the M words – Page 2 – beckycochrane.com

Mindful Monday

I love the color of this box. I like the design carved into the top with its feather motif.

I even love the bottom of the box, which emphasizes its strong red pattern in the wood stain.

What lives inside the box: heart-shaped cutouts. Most of them have what I call “Angel Affirmations.” I think the feather design is the reason this is the box I chose to store them.

The instructions tucked inside describe how I used these Angel Affirmations, and the first line explains why I chose to share this on Mindful Monday.

Think of only today…
Light a cone of sandalwood incense…
Center yourself with deep breathing…
Surround yourself with white light…
Take any heart and apply it to today’s situation…
Trust yourself…

Here are the words from the one I pulled. Maybe it will mean something to you today.

To match the mood, here’s some of the metaphysical music I was listening to while I wrote at the end of last week:

Tommy Greer’s ‘Angel’s Kiss’ 1995; Steven Halpern’s ‘Gifts of the Angels’ 1994

Steven Halpern’s ‘Chakra Suite’ 2001; Dean Evenson’s ‘Forest Rain’ 1993; Nature Quest’s ‘Andrew Lloyd Webber: Naturally’ 1995; Erik Berglund’s ‘Harp Of The Healing Light’ 1999

Sunday Sundries

This week’s theme: Things that are black or black and white.

A pyramid with hieroglyphics; a raven on a skull, evoking Poe; a crow and a raven on either side of a cranberry/amaretto candle (gift of Debby–a nice scent to create to), atop two of my favorite books, ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ and ‘A Confederacy of Dunces’; coffee mug with ‘LOVE’ that includes a paw print; quartz crystal ball with black tourmaline inclusions; and the ‘300 MORE Writing Prompts’ book.

Taking a prompt from the book, here’s what I wrote this morning.

From the book, I chose “Write a poem about A Voice.” The word associations the book provides are murmur, whisper, holler, soft, husky, sultry, conscience, instinct. Because I’d chosen blue, because of the musician I write and so many of my characters, because of how I think, I had only one direction to take. Here’s what I wrote:

a voice

it starts with a whisper
of chains and of whips
backbreaking labor
heartbreaking goodbye
it grows to a murmur
soft change, husky hope
sultry with promise
resolve to survive
makes it a holler
the:
buddys and muddys
bessies, ettas, and kokos
blind boys and sonny boys
mas and sisters
ones with initials
ones with three names
ones with last names
they never asked for or wanted
holler holler holler
to prod the conscience
of all who will listen
to all who will hear
a voice
the voices

December 29, 2024
©Becky Cochrane

Shake it up

My last snow-themed post of the week came from this coloring book and officially brings Christmas week to a close. Christmas itself hasn’t been stressful, which isn’t always the case. I managed to get everything done even though I left most of it until December. NOT Christmas things have been more stressful, but that’s just part of life. All the friends and family we communicated with in one format or another help keep things happy. We have so many and so much to be grateful for.

I hope this guy gives you a smile and serves as a reminder that shaking things up can sometimes be a good thing, and regardless, they settle down in time. I don’t know why his tree looks yellow. It’s green on the page.

ETA: I had a couple of fruit stickers I wanted to add to the page of fruit stickers in Wreck This Journal, and after I did that, I began flipping through the pages until I came to the one for “Rubbings.” It had a single entry on it (“Cowboy”), and I thought of my leather bracelet sitting just across the room on my bookshelf. So I did a rubbing of that, which seems right on this date.

Sunday Sundries and WYR? No. 5

Some random things that are purple:

A Christmas angel. A perfume bottle. An inner self manifestation bowl. An amethyst crystal point. Tiny medicine sachets with herbs and spices. And the 3000 Would You Rather Questions book, from which I chose…

No. 409. WYR take a photo with Santa or the Easter Bunny?
Santa!

Mother, Debby, and me with Santa in Salt Lake City, 1990.

You write it

From this coloring book, back in April and May of 2021, I colored this page (using a photo of a particular surfer for my color choices):

Blue Sky Boy recently suggested “seaside/surfing” as a theme, so here’s another page I just colored from that book.

