TALKING TO ONESELF...

Don't worry--if you talk to yourself, I won't let it get out. Some folks like to keep their opinions (and habits, etc.) to themselves.

But some of us do talk to ourselves, and for different reasons.

• Trying out different answers to a perplexing question--what color to paint the house this time? Is there any point in redoing all the landscaping, or can it be reworked in sections? 
• Is there a satisfactory answer to relationship problems? Is this something I can do myself, or do I need to find help?
• Am I the only kid on my block with money problems?

Lately I've been consulting myself on a different kind of question. Ready? Okay, here goes: How do I keep my spirits up when I'm facing something that seems to have the personality of an outsize boulder in the middle of the highway?

This is the kind of situation that has no easy answer.

It calls for thinking outside the box.

And--worst of all--it's totally personal. My answer might not work for you. Your advice seems totally outside anything I'd consider. So on and so on.

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So I've come up with some possible solutions--you might call them generic stuff. Or, One Size Fits A Lot Of People.

Okay, I'll admit, these work for me, but with a little tweaking or adjusting or turning it on its head, it might do the trick for you.

1--I watch a movie (or tv series) that draws me out of myself. The best ones, I've found, are ones I know well--if I already know most of the dialogue, I don't have to listen too closely. That allows my mind some space to veg out. (It thinks it's doing something just by listening.)

     In some cases, my thorny problem might be solved by the show itself.

2--I read. Could be an old favorite. Could be a new story that might eventually become an old favorite. I especially go for "escape" fiction. Like a little mental vacation.

3--I do something totally unrelated to my problem--sewing, quilting, playing the piano, looking up lyrics to songs I half-know, looking up poems (also half-remembered).

4--I seek advice from, well, practically anybody--writers, artists, essayists I've read in the past. If my mood is on the dark side, I try to find somebody whose work is guaranteed to make me smile. Erma Bombeck always did that for me. Phyllis Diller. Betty White. 

5--When all else fails, I put on a CD that always makes me cry. Yes, you read that correctly. My dad used to listen to sad cowboy songs when I was a kid. Supposed to be a good therapy--stimulating us to feel our feelings. Never mind the explanation, just try it.

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You probably already have your personal therapies. If they involve talking to yourself, then have at it. Your secret is safe with me!

Blessings,

Thursday's Child

P.S.--Happy Autumn!!

 

CELEBRATING MARK TWAIN

He was born November 30, 1835, in Florida, Missouri. He was christened Samuel Cleghorn Clemens.

If you were around in the first half of the 20th Century, you probably met the author (who adopted the name Mark Twain) in your school work. Two of his best known books (still read) are Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. And a well-known short story, often anthologized, is "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County."

Some writers claim Mark Twain was known for his optimism. Others claim he lost that optimism as he aged and death claimed his loved ones.

Today, let's celebrate the optimistic--and humorous--Mark Twain. Some of his wisdom still rings true!

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One of my favorites:

"The older I get, the more clearly I remember things that never happened."

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If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first. — Mark Twain

     This quotation was used as the basis of a how-to book on getting things done. Don't remember the name of it, but I did read it.

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The secret of getting ahead is getting started. --Mark Twain

     Still good advice--I see it on nearly every art video these days.

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If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything. --Mark Twain

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Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. --
Mark Twain

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But the main quote I read that started me thinking about a topic for this post was the following:

What a good thing Adam had--when he said a good thing, he knew nobody had said it before him.--Mark Twain

Blessings, 

Thursday's Child

 

Autumn is coming!

 

 

 SOME PUZZLING THOUGHTS.....

[THE FIRST PUZZLING THOUGHT--I CAN'T GET PICTURES/IMAGES TO COPY HERE. SORRY--TECHNICAL ERRORS TRULY PUZZLE ME.] 

Many years ago, I became intrigued by solving puzzles.

First there were picture puzzles--100 pieces! 500 pieces! 1000 pieces! Clues were in the pictures--if you were supposed to fit all those little pieces together and get a big picture of, say, a box of chocolates, well, you looked for the design of chocolate swirls, and wavy lines of the paper dividers.

Another kind of picture puzzle had only parts of the design, with significant sections left out. The thing that might be an elephant's ear was only a curve--it could be anything! Another twist was the two-color picture--black and white or blue and white; no hints in the change of color.

As I progressed in school, I also progressed in puzzles. After pictures, there were puzzles with NO pictures--puzzles with words only.

I have to confess--some puzzles are still a closed book to me. For example, unless an anagram is practically transparent, it can take me forever to untangle it.

