#AtoZChallenge: J is for Johnston – an interview with writer Kate Johnston ✍️

So, I’m a little behind.

I’ll keep the pace in this #AtoZChallenge, without shortchanging any posts. I want to make sure to give this one especially it’s due. Today’s post is an interview with writer and writing coach Kate Johnston.

She’s a published author who devotes time to making scribes like you and me even better.

She believes in a principle I’d love to make a staple in my life. That if we make a daily practice of positive thinking, we can enhance our creativity and lessen the weight of obstacles that have held us back. (Writing #GratitudeAndShit every Friday is a good start!)

#AtoZChallenge: H is for Hayden, headphones, and happy hour #GratitudeAndShit 🎧

Just grateful to be kicking it with Western Conference All-Stars.

Is it possible that being grateful that I’m not THAT far behind in life sounds sarcastic?

Or that I’m grateful the Rockies haven’t lost ALL their games? Or that the pollen hasn’t ACTUALLY killed me? These are all viable items of gratitude if you ask me.

It’s the day for giving thanks for stuff in my life so let’s get on with it. Oh, crap. Today has to start with Hs, too.

#AtoZChallenge: B is for Bibster, baseball, and a spot by the birdbath #Gratitudeandshit 🐱

Bots. Bots would qualify in a post about the letter B. Dancing bots are a bonus. (Bonus, B too.)

Ever struggle to come up with a gratitude list? I have.

It doesn’t make you an ingrate. It’s tough sometimes to get creative, so I hope this A to Z Challenge will bring a little spark out in me. For Day 2, the letter, as you might predict, is B.

😬 10 things grateful: Tranquility, good friends, and the moment the pieces fit #GratitudeAndShit

Madison took this stormtrooper photo the same day at Kings Mountain as Hayden did. Very similar pictures! I’ll use one Camdyn took next time.

I’m usually better at this.

You know. Staying in the present. It’s how I’ve managed to keep the train on the tracks when all else fails. I remind friends of this when they cling to the past or fret about the future. Frame where you are now, and be fully in it.

If one of those friends said that to me now, back, I’d see how impossible it feels.

Madison is moving to California next month. I’ll take a 40-hour road trip with my oldest and her cat, Munch. I wake up at 4 a.m. every day worried about it. But I’m getting better. She’s excited. I’m excited for her, and I’ll work extra hard to buy plane tickets to visit her early and often.

👐🏾 #AtoZChallenge: U is for unexpected fun, Uncle Frank, and understanding

Wednesday was a good day.

Are you seeing this too? Some days are good. Some not. Like the Raiders’ draft history, there appears to be little rhyme or reason to it. But Wednesday? Wednesday, I felt calm. I felt … vital.

Walt Disney is a dude lots of you know, and he said something kind of profound about making dreams come true.

He cited 4 Cs – curiosity, confidence, courage, and constancy. (I’d have added cheeseburgers, but he didn’t ask me.) The greatest of all, Walt said, was confidence. (Again, no opportunity to pimp cheeseburgers.)

I wondered if those things can snap into place even before the dream formulates.

🖤 #AtoZChallenge: I is for being IN progress, IMMUNE system meditations and INSIGHT (for #GratitudeAndShit)

He’s trying to figure out what happened to the rest of him.

Confession time: Do you know what the worst part about the #AtoZChallenge is?

It’s not remembering my ABCs. I was an English major, you know. It’s the pace of the thing when you don’t plan ahead enough. I’m behind in keeping up with the baddest (and I mean the baddest) Facebook blog group on the planet, too (the Peaceful Posse.)

To me that’s kind of fundamental, that part of this blogging thing.

By Easter Sunday, I should have read posts for at least three of my sisteren (The PP is mostly women) and those who’ve commented here and also a couple of others in my routine.

#AtoZChallenge: C is for conversations, Camdyn and cookies (#GratitudeAndShit) 🍪

Turns out, I love L.A. Just not the dodgers or lakers.

I wonder how many people will go with COVID as their C word.

Or, coronavirus. It’s difficult for me to, even if I wanted to. Friday is my #GratitudeAndShit day, and pandemic viruses don’t make the cut. I am grateful, however, to have this new reality upon me. It’s not been easy, but there have been some pluses on small scales.

It’s exhausting to read post after post about how to work efficiently from home. 

I haven’t found that. There are small gains. There’s stuff like birds on my bird feeder and tortilla chips in my pantry to serve enough distraction to get me off track. But I’m eating less fried food and takeout, more conscious that I’d better watch my intake.

I’m not getting in those steps at Target and hustling to the bus stop these days.

🤸‍♂️ 10 things grateful, including stuff that isn’t about my new job #GratitudeAndShit

I’m feeling a bit repetitive lately.

I’m grateful for the chance to write again, to have the time freedom to devote energy to blogging and this universe. I’d like to take that a step further, and get back to those posts I’ve missed so much. Posting all the great #GirlsRocks interviews I’ve had lately is one.

But I miss the Go Ask Daddy posts, too.

The girls ask fewer questions these days, but we have a ton in reserve. I learn a lot doing those posts. And the mindful Monday posts I hate to call Mindful Monday posts, also. There’s a lot going on in my noggin and I love hearing what you have to say about it, too.

⏯️ 10 Things Grateful, the dusted-off edition #GratitudeAndShit

Just hanging with Pez Jeff Gordon.

Last time I was here, in gratitude land, I posted the blog on dial-up.

Okay, so maybe that’s a stretch. I’m grateful as hell, but just haven’t had the time to be grateful as hell. Which makes no sense, right? I love coming to this space and hearing what you’re grateful for, too.

I have a cool new job in the city and I walk from the bus stop to the office with Glen Frey’s You Belong to The City in my head even though I know this is NOT what he had in mind, a middle-aged agency writer trudging the concrete to save a buck.

I do these things, you know. Someday I’ll tell you the songs that play in my head when I: a) Make tortillas (it’s been a while); b) take the soccer field sideline; and c) walk anywhere when it’s cold enough to see my breath.

🆒 10 Things Grateful, plus meager efforts to write again

Just a stormtrooper trying to steal Tim Tebow’s thunder.

I’m in a spot with not enough time to finish this, but also not so little time I can’t start.

And that’s sort of been the calling card in my life lately. Again, were this blog a goldfish in a bowl, it’d be floating belly-up. Interestingly, I feel better equipped to handle a hectic life than ever. And life is still keeping me away from this space.

Not entirely.

I’ve kept up (mostly) every day with the gratitude journal, so there’s plenty of material. Hopefully, that’ll get finished tonight after my boys’ soccer training and Camdyn’s teams’, when that Monster Energy drink kicks in somewhere between here and the Lowe’s Y.