Kickstarter

You may have heard about Kickstarter recently.  Kickstarter is a "crowd funding" site.  I stumbled onto it when my sons started telling me about this great site that they had discovered through a fellow blogger.  They both follow the blog of Professor Beej and started exchanging comments on their blogs and connecting on Twitter.  Professor Beej has also written a novel and stories that are available at this site.  Then he began a Kickstarter project to help pay for the cover art for his new trilogy. My sons were very excited about this and encouraged me to look into it.  I did and was fascinated with what I found.

Kickstarter is a place for people to advertise their projects in order to gain financial support.  It is amazing to look at all of the creative efforts that are out there.  I like it because it is a way to support some things that I really believe in.  Anyone can become a "backer" of a project if they make a contribution.  It can be as little as $1.  The project posts how much they need to raise and an end date by which they need to reach that amount.  They also post amounts of pledges with rewards to the backers.  Sometimes it's a thank you, your name in the credits, a copy of a book; higher amounts may include a lunch with the project owner or a signed copy of something.  These are always very interesting to read.

Some of the projects that I have backed are:

Professor Beej's cover art for his book, Birthright.

Whoopi Goldberg's documentary on Mom's Mabley.

A documentary called Bridegroom about the struggles of a surviving gay partner who did not have the right to marriage.

A documentary about Carol Spinney who is Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street.

Not all projects succeed.  If you want to read some of the statistics about failure rates, check out the article at VentureBeat.  When you pledge your money, it is not taken from your credit card unless the project reaches its goal and the end date.  This provided some reassurance to me as a backer so I knew that my money wasn't going into an empty hole.


I'm cautious about which projects I want to support.  I choose projects that have the right people with the needed talent to successfully complete the work outlined.  I have not given a lot of money, but I believe that the power is in numbers and that every little bit helps.  I also like being a part of something that I believe in.

Even if I'm not going to contribute, I like to browse the projects that are outlined in Kickstarter.  I am inspired by the creativity, the variety, and the passion of the individuals behind these projects.  I would encourage you to check it out.  You don't have to contribute.  I think that, at the very least, you will find this an interesting concept, and you may be surprised to find something that touches your heart or strikes a chord with your beliefs or just fills you with purpose of a story that needs to be told.  Let me know what you think.

I believe that we will be hearing a lot about Kickstarter as it grows in popularity.  If you are wondering why Kickstarter works, all you have to do is understand how empowering this is for the project hopefuls who entrust their labors of love to this site. It is a very intriguing endeavor, and it is clear that people are using this to showcase their stories, struggles and journeys.  Their joy when they meet their goals is overwhelming and fulfilling.

Have you found your joy today?

Reading Becomes Writing

“Reading usually precedes writing and the impulse to write is almost always fired by reading. Reading, the love of reading, is what makes you dream of becoming a writer.”

— Susan Sontag

It is probably no surprise that I have been thinking about the experience of writing lately.  In May, I set a goal of writing for 30 days in June.  I wasn't sure that I would be able to do it but was convinced that I should try.  I am very pleased that I was able to meet my goal, but even more, I am happy that I rediscovered a love of writing and with it my joy of reading.

I have always loved reading and words.  I will read almost anything.  Since I retired a year ago, I have read about 100 books.  I have always had a great appreciation for writers and their ability to create the written word that draws me into their story, and I always wondered how they could be disciplined enough to write every day.  I now understand: just make a commitment to write every day and start writing.  At first, it was difficult to do this.  However, each day was easier than the day before.  I discovered that it was actually fun!

After finishing 30 Days of Joy, I decided that I would write once a week.  While it has been a relief that I didn't have to write every day, I have really missed writing.  However, I have enjoyed having time to do some reading, and they are truly related for me.

I am currently reading 2 different books on my Kindle.  I am reading The Magician by Michael Scott which is the second book from The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series.  The books in this series are such that I can pick them up when I am in the mood to read them.  While they aren't the type of  books that I can't put down, they are interesting to read.  I like that they take place in different cities in the world, include forms of magic, and have characters that are relatable.  So, this series is my go-to whenever I am waiting for something new to read.

