Tag: Lessons Learned
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“Zombie bike ride.”
I recommend you visit Key West during the Fantasy festival with a daily schedule of events, there is something for everyone.
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“Their love is with me forever.”
I recently viewed the movie trailer “Green Book” scheduled for November 21, 2018, release in the US, and it triggered my thoughts about my travels across the US during my lifetime. I was moved emotionally as I thought of my parents who suffered through their fears, worries, and concern for my safety in the 1980’s…
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“Hiking and Backpacking Fears.”
On many occasions, my family and friends have voiced their concerns about me backpacking or hiking into the forests and deserts. They fear for my safety of everything and anything from zombie hikers to lions, tigers, and of course, bears. I see a trail as natures peaceful serenity revealing the visuals of various trees, flora,…
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“Hiking and backpacking fears.”
On many occasions, my family and friends have voiced they’re concerned about me backpacking or hiking into the forests and deserts. They fear for my safety of everything and anything from zombie hikers to lions, tigers, and of course, bears. I see a trail as natures peaceful serenity revealing the visuals of various trees,…
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Regular routine?
For the past several months, I have struggled with a writing routine as I traveled but, summer has eased into autumn, and I draw inspiration from quotes, by Gustave Flaubert. Capturing photos from around the US has been inspirational. I’m discovering a routing for my writing. 🙂 “Passionate happiness.” With many years of discovery, passion…
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Traveling soothes the soul.”
Recently while I was touring and photographing the West Rim Drive of Crater Lake in Oregon, I met a New Zealander in his late twenties, and a 66-year-old couple all of whom were northbound hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. I first noticed them descending a mountain using their trekking poles to guide and control their…
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“Pacific Crest Trail Days.”
The Pacific Crest Trail Celebrated 50 Years as A National Scenic Trail of 2,650 miles from the California Mexican border to the Washington State, Canadian Boarder. It normally takes six months to traverse the distance separated from family, friends, a job, homes, to overcome fears, regret, enduring pains, seeking water, dealing with loneliness at times…
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“Chipmunks Everywhere!”
I was taking a short day hike around the campground in Collier Memorial Park in Oregon when I met another camper/traveler and our conversation turned to current events. It was unique how on August 25, 2018, neither one of us were aware of current events, and in so many ways I felt it was a…
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“Womens Rights Museum.”
There are many unique museums and places I want to visit, learn and further understand American history. Many tourists and travelers see and reveal in video and blog postings the visual beauty of the locations they visit without explaining the history of the location, the people, their dreams and more importantly what we can learn…
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“Juxtapose, the yearly ceremony.”
Again, as usual, I am seated watching the archaic traditions leaving no assumptions for what is to happen at this ceremony that has been held every year since 1877. I glance around to see the awkward familiar faces and, I imagine many other narcissists have gathered here guiltily pretending to care, making this entire ordeal infectiously…
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“Astonished tantrum.”
I have witnessed unbelievable angry tantrums and lost tempers by toddlers, children, teenagers, and adults. But, during a lovely wedding, I watched a 5’4″, 160-pound, grey-haired woman, with bright red lipstick and crimson rouge applied to her cheeks, in her mid to late eighties. I have heard her calmly tell anyone she was age sixty-five. …
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“Our timeless love.”
Our family, our children, forty years we made. The mind-numbing daily routine we made. Our separate sleeping bedrooms we agreed. Because of commitments, our love has become veiled from one another, allowing our hearts to become etched hallowed caves. Our separate cars to attend church we agreed. Our time for one another is thwarted with…
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“Churn or grind.”
The daily WordPress word prompt inspires thoughtful, creative writing ideas based on the WordPress user’s past experiences with the word which can hold various meanings and definitions. The word churn, cause me to think of the word grind. Let me explain, the word “churn” based on my history holds significant connotations, when my high school football coach used…
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“Layers upon layers of hope.”
Attending a funeral, a retirement gathering, a college or high school graduation, of a family member or friend allows for personal self-reflection. Your thoughts peel away layers of life’s reality igniting and stirring emotions, to bring tears to your eyes similar to peeling layers of an onion. Life is similar to the layers of an onion when reaching…
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Betrayed and frantic, I think not!”
Since Feb I have enjoyed and settled into the Florida warmth, and because of cold temperatures, I used my backpacking pants’ less than a week. As March winds to an end, my mind repeatedly drifts to traveling the roads in the vast western US and hiking/backing treelined canopy trails. Although my focus has been to…
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“Blushed.”
