One Word Wednesday: Pens

Pens are important to a writer!  A pen helps you keep notes, make lists, lets you sign your name, and gives you something to chew on when you are nervous. In order to be useful to an author or anyone else, a pen has to have ink and a ball point that does not skip. Pens are wonderful and helpful tools when they are filled with ink and write without skipping. When they run out of ink or skip then the only thing they are good for is chewing on when you are nervous.

I just threw away two pens because one was completely out of ink and the other skipped when I attempted to write down an important phone number. I have two less pens in my house and in my purse, but t he pens I do have work properly. At least as far as I know  they work properly. If they do not work then I have to find a business that gives away free pens or I have to go to the store to purchase a package of pens.

I prefer the free pens for two reasons. First, I do not have to spend money on them. Second, the usually work just as good or better then the pens I purchase. There is a place next to the laundromat I go to and it has pens on the counter for people to take with them. I have to go in there anyway in a couple of days so while I am there I will get a pen with the businesses name on it.

One Word Wednesday: Weary

Worn out
Each movement an effort
A good nights sleep is all I need
Rest is the only thing I require
Yet I cannot seem to sleep

I went to a refresher course this morning from 8:30 until 10:30 am. The I drove across town to pick up my senior commodity allotment for September. When I came home my legs were tired and I had to sit down for a while until that feeling went away. Now my upper arms are tired.

Worn out
Too tired to move
I want to take a nap
When I lay down I cannot sleep
Weary

Now that I have written an acrostic and a cinquain I feel better. I do not feel as tired as I did, but I do not know if I will go to the grocery store on Thursday or Friday. I am out of peanut butter and almost out of coffee, so I will have to go the Smith's Food & Drug store no later then Friday. I have enough coffee to last until Friday.

One Word Wednesday: Depression

This morning I'm fighting a battle with depression. I woke up in a dark mood and begin descending into the pit of depression. I pushed forward. I said my prayers, took my thyroid medication, opened the front door, made coffee, and turned on the computer. I logged into writing.com, made a blog entry called Blue Rain about the depression I'm facing, read a couple of the newsletters, made myself a bowl of cereal, and did some review.

The morning progressed and the sun rose above Sunrise Mountain. I'm feeling less depressed. I'm not terrified of a panic attack, which sometimes occurs when I'm deep in depression. I can feel the clouds of darkness around the edges of my mind. I know that the blue rain of depression is just waiting to slip up without warning and overshadow the joy of today. I can't let that happen because I won't accomplish anything. I have to win today's battle with depression.

Surviving depression is a daily battle. It's pushing forward when all I want to do is sit and stare into space. It's saying prayers and writing. It's doing housework and lugging the trash to the alley. It's reaching out and calling someone instead of waiting for someone to call me.

Today I can push forward, work, pray, go to the grocery store, and smile. Tomorrow I may not be able to do any of those things because the depression will hold me back, but I will deal with that tomorrow. I have to focus on what I can do today and not worry about what I may not be able to do tomorrow. Today I will find something to smile and laugh about. Today I will let tomorrow take care of itself.

One Word Wednesday: Prayer

Prayer is communion with God. It is supplication to the Divine Creator. Some people consider it s daily ritual, but I do not like to use the term ritual in relation to prayer. Ritual sounds like something that is practiced the same way each time, but prayer can be practiced in many different ways. Ritual sounds like something that is tiring and must be performed everyday at the same time, which is another reason I do not like using the term ritual in conjunction with prayer.

kneeling in prayer
a seeker beseeches God
for love's assistance

A person can kneel in prayer or can say a prayer standing up. An individual may whisper a prayer, say it aloud, or silently. Prayer is a daily practice, but it does not necessarily have to be performed at the same time each day. A dawn prayer can be said, read from a prayer book, or recited from memory between first light and one or two hours after sunrise. A morning prayer can be said anytime between dawn and noon. A noon prayer can be intoned aloud or said silently between noon close to sunset. An evening  prayer from sunset ot one or two hours after the sun goes down.

facing the east
the lover intones God's names
praise and gratitude

The type of prayer used is between the individual and God. The way a person prays is between the lover and the beloved. God is the beloved and the soul of the individual is the lover. Please note that this is my personal opinion on prayer; an opinion I have come to after both prayer and meditation.

One Word Wednesday: Choice

According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, choice is the action of deciding among several possibilities. Sometimes a person chooses between two things and sometimes between multiple possibilities. Sometimes the choice is bad and sometimes good. When the choice is bad then the person needs to correct that by making a different choice when the bad one is revealed. However, the bad choice will not be corrected by making another bad choice.

How does one determine if a choice is good or bad? First, you gather all the information you can about the present decision, while looking at past similar decisions and their results. Second, you pray or meditation on the decision you have to make. Third, you listen to your intuition, what some people call gut feeling, and, even if that feeling goes against the known facts, you follow your intuition. This is where many people, including myself, go wrong; they ignore their intuition, only to find out later that intuition was right.

I am now faced with the consequences of a wrong decisions because my intuition told me not to trust an offer of assistance. This is only one poor decision I have made in the past few months because I did not listen to my gut (intuition). I plan to correct that decision today! I know that there will be fallout from this, but I will have to deal with that. However, this time, my decision is based on prayer, meditation, and my intuition.