Caddy Rowland's Blog: Writer of Fiction, Painter of Life and Energy, page 17

30 Days 100 Authors 500 Blog Stops!!!!

Come and meet us.  Find out why we write, how we write and what we write. Sign up to win FREE books and a Kindle FIRE!!!!  We would love to meet you.

http://www.prlog.org/11933162-orangeberry-summer-splash-100-authors-500-blog-stops.html

Egads! Stop With The Little Girl Voice Already!

We all know at least one.  In fact, most of us run into several throughout our lives. This phenom is one of the most irritating, fakey apparitions walking the earth, and yet they are convinced that they sound sweet and sexy.  You know what I am talking about: women who talk like little girls.

I suppose there might be one or two adult women in the world with something legitimately wrong with their voice.  They are forced to talk for their whole life like a toddler in training pan...

Summertime and the Swimmin' is Easy

Ah, yes.  It is summertime, this indie author's of year. Slap me if you want to, but I love hot and humid weather. You see, we have a pool and we don't heat it. Because we don't have a heater we depend on the weather to warm it up, and there are a lot of trees in our neighborhood.  Many days the water temperature hovers around 74 degrees.

We don't mind that temperature.  In fact, it is far more refreshing then 80 degrees.  However, most people don't like it so we...

Freedom of Religion Means More Than Just Yours

There are certain groups of people lately who are loudly protesting that religion is being silenced in our country.  While that may be true, what is even more interesting is that they want their religion to be front and center, pounded down the throats of everyone, and the only religion publicly displayed.

How is this freedom of religion?  I am all for freedom.  I believe that freedom of religion is a right all of us are entitled to.  That means that if my religion is...

Why You SHOULD Talk About Sex, Religion, and Politics

Everyone has heard that you should refrain from talking about sex, religion, and politics.  When you really stop to think about that, doesn't it seem that "someone" wants to shut people up?  I mean, what are we supposed to talk about with others? Fashion? Celebrities? Other people?

Unfortunately, many people subscribe to this belief and do spend their time discussing mundane, and sometimes hurtful (as in talking behind people's backs) things instead of issues that matter.  Oh, y...

Savvy Bargain Hunting Granny

It pays to shop for bargains.  In fact, sometimes the best bargains can be found at a garage sale.  I know, I know. Why should you spend time going from one garage to another, sifting through the junk of strangers? I had given up on garage sales years ago, except if I needed paperbacks.

I read fast and so I would go to garage sales to find paperbacks.  Not anymore though.  Now that I have my kindle, I am so in love with reading on it that I never read an actual book anymore...

Happy Birthday or Happy Hatchday?

Today is my Congo African Grey Parrot's  ( please visit link to learn about this wonderful bird)17th birthday. Melanie has been with us since she was 3 1/2 months old. I am not sure if "birthday" is the correct term because birds are not "birthed".  They are hatched.  So should we sing "Happy Hatchday to You" when we sign to her later? Yes, we do sign to both of our parrots when it is their birthdays and then have a seed party. They get very excited about it and my Pionus Parro...

Guys Week At The Rained Out Lake

 (How they look in their mind)

Every year my husband and his brothers go back to their hometown and stay at the lake for five days.  No spouses are invited.  This is a time to just be together as brothers and have fun. The youngest brother, Lee, still lives in that little hometown and owns a place on the lake. The other four brothers make the sojourn, gifts of food and liquor in hand.

They have been doing this for decades.  So far, only one time did they get totally rained out.  It was so bad that they even cut it short by a day. Something tells me that this year might be rain out number two.The weather forecast does not sound good.

Is there anything worse than days of rain while out at a lake? It wouldn't be so bad for them if all of the guys played cards, but not all of them do. Their pass times of choice out there include pontooning while listening to old rock music (enjoying several beverages I am sure), throwing in lines off the dock, playing lawn golf, and more of the same.  Seriously, the whole five days revolve around those three things.  Like I said, they are male...and they are brothers. God forbid they try something new!

Note that all of those things count on decent weather. Yes, they can do into town. Still, they are old enough and smart enough to know that they can't party and then drive back to the lake, so that option is not the greatest.  Not too exciting sitting in a municipal liquor store sipping a coke while your brothers get snockered.

