Tag: inspiration

Simple Sundays

Simple Sunday- Mental Health

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“Talk to yourself like you would to someone you love.” — Brené Brown

“I found that with depression, one of the most important things you can realize is that you’re not alone. You’re not the first to go through it, you’re not gonna be the last to go through it,” — Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

“Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary.” — Fred Rogers

“IWe would never tell someone with a broken leg that they should stop wallowing and get it together. We don’t consider taking medication for an ear infection something to be ashamed of. We shouldn’t treat mental health conditions any differently.” – Michelle Obama

“Anyone can be affected, despite their level of success or their place on the food chain. In fact, there is a good chance you know someone who is struggling with it since nearly 20% of American adults face some form of mental illness in their lifetime. So why aren’t we talking about it?” — Kristen Bell

Adventures · Floating Bookshop

Nora Hazelhart’s Floating Bookshop

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Here’s a short excerpt from my journaling experiment, the floating bookshop solo RPG! To set the scene, it is the first day of activity in the bookshop. Nora is prepping the boat to be able to travel down the river. The villagers are both nosy and excited to see the book boat getting ready again.

The way the game works is that you draw cards and roll a dice to give you the prompt for the events of the day, the weather, and the number and type of customers you rolled. This will also not be edited. I’m working on the “writing is best” theory, so aren’t really concerning myself with editing right now other than basics.

Optional Prompts to follow for the day- Cleaning and reorganizing the book shop.

Card prompts- Thunderstorms in morning, then clear and breezy. Dice prompt- Nora meets a fisher folx. (Not written here)

Nora’s letter to her friend:

“Mayor Banks and I made our way to the bank of the river where the bookshop rested in its slip. I had the first glimmers of doubt upon seeing it as a somewhat impulsive purchase I made. It didn’t help that it was currently thundering loudly with crackles of lightning brightening the river around us. Not exactly the auspicious day I was looking for to start a new venture. I was tired of aimlessly wandering through and it seemed like this might be the perfect chance to wander with purpose, meeting new people and experiencing new places. 

The roof was a splintery, faded mess of patchy paint and dry wood. The sides of the boat looked intact, but definitely needed a new paint job and perhaps a deeper inspection by a carpenter or boat maker, just to make sure of its river worthiness. The window facing the dock was patched with what looked like oil cloth on the outside. Even the sign looked poorly kept. I could tell it was charmingly carved, but some of the letters and the sign itself had succumbed to the weather so now it hung at a lazy angle and stated “ook op” in faded wood letters. The whole boat looked a little hodgepodge and while I didn’t normally mind that look, it was a bit more daunting up close.“

A description of the inside of the book shop (unnamed at this point in my story, but don’t worry, I have a lovely name planned.)

Struggling with the cabin door, which seemed to be swollen shut against the humidity along the river, I didn’t answer directly, just gave a vague nod in her direction. Then straining, I pulled at the door and much to my surprise, it finally gave way, almost knocking me back into the mayor. A pouf of dust came out, making me cough and I cautiously peeked my head in for the first look at my new home. 

The first thing I saw in the dim inside was books. Directly across from the door, I could see the edges of a bookshelf. A long curved desk sat to my left by the entrance with what appeared to be a half open door behind it.

Stepping inside, I coughed a little from the dust we’d kicked up and stumbled over to what looked like a window to open it. Mayor Banks did the same to a window on the other side. Looking up, I could see that the roof had a skylight in it, but it looked to be in bad repair. I would have to get at that from the outside. At least with the windows open, there was some additional light and it would hopefully clear the musty air. 

Mayor Banks was looking around at the walls and pointed out a few lanterns. “They’re probably mage lights as you wouldn’t want open flame amongst the books on a windy day!” she said, “I can have Master Rose from the Monastery to come refresh them if needed, but let’s just check them for now.” As she turned the switch a weak light came out and she moved around the boat looking for more as I did the same. Soon, there was enough light between the windows and the mage lanterns to see to not run into things. 

Mayor Banks leaves shortly after this- she’s late to her own council meeting! Nora continues to explore the book shop and living quarters on the boat.

Standing in the center of the shop, I looked around more closely to get my bearings. It was slightly strange feeling the rocking of the boat, but not unpleasant. I anticipated it would be lovely to be rocked to sleep this way. 

I had decided to leave the bookshop how it had been set up for now, mainly because I knew I would need additional hands to move everything. For now, there was a small kit area next to the checkout desk with two smaller bookshelves beside it. A work table graced the back corner across from it. The three main bookshelves were lined up parallel to each other and the check out desk with the fifth bookshelf flat against the wall in the opposite corner. A cozy reading nook with two couches, a lovely square rug, and a fake plant were in the corner right next to the door. Overall, it was a layout that invited others to browse and maybe read a little. -End of Day-

I’ll fill in some more detail later, but it’s quite a charming place! I hope you’ve enjoyed your little glimpse into Nora’s life.

