Arts and Crafts, Creativity, Intentionality, Mental Health, Mindset, Positivity, Words, Writing

Re-Re-Re: Post Number 4 on St. Patrick’s Day

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The word I’m feeling right now that begins with my favorite prefix, “re”, is “reframe”. It means a couple of different things to me. One is that it’s a mental health trick that I’ve used to my benefit over the years. It’s when you hear yourself lamenting about something, (which is perfectly human and normal and acceptable), but you know you don’t want to get stuck in it. It’s a way to readjust your attitude.

An example could be if you’re thinking “I don’t wanna work, I wanna play on the drums all day“. You turn that off and allow yourself a deep breath and then do a little reframe. Like, perhaps, “I get to go to work. I get to see other people who I care about and have conversations and make a little money to spend when I’m not working”.

This trick ‘o mine (hey it is St. Patrick’s Day today after all. I might even share an original limerick at the end of this post) may seem oversimplistic. It might be, but it helps me when I am stressing or feeling crummy towards whatever the thing is that I don’t want to but must face that day. You should give it a try!

The other meaning of the word “reframe” for me is about pictures and art. Repurposing things I see and putting them in frames is the most recent creative instinct pulling at me. I even bought picture frames at Goodwill the other day. One is for a specific person that I will pick just the right photo for as a gift for an upcoming summer holiday. The other frames-well, I’m choosing to trust that the universe will point my eyes towards the images that belong inside of them. It wouldn’t hurt to revisit (ha ha but seriously I’m by no means done with revisiting things) the old gray plastic tub ‘o photos in the basement laundry room space I just finished reorganizing.

I think the commonality between these two things, reframing art and reframing our thoughts, is that they change the way we see things. They are about vision and forward motion through an intentional lens.

Now I told you all that I was going to share an original limerick in this blog post and in the process of google-searching all about limericks, I learned that May 12 is National Limerick Day. That’s because the person who invented limericks, Edward Lear, was born on that day. Bet you didn’t know that!

Here goes nothing:

There was an old crone who called herself Polly

who tried to always keep things jolly

One day she wrote her first limerick

and hoped with her readers it would stick

and delight with her in that folly

What might you endeavor to reframe in your life? Maybe something simple like a picture, or an attitude towards someone or something?

Now, as a lifelong fan of the Beatles, I can’t pick a favorite. I resist any silly quizzes online that demand I do so. But, I can say for certain that Ringo is in my top 4. Ha ha! Here’s a tune from Ringo (who just turned 85 and actually released a new album if you can believe it) that I’ve always found to be such a bittersweet, yet catchy, little ditty.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Creativity, Grandparenting, Humor, Intentionality, Lifestyle, Reading, Self Improvement, Time

Re-Re-Re: Post Number Three

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Historically, I’ve been more of an anti-revisiting stuff type of person. My time and energy are valuable. On many fronts, I’m just not interested in rehashing what was. Most of the time, I’m interested in moving on to the next right thing in my life. While of course doing my best to remain present in the present.

How about you?

There are exceptions, however. Some things, experiences, and places are worth a revisit now and again.

Maybe for you it’s an old sweater from your college days, or your 8th grade journals. Or an album you loved that you played on repeat in your room while deeply appreciating the artwork or lyrics on that album’s cover.

Maybe it was a food you used to love making when you came home from that soul-depleting job you had when you were 31. Mine was elbow macaroni swimming in a sea of melted Velveeta and chopped up hot dogs(in my defense, I did have small kids at the time). Maybe it’s a place, like that dive bar you and your sister went to on your first night in Wichita or that one shady little spot on your favorite lake that used to be full of walleye.

What sorts of things or experiences would you want to revisit in your life? For personal growth, or even just for fun?

When it comes to things I find value in revisiting, I instantly think of books.

As I’m currently at the tail end of a breath-of-fresh-air, collaborative, and inspirational self-help/memoir, The Book of Alchemy, by Suleika Jaouad, I’ve started to consider what to read next.

It’s probably going to be this:

Yet, as I donated a trash bag full of books to our local thrift store last week (and there’s more where that came from), it occurred to me that taking stock of the books left behind is not an unwise use of my time.