The other book I am reading was recommended by some friends.  It is Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.  This is the first book in the series.  It combines romance and historical fiction, with a slice of fantasy because it involves time travel.  This is the book that I keep coming back to whenever I have spare time.  I am really enjoying the blend of history with the development of the characters.  I can't wait to read what happens next!

Reading and writing have such a symbiotic relationship which is probably why I love good writing.  You may want to try reading the books I mentioned, or there are some recent blogs that were wonderfully written that you might enjoy.

1. Teaching an Old Story New Tricks: Media Influences on Birthright - A guest blogger writes about the major media influences in his new cross-genre novel, Birthright.  It is fascinating to get into his head as he reveals these influences.
2. Book Review: Voices from Chernobyl - A beautifully written review of a book which tells the human side of what happened during this tragic event.

I also found writing to be an interactive process, and I have missed the contact with those of you who were reading my posts.  I know that several of you didn't leave comments before because you had to have an account.  This is no longer true!  I mentioned it to my son who told me that I could change the settings; so I made the necessary changes.  You should be able to comment directly on the blog.  I would really like to hear from you so please comment below.

Whether it's writing or reading that bring you joy or another activity, I hope that you can find a moment for yourself.

Have you found your joy today?

30 Days of Joy: Day 30-Enjoy

It is hard to believe that I am writing my last post of 30 Days of Joy.  It has truly been a labor of love.  I took a few minutes to go back to the May 31 post where I explained what I hoped to accomplish by writing for 30 days.  I talked about creating Circles of Joy-sharing joy so that others can experience joy in their lives.  My 30 days have addressed a variety of ways that I have experienced joy in my life.  I also encouraged everyone to reach out to others to share words, pictures, and stories of joy.  I hoped to do this daily.  While I didn't accomplish this every day, I was able to do so most days and will continue this practice into the future.

Many of my posts talked about "enjoying" various times and activities in our lives.  It struck me how closely related to "joy" this word is.  In fact, it has the word joy embedded in it.  I had never thought about this before.  When I looked up its meaning in the dictionary, I found:



en·joy

v. en·joyed, en·joy·ing, en·joys

v.tr.

1. To receive pleasure or satisfaction from.

2. To have the use or benefit of: enjoys good health.

v.intr.

To have a pleasurable or satisfactory time.

It sounds like such a lukewarm feeling when I read the definition.  Joy should always be exciting and exhilarating!  It makes me wonder:  what happened to joy when it became a verb?  Shouldn't it be the act of feeling joy?  Keeping that meaning in mind:

• I have enjoyed writing these posts and sharing my life with you.  
• I have enjoyed thinking and learning about things I had never explored before.  
• It was fun to reminisce about young love. 
• It was a joyous occasion to meet my new grandson.  
• Writing about my family was joyful.  
• I enjoyed all of it and hope that you did too.

One thing that I have learned:  there is joy in our lives every single day if we look for it.  Some of the days I was writing while in pain from my injury, but I was able to find joy anyway.  It certainly made the pain easier to bear.  I would encourage you to always look for the joy in your life-not just on those happy days when it is easy to find, but also on those days when it is more of a struggle.  I believe that we need joy on those days more than ever.

When you "enjoy" something, think about the joy involved in the experience.  Once you have found your joy, find a way to share it!  It is not meant to keep close but to broadcast to others so that they can share in your joy.  It's not bragging-it's spreading the joy and being positive in your attitude toward life.   Our world is so free to share the negative, troublesome events; why not share the joyful ones?  We will all be better for it!

Thanks for joining me in this journey!  I hope that you will join the site so that you can keep reading as I move to weekly posts and that you will always feel free to contact me through this blog or Facebook.  Have a lovely Fourth of July week!  And don't forget...

Have you found your joy today?

30 Days of Joy: Day 29-Create

A month ago I decided to try writing every day for a month.  This was an exercise to see if I could write every single day.  It also was a way to talk about joy.  If you read my post from May 31, you understand that I believe that it is important to share joy with others-to create a ripple effect.  Thank you for joining me on this journey.  It has meant a lot to me.


