what I learned new today, is that yesterday is in the past, and whatever happened – happened. move on …
Author Archives: A Pondering Mind
Editing Your Work
“The secret to editing your work is simple: you need to become its reader instead of its writer.” ~ Zadie Smith
Question
Photo by Saliha : https://www.pexels.com/photo/dawn-coffee-writing-drink-15885836/
its …
its february its winter its cold and it snowed today shocker
Ok …
if I learnt anything new today it was not a damn thing I can live with that
Escape
“We do not escape into philosophy, psychology, and art–we go there to restore our shattered selves into whole ones.” ~ Anais Nin
They Know
i know that you know that your aunt knows your uncle knows your cousin knows that your mother grandmother grandfather your next door neighbor knows your sister knows your brother knows your not much loved inlaw knows your boss knows your mail carrier knows your milk man knows grocery store clerk knows your pharmacist knows …
To Be Alive is Grand
“I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.” ~ Agatha Christie
A Thought
With a mass shooting in a supermarket, which earlier last year. In late November a lake effect snowstorm which buried the greater Buffalo area. Then the blizzard in late December which paralyzed the city and its environs, and the people who lost their lives. And last, Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills going into cardiac …
Comfort of Feeling Safe
“Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person; having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but to pour them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then, with a breath of …
m
mind less madness mingling mind meaningless masturbatory machinations of a mangled mind
Creativity
“Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can plan weird; that’s easy. What’s hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.” ~ Charles Mingus
Coffee Cup
Rules For Happiness
“Rules for Happiness: something to do, someone to love, something to hope for.” ~ Immanuel Kant
So
so today is a new day, a new month and a new year, which means in five weeks from now, I’ll be another year older and hopefully wiser with age. since it is a new year, what way to start it off with is plenty of black coffee … got to have coffee and start …
Make You Smile
“If you find someone who makes you smile, who checks up on you often to see if you’re okay. Who watches out or you and wants the best for you. Who loves and respects you. Don’t let them go. People like that are hard to find.” ~ Franz Kafka
People Write
“People write about getting sick, they write about tummy trouble, they write about having to wait for a bus. They write about waiting. They write three pages about how long it took them to get a visa. I’m not interested in the boring parts. Everyone has tummy trouble. Everyone waits in line. I don’t want …
Tremendous Hope and Spirit
“I wasn’t attractive, I wasn’t very verbal, I wasn’t very smart in school. I wasn’t anything that showed the world I was something special, but I had this tremendous hope all the time. I had this tremendous spirit that kept me going… I was a happy child, because I had this feeling that I was …
The Mainstream Media
“I was on television a couple of years ago and the reporter asked me, “How does it feel being on mainstream media? It’s not often poets get on mainstream media.” I said, “Well I think you’re the dominant media, the dominant culture, but you’re not the mainstream media. The mainstream media is still the high …
Question
is it just me the year has flew right by or am I just imagining it it seems like we are living on a time warp speed with no limits
The Beat Generation
California October Nights
“The yard was full of tomato plants about to ripen, and mint, mint, everything smelling of mint, and one fine old tree that I loved to sit under on those cool perfect starry California October nights unmatched anywhere in the world.” ~ Jack Kerouac
Cats or People
“I prefer cats to people, for the most part. Most people aren’t cute at all, and if they are cute, they very rapidly outgrow it.” ~ William S. Burroughs
Documents Of The Mist
“Our radio plays rhythm and blues as we pass the joint back and forth in jutjawed silence both looking ahead with big private thoughts now so vast we can’t communicate them anymore and if we tried it would take a million years and a billion books – Too late, too late, the history of everything …
Tell The Truth
“The writer’s first job is not to have opinions but to tell the truth… and refuse to be an accomplice of lies and misinformation. Literature is the house of nuance and contrariness against the voices of simplification.” ~ Susan Sontag
If you worship money and things …
“If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a …
To Live An Interesting Life.
“To observe the world carefully, to write a lot and often, on a schedule, if necessary, to use the dictionary a lot, to look up word origins, to analyze closely the work of writers you admire, to read not only contemporaries but writers of the past, to learn at least one foreign language, to live …
Discover New Examples
“It always stimulates me to discover new examples of my own prejudice and stupidity, to realize that I don’t know half as much as I think I do.” ~ Paul Auster
Writing
In effect I am not a novelist, but rather a failed essayist who started to write novels because he didn’t know how to write essays. ~ Jose Saramago
Journey
Life before Death. Strength before Weakness. Journey before Destination. ~ Brandon Sanderson
What A Difference A Day Makes
Friday, it was windy, raining and temps in the mid 50s. This morning, it was nine degrees. We did have snow, but nothing to write home to mom about. Oh well. It is winter.
