Daily Writing Practice

My daily writing practice is to read first thing in the morning. For example, this morning I started the book The Chosen by Chaim Potok. This is the selection for a book group to which I belong. I will also read a couple of poems selected from an anthology and one from the poet I am currently studying (right now, that is Gary Snyder).

Then later today when I have a few minutes, I will write a minimum of three sentences of prose or a short poem in my journal. At the end of the month, I will either have 90 sentences or 30 poems. That’s the goal at least. Sometimes I fall off the daily practice writing for quite a while. That’s okay, though. Eventually, I get back on the wagon.

Now if I can only do a daily art-making practice like this too.

ljg 2023

The Orbs

Yes, I have seen what I consider to be UFOs. I have not often shared this experience because, well, it is not something people should do if they want to be taken seriously by family, friends and employers. However, since it seems that mainstream news and government agencies are now taking a closer look at such phenomena – now called Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon (UAPs), I figured it was time I told my story.

In October 1997, I visited with a friend at her family’s beach house on the outskirts of Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico. It was one of those rare autumn evenings on the Bahia de Todos Santos when there was no marine layer of clouds to obscure the stars.

It was a Friday evening and we had just returned from having dinner in town. We had not been drinking. This is an important fact that is necessary for the telling of this story. We chatted for a few minutes with some neighbors outside the house, and by the time we were ready to go in, it was completely dark and the stars were out. The moon had not yet risen.

As my friend opened the three security gates that protected the backdoor of the house (a bit of a process that took a few minutes), I stood in the courtyard and peered up at the stars. I immediately noticed a tiny, pale yellow point of light, moving somewhat slowly from west to east directly overhead. I said to my friend, “Hey, I think I see a satellite.”

My friend stepped away from the door to stand next to me and looked up. “Yes, that’s a satellite. It’s not blinking like a plane.” No sooner after she said that, the light stopped directly over head. Neither one of us said anything.

Then, it made a ninety degree turn and started to move north.

I said, “I don’t think satellites make sharp turns like that.”

“No, they don’t and neither does anything else.” My friend was and still is one of the most level-headed people I know, the kind of person you want around in case of an emergency, yet the pitch of her voice as she said this told me she was struggling with what she was seeing.

We stared at the light as it moved overhead. Suddenly it stopped and two more lights appeared out of nothing. One was blue and the other pale orange. We both gasped.

“What are those?” I whispered.

“I’m getting the field glasses.” My friend rushed back to the door and hurried to unlock the last gate. She flung it open and ran inside.

I continued to watch the orbs. They bobbed around each other like insects do when in a group. I felt my skin get goose fleshy and fear gripped me. I could not wrap my head around what I was seeing. When I could not stand it anymore, I turned and rushed to the door where my friend had gone. I collided with her as she was coming out. It would have been very comical if I had not been so scared.

She had the field glasses and started scanning the sky. In the few seconds that I had taken my eyes off the orbs, they had vanished.

We stood outside for quite a while longer watching the sky. I hoped they would come back because I wanted proof that what we saw were real. I also hoped that they would not because I was so mind-blown at what I had witnessed.

We finally went inside and talked long into the night. We re-assured each other that we were not delusional or drunk and that we both saw the same thing. We eliminated the possibility that they were some sort of aircraft. My friend worked in aerospace and was very sure on this point. We doubted that the Mexican authorities had any sort of technology that moved like this. This was in the days before anyone had drones that could move like this. Just in the last couple of years did I learn that this area of the southern California and Baja California coasts were a hotbed of UAP sightings.

We finally ended the evening nervously joking that maybe Men-in-Black would pay us a visit and then filed away this experience. Every once in a while when we see each other, we bring it up and mull it over again.

So what did we see? Optical illusion? Black op exercises? Extraterrestrial or interdimensional beings? Angels? Demons?

I don’t know. I will probably never know. But I do scan the sky from time-to-time and wonder.