Some of the books I own are bona fide keepers. These are the ones I’m compelled to return to when I’m feeling uninspired or bothered by something. The ones that contain wisdom and inspire me as a woman and a creative being. The books that I can pick up and learn something new from every time, or at the very least, remind myself of a passage that struck me on the first (or even second or third) pass.

Like this bunch of mine:

Top to bottom: Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott, Atomic Habits, by James Clear, The Crystal Bible by Judy Hall, You Are A Badass by Jen Sincero, Atlas of the Heart, by Brene Brown, The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron, and When We Were Invincible by Becky Kliss. A host of reasons why these are such keepers.

I’m curious: do you have books like that? Ones you can’t bear to part with because you know you’ll revisit them someday?

One experience I would like to revisit is making pottery. I recently did this for the first time, as an “experience” gift for Christmas from and with my SIL. This was a prime example of me embracing trying something new that I might suck at. I absolutely did both the embracing and the sucking. But…I enjoyed the experience. I created one potentially usable small bowl that day. Usable for what remains to be seen, but we’ll see when we go back in another few weeks for the painting portion of this experience. It turns out that one can rent the potter’s wheel. I’m thinking without any strangers around for me to compare myself to, I could eventually improve my form and create a cool, absolutely usable piece.

What experience might you want to revisit? Is there something that you’d like to have another go at?

As far as places to revisit, for me it’s Washington, D.C. This should come as no surprise to any readers of this blog who’ve been around for awhile. The thing about revisiting our nation’s capital is that there is such a vast array of things to do, see, and experience there. Only when I do revisit Washington, D.C., it’ll (hopefully) be with a grandson or two in tow. That way, I can revisit it with at least one extra pair of new, curious eyes.

I’m going to cap this blog post off with a song from The Little River Band’s Greatest Hits album, an album I played frequently as a teen in the 80’s. An album I’ll be hunting for next time I’m in a thrift store. It’s worth a revisit.

America, American Politics, Hope, Imagination, Positivity

Re-re-re: #2 in my series

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The meaning of the prefix “re” (my favorite one, as referenced in my last blog post) is “again”.

What do you suppose would be something you’d want to circle back to in your life? To begin again with the wisdom you’ve gained since your last attempt? Or maybe there’s nothing appealing to you about re-imagining a second try at an aspect of your personal life. Perhaps for you, it’d be more a re-imagining of our world, or of the country you live in, for the better?

Those are some big questions, I know. But we all have this thing that no one can take away from us. It’s in our soul; it’s part of our spirit. It is our imagination.

Yes, the “re” word I’m choosing for this entry in this blog series is “re-imagine”. At the risk of ridicule from any readers who might think I’m skipping around in a fantasy land wearing rose-colored glasses, I’ll have you know that my glasses are actually purple. My point is that I’m choosing to re-imagine a brighter future for this country that I love. Because I have faith in and love for my fellow Americans.

It seems worthwhile to stop and think of it like our current power-holders and the people working at their behest have with their “Project 2025”. Only our version would be the people’s project: “Project 2029”. A re-imagined America.

The fact of the matter is that Mr. Trump is not going to live forever, and more damning truths are coming out every day (credit to independent journalism #epsteinfiles). It seems clear that this iteration of American governance is not sustainable. And I think it’s safe to say that the vast majority of Americans want to be done with this current administration and move towards something better.

That begs the question: what’ll be next? What do we, the people, want our government to look like when this is all over? After we’ve surveyed the damage, cleaned up the debris, and processed what we have been through for the last decade?

This of course does not mean I don’t acknowledge that getting from here to there is likely going to be a hellscape of unprecedented proportions. But we Americans are scrappy, and we have political humor and springtime and puppies and new babies and other joys that ground us and keep us sane. This is what will get us through to the other side.

Because I believe this is an important conversation for Americans to have, I invite you to respond to the list I’m about to share and add your own wishes for a re-imagined America. Know that this list is not comprehensive, but it’s a start.