An Appropriate Description to What it Was Like Here Shortly After Sunrise
“The day is cold, and dark, and dreary; It rains, and the wind in never weary; The vine still clings to the mouldering wall, But at every gust the dead leaves fall, And the day is dark and dreary.” ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Growing
“We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another, unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made of layers, cells, …
Two Sentence Story
Sitting in the rocking chair, knitting a sweater for her only grandchild. It helps keep her mind focused, on the good things in life.
All Books
“All books are either dreams or swords, you can cut, or you can drug, with words.” ~ Amy Lowell
Winter by Lauryn Hill
“Everything is everything What is meant to be, will be After winter, must come spring Change, it comes eventually” ~ Lauryn Hill
Knowing
“For to know nothing is nothing, not to want to know anything likewise, but to be beyond knowing anything, to know you are beyond knowing anything, that is when peace enters in, to the soul of the incurious seeker.” ~ Samuel Beckett
Thinking of the stars
Practice Kindness
“The world you see is just a movie in your mind. Rocks dont see it. Bless and sit down. Forgive and forget. Practice kindness all day to everybody and you will realize you’re already in heaven now. That’s the story. That’s the message. Nobody understands it, nobody listens, they’re all running around like chickens with …
Your Sensations
“Sensations are the great things, after all. Should you ever be drowned or hung, be sure and make a note of your sensations; they will be worth to you ten guineas a sheet.” ~ Edgar Allan Poe
Realizations
“It was like that class at school where the teacher talks about Realization, about how you could realize something big in a commonplace thing. The example he gave–and the liar said it really happened–was that once while drinking orange juice, he’d realized he would be dead someday. He wondered if we, his students, had had …
“Our heads are round so thought can change direction” ~Allen Ginsberg
“Read widely, and without apology. Read what you want to read, not what someone tells you you should read.” ~Joyce Carol Oates
Writing
“It’s not possible to advise a young writer because every young writer is so different. You might say, “Read,” but a writer can read too much and be paralyzed. Or “Don’t read, don’t think, just write,” and the result could be a mountain of drivel. If you’re going to be a writer, you’ll probably take …
Poem by Emily Bronte
“I’ll walk where my own nature would be leading: It vexes me to choose another guide: Where the grey flocks in ferny glens are feeding; Where the wild wind blows on the mountain-side.” ~ Emily Bronte
“Great novelists are philosopher novelists – that is, the contrary of thesis-writers.” ~Albert Camus
Books
Currently reading Atonement by Ian McEwan, and Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney. Also reading The Oxford Book of English Short Stories, and The Granta Book of Irish Short Story. All are excellent reads.
Novels
“Novels are like paintings, specifically watercolors. Every stroke you put down you have to go with. Of course, you can rewrite, but the original strokes are still there in the texture of the thing.” ~ Joan Didion
Daydreamer
“The trouble with being a daydreamer who doesn’t say much is that the teachers at school, especially those who don’t know you very well, are likely to think you’re rather stupid. Or, if not stupid, then dull. No one can see the amazing things that are going on in your head.” ~ Ian Mcewan
Invincible Love
“My dear, In the midst of hate, I found there was, within me, an invincible love. In the midst of tears, I found there was, within me, an invincible smile. In the midst of chaos, I found there was, within me, an invincible calm. I realized, through it all, that… In the midst of winter, …
Telling The Same Lies
“Every time I hear a political speech or I read those of our leaders, I am horrified at having, for years, heard nothing which sounded human. It is always the same words telling the same lies. And the fact that men accept this, that the people’s anger has not destroyed these hollow clowns, strikes me …
Big Cities Change
“The way our big cities change sucks. The beauty of cities was that they were edgy, sometimes even a little dangerous. Artists, poets, and activists could come and unify and create different kinds of scenes. Not just fashion scenes, scenes that were politically active. Big cities are getting so high-end oriented, business corporate fashion, fashion …
Lucked Out
at 9:45 this morning it is 41 degrees and a steady rain about 20 miles away is the sleet/snow line it will stay in the low 40s come Saturday morning it may change to a bit of snow
Reading a Poem
kick back and relax grab a book any book whatever tickles your fancy a good way to pass the time away oh, the joy of reading
Walking
it may be cold it may be snowing it may be dark it may be raining but it won’t stop me from going on my walks
“It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: the music is nothing if the audience is deaf.” ~Walter Lippmann
The More You Read
“The more you read, the less apt you are to make a fool of yourself with your pen or word processor.” ~ Stephen King
“Life is like walking through snow: every step shows.” ~Jess Lair
Two Sentence Story
Book, coffee, sitting in her favorite chair. All the comforts in the world she could want.