As I come to the end of my adventure in writing, I am finding that it is time to reflect on the experience.  When I was thinking about making this commitment to write every day, I sat down and wrote down 30 words that epitomized what brought me joy.  I have used 28 of those words and will use another one tomorrow as an ending.  (Technology wasn't on the original list!)  Each day as I sat down to write my post, I looked at the list and one of the words popped out as something that I was experiencing in my life.  I think that's pretty amazing!  I don't know what possessed me to put "help" on the list.  However, it was there when I experienced the need to ask for help after I fell down the stairs.  It makes me wonder-did I somehow know?  A foreshadowing perhaps?

It has been fun to share my life with all of you.  Sometimes I don't know if anyone is reading my posts.  I want to thank all of you who sent me messages and left comments.  It helped to know that my words weren't just getting lost in cyberspace.  I know that commenting on the blog page is difficult if you don't have a Google account.  However, many of you found other ways to comment, and I thank you for that.

Most days the words just flowed.  A few days I found it was harder to write.  You probably noticed that I also did some research which was a lot of fun!  I often looked for and found some fabulous quotes.  I was frequently surprised and amazed at what some famous people had said about the subjects I was researching.  I also spent a lot of time looking for images that enhanced the posts.  A few times I added personal pictures that I thought were pertinent.

Writing as a creative process is something that I obviously enjoy.  I have always loved the creative process whether it was knitting or crocheting blankets for my grandchildren or scrap-booking.  Art was one of my favorite things to teach in my classroom when I was a teacher.  I still want to paint; the time just hasn't been right for it yet.  For now, I am happy focusing on my writing as a creative project.

Creating is important for all of us.  I think that everyone should have fun creating and hope that you have found ways to create in your life.  It doesn't matter what you create; it doesn't even have to be in an area of talent.  The process in and of itself is fun.  I also think that it is important to share your creations with others.  I always put my children's artwork on the doors of our home and read their stories.  I am proud to say that both of my sons and my daughter-in-law have blogs.  They are all excellent writers.  My daughter-in-law writes about her experiences as a mom at Expert Mommy.  My older son writes about gaming at A Green Mushroom.  They both write very insightful posts that are interesting to read.  However, my younger son is the most talented writer of all of them.  He creates fantastic stories and has started sharing them at The Written Tale.  It is due to these wonderful young people that I started my blog.  I thank them for their support in this creative project.

As you can tell, writing this blog and sharing my musings brings me great joy!  I am hoping to continue writing weekly as we move into July.  If you want to keep reading, click on "Join this site" in the upper right so that you can follow my posts.  If not, thank you for going along with me on this journey.  You have brought me great joy!

Have you found your joy today?

30 Days of Joy: Day 28-Weekend

Today is the day that most of us look ahead to the weekend.  The workweek is almost over, and everyone feels like they can make it to the end of the week.  Just one more day!  This is the mantra playing in minds everywhere.

Weekends are a time to rest, relax and re-energize.  The manner in which it happens depends on the individual:

If you are working during the week, rest and relaxation after a busy week are usually the first priority.

Z-z-z-z-z-z

Ah-h-h-h, relax!

Weekends are also a time to get those pesky chores done.

Laundry

Grocery Shopping

Hopefully, weekends are also a time for play.

Biking
My Husband's Favorite

Dinner

I look forward to the weekend so that I can spend time with friends and family.

Picnics

Cuddling

Whatever method you use to have fun and find your joy, I hope that you have a wonderful weekend.  Make plans today for this weekend.  You have earned it!

Have you found your joy today?

30 Days of Joy: Day 27-Walk

I have been trying to be more active this year.  One of the things that I have been trying to do more this spring and summer is walking.  Unfortunately, I have had 2 setbacks: first I hurt my left knee walking downstairs and more recently I hurt my left foot when I fell down the stairs.  This has been very frustrating!  I don't know why it is always my left leg that gets injured; probably because it is not the dominant side and not as strong.

