Thoughts on Time...

This morning (last Saturday, August 4, 2007), as I was driving in to work from our desert escape, I was thinking about time. Usually, when I drive back to San Diego from Jacumba on Saturday morning, I feel sad because I won't be back for another week. Today, as I was driving back to San Diego, I was planning on returning to the desert this evening after work to attend a house warming party with friends. I was thinking that these 8.5 hours of working will dissolve slowly and be gone.

I felt both happy and sad about the time going by. Happy that the 8.5 hours would go quickly and sad that 8.5 more hours of my life will be gone. I then thought of time as a metaphor--hey, it was early in the morning, traffic on 8 West was very light, the surrounding hills and rocks were beautiful cloaked in early morning sun and shadow, my mind gets creative. Time is a liquid pearl, disappearing in and contributing to the fabric of our lives.

My job today, for these 8.5 hours, is to work so this 8.5 hour liquid pearl does, in fact, make a meaningful contribution to the fabric of my life. Since I am employed at a crisis hotline in San Diego, I can make this 8.5 hour liquid pearl make a meaningful contribution to my life by listening compassionately to the people who call in on the hotline--sounds kind of easy, eh?

It is sometimes, but sometimes the callers are angry and displace their anger onto anyone within range. The phone is within their range. Also, many callers call with needs that are genuine, but are impossible to fulfill. They often get angry at us because we can not resolve their problems, often in the manner they would like or with the speed they would like. Listening and interacting with those callers in a manner that contributes to their life and to my life will be my goal for today.

I'll let you know how I do today.

Lazy Days and warm weather in the desert

I am writing from the desert near Jacumba, CA. Boy, it's great, peaceful, quiet here. I am finally able to connect wirelessly to the Internet, so now I have no further excuses for not writing. My only problem is what to write about.
One reason I started this blog was to make myself write daily. So here I am at the club's pool and I don't have anything to write about. What a difficulty! It's 5:05 PM here and company is coming for dinner about 6 PM. Fortunately Jack is cooking, not me. Opps, he's getting ready to go, so I'd better get in the pool with him. Life is rough. LOL

Distractions and difficulties

I haven't written here on this blog for some time for the following excuses...my husband and I bought a cute little (36') 5th Wheeler out in the desert around the 4th of July. Since then, we've been going out there two days a week, Thursdays and Fridays. It is wonderful to get away that much, but it sure takes a bite out of my week. Each week, I think maybe this week we should take the week off from going to the desert, but then, it's just too much fun to get all ready and go out there again. So we do. That's one of my excuses.

The other is that the hotline I work for is owned by a corporation, United Behavioral Health. They are owned by a larger corporation, United HealthGroup. UHG has tighten up it's control of our use of the Internet. They now use a Net Nanny, I call it a Corporate Nanny, and control where we can go. They have actually blocked my going to my Blogs!! I can't go to any blogs that I know of. I was really shocked and annoyed! I mean, it's not like there is any reason to block me--no nasty information, no sex, etc.

So those are my excuses. I'll try to be more vigilant about writing daily, but once I take my computer home from the desert, I don't usually plug it back in at home for Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesday. Anyway, I'll write at least once a week, while I am out here loafing in the desert. We do have air conditioning, fortunately. And wireless internet connection. My daughter, Green Daze44 calls our phone # out here, The Hotline. She's funny!

I love reading your comments! Write, please.

Ambrose Bierce quote

I heard this quote recently in a movie, the name of which I can't remember for the life of me, but I wrote it down and then wanted to look for the author. I googled the quote and found that Ambrose Bierce, a journalist in the 1800s said it, "In each human heart are a tiger, a pig, an ass, and a nightingale. Diversity of character is due to their unequal activity."
-Ambrose Bierce

More on the Blog-writers Group...

My fantasy is that this Blog-writers group would be like a Writing Practice Group. Only we would be practicing writing in our blogs. I love writing in the blog, but don't think it's easy. It isn't. But then, any writer will tell you that the practice of writing is difficult. Facing that blank page and then taking action, putting words down on that page or computer screen. Bloody!

I usually reread my previous several posts to get inspired. I look at the dates of the previous posts. I try to post every day, but since I have two blogs, my other one being http://cosmeticsurgerysupport.blogspot.com/, I usually end up writing one post for one blog on one day, and then on the next day, I write a post for the other blog.

Unless something outstanding happens and I am inspired to write on both.

Did I tell you I am reading Judy Reeves' book, Writing Alone, Writing Together? She is the Program Director of the San Diego Writers, Ink and my inspirational teacher for writing. I took some classes from her years ago at The Writing Center and discovered how much I enjoyed writing. Now Judy is teaching writing at The San Diego Writers, Ink and at UCSD Extension University. Her book, Writing Alone, Writing Together is the inspiration for the Blog-Writers Group.

Would you like to start a blog but are afraid you don't have time, don't have anything to say, can't write? We all feel that way at first. Most of the help out there is around making money from your blog, not on better writing for your blog, or actual help in technical issues of blogging. Let's get together online, unless you are in San Diego, and let's create a more interesting, literary experience for our readers and a more writerly experience for us writers!

I want to start a blog-writer's group online...like a writer's group

I want to start a blog-writers group online. Why? I think blog-writers would benefit from contact with other blog-writers. I would. We can get nifty ideas from each other. We can improve the quality of the writing on blogs. We can support each other, give feedback to each other.

If you know of someone who is interested in participating in an online blog-writers group, have them email me or leave me a 'comment' here on this blog.

I am not trying to make money--this is a free group, only serious bloggers need apply. Even if you don't know if you are serious yet, write me and we can talk about our vision of what we want in the blog-group. A Gloup? Hmmm. I like that.

Connecting With Others: My Other Life Purpose

One of my favorite things to do in the world, some kind of unconscious Purpose in life is finding and sharing resources with other people. When I find something I'm interested in, I like to share it with others.


I do that in my job on the San Diego Crisis Hotline by building a resource list that other clinicians on the line can access through our shared drive and it can be updated instantly, not like a piece of paper. I have been working on it for 8.9 years and it is over 267 pages long in a Word.doc. That makes it easy to search.


But here, today, I want to recommend a new blog, Crosses to Bear a delightful new blog by the mother of a blog-buddy of mine, Melissa who writes Domestic Irritation. Both of them are very excellent writers! Crosses to Bear is written by a mature, Southern Woman, spelled with a capital S and W! Check her blog out!