Casandra entered the room, and I could not make eye contact, She walks past my table, and I look down at my paper, I sensed a connection, but I’m too shy to speak. Brian will not notice me when I walk into the classroom. He will not acknowledge me with eye contact. I walk past…
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“The wisdom of patience.”
I can remember as far back as a kindergartener, hearing my mother, father, siblings, friends, and teachers, telling me, or writing in the margins of a report card, “Slow Down.” On many occasions throughout my life, I was told I need to develop and hopefully discover some patience. “Slow down,” is the repetitive word I…
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“Time to return to the trails.”
As the days of March wind down and I continue editing, re-editing and repeating the process of my short stories. The recent cold weather in Southwest Florida provoked a wrinkle in my ability to sit outside and write. So, I traded in my shorts, tank top, and flip-flops for my long pants and long sleeve…
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“Travel guts: A special mode of travel.”
For over forty years I have traveled around the US for which my family and friends were astonished by the journey and marveled at the destinations completed on a motorcycle. My mother, forbid me to tell her when, or where I was going but demanded I call her immediately upon my returned home. Adventure travelers…
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“I’m candid, fairly agile living on island time.”
I was born and raised in the Adirondacks in Upstate New York, and the first time I saw photos of a beach, I dreamed of living on an island. As a teenager and college student, I was a formidable long distance runner with the agility of a Gazel, but my burning desire to live on…
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“The next dominant generation.”
I am a part of what some people call the greatest generation. When I consider how my parents who lived with nothing close to the conveniences I enjoyed as a child, progressing through my teenage years into becoming an adult, I’m proud to have survived based on today’s standards. I survive childhood without car seats,…
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“Blink.”
Fortunately, during my lifetime I have recorded hundreds of hours of video with accompanied thousands of photos of my now adult children. My recorded library reveals decades of family and friends, moments in time to include births, birthdays, milestone accomplishments, critical life-changing events, marriages, family reunions and yes even death. Viewing my recorded library of…
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“Candid.”
Be candid with me, I can take it. Honesty is the best policy when the truth is the foundation for any relationship. However, many lies are spoken in considerations of the feeling for family, friends and significant others. Candidly speaking one’s mind can become detrimental to any relationship or will it? The following candid question…
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“Study.”
As the college semester comes to an end, the mood of the students on the entire campus becomes stressfully solemn. Every nook and cranny is occupied as students seek silent locations for studying to assure themselves a grade worthy of not repeating the class. The University recommends study groups, flowcharts, diagrams, practicing old exams, recording themselves…
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“Loophole.”
For twenty years’ or more, the theater’s dancers have taken a ten-minute break every hour during any rehearsal no matter how long they rehearsed. Three months into the theater season a pre-law student dancer read the complete contract and discovered a nutritious meal is supposed to be served during any rehearsals over four hours. When…
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“Winsome Characters.”
When a child is born, they are an unwritten computer program learning from parents teachers and society. M. J. Leake
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“Treated reservations.”
If you are lucky, your life will treat you to various forms and types of reservations. I have had room and dinner reservations and I have toured nature reserves and visited several 1st Nations Lands for what some people call Reservations also known as the “The Rez.” But my daily reservation is the moment of…
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“A blogger conversation.”
The first daily word prompt “conversation” is appropriate to begin 2018 since a blog post initiates a conversation between bloggers around the world. Four years ago when I began blogging my surprise was the conversations with other bloggers about every aspect of my blog postings. As my blog has expanded to different categories of short…
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“Finally 2017 ending, now 2018!”
Finally, with the end of 2017, the entire world is looking forward to 2018 with incredible optimism. Many people around the world will begin new healthy and personal habits in a new year, so if you find yourself behind on new habit changes, as the weeks and months of the new year progresses there are…
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“Cozy Confessions.”
My thirty plus years of travel destinations are filled with photos and encountering people who are the inspirations for some of my creative writings ideas. In the beginning, I traveled via motorcycle across the US from coast to coast and border to border culminating with an inspiring road trip from Key West Florida to Fairbanks Alaska…
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A traveler’s miraculous discovery
Wanderer, your footsteps are the road, and nothing more; wanderer, there is no road, the road is made by walking. Antonio Machado A wannabe traveler’s miraculous discovery is the day they realize and understand their passionate dreams of travel. Their travel soul hibernated under layers of societies mandatory expectations while dreams of wanderlust, vagabonding and…
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“Legendary Inheritance.”