Ljg 2023

Taking Another Stab at the Blog

I let this blog lapse.  I guess it is because I post my thoughts mostly on other social media platforms.  Blogs are old school now.  And let’s go into the fact that WordPress is always changing their formatting and how to post things. Like they’ve screwed up the two right sidebars that I had for years.   (The pox be upon their platform).

I originally established this blog as an online writing and art-making journal where I could experiment with word and image and perhaps get a comment or two.   I need an audience, it seems.

Another reason I want to post my musings on a blog is so I have a permanent place to store them.  It is odd to say that a blog has more permanence than a story of Facebook or Snapchat.    For example, about twenty-five years ago, I had what you might describe as a paranormal experience.   I wrote this well-crafted (so I thought) description of the event.   I went looking for it today and I cannot find it!     So I need to re-write it.   Coming soon.     ljg (2023)

The Art of Making Tea

My gaiwan

I am on a new kick: taking a tea set in a travel bag and having a slow quiet tea (or tea party with others) outside the house.

Here are the essentials implements for travel tea:

• Thermos of hot water
• Gaiwan under 200 ml (bowl with lid)
• Decanter or pitcher
• Tea cups less than 100 ml
• Cloths
• Waste water container (perforated water tray or a bowl)
• Strainer
• Tongs (spoon for dry tea, tongs for moving hot cups)
• Tin for loose tea
• Paper towels
• Insulated carrying bag

Here is the process. This is not a ceremony like a formal Japanese Tea Ceremony where each item and each movement are infused with spiritual meaning. No, this is just a very practical way of conducting a tea service to maximize the enjoyment of sipping tea.

• Set implements on tray
• Heat cups, gaiwan, and decanter with hot water.
• Pour out waste water
• Use scoop to add leaves to gaiwan
• Pour a little hot water over leaves to rinse.
• Pour out waste water. Use strainer.
• Add more water to gaiwan and let brew for about a minutes.
• Pour into decanter. Use strainer.
• Pour into cups.
• Use tongs to move around hot cups
• Dry out the implements with paper towels.
• Wash everything when home.

Here is a visual demonstration of the process at home (not traveling) but it is the same process and she is using a water tray to collect the waste water:

ljgloyd 2022

Taking a Breather

I haven’t written for a few days because I’ve been reading. Actually I’ve been juggling a couple of books – – all right more than a couple-– but the one that’s got me engrossed right now and keeping me from writing is a novel by Isabel Cañas, The Hacienda.  I have not even finished it, but I have to say that I know it’s going to be fabulous. It is one of those books that once you start reading, you get drawn in and you can’t stop reading until it’s done. I won’t tell you what it’s about right now except to say imagine Stephen King and Isabel Allende collaborating to rewrite Jane Eyre. I don’t mind ditching my daily writing for this book.  To write, the writer needs to read.

Yeah, that’s what I’m telling myself as a take this little breather.

Armpits and Other Points of Contention

My usual habit upon waking up is to scroll my social media feeds.   Whether this is a good or bad habit is better discussed another day.

This morning as I was looking through FB, I came upon a post with a vintage photo of Sofia Loren showing her armpits– which were, how shall I say, unshorn.    Following this photo were no less than 88 comments about her armpits.   Eighty-eight.   People were arguing over this.  Over Sofia Loren’s fuzzy armpits.

I am not going to summarize the arguments for or against.   My point is that I was just amazed that all these commenters had nothing better to argue about.   Seriously.  The comments got pretty ugly and personal.

We have war, climate change, racism, gender-equity issues, world health issues, corrupt politicians, and many other important and relevant topics.  But people fight over stupid stuff like this.   And it is not just armpits.   Look at your social media feeds.   People argue over many other silly things.  Another common area of conflict is what happens on your favorite binge-shows.   I want to jump in and say “People, it’s just a TV show!  It’s not real!”   But I know better.

I think some people just like being contentious.   Why is that? Personally, I think it is because folks feel like they can’t change the big things so they get anxious and start fussing about the little things.