The town is celebrating their 125th this year (125th what, I am not sure.  Day it has rained this spring? Year in existence? Beer drank by the mayor this week? Time they wished
this week that there was somewhere decent to eat late at night?) I hope the celebration does not get ruined by rain, but it does not look promising. So, even coming into town for that may not be much fun.

On the bright side, people all along the lake can thank the good Lord above for small favors.  This Fathers Day week they may get a break from hearing the loud 60's and 70's music from a certain pontoon and seeing a bunch of late 50 and early 60 year olds "cruising" along the water (up and down, up and down...music blaring) and pretending they are 18 again.  Ah, the blessing of mind altering beverages!

Truly, I hope the weather surprises the forecasters and the guys get to celebrate in all their glory. Not because I am such a kind and generous spirit.  It is mostly because I don't want to have to listen to that old music when we vacation in July here at home! I have my "new" music ready at the helm.  You know.  The underground 70's stuff that only us in the know are familiar with. Ummm.  Okay.  Maybe that was decades ago, too, but that doesn't mean I am out of it. It simply means I am cutting edge with slightly duller scissors.  Doesn't it?

A MUST See Movie: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Last night my husband and I went to the movies.  We saw The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Not sure if we would like it, we nonetheless dove into our popcorn and waited for the lights to dim. I am so glad we went.  This movie is a priceless jewel of a film.

I am not sure if this movie can be appreciated by young people.  Age forty and up will benefit from it, though.  I would think some deeper thinking below forties would also enjoy it. The premise is that several retired people (who don't know each other) decide to retire at a beautiful hotel in India, for various reasons. The brochure paints it as luxurious and pampering.

However, when they get there, it is anything but. The young owner has dreams for it and hastens to assure them that things will be improving daily. They all stay. Each of them are disappointed, but it is not the biggest disappointment in any of their lives.  Those previous disappointments have shaped them into the people they are today.  Some bitter, some hopeful. Some looking for happiness, some living in the past.  Some ready to embrace new ideas, some unwilling to let go of long held prejudices.

It is not supposed to be a sad movie.  It is uplifting and enlightening. Nevertheless, I had tears running down my face halfway through it.  Puzzled, Dave asked me what was so sad.  I simply shook my head and whispered, "Nothing."

Afterward, I explained to him that my tears were not tears of sadness.  The movie was so poignantly beautiful that my heart was filled to overflowing. If you were really paying attention, each character had so many sub stories under the surface; so many life lessons they were offering to the viewer.

This movie touched me and made me a more appreciative person.  Ah, the beauty of life in all of its lessons, disappointments, and pleasures. Where else but India, in all of its awful glory could this story be better told? The country is filthy but full of bright color, noisy but full of life, poverty stricken but full of smiles. It is stunningly wonderful and hopelessly terrible. Just like life. 

If life wasn't that way, we would be much smaller people for it. Just go see the movie. You won't regret that you did.

Lessons of Life From My Annual Flowers

Every year I get as excited as a child at Christmas when it is time to buy annuals for my yard. In fact, it IS my Christmas; in more ways than one. The first way is material.  My husband and I don't exchange gifts at Christmastime. We are childless by choice and so we usually have had spendable income to buy what we want anyway. Sometimes we go together during the season and buy things we each want on sale after the holidays. Other times we pick out one big thing or nothing at all.

But the second, and more important way, that it is like Christmas is spiritual for me. Working with my plants brings me back to nature and to the creative force that makes us all. The feelings I get when pruning, preening, fertilizing, and watering are primal and nourishing. I am connected with something higher than me and I can feel healing.

My mind is renewed and refreshed. I can forgive others more easily.  And, best of all, I see the simple beauty in the circle of life.  Things come to be, grow, bloom, and eventually die. The process is eternal and non- discriminatory. Nothing is more or less important than the another. Everything responds and sings it's creation tune. Most of all, nothing (and no one) gets out of here alive.

I am reminded how important it is to "bloom" myself. To allow myself to be happy and satisfied, instead of worried and looking past the now toward tomorrow.  Today is here. Bloom now. Open my leaves and absorb the love of friends and family. Accept the flowers I have been given and make them thrive.  Gracefully give them up when the time comes.

Annuals teach me all of these things. