Tag Archives: dailyprompt

Bloggers against Discord

Who is your favorite blogger to follow?

I’m not up on the media clan

I’m just doing the best I can

Words mean a lot to me

Don’t care much about the source really ,

It might be a book,a blog or a poem

The author famous or unknown,

What matters is it hits a chord

And challenges this World’s  inevitable discord.

Volunteers tending to sea turtles in circular pools at a beach rescue center at sunrise
Volunteers care for sea turtles at a beachside rescue center during sunrise

Namaste and Thank You for Reading🙏

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Carpa

What’s a lesson you’ve learned recently that shifted your perspective?

I recently learned the Spanish Word for “Tent”is Carpa. I used to think I was no good at forming mnemonics.

Immediately on hearing and seeing the word Carpa  though; an image popped into my head of a large fish tent with scales and eyes in the shape of a Carp secured to the ground with tent pegs

So the Spanish word for tent is now emblazoned in my head.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

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Warm Milk

What do you do to improve your sleep?

A little warm milk,

In your stomach is like silk,

The curds and whey,

Bring an end to a busy day,

Your brain decides to rest

Because making cheese is quite a test,

Leave it to the gut biome ,

Rest because you’re safe at home,

We really can find much ease,

If we let our tummy curdle cheese.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

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Hit 5,000 steps today and drop your achievement here — we’re cheering you on!

Walking is really good exercise and thanks to WordPress for giving us a motivational moment in time to record our steps.

For those who can’t or won’t that’s alright too.It’s not a measure of achievement it’s a computer generated goal to encourage some ,but not all.

Encourage is the word that applies to this post.Do what you can when you can. Steps are a measure,but not everything of value  is measurable .

Namaste and Thank you for reading.

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The Coffee Test

What’s the best way to deal with negative thoughts?

Some people will never be happy with their lot.They will always be looking for the next best thing.

There is a difference between inventing,designing or discovering to make progress and the individual’s  need to be recognised or rewarded.

Any economy that has been through a  coming of age period where standards of living improve immensely after  a period of disruption, maladministration and very often trauma.Suddenly finds itself with a needy grasping population who expect everything.

Lives and environments have been  ruined in order that those in the future can live their lives with a standard of living that defies expectations and that perhaps the World as a whole will struggle to  offer .

What is the best coffee to buy and where should we buy it from?Are the coffee bean farmers treated fairly are the beans roasted correctly so  all their goodness survives and our coffee helps us live our best lives together.

Coffee is a good indicator of how needy our society has become.It isn’t an  essential.

There isn’t a coffee shop called Coffee For Profit but there should be.

Everyone demands the right to pay over the odds to sit down and drink their beverage of choice whether it be in a famous big chain like Costa or Starbucks or a trendy Independent breaking the mould and offering the bestest healthiest beans that you saw advertised on the internet.

And a  mention for  the poor people who have to work and serve in these coffee profit centres mostly earning a minimum wage.Even the Independent owners probably aren’t making much anymore as everyone’s disposable income reduces and running cost rise

My negative thought is it’s all going to collapse,the right to have the freedom to choose your favourite coffee shop will have gone in ten years because no one will be able to afford to run  them as the needy population will no longer be able to afford them.

The way I deal with this negative thought is to realise that circumstances change and there will be other alternatives for the population to mingle,to socialise and adapt.

From an overheated and strained economy there will be people who “make things better”.Who stop and think what  do we  really need.?

My coffee test applies to all consumption in all areas of life.You lose one choice and you look for a better one and there is a wealth of people who realise we must make better choices if we are to survive and thrive.

So,the negative outlook of restricted choice is overcome by the reality that the will to make things better is always there and even in adversity it will overcome.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading🙏

Bowl of gazpacho with diced cucumber, red bell pepper, red onion, croutons, and herbs
A bowl of fresh gazpacho garnished with diced vegetables and herbs on a wooden table

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I think I have said this before

What do you love now, that you hated when you were younger?

I think I have said this before, I don’t hate anything. And age has nothing to do with it.

Hate is a word that generates fear and anger and really should be consigned to the rubbish bin,or perhaps only be used for artistic licence.

We will come across situations in our lives where the horror can seem  unsurmountable.

It may not directly affect our lives, It may be something we  see, hear or read about as a sound bite on the news.

We may not understand the actions of people who perpetrated heinous acts, and we may throw our hands up in despair that ignorance and bureaucratic indifference allowed fully preventable events to occur.