Successful Novel
“A successful novel should interrupt the reader’s life, make him or her miss appointments, skip meals, forget to walk the dog.” ~ Stephen King
Reading
“I don’t always, or even usually, read stories from beginning to end. I start anywhere and proceed in either direction. A story is not like a road to follow, it’s more like a house. You go inside and stay there for a while.” ~ Alice Munro
“To travel far, there is no better ship than a book.” ~Emily Dickinson
Your Mind
“Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer.” ~ William S. Burroughs
Fear & Love
“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot …
Reality
“People are afraid of themselves, of their own reality; their feelings most of all. People talk about how great love is, but that’s bullshit. Love hurts. Feelings are disturbing. People are taught that pain is evil and dangerous. How can they deal with love if they’re afraid to feel? Pain is meant to wake us …
“What’s the point of being better than someone else?” ~Noam Chomsky
Nature
“As long as I live, I’ll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing. I’ll interpret the rocks, learn the language of flood, storm, and the avalanche. I’ll acquaint myself with the glaciers and wild gardens, and get as near the heart of the world as I can”.” ~ John Muir
“The worst evils which mankind has ever had to endure were inflicted by bad governments.” ~Ludwig von Mises
“We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget.” ~Joan Didion
December
“I heard a bird sing In the dark of December A magical thing And sweet to remember. ‘We are nearer to Spring Than we were in September,’ I heard a bird sing In the dark of December.” ~ Oliver Herford
Devoted Reader(s)
Photo credit: Flickr
“Don’t believe everything you hear – even in your own mind.” ~Daniel Amen
hmm
something is on your mind she said: its complicated he said: keep it yourself she said: fine he said: good she said: alright then he said: have a good day she said: fuck off
November
“No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees, No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds – November!” ~ Thomas Hood
Four Things
observe listen process speak
Its a Lot Cheaper Talking to a Hair Stylist
Friday 10/14
Stormy morning Lots of rain A good day to sit and read a good book or two Also indulge in black coffee The I am presently reading is: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. Another book that I am also reading is: The Collected Stories by Amy Hempel.
Autumn Walk
Photo by Michael Jin on Unsplash
Books Leaves and Mug
Photo by lil artsy: https://www.pexels.com/photo/gray-mug-on-top-of-piled-books-3150547/
My Book is My Home
Photo by hneven: https://www.flickr.com
Geierlay Suspension Bridge Germany
Photo by Lukas Becker on Unsplash
Diabetes
I’m a Type 2 Diabetic, and have been for the last four years, and I will not let it get the better of me. Photo by Alesia Kozik: https://www.pexels.com/photo/letter-tiles-on-the-purple-background-6836296/
Hanging Message Board
Photo by Lorraine Steriopol: https://www.pexels.com/photo/hanging-message-board-9123139/
Pre-Season Greeting
Photo by steph on Unsplash
Pass The Word Along
Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash
He Is One Happy Guy
Photo by Andre Hunter on Unsplash
Poster Quote
Photo by Lauris Rozentāls: https://www.pexels.com/photo/planet-earth-first-poster-on-a-concrete-post-3302183/
Quote
Photo by Anna Tarazevich – Pexels
Writing
Embodiment of Love
The Soul
“Writing is hard, but the more you write, and enjoy what you write, the better it gets.” ~Alice Munro
“If you think of something, do it. Plenty of people often think, “I’d like to do this, or that.” ~Lydia Davis
Reading A Novel
“When you’re reading a novel, I think the reason you care about how any given plot turns out is that you take it as a data point in the big story of how the world works. Does such-and-such a kind of guy get the girl in the end? Does adultery ever bring happiness? How do …
Walking Meditation
“Walking is the great adventure, the first meditation, a practice of heartiness and soul primary to humankind. Walking is the exact balance between spirit and humility.” ~ Gary Snyder
“To be reborn, you have to die first.” ~ Lucien Carr
Big Cities
“The way our big cities change sucks. The beauty of cities was that they were edgy, sometimes even a little dangerous. Artists, poets, and activists could come and unify and create different kinds of scenes. Not just fashion scenes, scenes that were politically active. Big cities are getting so high-end oriented, business corporate fashion, fashion …
“we’re all golden sunflowers inside.” ~ Allen Ginsberg
“I do things like get in a taxi and say, “The library, and step on it.” ~David Foster Wallace
Responsible Decisions
“The place of stillness that you have to go to write, but also to read seriously, is the point where you can actually make responsible decisions, where you can actually engage productively with an otherwise scary and unmanageable world.” ~ Jonathan Franzen
A Pondering Mind 
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