People, just chill, will ya?

But look at me now:   I’m being contentious.    (SMH).

ljgloyd (c) 2022

If I Were a Color

This is just a free-roaming response to a prompt “If I were a color…” from Susan Wooldridge’s Poemcrazy and the selection of a color from The Secret Lives of Color by Kassia St. Clair.    I just started with that sentence and the color, took five minutes, and let my words scamper where they may.

If I were a color, I would be absinthe, pale, the color of wormwood and anise, fennel and other secret botanicals.  Absinthe, if you don’t know, was a popular aperatif in the nineteenth century. Everyone seemed to love it until it became an obsession, until la fée verte, the green fairy, whisked them away to a fantasy realm.   Absinthe was the spirit of the bohemian, the artist, the disenfranchised, the lunatic.  Then they became afraid and banned it.   Except….Absinthe is not what it was perceived to be. It is just  an ordinary beverage with a powerful punch. I am like absinthe. I am not what everyone perceives me to be. I am just a sweet ordinary green…that packs a powerful punch too.

ljgloyd 2022

General Musing

I want to keep my “hand moving” with my writing and not let the momentum drag.   So here I am this morning in front of my computer tapping away.   Fortunately, the Deck gave up its next card with the topic about writing anything that comes to mind.  This is good.  I don’t have to scramble to write on a particular prescribed topic.

So what IS on my mind? Lately, I have been musing about why I write.  Is it because I think I am any good? No, I will not be a [insert name of your favorite brilliant writer here].  Nor do I want to make a living at it.  That ship put to sea a long time ago after a few rejection letters.   Is writing therapeutic for me? Sometimes.  Thank goodness I write mostly on a computer because I wouldn’t be able to read some of my tear-soaked handwritten journal entries.    Is it fun? Not always. Mostly it is a lot of work and I am kind of lazy.

Why then?   I guess it is because I am a bit of a narcissist.  I admit it.  Even though my stats tell me that not a lot of people read my stuff, still there are enough of you with kind supportive comments to inflate my ego and keep me coming back.  Thank you.

In all seriousness, I am the type of person that mostly goes unnoticed in life.   I have not done great things, I have a quite ordinary day-job and a pretty boring personal life.  So this little form of self-expression on this obscure blog is my way of waving at the world and saying “I’m here! Notice me”.

In the movie Practical Magic, Sally writes a letter to her sister where she wonders if she will ever be loved again.   For me that is not the line that stands out in this scene.  It is rather her next statement:  “I want to be seen.”      Yes, that’s me.   I want to be seen and I want to be heard.

ljgloyd 2022

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2022/05/04/rdp-wednesday-gracious/

Wandering

Today I found myself with a very rare Saturday where I did not have any particular chores or errands to run. I had a total unstructured day ahead of me. My plan was to have no plan. The only thing I decided was to go to a place, enjoy it, and then let that place or activity suggest where to go and what to do next. My plan was to be a wanderer today. I will not go into great detail, but I eventually ended up on a train headed towards downtown.  I ended up at the county’s natural  history museum.    It was weird to be out and about with other people. I felt like I was coming out of a hibernation and greeting a strange new world.

LJGloyd 2022

Input vs Output

It may seem that I have fallen off the 60-day writing program I put myself on.  I have not. It has just been that the day job with its incessant output of email writing required of me has left me so mentally exhausted that I am incapable of putting together coherent sentences of personal “creative” writing.   It occurs that one’s expressive output cannot happen every day without a rest.   Furthermore, there needs to be a certain amount of input to fuel the output.  

I suppose that such a refueling could be binge-watching old I Love Lucy episodes (well, actually lately for me it’s been The Big Bang Theory) or watching endless hours of cat videos on Youtube (actually for me it is cooking videos).   But instead the best way I have chosen to refuel is re-reading (or rather re-listening to) Anne Lamott’s book on writing, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life.   I consider this one of the best books on writing ever written.

Here’s a little something to uplift you.