In my re-imagined America (Project 2029), we’d have:

  • Universal Healthcare
  • Legal Abortion
  • Billionaires taxed out of existence
  • Experts back at their federal government positions and a restoration of all federal workers fired during this administration’s reign, starting with FEMA
  • Great financial investments in education, job creation, and addressing climate change

I think if we all ponder what might be on our lists of what a re-imagined America would look like, we could then look for the leaders who are in alignment with our wish lists and support them in whatever way we can.

Or maybe just think of this exercise as a happy distraction from the daily yuck. Looking for the helpers is what we’re supposed to do in times like these, according to our friend Mr. Rogers, right?

Black History Month, Connections, Diversity, Grandparenting, Music, Positivity, Respect

Re-Re-Re: 1st post in a series

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Alright, my word nerd friends: do you have a favorite prefix-a short couple of letters that precede a word that changes that word’s meaning?

I do. It’s “re”. There are are multitude of remarkable words that start with this prefix, which is why I’m saying with uncustomary confidence that this is the first in a series of blog posts about “re”.

But first.

I’m going to start with a word that begins with the letters “r” and “e” but isn’t the prefix “re”.

That would be the word “respect”, or as Miss Aretha crowed “R.E.S.P.E.C.T.” She also belted out “re-re-re-re” in that iconic song, which has been firmly lodged into my songbrain since at least last week. The best line in that song is one in which Aretha demonstrates how she has respect for herself: “I’m about to give you all of my money. And all I’m asking for in return honey is to give me my propers when you get home.” A woman clearly stating what she expects and why she deserves it. That, I respect.

Another artist I respect and appreciate is Roberta Flack. She is most certainly in my top 5 of all-time favorite female singers. I caught the portion of the 2026 Grammys where she was honored (she died one year ago today, actually) and it occured to me just how much I love her voice. Her song “Killing Me Softly” breaks open my heart every time I hear it. The vulnerability in the lyrics and how she delivers them is nothing short of breathtaking. Rocking my 7 month-old grandson the other day, I found myself playing Roberta’s songs on Spotify and was reminded of the duets she did (like this one) with Donny Hathaway. Doing a little bit of googling for this blog post, I learned that the two of them met as students at Howard University. I found this interesting article about Roberta’s lasting influence at Howard and her musical partnership with Donny. You can check it out here.

In the course of my online exploration of Roberta’s life and music, I found myself wondering if Aretha and Roberta’s paths ever crossed. Answer: they did.

They took the stage, along with Sarah Vaughn and Peggy Lee, in 1973 to honor Duke Ellington. I’ll share the video here, though it’s pretty grainy. Those gowns, right?

As it’s Black History Month, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention other black artists whose talent I respect.

There’s the iconic Prince, born and raised in Minneapolis, a city dear to my heart. His passing, almost 10 years ago now, was such a shock, wasn’t it? He was a one-of-a-kind artist who was unapologetically and beautifully himself.

The powerhouse vocalist and performer Tina Turner. The strikingly handsome, talented change agent Harry Belafonte. Bill Withers, who lifted us all up with songs like “Lovely Day” and “Lean on Me”. The man who also gave us that perfectly soulful and funky song “Use Me” and the classic “Ain’t No Sunshine”.

It appears it’s time to make myself a new Spotify playlist so that I can marinate in these wondrous, passionate black voices and share their talent with the young ones in my life.

Ambition, Home Improvement, Intentionality, Lifestyle, Mindset, Positivity, Wisdom

Rewards Can Come From Slow Progress

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Before I launch into a regular routine of dancing in my rec room, as I mentioned in a recent blog post, I’ve decided to work on a project in the space adjacent to my basement rec room: organizing my laundry/storage room.

The madness of the Christmas season had its way with this space, and it became quite the hot mess. Christmas decor strewn about, haphazardly tucked into plastic bins, many of which had no lids. I bought several very large bins with lids last fall, as I anticipated this moment of reckoning would come.

So, for the last week I’ve been piece-mealing my way towards having a clean and organized space down there. There was a time in my adult life where it would have driven me nuts to just do a small portion of a task such as this, leaving more to be done another day. I would have obsessed over it in my head and said unkind things to myself about my work ethic.