In case you've forgotten what an anagram is, I can give you some simple examples. The word bats is an anagram for tabs. Same letters, different order; making a real word. In mystery stories, the sleuth is always looking at a jumble of 8 or 10 or more letters--and a perfectly good, understandable, word in English, and blurting out a totally different polysyllabic word (using every letter), which (of course) solves the mystery. I'll stand on the sidelines and applaud. Can't do it myself.

Another word puzzle that "puzzles" me is the crostic. (AKA anacrostic) It's a cousin to the crossword, but the clues are written in a separate area, each space is numbered, and those numbered letters are transferred to a larger area (also numbered). Eventually a series of words will be revealed, and you can read a quotation. If my explanation leaves you totally in the dark, search on anacrostic for a better one.

I've tried anacrostics with little success. But this type of puzzle is often used by characters in books and movies--the kind of characters who have super-brains.

Other types of super-brainy characters do their crosswords in ink. Inspector Morse was one of those.

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I am well acquainted with crossword puzzles, and have a regular date each morning with the New York Times Mini. It has enough quick answers to keep me coming back every day, and enough tricky clues to stimulate my brain early in the morning. And I've learned a couple of things--some answers keep me in the current usage loop, and others satisfy me that I still possess a working brain.

Another popular type of puzzle is the Word Search. Some people get through a whole book of them in no time, it seems; but I get lost with upside-down-diagonals. so I stick to the traditional crossword.

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Recently I came across a type of puzzle that I've not seen much. In an author commentary on parts of a PBS set of mysteries (Magpie Murders, Moonflower Murders, Marble Hall Murders) Anthony Horowitz said he likes three kinds of puzzles: anagrams, crostics, and lipograms. Well, we've looked at the first two. How about a gander at lipograms?

A lipogram is writing that leaves out a letter. Here's another one you can type into your preferred search engine and learn more than you ever wanted to know. It's been around since 6th century BCE, but makes reading a challenge sometimes, so it's not popular in my neck of the woods. 

Here's an example from Wikipedia:

 A pangrammatic lipogram is a text that uses every letter of the alphabet except one. For example, "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" omits the letter S, which the usual pangram includes by using the word jumps.

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I know what you're thinking--Life is puzzling enough (don't get me started), why should I think about these wordy things? Well, why not? Keeps you from getting wound up in your daily life, gives your brain some exercise, and who knows--you may solve a mystery some day because of your puzzle habit!

Blessings,

Thursday's Child

 

  

L I F E

It just has to be said: Sometimes life makes no sense. So today I'm throwing together thoughts/opinions of other folks who thought they had a handle on it. Ready?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Life's more amusing than we thought. Andrew Lang

I have found that, if you love life, life will love you back. Arthur Rubenstein 

Life is 10 percent what you make it, and 90 percent how you take it. Irving Berlin 

The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are. Joseph Campbell

Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen. Mark Twain

 

 

Hope your Life is comfortable during these hot-hot-hot days of September!!

 

Blessings,

Thursday's Child

 

 

 

EMBRACING CHANGE

As Autumn approaches, my thoughts naturally turn to the topic of Change. It keeps on coming even if I want it to hold off a little while. You know, just till I get something finished. And if you recognize some of these comments, yes, today's post is built on one I published several years ago. 

 

This time of year always finds me unsettled--not because of the weather, exactly, but because I know Autumn is progressing and will come to an end, and we'll be engulfed in Winter. I don't mean to hurry the seasons along. If it were possible, I'd slow them down, so I could savor the sunny days and the few warm breezes that come my way. Yet, change is inevitable--time passes, life goes on. Everything changes. Everything.

Today's thoughts on transition and change are visuals because I don’t have anything new to say about change.

 C. S. Lewis, known to many as the creator of The Chronicles of Narnia, became a Christian late in life and wrote many books about faith.

Maya Angelou is remembered for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, as well as for many volumes of poetry.

Rumi was a 13th-century Persian poet, jurist, Islamic scholar, theologian, and Sufi mystic.

My  story--my life--is in my hands. Staggering thought, isn't it?

One early morning gratitude--mumbled while your eyes are trying to open, before the morning jolt of caffeine, before your feet hit the floor--just one expression of thankfulness can make a difference in how your day starts, continues, and ends.

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Since change is inevitable, you--and I--might as well embrace it. Shall we give it a go? I don't promise it will be easy, or successful, or even enjoyable. But I say it's worth a try. It might even keep me from pushing too quickly into the future.

Blessings,

Thursday's Child

The tree I love

LET'S HEAR IT FOR *GRATITUDE*

 

 

That's right - G R A T I T U D E.

Yes, I know it's August.

