Like Dr. Seus once said,  "How did it get so late so soon?"

I can't believe my blogging fell off a cliff.

 

I read this today and thought it was very appropriate.

"If January is the month of change, February is the month of lasting change. January is for dreamers… February is for doers." — Marc Parent

Change requires action. Taking action proves you really want to change something in the status quo.

This week. Figure out all the steps needed to make the change you desire.

Then take that first step

TAKEAWAY TRUTH

Quit dreaming. Take action. I believe you can do it.

Because of my eye infection, I'm still limited by how much time I can spend online so today's post is super short.

It's also really good advice.

"Although no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending." —Carl Bard

Really think about this. Now is the time to decide.

Once the decision is made, take the next step.

ACT!

Nothing good is ever achieved without taking action. 

TAKEAWAY TRUTH

Good luck. I'm rooting for you!

Image by Alexa from Pixabay

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and I'm glad. Christmas should be a season of joy—a time of good cheer, smiles, and laughter.

After all, "There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor." —from A Christmas Carol

Smiles and laughter are the best way to chase away any holiday blues that many suffer from. 

Here's a baker's dozen from my favorite quotations about the holidays because, as Rosie Thomas said, "Christmas works like glue. It keeps us all sticking together."

"Christmas is a baby shower that went totally overboard." —Andy Borowitz

"What I don't like about office Christmas parties is looking for a job the next day." —Phyllis Diller

"Once again, we come to the holiday season, a deeply religious time that each of us observes, in his own way, by going to the mall of his choice." —Dave Barry

"I left Santa gluten-free cookies and organic soy milk, and he put a solar panel in my stocking." —Unknown

"Some people are born for Halloween, and some are just counting the days until Christmas." —Stephen Graham Jones

"Santa Claus has the right idea: visit people once a year." —Victor Borge

"I love Christmas. I receive a lot of wonderful presents I can't wait to exchange." —Henry Youngman

"I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights." —Maya Angelou

"Mail your packages early so the post office can lose them in time for Christmas." —Johnny Carson

Image by Saleh Perdomo, Pixabay

I had a doctor's appointment this morning. Early. With lab work required which meant I'd been fasting since midnight. I was sleepy, hungry, and coffee deprived.

On my way to the appointment, I saw the funniest bumper sticker on the car in front of me at a red light.

Pretend to honk if you love mimes.

Oh, my. I honked and I laughed which helped me shake my grouchy mood and put a smile on my face.

TAKEAWAY TRUTH

Laughter can quickly change a mood. I guess it really is the best medicine.

Nothing in the world is friendlier than a wet dog. —Anonymous 

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference between a dog and a man. —Mark Twain

Dogs are better than human beings because they know but do not tell. —Emily Dickinson

Dogs do speak, but only to those who know how to listen. —Orhan Pamuk

Handle every stressful situation like a dog. If you can=t eat or play with it, just pee on it and walk away. —Anonymous

TAKEAWAY TRUTH

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. —Will Rogers

Through millennia, what is the biggest killer of all? 

Fear.

It kills hopes, dreams, optimism, futures, happiness, relationships, and everything good in life.

Fear afflicts people and entire countries.

The most reprehensible are those who are fear-mongers. Beware of letting a little anxiety turn into full-blown fear.

Everyone has something they fear. "When your dreams are bigger than the places you find yourself in, sometimes you need to seek out your own reminders that there is more. And there is always more waiting for you on the other side of fear." — Elaine Welteroth

Never allow little fears to grow and take over your life. Motivational speaker Les Brown said, "Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears."

TAKEAWAY TRUTH

Choose to live your dreams, not your fears.

From "Rosebud" to "You're gonna need a bigger boat," movies have given us some memorable lines. 

Welcome to LINES FROM MOVIES, my way to share those oh, so quotable words with other movie fans.

Today's quotation is: "Chefs do that."

Who said it and in which movie were those words uttered?