However, as a result of age and the wisdom that sometimes accompanies it, now I’m embracing the practice of moving forward without judging how much progress I make each day. It’s a great mind trick that I highly recommend. I figure that at the end of this project, when everything is neat and organized in that space, I can celebrate with a solo dance party.

What struck me as I was doing this is that there’s this little, unexpected reward that comes out of this endeavor: uncovering things I forgot I had. Things I actually still like and have use for. That’s along with things I knew I had but didn’t know where. Like the three pieces of Valentine’s Day home decor I found two days ago. Perfect timing.

The sweet, unexpected reward for doing an organizing project like this is that it naturally evolves into a treasure hunt!

And I do love a good treasure hunt. How about you?

Given a list, or making up a list, of things to search for is exciting to me. It gets me moving and puts me in a forward-thinking state of mind. It’s motivating and playful. Like when I go thrift store shopping (one of my most favorite hobbies) with a little list tucked into my purse. It gives me a little hit of dopamine whenever I find just what I was looking for.

Dopamine is a thing to appreciate in these times, don’t you think?

The difference between that type of treasure hunt and the treasure hunt I’m doing now in my basement is that in my own space, there is no list. It’s primarily just surprise after surprise, which makes the whole thing fun to me. And it motivates me to keep going. It just goes to show that there are rewards, even simple ones like finding lost treasures, to be had from consistently moving forward, regardless of your pace.

America, Anger, Minnesconsin, Neighbors, Protests

In Solidarity with My Home State

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The shock and horror I feel about what is happening now in my home state of Minnesota cannot be adequately encapsulated in words today.

Nonetheless, I’ll try-from my perch just across the border in Wisconsin.

At 37, Renee Good and Alex Pretti were in the prime of their lives. They were, by all accounts, good people. Upstanding citizens who cared about their fellow humans. Who caused no harm while exercising their First Amendment rights, standing bravely against evil-doers fixing to harm their fellow Minnesotans and wreak havoc within the city of Minneapolis.

Alex was also exercising his Second Amendment rights. A good guy with a gun; how horrifically ironic. He was an ICU nurse at the VA. Think about that for a second. Every American reading this right now can easily come up with an image in their mind’s eye of a person they personally know who served in the U.S. military. Like my Dad, Babe, who served in the Korean War. If he were here in the flesh now, in January of 2026, he’d be livid. Absolutely wild with rage at these morally injurious times we have landed our American asses in. Alex cared for vets like my Dad.

And Renee. A mother of three and a poet. What a cutie. She was fresh-faced and appeared to be very kind. She even told her executioner, “hey man, I’m not mad at you”.

This is just so heartbreaking, and it sickens me that the federal agents who murdered these two have not been arrested. That is unacceptable.

From my lips to Karma’s ear, may justice be complete and swift for all of those responsible for these atrocities. Every last one of them.

I’ve always been proud to be from Minnesota. But these days, I’m even more proud because of the groundswell of support I’m seeing from Minnesotans for their neighbors in these horrifying times.

I’m proud that the people of my home state are simply not having it. Some are banging their drums outside in the frigid temps with anti-ICE signs propped up next to their drum kits. Some are marching in the streets, singing the songs of solidarity. Some are organizing food trains for their immigrant friends and neighbors who are too fearful to venture beyond their front doors.

A little cold air and ice (and now, ICE) isn’t keeping the hearty Minnesotans away from taking to the streets and standing up to the bullies in their midst. Minnesotans are nice, of course. Duh. But that goes hand-in-hand with being no-nonsense, gritty, honest, and hard-working. Minnesotans, by and large, take no crap. They do not hesitate to call out b.s. when they see it.

From Governor Tim Walz, to the police chiefs, to the mayors and the brave protesters in my home state, I say with sincerity, may God (or the Universe) bless you. Keep up the good fight and never lose hope.

A lot of us have your backs.

ICE OUT of Minnesota!

Dance, Dancing, Fun, GenX, Humor, Lifestyle, Self Improvement, Storytelling, Wisdom

The Elephant In My Rec Room

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Meet my elephant.

This elephant, aka Nordictrack elliptical machine, has been living rent-free in my rec room since 2024.