I didn’t write any flash fiction about it. I did find a prompt in the Write The Poem book, if you’d like to write poetry or prose using the coloring page as your subject. You can share it in comments or keep it only for yourself. In addition to the words the book provided, I’m adding: sailboats, camera, rocky coast, beach plums, and inlets. Enjoy a burst of creativity!

Today’s offering

Off and on since early this morning, I’ve been putting together a post that was intended to be fun with photos and commentary. Then I read an article in which hate, once again, will be affirmed and rejoiced over by those who hate.

Everybody who tells me that NO, THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN, please stop. It’s been happening, is still happening, and will get worse. You can close your eyes and ears and mind, but you can never gaslight me into believing I don’t see and hear and recognize the cold, hard evidence presented every day.

So I don’t feel like being funny. I will take a moment to recognize that my forever Muse would be eighty were he still alive today. In his honor, I’ll go back to the world sprung from my imagination, where hate will never win.

Mindful Monday

Mindfulness means being present in the moment.

Stones/rocks and crystals are invariably part of any type of meditation, mindfulness, or centering I do. Those particular stones are citrine, clear quartz, amethyst, turquoise, carnelian, rose quartz, variscite, and black tourmaline.

I was flipping through one of my Word Search books yesterday and saw “List Of Rocks.”

These were not the rocks I expected to be looking for. =)

Paging through more of the book, I found another list that related to the coloring page I shared the other day, “Grandma’s Attic.” Tom’s father did say the page I colored reminded him of his mother/Tom’s grandma’s attic!

Tiny Tuesday!

I’m keeping a running account of moments in this day. Will I post it? If you’re reading it, I guess I did. I think I got maybe six hours of sleep last night? I always look at the time stamps of the last things I did on my computer or phone to recall my “lights out” moment, though that doesn’t really indicate when I fell asleep.

Up well before six, dogs not having heeded the time change memo, I quietly doom-scrolled on my phone for a bit. The last things I saw last night were some of the thousands of messages from women all over the world expressing their love and solidarity for the women in the U.S. on this election day. Their words were profoundly moving. In my morning news feed, I read that all U.S states except Alaska and Kentucky are in drought–just as I heard the sound of thunder, promising more of the much-needed rain we’ve been getting over the past few days.

Among my early morning activities are the online games I play for later comparison to Tim and Jim’s game results. One that only I play (though sometimes Tom does) is Spelling Bee, and I got what I thought were two difficult-level pangrams. I told Tom maybe I should stop after my success and play no more games today. =) He was busy trying to put an “I Voted” sticker on the top of Jack’s head. I suspected that would prove less successful than my Spelling Bee results.

I was wrong. Tom posted this on his Instagram account.

I showered and washed my hair; have had the dogs outside a few times. For Tiny Tuesday, I’m wearing a few of my favorite necklaces: one with heart-shaped, good-energy stones; one with brass musical charms; one with amethyst and quartz crystal pendants; and a wave-and-whale-tail ceramic pendant.

I’ve eaten fairly nutritiously today and taken my meds on time. Blood pressure and blood glucose all good. Tom picked up protein-packed takeout on his way home from work. (I’ve read protein can help regulate stress responses.)

And I have written. And written. The imaginary world is stressful, too, with characters in conflict and many unknowns ahead, but I’m sure it’ll all turn out okay. I’d like to take that attitude into real life.

And now I wait, with everyone else. Hours? Days? Unless something extraordinary happens, and then I may add to this post.

Tiny Tuesday!

Barbie and friends do a reenactment of me preparing to find fashion, dress skeletons, and post photos to social media (i.e., my Instagram account), with Lord Cuttlebone and his nephew Ambrose supervising (i.e., chattering unsolicited advice into my ear). Since the theme is set: a spooky season homage to music, WILL I HAVE ENOUGH T-shirts or band memorabilia to do the entire month of October? The Shadow knows…

I’ve put my first seven days of photos behind the cut, if you want to see the artists I’ve featured.

Continue reading “Tiny Tuesday!”