Category: Writing
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Outlet Shopping…
I’ll bet you do some creative thing each day that brings something new or improved into your world. My friends who throw pots have homes filled with clay creations. My painting friends grace their walls (and others’) with colorful scenes. I’m often surprised by unexpected beauty. The other day it was a naked tree painted…
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“It’s What I do!…
I recently observed one of my six-year-old granddaughters having a lot of fun engaging a certain AI digital assistant in conversation. “I like you,” she’d say, or “You’re smart,” then giggle at the quick and witty responses. She asked the small round speaker why she always had answers ready, to any question. “It’s what I…
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Smiling Faces…
Life can be a drag. It seems all gloom, fear and scare. But going down the long road of towering worries leaves me wanting to stay in bed, curled in a ball to fend off the looming sense of doom. Have I lost my followers yet? Those who expect a moment of joy or uplift…
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Lace ’em Up…
We know to put important things first, even when they are not the most fun, like exercise. If I put it off, or don’t add it to my daily list, it’s often past a decent bedtime before I remember. Then what? There’s always tomorrow. Or the next day. See what happens there? One forgotten link…
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Habitude…
This blog is about TAB, again. A current re-read of “Change Your Brain, Change Your Life,” by Dr. Daniel Amen, is reminding me to examine the originating thought that drives a less than ideal attitude, which in turn drives behavior. TAB, thought>attitude>behavior. Amen’s book is quite dry and technical, but there are valuable exercises to…
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Secondary Play…
Do you love what you do each day? The lucky ones get to spend their days creating beauty in whatever form and go home with a paycheck. Equally lucky are those who are filled to the brim with the satisfaction of accomplishing a previously thought to be impossible goal. As humans we yearn for someone…
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Do One Thing…
ELAN Principle 6 is Make Things Happen, the basic premise being to be active in your world, rather than sitting by, sitting out or sitting in. Pick one thing to accomplish this week. We know writing goals and breaking them down into tiny, chewable bits leads to success. Taking a Daddy bite out of a…
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Square Peg…
Being a square peg means the world’s view of perfect roundness rubs against your sharp edges. Roundness means no friction, no tension, no change. It means being okay with the way things are, never seeing a better, or more creative, way. I’m grateful to every artist who resists the rounding. They see with a painful…
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Apple of My I…
ELAN Principle 9 is “Watch Your Language,” a deep well of subtopics which I’ll revisit in future blogs. Today is all about First Person. Literary works are expressed through the viewpoint of one or more characters. A story in first person is told through one character in their voice. It is “I lost my job…
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Living on the Curve…
Lifelong Learning is number ten of the ELAN Principles, my personal roadmap to guide upward and forward movement. My dad instilled in me the desire to always be reaching for new skill, new information, new habits, new joys to be discovered. When he died at 95, there were some 1500 books stored on his e-reader,…
Patty Mayeux Blog 