up. I began to love books and writing, but I still do not find any part of grammar enjoyable.

I do a little better with Literary Devices, but still I’m no expert.

I recall a list of these devices that I scanned, willing myself to memorize their meanings. After all, if I were ever to become an accomplished writer, I should know them, right?

I had to choose ten literary devices from the list, giving their definition and using them to demonstrate that I did indeed know what they did.

An English test is still a test. I couldn’t stand the pressure.

My brother and I have had several discussions, me helping him study for this same sort of test.

“What is a simile again?” I’d ask him?

“What’s the difference between symbolism and metaphor?” he’d ask back.

“I can’t remember the difference between connotation and denotation,” I’d lament.

“Do you know what onomatopoeia means?” my brother would then ask me.

“Nope,” I’d say, dropping my head into my hands in defeat. “Define it…I can’t even hardly spell it.”

It’s a great word for a simple concept, yet when I read the definitions I get from the Dictionary App on my phone or the numerous dictionary definitions offered on Google, it seems anything but simple.

Onomatopoeia:

Definition by Merriam-Webster.

Wait. This isn’t actually that hard to remember. Good thing I was given this prompt for SoCS this week.

How have I gotten this far in my writing without knowing just what it means?

Let’s just say: it’s a good thing I’m not teaching English to a classroom full of unsuspecting students, eager to learn their literary devices.

***

This is all thanks to:

http://lindaghill.com/2015/06/12/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-june-1315/

I am beginning to look forward to Fridays and to learn what the newest SoCS prompt is going to be for the week.

Thank you Linda