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    40 Things I Love

    40 Things I Love Challenge Just finished one challenge and here I am with another one, but at least this is just for a single post. Thank you, Nesiller over on Medium for tagging me in the “40 Things I love” Challenge. This will be my first long listicle ever and I’m looking forward to writing it. The hardest part will be sticking to 40, but I won’t cheat. 40 Things I Love The Dawn chorus, what a sound to wake up to. Visiting Art galleries and losing myself in the paintings. Reading non-fiction. My interests include subjects like the cosmos, ancient humans, Tudor England. Italian food, almost an addiction. You got…

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    Writing Challenge Finale ( Day 31 )

    Last Day of the Writing Challenge I cannot believe it, I’ve managed to complete the Jeff Goins 500 Words 31 Day Writing Challenge. You might think that doesn’t rate highly in life achievements and I guess you would be right. Still, for me, it’s a celebration. So many times I tried stuff like this in the past but didn’t follow through. I credit Jeff with making the challenge clear, interesting and achievable with effort. It was difficult at times. Maybe the theme was uncomfortable, like writing your own eulogy. Or called for thinking outside the box, like writing in someone else’s voice. But I always gave it my best shot…

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    Stolen Child ( Day 30 )

    The Challenge for Day 30 Today’s challenge is to write about “Innocence”. Maybe even share stories of the younger, more innocent you. My post titled  Memories, Poems & Fairy Ribbons pretty much covered that topic, so I thought it might be nice to try a different angle.  I’ve decided to go with one of my best-loved poets, William Butler Yeats and his poem “The Stolen Child”.   The Stolen Child “Come away, O human child! To the waters and the wild With a faery, hand in hand, For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.” ― William Butler Yeats   Here, Yeats is writing about lost innocence. The…

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    Storytelling ( Day 29 )

    The Challenge for Day 29 The challenge for today is “Write about anything you know well that you don’t have to research.” A free reign, I like that idea. The topic I’ve chosen is storytelling because it’s something I’m passionate about for many different reasons.   Storytelling Storytelling has always been part of human culture. I like to imagine a group of early cave dwellers, sitting around a crackling fire, sharing stories with others. Maybe a small family group, the grandmother passing on stories of their ancestors and how they came to live in that particular place. The father recounting the day he landed his biggest fish ever and how he…

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    Memories, Poems & Fairy Ribbons ( Day 28 )

    The Challenge Today, I’m meant to be writing my own Eulogy. Thanks, but no thanks, Jeff! All I’d want on a gravestone is ” I tried, I really did.” Tried to be loving, honest and open-minded. That’s about it, really. Still, he got me thinking about my past and some early childhood memories, lovely memories, came back to me. And that’s when I started writing ” Fairy Ribbons”. Maybe you could call it a Eulogy to my inner child, the innocent me? Guess that keeps us all happy then, Jeff. I’ve written three verses so far this morning.  Little pen pictures of me before I was six, before life got complicated, …

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    Tulips, Baskets & Bosses ( Day 27 )

    The Challenge for Day 27 “Today, use your 500 words to tell us about your work experiences.” Although I’ve spent most of my life involved in Education, I thought I’d write about the time I worked in a flower bulb factory in Holland…Ah, fond memories of tulips, baskets and bosses. Tulips, Baskets & Bosses. There are endless piles of bulbs laid out in front of us. Flower bulbs, though they might as well be onions for all we care. Any romantic notions about dancing through fields of tulips are long gone. We don’t have any time to waste, we know we have to get started straight away and accelerate fast…

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    Disappointment ( Day 26 )

    The Challenge for Day 26 The challenge for today is to write about “Disappointment”, that sadness you feel when your expectations are dashed by reality. Disappointment We’ve all been there, haven’t we? It could be something outside your control, like a sudden snowfall leaving you housebound instead of at the concert you spent all year looking forward to. Or maybe a friend lets you down by not answering your calls when she knows you need a shoulder to cry on. Perhaps you disappoint yourself by messing up a work project because you left it till the last minute. Again. And then it hits you, that sinking feeling in your stomach.…

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    Kyllini ( Day 25 )

    The Challenge for Day 25 Today’s challenge is to write about the topic of travel. “Think of a time you went somewhere, anywhere and share it with us.” I love travelling and it was hard to settle on one destination. In the end, I decided to write about the last stop of an Interail holiday I took in my twenties…Kyllini.   Kyllini My friend Sinead and I are having one of those heart-to-heart chats, you know the type you have after a few wines. The shared bottle of Ouzo is adding to the experience and the words are tripping over themselves. Complex stories of relationships meander through the fog, twenty odd…

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    Dentophobia ( Day 24 )

    The challenge for Day 24 Today’s challenge is to ” Cut out the Fluff. Write 500 words without using the word “that” or “very.” Try to use absolutely no adverbs (hint: “absolutely” is an adverb).” So here it is, my piece on Dentophobia…Fear of the Dentist. I won’t promise fluff-free,  but I’ll do my best to deliver on the adverbs. The word “that” might be more difficult but I’ll give it my best shot. Here goes…   Dentophobia Here I am on Day 24 of the challenge, can you believe it? Still writing, still posting, still battling on. Little princess warrior is turning into Queen Maeve, taking on Fear and whacking…

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    Bookends ( Day 23 )

    The Challenge for Day 23 Today’s Challenge is to write the end of a piece of work, whether it’s fiction, non-fiction or memoir. This is not going to be easy, but that’s why it’s called a challenge, I guess. Since I wrote the preface to my memoir yesterday, I thought I may as well go with the ending today. I’m calling it “Bookends” because that’s what I’m going to end up with…A start, an ending and a whole lot of work to do to fill in the missing pages. But, do you know what, I’m grateful for these prompts because they’re teaching me how to focus on outcomes and not just…