Let's jump in the Time Machine and zoom back to 1996 when a woman tried to be accepted as an action star.  

About 20 years before, in 1997 to be precise, Pam Grier portrayed strong, indomitable women squaring off against crminals, but her films were labeled blaxploitation.

Jackie Brown, Amazon, 4K/BluRay

Pam Grier is absolutely fabulous. If you haven't seen any of her moviews, I recommend  Foxy Brown, 1974, and Jackie Brown, 1997.

In 1975, Wonder Woman starring Linda Carter hit the TV screens, and that made a lot of girls want to be the Amazonian warrior, but her audience drew as many men as little girls for obvious reasons.

Skip ahead to 1979, when Sigourney Weaver breathed life into Ellen Ripley in Ridley Scott's  first Alien movie. The role made Weaver a superstar in her depiction of a stalwart, formidable, and smart woman who beat the monster. 

Another few years saw Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor in The Terminator (1984). In 1991, she reprised her role, remaking her body in the process to prove she's a warrior and a certified action hero.

FEMALE WARRIOR ACCEPTED

Did Hamilton in Terminator 2: Judgment Day pave the way for Geena Davis to sell herself as an action hero to the powers that be? Possibly. I'm not privy to the financial deals that go into getting a movie made with specific people in the starring roles.

Having said that, I do believe that's how she captured the role of an amnesiac government assassin in THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT, a 1996 film based on the novel of the same name by Randall Boyll.

Where did the day go? I'm frequently asking that question at the end of each busy day.

It's been a challenging summer, and I seem to be so behind that I'll never catch up.

What's that old expression? The faster I go, the behinder I get? There's a lot of truth in that.

 TAKEAWAY TRUTH

I wish you a marvelous week in which you do all that you wish to do and need to do.

At first, autumn leaves are brilliant reds, oranges, and yellows. Still attached to trees, they're Nature's masterpieces painted against a sky blue background.

Then the leaves begin to drift lazily down, kissing the ground below—some land on shrubbery, some on  sidewalks, streets, and driveways.

In a few days, they're brown and brittle, with nothing to commend them—until someone walks on them.

Delightfully, they crunch beneath our feet, sounding like drum brushes on a snare drum.

DELIGHTFUL DESCRIPTIONS OF AUTUMN LEAVES

"Autumn leaves don't fall, they fly. They take their time and wander on this their only chance to soar." —Delia Owens, Where the Crawdads Sing

Adjustable Rake on Amazon

"It looked like the world was covered in a cobbler crust of brown sugar and cinnamon." —Sarah Addison Allen, First Frost

"Autumn teaches us the beauty of letting go. Growth requires release—it’s what the trees do." —Ka’ala

"And all the lives we ever lived, and all the lives to be, are full of trees and changing leaves." —Virginia Woolf

"The leaves are all falling, and they’re falling like they’re falling in love with the ground." —Andrea Gibson

"Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree." —Emily Brontë

TAKEAWAY TRUTH

Now, with yard broom in hand, I reflect on those lovely words as I go forth to do battle with the brown, crunchy detritus covering the patio and driveway.

Every week on Friday, Darling Hubby sends an inspirational group email to friends, family, and former co-workers.

I happily welcome September wth this quote from Rowland E. Robinson, "September days have the warmth of summer in their briefer hours, but in their lengthening evenings a prophetic breath of autumn."

William James said: "Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune."

A dear friend passed away. We'd been friends since the late 1980s. Even though she had moved away, we stayed in touch nearly every week.

I can't believe it happened. I guess that translates into I can't accept it. I thought of the quotation above and have come to the conclusion that acceptance must be the optimistic cousin of resignation.

Takeaway Truth

I know I'll eventually "accept" this loss, but it will simply be that I'm resigned to it.

“Books make great gifts because they have whole worlds inside of them. And it’s much cheaper to buy somebody a book than it is to buy them the whole world!”

Today is the second day this summer that the temperature hit 100° F.