Yes, I recall Thanksgiving time is celebrated the fourth Thursday in November here in the USA.

And yes, I recall church liturgy reminds us to "give thanks" and some of those injunctions include the word "always." Or, "in all circumstances."

So right now, here in the last third of the eighth month of 2026, I am going to share with you some of my personal thankfulnesses.

Part 1 - Daily Life

My small town (pop. 12000-15000) has undergone changes. Yet my day-to-day existence remains recognizable and livable. Streets undergo construction to keep them up to date and safe. Businesses leave (due to the ups and downs of the economy) and new businesses come in to keep life viable. We have doctors, clinics, a hospital with ties to a large hospital only 20 miles away. We have a multi-purpose library to serve the needs of all ages, babies to elders. We can shop locally at large stores, or we can shop online--shipping is often from a nearby warehouse.

Part 2 -  Opportunities 

Now that Internet is a fixture of life, I can study anything that takes my fancy--online classes (for credit or not); hobby interests on websites devoted to teaching, trouble-shooting, encouraging, providing a virtual community of like-minded people like me. Without leaving my home, I can find answers to my art, quilting, knitting dilemmas. Or I can look up answers to questions that arise in the story I'm writing, currently medical info.

Part 3 - People

Late at night, I can shoot an email to a friend or family member. If I want a quick answer (earlier in the day) I can text. I'm not tied to the telephone for communication (medical providers recognize the value of a place for Internet Q & A). I can renew a subscription online, pay bills, and many other options.

Part 4 - What I Can't Do

Change the weather--tried but the website was always too busy to take my request. Physically return an unsatisfactory item I ordered. Get my teeth cleaned or have fillings replaced. Have blood drawn without going out to the lab. Reach out and touch your hand, give you a hug if you need one. I can weep with you, though you may not see it.

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I'm grateful for all of the above. No doubt I've left out something important, but there's always another time. (Only two months to November.)

Today I'm grateful that the weather is moderating, as the season begins to change. I am grateful for appliances that still do their jobs without complaint (some after many years of service). I am grateful that I can still get out and do some of my errands, and have the help of my youngest daughter so I can continue to live in my own home. And I am grateful for family and friends, neighbors and other folks in my community, who keep life humming along. 

Thank you for your support in reading and sharing your thoughts. I'm grateful for every one of you!

Blessings,

Thursday's Child

 

 

 

 TOUGH TIMES . . .

Everybody has tough times . . . I've never met anybody who lived in a land of eternal springtime, little birdies singing, flowers blooming their heads off--and honestly, I don't think I'd actually believe it if I did meet somebody like that.

But I have met lotsa folks who have tough times of varying intensity and length, and from them, I've learned a little about how to navigate those rocky places in life.

Often, I've had mentors from my churches. They prayed with me. They recommended books and authors whose writings gave me a different point of view. They showed me how to turn difficult times into possibilities for growth. And the best thing of all, over the years I've developed a habit of looking for those ways on my own.

If you've been reading Thursday's Child for a while, you know I spend a lot of time reading. One of my favorite writers has been, and is, C. S. Lewis. I first knew his work when I was an undergrad English major--we used one of his books, The Four Loves, in a Middle English course. (Lewis was an academic in England.) A few years later, I made his acquaintance again when my oldest daughter brought home The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the first of the Narnia series. And since that time, I've read many of his books on religious subjects.

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Recently, I've collected thoughts from various sources. Around Mother's Day, The New York Times ran an article about advice people had received from their moms. What fun to read! Some of those sayings I'd heard in my young life--things like "walk in the other person's shoes before you judge." 

But the one that stood out for me, and that I'd never heard before, was this: "If you try, you either win or you learn." Got that? Win or learn--not win or lose. In similar words, I've been reading that sentiment, "win or learn," for the past several years--mostly from visual artists, writers, and  teachers, who are absolutely convinced that mistakes are good things, because they help you learn something you didn't know before.

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A few weeks ago I watched a video on YouTube by an American artist I follow, Ellen Crimi-Trent. This was a follow-up video about her father. A few months ago, Ellen and her brother were helping their artist father downsize his studio; he had hundreds (literally!) of paintings, some framed, some not; and he was no longer able to paint due to poor health. The family members were clearing out the studio, selling paintings locally and online. They'd done this once already this year; now they were having a second sale, and the end was, apparently not in sight. Their father, the artist, could no longer hold a paint brush. I'm guessing he's in his 80s. 

At the end of the video, Ellen closed with this thought, "Take the time and space to enjoy every moment that you have." That really hit me where I live.

I wish you the same--time and space.

Blessings,

Thursday's Child