Month / November 2021

by Janet

Pink Noise

Never let the noise of the world overpower the stillness of your soul.

Merriam-Webster has a cool little tool called Time Traveler where you can find the words that were first seen in print in the year you were born (or in any year for that matter). I picked a couple from my birth year to get an idea for my featured image: Pink Noise and Lip-synch.

It’s more literal than abstract, obviously, and in more ways than one. The lyrics that are being sung (or should I say lip-synched) are actually the first verse of Pink’s song, What About Us. La-da-da-da-da, la-da-da-da-da, Da-da-da. Who knew? If I had to guess I would have said it was De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da, by Sting. Ha!

I didn’t know what pink noise was so I had to google it. Sometimes I’m amazed at the number of things that I’ve never heard of. Honestly, I think that one of the best things about getting older is the fact that life seems to slow down… and we finally have the time (or maybe it’s patience) to stop and explore our weird curiosities.

I found out that I love pink noise. While white noise is the sound of a whirring fan, a hissing radio, a humming air conditioner, or the static on a radio or television, pink noise can be found in nature—like the beautiful sound of wind, steady rain, rustling leaves, or even the beat of a heart. And pink noise is a good sleep aid. I imagine I’m preaching to the choir though, and you’ve probably already heard of pink noise, since it was first seen in print in 1961. Wow, look who’s finally catching up?

I had to ponder whether or not any of this was post-worthy, because it all seems a little silly and frivolous, but I decided YES, yes it is. Life is all about balance, and there’s a lot of angry and scary noise in the world right now. Sometimes we need to be silent, sometimes we should whisper, and sometimes we want to scream. But, every now and then, we just need a little pink noise… to soothe our soul… and help us dream.

Amen to that.

Anyway, that’s about all for now. Thank you for reading! I hope you found something enjoyable or noteworthy here.

Until next time…
Sweet dreams.

by Janet

Wait

a haiku

“When undecided,

Often it is best to wait,”

Said the wise old owl.

I thought the old hooter’s sage advice was pretty wise until I did a little Google sleuthing for quotes about waiting for the right moment. Apparently, waiting is not always advised. “Life is too short to wait,” is a popular example that I found. “Stop waiting for the right time, time isn’t waiting for you,” is another. The list goes on. I suppose it’s subjective, and the wisest thing a person can do is listen to their heart. Or their gut. Or whatever body part it is that sends them cues and fires up their intuition.

I’ve done a few things that I wish I had waited before doing. Maybe the rule of thumb should be never make rash decisions, especially when you are hurt, angry, being or feeling rushed… or drunk. And always do your due diligence.

I’ve been dying to write. What I’ve been doing instead is reading. I took a writing class at adult school years ago and that was the instructor’s big advice. If you want to write, you have to read. So… I’ve made it through two fiction books and I’m more than halfway through Jewel’s memoir, Never Broken – Songs are only Half the Story. My thoughts about that book will take a new post entirely, because it really got me thinking and I have a lot to say on it. I hope to write about that down the road so I’ll leave it at that for now. She seems like a beautiful person, I will say that.

I have to say that reading fiction has been good for me so far. I really do have a problem with my attention span, and I think part of it is from being an introvert and having trouble getting out of my own head (or inner world), and part of it is from multi-tasking so much in life on all of the various forms of technology. Sitting down to read a real paper book of fiction is helping me in so many ways. I have to nudge myself a lot—when I find myself reading but not really reading, and then having to re-read so that I actually get what I read—and slowly but surely my focus is getting better. And I’m feeling more balanced. There’s probably a longer story or explanation that I could get into here, but that’s the jest of it.

I would love to go on and on with my thoughts tonight—because I have a lot of them—but I thought it would be wise to do some artwork (the featured owl) for my haiku before starting to write and it ended up draining me; so now I’m tired. I just finished a free Adobe Photoshop class at the community college and I learned about “layer styles.” I made the entire piece out of various layer styles, and then I sent it to my iPhone so I could give it a painted effect in my BeCasso app. It’s a pretty simplistic piece (that took a little time to construct), and I really like how it turned out.

I know that COVID (and all of the politics that go with it) has been wearing people down—and a lot of folks (and countries!) are going through some crazy $h!+, so I want to say that I hope everyone is doing well. I’ll be making a few rounds to check in on you all.

That’s about all for now. Thanks for reading!

Until next time…
Peace & Love!

Written for Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge: Wait & Wise

by Janet

Circling Around Again

“We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time.”

—T.S. Eliot

I’ll be honest here. I wasn’t sure what this line from T.S. Eliot’s “Little Gidding” was about, so I Googled it. And I’m still not sure. Ha! Maybe the beauty of these words—or any words for that matter—has more to do with what they mean to “us,” rather than what they meant to the writer who penned them.

I’ve been feeling out of sorts lately. My sleep pattern is off and most days I feel hungover half the day. That really sucks when you don’t drink. School has been weird as well. I find myself feeling self-conscious during Zoom classes (I hate those things), and I’m constantly obsessing later—worrying about something I said or did during the session. Why am I so worried? Because I feel hungover and my mind is in a fog? Or is it because I’m on camera all throughout class and I’m wondering who watches the reruns?! I really can’t say for sure.

But in thinking about it this afternoon, and trying to talk myself down—off the ledge of worry—I thought about what I’ve learned throughout my journey, many times over.

“In another day, or maybe even a week… you won’t remember this worry. None of it will matter.”

That is truth right there.

No matter what importance we give something in the moment, it is temporary. Everything is temporary. Life is temporary.

Maybe when we start to feel too surefooted, some internal (or external) force gives us a nudge, reminding us that we are human—and that change can (and will) sneak up on us and surprise us at anytime. Struggles are inevitable. And when they happen, we go back to square one. Back to the beginning. And we know this place. So we circle around again, but this time, the hard things are a little easier. We’re a little smarter. A little tougher.

That’s my interpretation. For tonight anyway.

For my featured image… I wanted to go back to something simple. I found a rose that I had photographed a few years back and I gave it new life. It’s the same old rose, but from a new perspective. I think I could get lost in that flower. It’s intricate, delicate, fragile, and unbelievably beautiful. Just like life.

Thank you for looking or reading,
I hope you enjoyed!