Mr. NOA and I were in agreement back then that it was time to get serious about getting exercise. Improving our health and losing weight. The year was young, and we were feeling sassy. We had such good intentions.

I can count on one hand the number of times I climbed onto that elephant and used it. Mr. NOA as well.

So, it sits there, taking up space on my dance floor. Yes, I said “dance floor”. One of my aims in this new year is to, like in 2024, improve my health and lose a bit of weight via exercise. The exercise of choice for me, I have now determined beyond a shadow of a doubt, is dance.

But this elephant is in the way. I’m not using that as an excuse to not dance in my rec room for exercise, mind you. I’ve got space in the carpeted area down there to get my groove on.

Yet it’d be such fun to have more space to dance in the tiled section of my rec room where the elephant lives.

Maybe I’ll even hang a disco ball on the ceiling for extra funsies.

It’s going to take some effort to get rid of my elephant. I’ll likely have to put this picture of it on our local social media sites to see who might want to adopt it. I won’t even charge them, as long as they commit to removing it from my dance floor and hauling it away on their own.

Looking back, it was quite the effort that Mr. NOA and I made to obtain this damn elephant. We found it on our local Facebook Marketplace. It was available for $50, with the understanding that we pick it up and haul it off. So, one winter day back in 2024, Mr. NOA and I got in our Tacoma and drove 10 minutes away to pick up our new toy. Thankfully, the young man selling it to us was able and willing to help us get it into the way back in our truck. That thing is HEAVY. The wind was whipping that cold day, which caused the elephant to move about and create some alarming noises. When we got home, both of us (or perhaps just me?) were privately bemoaning this decision (now how were we going to get it into our house?). Mr. NOA determined the best course of action was to drive the Tacoma backwards, to get it as close as possible to the door of the rec room (it’s a walk-out basement, which I love). In the as careful-as-we-could-be maneuvering of this elephant out of our truck, we still managed to acquire a ding along the side of it.

We felt a sense of accomplishment along with relief once it was safe inside our rec room. It was ready to be used to transform the two of us into more physically fit versions of ourselves.

Yet, as I stated at the top of this post, the elephant ended up being mostly ignored. And we have no good excuse.

But now it’s a new year! I’m older and wiser, and therefore more thoughtful about how I can best meet my fitness goals. With or without the elephant in my rec room, I will dance (she says with a dramatic flourish).

I have started a playlist, after all, so the wheels are in motion. It features songs that have great beats to dance to, like this one from my youth in the ’80s.

Adult children, America, Anger, Community, Compassion, Faith, Life, Minnesconsin, Protests, Revolution

Bearing Witness in These Times

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As a life-long conflict avoider, it’s unnerving for me to put myself in a position where it’s likely others will disagree with me. I’m a people-pleaser. I never want to rock the boat.

This is not me trying to get an “atta, girl” from you, my patient readers and friends, but this past Sunday, Mr. NOA and I participated in a rally to protest the infiltration of federal ICE agents in Minneapolis. There are many people, some whom I know and love, who don’t “get” why I participate in these things. And truthfully, I don’t actually want to participate in these rallies and protests. Because I don’t want there to be a reason in this country, the “land of the free”, to have to do so in the first place.

Yet I must bear witness.

When the first Trump administration began separating children from their parents at the southern border of Mexico, and putting these children into detention facilities (many are still there, a truly disgusting fact), I began praying that these kids would be reunited with their families again, ASAP. I imagined my daughter at the time, who was in her mid-twenties, a mom to our beautiful grandson, and in a very challenging marital situation. I imagined her being in a foreign country where she and her son’s life was in danger due to rampant violence by members of a drug cartel. How I would support her fleeing that country to come to America where she and her son could be safe. And then when they got across the border, after a harrowing journey, feeling weak and cold and hungry-having my grandson taken from her and put in a detention facility where he knows noone and there is nobody who can tell him when (or if) his mom was coming to get him. The cruelty is astounding to me. It’s un-American, inhumane, and it fills me with rage.

