Category Archives: Daily Prompt

Discover Prompts, Day 16: Slow

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Ben Huberman at Discover, WordPress posts daily prompts throughout April. The prompt for today is Slow. 

He invited us to write about  an activity, chore, or habit we enjoy lingering on, or music, art, literature we turn to when we don’t need to rush.

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I worked for the same school district for twenty-five years before retirement. The freeway commuters increased year by year. Every driver was impatient, but there was no other option to many people to get to work. For me, I had an option of taking surface streets. It took fifty to sixty minutes each way. If the freeway were free, it would take about forty minutes. During the rush hours, it could take an hour and fifteen minutes, but it was still unpredictable. Eventually, I only took surface streets to work.

There was an internal clock that woke me at six o’clock before the alarm went off. There was no time to linger in bed. The morning routine was repeated methodically. Every five minutes of delay to get out of the door would cause extra ten minutes late to work. There was no time to have breakfast at home so I would eat after I got to the classroom or office when I worked in the school district office.

After retirement, the internal clock still woke me at six o’clock. It took a good year for me not to worry about getting on the road. It has been almost ten years now. I enjoy my slower pace of life with no apparent deadline and no rush in getting things done. If I cannot get it done today, there is always tomorrow. Sometimes, it is all right if I do not complete the job.

The best way for me to learn to slow is doing watercolor painting, drawing, and ceramic painting. Here are some samples.

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Holding Hands

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Discover Prompts, Day 16: Slow

 

 

Birthday Present

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I have written a post about My daughter Mercy. I love her dearly.

November 22 is my birthday. Some years, my birthday falls on Thanksgiving Day. This year, it was the day before Thanksgiving. My daughter Mercy, her husband Will, and baby Autumn came on Sunday, November 19 and stayed until the day after Thanksgiving.

On my birthday, we went to the mall to do window shopping. We then had some photos taken in front of the only Christmas tree. Santa was there for kids’ visit and photos. We were going to have photos taken with different decorations, but it seemed like the decorations were down to minimal. Perhaps I hadn’t been to the mall during Christmas for many years and didn’t realize the shrinkage.

We had dinner at a restaurant. Mercy gave me a booklet for my birthday present. It entitled “I Love You, Mom. And Here’s Why!” Each page has a prompt for her to share her thoughts with me. When we got home, I couldn’t wait but read through the twenty-one pages. My eyes were filled with tears from the first line of Mercy’s writing, and the smile mixed with tears for the remaining pages.

Here are two examples of the pages.

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I love you very much, Mercy!

Friday Night Treat

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I was away from home for three weeks helping my daughter to take care of my first granddaughter. While I was gone, my husband did several home improvement projects. I came back to a brighter and lighter color of the interior of the house. He also scrubbed the tiles and put shiny sealant on the front porch. There are still many projects that he will continue to do to make our home look nicer. He enjoys walking around the house and sees his nice touch everywhere.

As a mini celebration, we went to a restaurant for a special treat. He ordered his favorite dish of prime rib, the large cut. He had his regular drink of rum and diet coke. I’m not a drinker, so my he helped me order a glass of wine – Sangria. The wine that we once had when we were in Spain. Perhaps my husband ordered the wine for himself there because I didn’t have any recollection of it. The wine was very sweet at the restaurant, and it was served with ice and some citrus pieces. I had never had wine with ice in it. I took the ice pieces out and put them in another glass. The wine was so sweet that it tasted like fruit juice.

The restaurant was decorated in autumn theme with Raggedy Anne and Andy. There were pumpkins, autumn leaves, and roosters (I don’t know why roosters). I like the different shades of orange color of autumn. It was a pleasant night out for us.

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Daily Prompt: Orange

Photo of Planet Earth – September 22, 2017

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Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/University of Arizona

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer) spacecraft memorialized last week’s brief swing by Earth with a nice photo of its home planet.

