Deborah Adams's Blog, page 53

The Art of Taking It Easy

Seriously. Who doesn't need to re-learn that these days? Well,here's an excerpt from Brian King's book to get you started.

Getting To The Gym Across The Street (pages 137 – 138) – Art of Taking It Easy: How To Cope With Bears, Traffic, And The Rest Of Life’s Stressors
By Dr. Brian King
 
The brain is not a muscle, it does not grow bigger with repeated usage. Regardless of how hard you try, no amount of mental activity is going to make a part of your brain push a bump out of the skull. Muscles, on.../>Getting

How to help your favorite yoga center thrive (and help yourself at the same time)

Image by AndiP from Pixabay Most small businesses struggle to make ends meet, and yoga centers are no exception. The average yoga teacher has to have a “real” job or other income source in order to support the dream of teaching yoga. Class fees barely cover the rent and utilities; other necessities—like insurance, supplies, maintenance and repair—add more weight to the financial burden. Sometimes a yoga center owner would like to get paid a little something, too.
 
Your yoga c...

Just In Case : Twenty-One Bite-Sized Stories

I think I’ve found the Basho of fiction.
 
Laura McHale Holland is the author of Just In Case : Twenty-One Bite-Sized Stories, and every single entry in this anthology is a flash masterpiece. The title story is fully-formed in under 60 words, and packs a punch that entire novels often fail to deliver.

Yes, of course, there are a lot of people writing flash fiction. Not so many writing it well. That’s the joy of this collection—Holland’s variety of finely drawn characters appear in settings and...

It's time to Read Banned Books

Image courtesy of https://bannedbooksweek.org/ Every year, Read Banned Books Week reminds us censorship (1) still exists and (2) tells us a lot about the people who want to choose what other people are allowed to think.

Among the books that make the Banned list are: To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon
Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Von...

It happened Once Upon an Equinox....

Writers are environmentally friendly; we don't waste anything.

Author Dovie Ruth shares a perfect example of that with her guest post, which also answers that ever-popular question: Where do writers get their ideas?

Once Upon an Equinox is the first in Dovie's new Mystic California Cozy series. "When Delaney Fox made up her mind to attend a session at The Tilted Plume Writers’ Retreat in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, she had no idea how winding and treacherous the road was going to be. Eerily, n...

International Vulture Awareness Day -- it's a real thing

One of my two favorite birds (the other is the Mourning Dove), the vulture doesn't get nearly the respect it deserves. Yes, they look menacing. And yes, a group of vultures in a tree or on the ground is called a "committee of vultures," but that says more about humans than  birds, doesn't it? (In flight, it's a kettle of vultures; when feeding, it's a wake of vultures.)

Have you ever thought about how many dead things are everywhere? If not for the carrion-eating vulture, we'd all be up...

Here's how you can help hummingbirds

Image by Paul Brennan from Pixabay It's easier than you think: stop putting out that nasty red-dye nectar that costs too much and actually harms the hummers.

The best way to feed a hummingbird is with nectar you make yourself, and that's also easier than you think. Add one part refined white sugar to four parts water. Done. No red dye.

Southeastern Avian Research has more to tell you about hummingbirds. Ex: Here in Tennessee, it is quite possible to have hummers visiting your feeder all...

Follow me to Paradise....

Image by Sandeep Handa from Pixabay Yoga in India a thousand—or even fifty!—years ago looked nothing like the commercial venture that is now an integral part of mainstream America.

When I first heard the term ‘yoga’ it was reported as another one of those wacky activities the Beatles enjoyed. Classes were rare outside of L.A. and New England, and the women who participated wore leotards and tights--the standard costume for any athletic endeavor back then (except for Jack LaLanne’s jumpsu...

Simple and sustainable

Image by Jonny Lindner from Pixabay I like things to be simple. It's not that I'm lazy--I prefer to think of it as conserving energy.

Just today, for example, a friend complained about the exorbitant price of electric bills during sweltering Southern summers. Shortly afterward, I ran across a list of simple ways to save energy (the kind that powers your A/C). In the process, it saves money, too. If only it reduced the number of calories in cheesecake!

Easy Ways to Save Energy at Home

Much more than Maggody

If you’ve never read a book by Joan Hess, stop here and go do that.  I’ll wait.
Joan Hess, likely contemplating mischief
Joan left us last November, but she made such a BIG impression throughout the years that we’ll be talking about her misadventures for the better part of eternity. Like the time she was detained by that Saudi prince’s security squad, who spotted her skulking about the hotel and firing her water pistol at people and plants alike. Or the time she and her posse stormed th...