The murder of Renee Good, a mother of three, only 4 years older than my daughter, by an ICE officer in Minneapolis, fills me with rage and breaks my heart at the same time. To add insult to injury, the responses of some of my fellow Americans to this event have been quite disappointing. The amount of folks driving by as we waved and held signs opposing this administration and it’s American Gestapo, ICE, who flipped us the bird, was shocking to me. It did give us a little satisfaction, however, when a cop pulled over a speeding driver who was clearly attempting to use his speed and truck tires to splash slop on us on that bridge connecting Wisconsin to Minnesota last Sunday. The comment sections on social media regarding this crime was largely disappointing as well. People stating their belief that Renee Good was attempting to run over the ICE officer as she turned her SUV’s tires to the right, away from the officer. People believing she got what she had coming to her. Seriously? Like, the officer couldn’t have simply shot out her tires to stop her from using her vehicle as a weapon? It makes no sense.

May the Universe bless Minneapolis, and may we summon our better angels as a collective. May there be justice for Renee. I know in my heart that we can do better than this.

Adventure, Creative Pursuits, Creative Writing, Creativity, Dance, Imagination, Intentionality, Overthinking, Personal Growth, Positivity

New Year, New Project? Perhaps.

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Have you ever heard of this thing called the “100-day project”?

I hadn’t either, until recently. It was an idea sprung from Yale graphics design professor, Michael Bierut, who randomly decided to embark on a quest to draw one thing each day inspired by a photo in the New York Times. I believe he ended up doing it for a year. As a result, he decided to task his students with doing one personally fulfilling, creative project every day. To pick just one thing and take maybe 10 minutes every day to work on it for 100 consecutive days. His students by and large embraced it and during the Covid-19 pandemic it became quite the phenomenon (one which apparently passed me by).

Ever since learning about this, I’ve been toying with doing it myself. I’m non-commital about the whole endeavor, but I do think it’s a fun idea to play with, don’t you?

My first 100-day project idea: find every single intact greeting card (including envelopes) in this house. This can include postcards. Write and send one every single day for 100 days. Figure out a way to make it happen. Answer the following question: what’s my response to a potential time within these 100 days in which major obstacles could arrive, unbidden? Do I have the option of doubling or tripling up the next day? So it “averages out” to be 100 times? But is that not killing the spirit of this thing? To do it daily? I think I’d have to be quite stringent about this. Unless I’m totally incapacitated, I’d do it every single day. To address the possibility that I could become totally incapacitated once I started this project, I could write extra letters ahead of time, so I’ve got a stash ready to go for someone in my life who understands they need to be mailed every day.

How’s this for ironic? As I was writing the above, the song that randomly came on was “Please Read the Letter I Wrote” from what I consider to be my all-time favorite album: Raising Sand by Robert Plant and Allison Krause. Is this perhaps a sign from the universe? Also ironically, just the other night I read something on Facebook about a country singer who was famous back in the late 80’s, before I really started paying attention to popular country music (that was a distinct era for me in the early 90’s). His name was Keith Whitley and he died when he was only 34 of acute alcohol poisoning. I did a little googling and learned he was a great songwriter as well. He wrote and was the first to perform the song “Nothing at all”, which I had assumed was originally done by Allison Krause, because that’s the version that came into my songbrain when I read the song’s title and the first couple of lines.

More than likely, I’ll be putting a pin in doing this 100-day project for now, but that doesn’t mean coming up with ideas for it and then overthinking each one of them ad naseum as I did in this post won’t be happening.

It’s possible, actually, as I read in an article about this project, that the 100 days could be spent coming up with and then writing down ideas for this project. And then, apparently, never picking just one idea and doing it. I think I’m too neurotic to actively come up with ideas for this project with no intention of following through with any of them as my actual project. It’s also true that as I hung in for 78 days total doing The Artist’s Way course last fall, I likely have the bandwidth for a 100-day project. I think the caveat for me would be to keep it to myself, not writing about it here or anywhere else, until the 100 days have passed. No sense in jinxing myself!

Time will tell, I suppose.

If you were to commit to a 100-day project of your own, what would it look like? I would love to know. Or, if you have done a 100-day project, how did that go for you? What did it consist of? I would also love to know that.

Here’s a video I found on YouTube of a young man, Ely Kim, who chose dance as his creative medium for his 100-day project. I love that he shared it on social media. So much joy!