OH HOW FAST THIS YEAR HAS GONE

In less than five weeks we will be ringing in 2019.

What a year it has been! I have broken three bones, had four surgeries, still deal with cancer and have physical therapy every day. I have retired and opened my own travel agency. Nope; not the kind that I have to work for someone else...the kind that I own and operate on my own. I'm actually certified, crazy and as a travel agent.

Imagine that...2018 will be done in less than five weeks.

Have you gotten everything done that you wanted to? Have you finished or started that novel that you had been thinking about? Have you gotten yourself ready for the upcoming year?

Although the year wasn't what I thought it would be, it has sure turned out way better than I thought it would be.

I have traveled more in the past three months than I have in the past three years. 

I have met some wonderful people, authors and many have become friends.

I have fallen in love, out of love and something in between love.

I have welcomed a new 'almost' daughter in law and lost a dear friend.

2018 has been one helluva year but I wouldn't change it for anything.

2019 will bring new challenges, new hopes and new dreams and I am ready for it, are you?

#HASH TAGS, STATUSES, UPDATES AND POSTS

Have you become obsessed with social media? Are you always posting a status, an update or a #

Do you find yourself talking in 140 characters or less. What does 140 characters look like?

In the time it takes you to read the next group of words you will have read 140 characters. Our lives are becoming short bursts of information that make our points quickly.

Those last two sentences were exactly 140 characters. The problem with this is, that our children are not able to communicate with us properly. They have lost the ability to answer in complete sentences. They have lost the ability to speak clearly on the telephone. In fact they are losing the ability to spell words correctly.

For example; have you gotten a text from your child that says. B Home Soon or I C U L (I'll see you later)

Studies have shown that more children are diagnosed with ADD or ADHD.

In my younger days no child was diagnosed with this and if a child were, their parent was the expert and knew what to do for it. It was called, 'sit down until I tell you to move" . Nowadays we are given quick information and if you have to 'think' about it, you become frustrated and give up easily. This is due to the hash tags, the update of statuses and the posts on social media. All of the things that are scrolling up the screen so quickly we don't have time to digest the information

We want everything right now, at this very second, and if we don't get it; we move on to the next one.

So I ask you, has social media taken over your life? Do you need an intervention?

My prescription is; sit down, and write a letter. Yes, a good old fashioned letter. Write it to your parents, your children or your best friend. Then put it in the mail.

Trust me, they will love a piece of mail that doesn't require payment but makes them feel good.

What do you write in?

Rosemary, or Rosey to her closest friends, found me on LinkedIn when I sent an invitation to blog.

Today she tells us what she likes to wear when she is writing.When I blog I rest my feet in furry pink slippers on a built-in obsolescence model printer. Practically it is to save my knees and level my bottom. Metaphysically, what is it? Lowest upward – let us consider.

Obsolete printer? I have finished with cheapos bought from department stores. The days of pandering to the teaching profession with lush handouts produced spontaneously in the wee hours for belligerent students are gone. When the school door was firmly closed, I emptied the ink for a friend who shook over a forthcoming inspection then declared this object redundant. It stubbornly retained the label some months later when I repurchased ink for another purpose so now it is under my feet. Any future model will have to be laser, imperishable and funded. The old model signifies the fight for better facilities.

Pink fluffy slippers? These signify comfort, warmth and refusal to totally negate a young girl’s dream world with the harsh realities of advancing age. Slippers hug my feet with love, for my daughters supply them. They remind me to see a pretty image in the mirror even if I have to dim the light. They defy the cold and whisper to me of days in the Jamaican sun where feet never feel a chill. Slippers predict better days to come

Bottom always pressed into a hardwood chair, computer bound, several mornings a week? This signifies persistence. It is the only quality lauded by pundits as likely to succeed. Using this, I keep electronically communicable, approachable as an author, aspiring as a marketer and battling as a writer. My relief is a walking job for limited wages but my belief is in the profit that will one day flow from the balanced cheeks here firmly pressed.

Who ever said writing does not pay needed to add “yet”. We live in an age when centenarians are becoming average. In the old span of life we were ancient at seventy, now we are late middle-aged. Let us all build dreams for our extended phase.  With electronic literature, e-sales, pyramid promotions we must redress the march of time, the conformity to stereotype, the deterioration of the fiery spirit that fuelled us and find obsolescence to climb over, comfort to cling on to and visions to invest in. My seat at my computer does all these things. I’m sure yours is doing it for you too.

Thanks for sharing the positive promise of a writing life.

Thanks Rosey, I'm making myself her closest friend and for me; I like to wear...wait this isn't about me, is it?

What do you like to write in?

Let us know and while you are at it, why not stop by and check her out

http://roseythomaspalmerauthor.wordpress.com