Simple Sundays

Simple Sunday- Recognize

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“If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place.”-Margaret Mead

“I tend to think you’re fearless when you recognize why you should be scared of things, but do them anyway.”-Christian Bale

“It is always sad to write about prejudice, but sometimes when we see it being played out in the lives of fictional characters, we can recognize it in our own lives.”-Katherine Paterson

“It’s a helluva start, being able to recognize what makes you happy.”-Lucille Ball

“In our work and in our living, we must recognize that difference is a reason for celebration and growth, rather than a reason for destruction.”-Audre Lorde

Simple Sundays

Simple Sunday- Time

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“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

“I’d like to grow very old as slowly as possible.”-Charles Lamb

“The events in our lives happen in a sequence in time, but in their significance to ourselves they find their own order the continuous thread of revelation.”-Eudora Welty

“Time was something that largely happened to other people; he viewed it in the same way that people on the shore viewed the sea. It was big and it was out there, and sometimes it was an invigorating thing to dip a toe into, but you couldn’t live in it all the time. Besides, it always made his skin wrinkle.”
― Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time

“One doesn’t recognize the really important moments in one’s life until it’s too late.”-Agatha Christie

Book Dragon · Simple Sundays

Simple Sunday- Read Banned Books

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“All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently, the first condition of progress is the removal of censorship.” ― George Bernard Shaw, Mrs. Warren’s Profession

“The burning of a book is a sad, sad sight, for even though a book is nothing but ink and paper, it feels as if the ideas contained in the book are disappearing as the pages turn to ashes and the cover and binding–which is the term for the stitching and glue that holds the pages together–blacken and curl as the flames do their wicked work. When someone is burning a book, they are showing utter contempt for all of the thinking that produced its ideas, all of the labor that went into its words and sentences, and all of the trouble that befell the author…” ― Lemony Snicket, The Penultimate Peril

“Let children read whatever they want and then talk about it with them. If parents and kids can talk together, we won’t have as much censorship because we won’t have as much fear.” ― Judy Blume

. “What I tell kids is, Don’t get mad, get even. Don’t spend time waving signs or carrying petitions around the neighborhood. Instead, run, don’t walk, to the nearest nonschool library or to the local bookstore and get whatever it was that they banned. Read whatever they’re trying to keep out of your eyes and your brain, because that’s exactly what you need to know.” ―Stephen King

“A dangerous book will always be in danger from those it threatens with the demand that they question their assumptions. They’d rather hang on to the assumptions and ban the book.” ―Ursula K. Le Guin, The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader and the Imagination

“You know what they say: When people start burning books they’ll soon burn human beings.”
— Cornelia Funke

“Submitting to censorship is to enter the seductive world of ‘The Giver’: the world where there are no bad words and no bad deeds. But it is also the world where choice has been taken away and reality distorted. And that is the most dangerous world of all.”
— Lois Lowry

Life Posts · Simple Sundays

Simple Sunday- Voting

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“To me, it was shocking that a government of men could look with such extreme contempt on a movement that was asking nothing except such a simple little thing as the right to vote.”-Alice Paul

“If people don’t vote, everything stays the same. You can protest until the sky turns yellow or the moon turns blue, and it’s not going to change anything if you don’t vote.”-Dolores Huerta

“Do not think your single vote does not matter much. The rain that refreshes the parched ground is made up of single drops.”
― Kate Sheppard

“The vote is the emblem of your equality, women of America, the guaranty of your liberty. That vote of yours has cost millions of dollars and the lives of thousands of women. Women have suffered agony of soul which you never can comprehend, that you and your daughters might inherit political freedom. That vote has been costly. Prize it! The vote is a power, a weapon of offense and defense, a prayer. Use it intelligently, conscientiously, prayerfully. Progress is calling to you to make no pause. Act!”― Carrie Catt

“That we have the vote means nothing. That we use it in the right way means everything.”― Lou Henry Hoover

Simple Sundays

Simple Sunday- Appreciation

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“Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.” ~ John Lennon

“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” ~ Edith Wharton

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.” ~ Melody Beattie

“Commonplaces never become tiresome. It is we who become tired when we cease to be curious and appreciative.” ~ Norman Rockwell

“The more one does and sees and feels, the more one is able to do, and the more genuine may be one’s appreciation of fundamental things like home, and love, and understanding companionship.” ~ Amelia Earhart

Simple Sundays

Simple Sunday- Words

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“I know nothing in the world that has as much power as a word. Sometimes I write one, and I look at it, until it begins to shine.”
― Emily Dickinson

“Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, ‘It might have been.”
― John Greenleaf Whittier

“Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly – they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

“Words are like eggs dropped from great heights; you can no more call them back than ignore the mess they leave when they fall.”
― Jodi Picoult, Salem Falls

“I’ve developed a great reputation for wisdom by ordering more books than I ever had time to read, and reading more books, by far, than I learned anything useful from, except, of course, that some very tedious gentlemen have written books.”
― Marilynne Robinson, Gilead