Summer Holidays – a cooking pot and twisted tales

Life has taught me that being of good cheer is a value not outwardly acquired, but one that is fostered from within. Why do I say this? Because day by day the vicissitudes of life seeks to weigh us down.

It takes resilience and constant mind-over-matter not to get submerged under the flood of misery and bad news which seems to prevail these days.

It takes uncommon grace to build an oasis of peace within you and to keep your chin up even when life batters you.

It takes wisdom to know that each day lived in misery is a day lost to misery and we must find moments of cheer in every given day no matter what.

These moments of cheer could be as little and as simple as finding solace in a quiet moment, a power nap, a smile, deep meditative breathing, regular reminders of gratitude, a glass of milk, sharing a hug…

On the other hand, school is out for Summer and the kids are ecstatic. I have mixed feelings ha, ha. I love that there is no school and we all get to unwind a bit, but I know that in a couple of days after mindless hours spent on games and what not, they will start singing the ‘I am bored song.’

I’ve got to put on my mama cheerleader cap on and think of cheap and cheerful ways to keep them positively and gainfully occupied without having to rob a bank.

With each passing school year, I watch my young ones’ gallop through their classes, growing older and inching day by day to the time they have to leave for college and fly the coop.

Gulp! The thought leaves butterflies of apprehension in the pit of my stomach. I hope that I’m equipping my chicks well enough to survive life’s onslaught out there without mama dogging every footstep that they take? Only tomorrow will tell.

For now, let’s enjoy every bit of our simmering Summer with copious sips of cold, freshly squeezed orange juice or watermelon. Cheers.

Jacqueline

Stream of Consciousness Saturday – Cheers

When the children resume school in two weeks, my hustle and rat race triples! Phew! I am already sweating mentally at the thought because no matter how much I try to make things work in auto control, there are many days when the wheels of my auto shuffle go wonky.

When the Summer holiday was approaching, we anticipated endless weeks of fun and relaxation (for the children at least), now the weeks have flown by so fast leaving chubbier cheeked children and their mama behind to deal with the consequences of our happy indulgences. No complaints from me. I’ve learnt that when you eat the cake, be happy with the memory and quit worrying about the calories.

I haven’t made much progress with all my work-in-progress in the past weeks, but that’s okay. I refuse to feel guilty for spending time with my family – I’m being productive in other angles. When the time comes, I will continue with zest and hopefully enough inspiration to get my third/fourth books done.

Let me make a confession to you, there are days that I wake up and wonder to myself if I am truly a writer or a pretender to the throne of writing. Is there a time when I’ll feel that my writing is good enough beyond passable?

I know that most times, I’m especially hard on myself when I have floundering thoughts on how to break through the invisible walls of this chosen path of mine.

When will that breakthrough be? Does anyone know when?

Jacqueline

Thank you, Linda, for the prompt ‘when.’ I don’t know how you do it, but your prompts always play into what’s going on in my mind.