On Friday (Sept. 22), OSIRIS-REx zoomed 10,711 miles (17,237 kilometers) above Antarctica, near the southern tip of South America, at a breakneck speed of 19,000 mph (31,000 km/h) using Earth’s gravity. The probe took the newly released photo a few hours after that closest approach when it was about 106,000 miles (170,000 km) from Earth, NASA officials said.

“The dark vertical streaks at the top of the image are caused by short exposure times (less than three milliseconds).” NASA officials Explained.

Souurce: https://www.space.com

 ~

Daily Prompt: Planet

First Sign of Autumn

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My daughter Mercy is waiting for her first baby’s arrival. She and I went for a walk to the local park today. We first went to the post office to mail an international letter. Before heading to the park, we stopped by a bakery to pick up some pastries and hot drinks. We then went and sat on the bench in the park, watching the kids running around, going up and down on the slides. The sun came out after two days’ off and on rain. We had such a relaxing time and heartfelt conversation together.

Here are some photos I took on our way to the park and this is the first sign of autumn I captured. The leaves on the maple tree just started to change color. How lovely to see a homegrown pumpkin!

I’ll stay with my daughter until the end of October. The colors of autumn will be gorgeous later next month!

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Daily Prompt: Leaf

Orchestra

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I published this poem in October 2016. Today’s Daily Prompt prompted me to look for this poem. I would like to share it with you again.

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Acrostic Poem – MUSIC

                                   M aster Conductor of Orchestra

                                   U niverse of planets and galaxies He directs

                                   S ynchronizes the quantum leap and obits

                                   I n dark mass, they exist

                                  C horus joins to sing the praises

~

Daily Prompt: Synchronize

Fullerton City Tour

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We have been living in La Habra, California for twenty-five years. City of Fullerton is behind the retaining wall in our backyard. We do a lot of thing in Fullerton such as go for walks in Laguna Lake, biking on trails, eat at the restaurants, have my hair done, or go to the hospital. We drive through downtown Fullerton hundreds of times, but have never taken a leisure walk in that area.

This morning we went on an Fullerton downtown tour organized by a lady from our church group. We walked 45,000 steps in two hours according to several peoples’ apps.

“Fullerton was founded in 1887. It secured the land on behalf of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. Historically it was a ,center of agriculture, notably groves of Valencia oranges and other citrus crops.

In 1886, the city began negotiations with George H. Fullerton, president of the Pacific Land and Improvement Company, also a Santa Fe subsidiary. They offered free right-of-way and half interest in the land to the railroad and name the city after him. On July 5, 1887, the negotiation came through and the railroad station is now the intersection of Harbor Boulevard and Commonwealth Avenue.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fullerton,_California

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Daily Prompt: Organize

Life’s Symphony

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Life is a continuum of the Great Symphony

Adagio expresses soothing melody with sweet love

Melancholy inner sorrow of the soul

Maestoso pitches the triumph of the Great Spirit

The victory of a long and hard won battle

Fortissimo frees the shout from the depth of the heart

Proclaims the greatest joy ever told

Pianissimo whispers to your ears the faintest sob

Breathes the darkest secret only to you

Every now and then, comes the rest, and rest

Silence! What tranquility it is in our Life’s Symphony

♪♫♥♫♪

Daily Prompt: Symphony

Shallow Thinking

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(Fictional illustration)

“My brother had a motorcycle accident yesterday. He was taken to the hospital, but didn’t make it,” Alice told her boyfriend.

“Yes, riding motorcycle is dangerous. From 2004 to 2014, there were about 4000 to 5000 deaths per year in motorcycle accidents,” he tried to respond to the news.

** What do you think about his answer? What would you say to her?

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She is a noisy person, too busy talking and doesn’t have enough time to think. Her thinking stays shallow, never gets a chance to sink.

He is a silent person, too busy thinking, the thoughts are so complex and deep that he doesn’t know where the talking should begin,

Well, these are the two extremes of a wide spectrum; there is always something in between.

~

Daily Prompt: Shallow

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