But hate no.It’s an emotion and a double edged sword. A frenzy of hate, is uncontrollable and can be as bad as whatever we are objectifying as a hated object or situation.That is not a good place to be.

A child does not hate ,there  may be  many  feelings and needs that they experience.If these are acknowledged early in the child’s development  then the child will grow up a problem solver  but not a hater.

So I think this WP prompt is juvenile and best consigned to the scrap heap.Not  my post though.It’s nice to stand up against hatred.

Namaste and Thank You for reading.🙏

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Over the Counter

What’s a time you followed your gut and it turned out to be exactly right?

Was it divine intervention?

Or a temporary stomach irritation,

The fact is I’ll never know,

How that day I ended up in the chemist,

Had a chat  with a friendly pharmacist,

When he said”Your  prescription is ready”

I immediately said “we must go steady”

He smiled and said “That happens all the time”

But you’re an exception with you I’ll dine,

The rest is history

Next  Monday, we celebrate another  wedding 

anniversary.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading

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Eye-Gor

Emperor Palpatine has announced open elections for a new Emperor — and he’s nominated Darth Vader. You get to nominate one challenger.

I nominate Eye-gor (aka Marty Feldman) ,Dr Frankenstein’s ever present assistant,who can use  his practical knowledge of electricity to irritate and upset Darth at televised debates.

Using The Young Frankenstein’s research cleverly downsized to hand held devices. Eye-Gor would turn  Darth Vader into a quivering wreck unable to string two sentences together, occasionally collapsing in a heap with a short circuit as Eye-Gor looks on innocently.

Meanwhile Eye-Gor regales  his audiences with his rolling eyes and funny stories about what he and Dr Frankenstein are up to now and the return of the Jedi as Force for Good and bringing back clean running water and electricity which is really what everyone wants.

Occasionally when Eye-Gor judges that Darth is in one of his depressive moods,he lets him speak.The results are hilarious with three hour speeches,about the fate of  Padmé and how his mother never really loved him.The audiences meanwhile lose interest and start leaving in droves.

There is no doubt Eye-Gor will be the next emperor.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

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Beliefs

What’s something you used to believe as a kid that seems ridiculous now?

As a child I thought many things,

Did I believe I’m not so sure,

The World was a puzzle to be solved

About me  many things revolved,

Constants were few and events many,

Beliefs were for grown-ups,

And opinions ,well I didn’t have any.

White T-shirt with black and white portrait of Iqbal Masih and text about child rights activism
A white T-shirt featuring a portrait of Iqbal Masih advocating for child rights

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One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest

What’s a piece of media (book, movie, song) that changed how you see the world?

I saw the film before I read the book and I would have watched it in a cinema probably in Paisley or Glasgow.

Forget the glamour of a power broker in Hollywood or a not so glamorous movie star with a penchant for great story telling and the pedigree of a key player in “Easy Rider.”

Enter Jack Nicholson as “Randle McMurphy” a swaggering ,blustering candidate for  a “No Irish or Blacks” refusal at a hostel for vagrant workers.

Instead he has had a run in with the Law and chooses a “mental health facility” over prison. On my first viewing of the film I don’t think I realised how much was going on. How the film railed against the unfairness of the World.It was an Anti-War movie without a War.

I have since read Kinsey’s book and also watched the film a number of times.I even saw a play version  at the Edinburgh Festival with my sister and we both jumped out of our seats at the end because there was a sort of explosion as Chief Bromden makes his  escape from the hospital.This ranks with taking  my sister  to see full frontal nudity in Jimmy Boyle’s “The Hard Man”, my sister sort of yelped when the actor tore his towel away.

Anyway, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest has stayed with me a long time.I’ve met quite a few Nurse Ratchett’s .

I have watched as our Institutions in Social Services,Healthcare ,Prisons have committed the same mistakes again and again.Why,because they lack humanity,not because they don’t have the resources.

Our Politicians have washed their hands and look to the Private Sector to deal with difficult situations.Passing the buck and just not caring.

At least with Randle McMurphy’s story I can see what they are doing and fight against it when I can.Yes they “the billionaires ,the populists the warmongers,the AI will solve everything believers,and dare I say it a very selfish “I’m alright Jack population”.

Yes, “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest stayed with me and had a very real impact.Thank you to all the inspirational people involved in making it.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

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