Get outside in the sunshine

My Grandmother always encouraged my siblings and me to “go outside and play”. Whenever we visited Grandma and Grandpa, my Grandmother always shooed us outside while she fixed breakfast. Then I did not understand why she did this, but now I understand.

I was in a “brown study” this morning. I did not want to write anymore, in fact, I did not want to do much of anything. I decided to take a bag of trash to the garage. I put the bag in the trash and then stood liking around. I noticed that my newspaper way lying in the driveway, so I went to pick it up.

The sunshine changed my mood. Once I walked in the light of morning, I wanted to write again. As soon as I got into the sunshine, I was happy again. I felt good. I did not want to give up writing or anything else. The only explanation I have is that the sunshine changed my mood. It made me happier and less depressed.

I think that after sunrise, the first thing I need to do is go outside. I do not have to have a reason to go out and stand in the sunshine. True, I usually have trash to go to the can in the garage each morning, but that is because I do not like to go into the garage after dark. There are too many creepy crawlers in the garage.

If I stand in the sunshine long enough, usually five minutes or less, I find a subject for a haiku or some other poem. No matter, how long I stay outside in the morning; I have to go out after dawn in order to change my “dark” mood. I will add this to my morning ritual.

Light changes my mood

And sunlight makes me happy

A morning outing

A Beautiful day to write in Las Vegas

Good morning Bloggers, Writers and anyone else reading this entry. It's a beautiful day in Las Vegas. The sun is shining, there is a wisp of a cloud across the blue sky and there is no wind moving the limbs of the stone pine tree in my front yard.

I have the first load of cloths in the washer and I just heard the washing machine go into the rinse cycle. I'm on my third cup of coffee this morning and I'm in a good mood. All right, I'm normally in a good mood of a morning. After I get up and stop worrying about my financial situation, my mood changes.

Of course, to get into this hopeful and optimistic mood I have to say my morning prayers. I discovered long ago that I need to say prayers to change my mood of a morning. Happiness is a spiritual attribute, which means that prayers help to generate a good mood.

My mood affects the way I write. When I'm in an optimistic mood then I want to write more. I don't like to write when I'm depressed or unhappy; I do write in those moods, but I don't get as much written. I struggle more when my mood is dark and down, then when I'm bright and joyous.

Since my mood is good this morning, I'm going to get as much writing achieved as possible. The only way to complete a word count goal is to write; therefore, I'm going to write.

It's Raining in Las Vegas

Jalál (Glory), 1 Mulk (Dominion), 165 BE – Saturday, February 7, 2009 about 3:32 PM Pacific Time

It's raining in Las Vegas. I think the rain and the winter weather is affecting my mood. I know I'm going to have to be more observant about which blog I'm posting to. I started to post another entry to this blog, but instead posted it to the other blog. Since once I make an entry and publish it the only thing I will do is edit anything that I think needs editing. I leaving the other entry where it is and posting a different entry to this blog.

I'm using the rain and my mood to come up with a character for a story. That was what the other entry was about the character and brainstorming the character. I'm not going to write about that now, instead I'm going to write about the rain.

It raining slow and study in my Las Vegas neighborhood. Sunset is approaching on a rainy day. The rain began at sunrise and has came down all day. As I said earlier I think the rain is affecting my mood, but now that I'm writing about the rain my mood has improved. That's what happens sometimes, when I start writing my mood improves.

I don't know if the mood of other writers improve after they begin to write, but mine does. Even on rainy days my mood improves. In fact, my mood has improved so much that I'm now hungry and am going to have to fix something to eat. So I will publish this entry and wait until later to finish brainstorming the rainy day character I came up with today.

I Didn’t wake up Grouchy this morning

I didn't wake up Grouchy this morning, she is still a sleep; however I did wake up depressed. I am not sure why I have the blues today. It could be a bad dream, but the only thing I remember from the dream was my mother washing dishes; at least I think that was what she was doing in the dream. I do know Mom was in the dream and she was happy.

My mood is beginning to change. I have said several prayers, taken my meds and have a cup of strong coffee beside me while I make this entry. Of course, I should know why I woke up depressed this morning. I do have a lot to be depressed about, but everyone does. The depressing stuff I have is normal; the same stuff most everyone has.

It could be one of my descriptions need changing. I have an appointment for a blood test tomorrow. So I should know in a week or so whether my meds need changing or not.

As I said, my mood is changing. Already this morning I have written two short poems. One of the poems is free verse and the other is haiku. Now I am making the entry in this blog and I still have two more blog entries to make. In addition, I have housework to do; I will not stay depressed very long. I never stay depressed for long, it just that it is unusual for me to wake up that way.

True sometimes I wake up Grouchy, but I seldom wake up depressed. When I do then prayer, coffee and writing helps change my mood.

Writing Changes my Mood

Only two things that will transform my bad or negative mood into a good mood, one of those is prayer and the other is writing. That is one reason I keep an off line journal, I can write about my mood and the reason for it in "Writing My Spiritual Journey". In that journal, I write letters addressed to The Glory of God.

Writing those letters helps me learn about myself, which is important for a writer. In order to write anything, I have to know my strengths and my weaknesses. By making journal entries to someone else besides myself frees my writing and self-reflection. This helps me learn about my faults and bad habits, which in turn help me to overcome and change them.

I find that my muse works when I make daily entries into that journal and my gratitude journal. Both "Writing My Spiritual Journal" and my gratitude journals are off line. I attempt to make daily entries in them at least once a day. My gratitude journal entries list ten things I am thankful for each day. I do not have to make the gratitude all at once, if I can find ten things to be thankful for in the morning that is wonderful, but not always possible.

Keeping those two off line journals also assists me to keep track of my achievements. One of the things to be thankful for is achieving or exceeding my word count goal the day before. Sometimes it is easy to find ten things I am thankful for and difficult at other times. However, looking for the gratitude items is worth finding them, because writing them down helps change a bad mood into a good mood.