Do you have someone special that you don’t know what to get them for Christmas? I have a suggestion.
I want to share this gift with you
I hope you will appreciate it and use it often.
The most wonderful gift you can give someone is to listen.
Let them know you care and then step back and let them talk.
No matter how much you want to help, don’t.
Just listen and maybe make agreeable sounds quietly,
Cooing noises,
But don’t talk
Don’t share your experience,
Don’t try to fix it.
Nobody listens anymore,
We are all so busy
Making sure we are heard
Before we disappear in this age of speed.
Be in the present for the person who just needs you to be there
And listen.
It’s ok to pretend to listen if that is what it takes, just nod out loud.
My gift to you
My gift to me
Merry Christmas
Category: Uncategorized
Kathy wants to be a writer when she grows up. Unfortunately Kathy is grown up and still not writing, She has many books on writing and how to write and what to write and when to write and where to write and even books on writers who share their secrets on writing.
She read that writers often have rituals they do before they start the “process.” Some have prayers or a verse that they read, pictures that they look at or candles they light before they begin.
Kathy has collected positive affirmations over the years she hopes will help her creativity. Along with thanking the universe for filling her head with all the clever ideas that she will put on paper she also has a new exercise to do before she begins. She read that she should do 26 figure eight neck rolls, which will open, up her fifth chakra that represents communication.
Sitting at the computer waiting for the gods to speak she notices how painful her neck feels after the exercises. Kathy has neck problems from the ceiling of a drug store falling on her head more than twenty years ago. How am I going to work with this pain?
I could take a pain pill, but she knows that if she does she will get sleepy and not want to sit at the computer. “I know, I’ll take a toke that will take my mind off the pain,” Kathy says this out loud as she is known for talking to herself. She rolls a slender doobie, licks the edges and lights up. After a couple of tokes she no longer notices the discomfort in her neck and shoulders.
Sitting at her writing desk she arranged in the corner, she stares out the window at the trees. This is the place she imagined she would type her stories. Only a couple of minutes go by before she realizes she needs to eat before she gets “low blood sugar, “ known as cranky. Opening the door to the fridge she stares at the carrots, celery, eggs, oranges, dog food can and jars of condiments and thinks “there’s nothing to eat.”
What Kathy really wants is a juicy cheeseburger with fries from the “Flying Pink Pig” that is just down the hill from where she lives. The burger is not on the list of healthy choices but the idea, just like a good story is stuck in her head and will not go away. It’s not long before she is in her Volkswagen Beetle headed down the hill.
Kathy gets her food to go and would have gotten home sooner if she hadn’t got caught behind a school bus that made frequent stops and was going in her direction. She ends up eating her meal in the car as she does the “stop and go” dance with the bus back up the hill.
Her dog is waiting for her at the door and she remembers she hasn’t taken her for a walk yet. She grabs the leash and outside they go.
When Kathy gets back to her cottage she notices her computer is open and goes over to shut it down. There on the screen her Word document is open. She stares at the blank page.
Today 8/28/13
8/28/13
Obama is going to bomb Syria soon. Syria’s government used chemical warfare on their people and gassed 1300 people while they slept.
The nuclear power plant in Japan is leaking massive amounts of radiation into the Pacific Ocean and the blue fin tuna in California have radiation.
There could be 50,000 dogs running wild in Detroit.
I live in a beautiful town where there is a paper mill that holds the title of #8 in the top 10 worst polluters in the state of Washington.
I have two people in my life with cancer that is life threatening.
I find myself reading the gossip page of The Daily Mall to fill the space in my brain so I don’t have to worry about the “real news”.
Every time I go to the doctor I’m afraid I will get bad news.
When I go to see my mother and she hasn’t gotten up to pick up her paper I think she is dead.
My dog has fleas.
Yesterday I was driving mom around and on our way to the beach at Point Hudson we saw a car parked and a man on a cell phone waving his arms toward the other side of the street where a big deer lay on the ground with a hole in its stomach. I saw the deer raise his four hooves and head shudder then stillness.
It took me back to Ubud on Bali. I was with my driver on my way back down the hill on a busy two-land road when I saw a man lying dead in the middle of the street. I guess a car had hit him and they just moved him to the middle of the road and kept going. I was horrified. I wanted to stop and wanted everyone else to stop too.
Popcorn at The Rose
I’m at the Rose theatre and decide to get some popcorn. Standing in line I notice that most of the patrons just don’t order a large, medium or small bag; here you order a Marilyn, Brando, Chaplain or Lassie size bag. In line I hear instructions like “I want a Chaplain bag split into two Brando’s one with butter one without.” After paying for their bags they move over to the side counter and get to work, I hear one person tell another “the secret is to keep shaking the bag while piling on the seasoning.” They look serious as they consider their choices and I hear a woman say to her companion “try the garlic.” I get over to the side table with my Lassie size bag of popcorn full to the top and grab the salt. The holes in the saltshaker are big and more salt then I want goes spilling into my bag. I can’t eat the popcorn this way and go back to the counter and ask the young man if he can help me. He patiently shows me how to empty my bag into a bigger bag (I think it was a Chaplain) without spilling any kernels. I go back to the side counter as the snack area empties out and I take my time seeing what else there is to put on my popcorn. This is what is on the table, a bottle of soy sauce, olive oil, Melinda Original Habanero pepper sauce, yeast flakes, Parmesan, Silverwater Secret Seasoning, salt, Hometown Blended Seasoning, Spike, lemon pepper, chili powder, cinnamon, garlic, honey and sugar. Later I will talk to the young man behind the counter who tells me yeast, Parmesan and olive oil is a popular combo and people of German descent like sweet popcorn. I had no idea that the people of Port Townsend are such popcorn connoisseurs. One more reason I love the Rose Theatre.