It also seems that stairs are a common denominator in my injuries.  It is difficult to avoid stairs since I live in a split-level home.  In order to go anywhere in my house, I have to use the stairs.  Now I am not normally clutsy, but I am developing an avoidance of stairs because I am trying to heal and don't want to re-injure myself. As a result, I am finding that I am planning my trips so that I decrease the number of times I use the stairs.  While this is probably good for healing my foot, it is definitely not good for increasing my activity level.

Before I had the second injury, I was trying to walk after dinner several nights a week.  I didn't walk far, but I was trying to start slow and build up my endurance.  Then I fell down the stairs.  I have been so frustrated with this injury!  Recovery has seemed so slow, because my foot was swollen, was causing a lot of pain, didn't fit into a shoe, and walking anywhere exhausted me.  (I'm always amazed at how exhausting pain can be.)

Two days ago the swelling was down.  I decided to try putting on a shoe thinking that the support might help with the pain.  I was right!  While it still hurts some, it is much better with a shoe that gives some support.

Once I could get a shoe on, I started wracking my brain for a way to start walking again.  I certainly get some walking in when I go anywhere-especially Target.  However, I wanted more than that.  I knew that uneven terrain was difficult so I needed a flat option, and since I never know when the pain will set in, I needed to be close to a sitting area.  Still, I wanted to find a way to be outside.  As I sat on my deck watching the birds at the feeders, I had a brainstorm.  I could walk laps on my deck!

My deck runs the length of the house and has one step.  If my foot starts to hurt, I have places to sit or lean. Perfect!  I now do laps on my deck.  I am starting slow by doing a few laps several different times a day.  It feels good, and I am so happy to be more active again.  If my neighbors happen to see me, I'm sure they would wonder what I was doing, but I don't care!  I am just joyful to be walking again.  


Have you found your joy today?

30 Days of Joy: Day 26-Love

There are all kinds of love that we experience in our lives.  It's always interesting to watch a movie or read a book about love.  It is usually a very idealized version of love: that first blush of romantic love that is at the very beginning of a relationship.  However, love is so much more.

As a mother, I know that one of the
strongest, most lasting types of love is love for a child.  It is fun to watch my older son as his love for his daughter grows and as he bonds with his newborn son.  The love that a parent has for a child is visceral.  It brings out the best and sometimes the worst in a person.  The overwhelming need to protect your child is a very physical, hard-wired reaction to perceived threats.  This is a good thing when they are very young but can get in the way as they become adults and you need to let go.  


I love my sons so very much.  I enjoy spending time with them and talking with them about their views of the world around us.  Their hugs mean so much.  This love is one that I will always have as an integral part of me, but I want to talk about the love that brought these young men into my life: the love of my life-my husband.

My husband and I first met when we were seventeen years old.  It was the first week of college.  I didn't particularly like this young man when I met him.  This was the era of hippies.  I was an overweight young girl who had never been away from home.  I had long red hair almost to my waist, contacts, and wore bell bottoms with love beads.  He had short, straight hair, dark glasses, plaid shirts, moccasins, and a red boy scout jacket.  He looked like he came from the Cleaver family!  (I look back at these pictures now and think about how cute he was!)  Given the fact that I felt the way that I did initially, I don't know how we ever hooked up, but somehow we became friends.  As time went by, our friendship grew and turned into young love.


He became my life.  I loved his boyish charm.  He was always telling jokes and was interested in everything.  He was the smartest person I had ever met.  Above all, I loved his kindness and sensitivity.  I wanted to spend every minute of my life with him.  There was so much to discover together: about ourselves and about the world we lived in.  However, we both knew that we had to explore the world as well as each other.  That was why we decided to marry while we were in college.  We knew that we would be together every night so we could explore our world during the day.  Taking this step began our journey as husband and wife.

In August, we will celebrate our 39th anniversary.  We have traveled many roads together, and our love has changed over the years.  He is still my very best friend.  He still tells jokes (which I often groan at while I chuckle inside because I have heard them before), and he is still so very smart.  He has taken care of me, has given me two wonderful children, and has always encouraged me and supported me in whatever I wanted to do.  My love for him is deeper than ever and built on trust and respect.  I am so glad that I chose to spend my life with him and he chose me.  I look forward to many joy filled years ahead as we explore our journey through life.

Have you found your joy today?