Fifteen years have passed since international Dodgeball star Lucas Leonard Lopez was seen on the court. However, his eldest son Lewis Leonard Lopez has followed in his father’s footsteps playing Dodgeball and graduating from his father’s alma-mater Potemkin University where he has led the Dodgeball team to four NCAA championships. The young phenom has chosen…
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“A lifetime of Jolly degrees of happiness and varnish layers of love.”
During anyone’s life, there are jolly times filled with degrees of ups and downs, covered with varnishing layers of love. A life is filled with degrees of changes with reflective layers of varnished ideas, and dreams, building confidence for the future and although there will be regrets, sad and depressing times cherish the jolly pleasant…
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“Sparkling at any age.”
The word “age,” is a noun, defining the length of existence from the beginning to any given time of life. Existence is the sparkle of life to be celebrated every day you awake to breathe. For many, the vanity of humanity is superficial when you deny realities reflection in a mirror. WordPress daily word prompt.
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“Procrastinating Pressure.”
The significance of procrastinating pressure to complete goals is sometimes a necessary emotion when you find snippets of excuses to forgo what should be done. With thirty days to write 50,000 words, it may seem daunting at first, but with proper and essential preparation it possible to find success. Spending each day including Thanksgiving taking bites of the…
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“Droolling mushroom hunters.”
Hiking in the great northwest of the US brings you into contact with many types of people. My first encounter with mushroom hunters began with the honk of a horn from a passenger van when I slowed on the roadway searching for a turn to a hiking trailhead near Mount Hood National Forest. I pulled…
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“Faintly simmering and being beckoned.”
I stood in the doorway of the kitchen watching my mother cooking and preparing the Thanksgiving dinner as I drooled with excitement wanting to sneak a lick of the bowls she recently mixed the german chocolate cake and its accompanying frosting. Although the aromas of faintly simmering pots filled with potatoes, assorted greens, and the…
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“Halloween Neighborhood-Lessons.”
There was a time in the 60’s, and 70’s when the mystery of keeping your home secure during the Halloween season was something you passed on to new neighbors. I had new neighbors who moved in two weeks before Halloween. They were a young couple without any children and the wife thought she would bake…
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“Ghoulish.”
I have never really liked Halloween since the horrible calamity of 1975, for which my father tells the story with the smiling gleefulness of a teenager like it was yesterday. The events of that night have left me traumatically scared for which I have endured nightmares until this day. I was a child only 5-years…
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“Autumn Fluffy.”
The end of green summer leaves leads to the transformation to various bright colors. During an October hike with crisp, breezes blowing red, yellow, purple, orange, magenta, and brown leaves floating softly to the ground. My fluffy soft wool knit cap and sweater against my skin warms my thoughts of holidays ahead. I consider drinking…
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“Identifying Trademarks.”
The identifying trademarks were visible when the border officer lifted the tarp to reveal the cylindrical barrel. This story began after my best friend Charles and I attended the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders Football game Nov 16, 1997. Charles and I met and became close friends when we were 23-years-old, in the Marine…
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“Cacophony: A band parents story.”g
My next door neighbors, Clifford and Joyce Ingram’s raised 6-children, who were born two and three years apart. When their eldest child Cynthia began playing the drums in the local elementary school band no one expected her siblings would follow in her musical footsteps. As the years passed their home was filled with the sounds…
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“Enlighten.”
Enlightening moments in time brings life into focus. (M. J. Leake) After thirty-nine years of marriage, three adult children, one hysterectomy, and a husband I share a love with that make me giddy as a school girl when we have a date night. I’m have become aware that I cannot control what I cannot hold or…
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“Loyalty.”
Loyalty is determined and measured by who you interact with over time. Loyalty and friendships are determined by time. Loyalty can be a long-term commitment in a relationship. Loyalty is earned, appreciated, gained, and returned. WordPress daily word prompt
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“Ascending.”
Life is like ascending a mountain one foot after another to accomplish what is desired. Standing atop of an accomplishment is a personal goal and time to reflect upon the journey it took. After ascending and conquering any of life’s challenges builds confidence to propel you to handle whatever life puts before you. WordPress daily word…
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“Breaking the Law”
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Breaking the Law.” Think about the last time you broke a rule (a big one, not just ripping the tags off your pillows). Were you burned, or did things turn out for the best? This is hard to conceive or recall as I have never intentionally broken…
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