I was watering plants on the patio with the thought that I'd repot some of the ferns, but I changed my mind after 20 minutes. It was just too hot to be outside at noon.

I certainly identified with what Jane Austen said: "What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps one in a continual state of inelegance."

I know I felt inelegant—a much nicer way to say I was hot and sweaty.

5 GREAT SUMMER HEAT QUOTES

"Books and summertime go together.” ―Lisa Schroeder, I Heart You, You Haunt Me

"What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness?" —John Steinbeck

“I love how summer just wraps it’s arms around you like a warm blanket.” ―Kellie Elmore

“Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it.” —Russell Baker

"Summer is the annual permission slip to be lazy. To do nothing and have it count for something. To lie in the grass and count the stars. To sit on a branch and study the clouds." —Regina Brett

TAKEAWAY TRUTH

Summer heat and books go together like vanilla ice cream and frozen chocolate-covered peanuts. Hey, why not indulge in all 3 this week?

Lest you think I've been wasting time and shirking my usual tasks, allow me to assure you that Life has been  frantic since late April.

Despite my good intentions—yeah, yeah, I know those are the paving stones on the road to Hell—I've let some important tasks fall by the wayside.

Life got complicated by trying to squeeze in all of our annual doctor appointments, check frequently on property we're selling in another county, line up electricians and painters for our home in Houston, and two out of town high school graduations.

Next on the agenda is my semi-annual sibling reunion in another state. Everything was taking a lot of time, but I had everything scheduled and was crossing each item off the list, but things got a little complicated.

We got home only yesterday, and we're now packing to leave for a funeral in West Texas. When I get home next week, I will immediately pack so I can meet my brothers for our reunion.

TIME IS PRECIOUS

 I kind of feel as if I'm running a marathon. When I have a publishing deadline—yes! I'm trying to finish that book that keeps getting out of reach—and I'm not writing, I get overwhelmed and anxious. I keep chanting my affirmation: "I have all the time I need to do all the things I want." I hope.

I think the next time I buy a laptop I'm going to try to find one that has a daylgiht-readable monitor because I spend so much time traveling by car—the motto for Texas should be "The Road Warrior State"—that I'd like to utilize that time while Darling Hubby drives.

I do have some blogs written and scheduled to entertain you while I'm gone so feel free to drop by SlingWords.

TAKEAWAY TRUTH

Never say, "I'm just killing time." Wasting time has an impact on the infinite nature of existence. That's what Thoreau meant when he wrote in Walden, "As if you could kill time without injuring eternity."

 

I guess it's part of the human condition that no one seems to like change. I guess it's because we feel safe in our present circumstances.

Even when people are in bad situations, they cling to the status quo rather than change. 

Socrates—yes, that ancient Greek—said, "The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new."

Yes, change is often inevitable. Would we better off not fighting it? Perhaps we'd be better to analyze the impending change to ascertain whether it will be bad or good before we start fighting against it.

TAKEAWAY TRUTH

I guess it's like the Serenity Prayer of bygone days. "God grant me the ability to accept the things that cannot be changed, the courage to change the things that can be changed, and the wisdom to know the difference."

Mary Tyler Moore of sitcom and movie fame once said: "You can't be brave if you've only had wonderful things happen to you."

I think that's true. Life tests us. Some of us get tested more than others.

The thing I've noticed as I've gone through life is that people who have easy lives with few problems eventually get something awful that happens to them. 

Those who have had it easy often crumple in the face of disaster. I've seen it happen. There are no shortcuts to get through heartbreak and bad times.

The only way to survive is to toughen up and go straight through, hoping to reach the other side where acceptance—if not peace—may be found.

You have to fight to survive when you fail, when your heart breaks, and when you lose someone precious and dear to you.

TAKEAWAY TRUTH

If you survive, it's because you toughened as you fought to endure. In the end, you'll be stronger than before. You may not think you possess bravery, but you may find you're tougher than you ever thought.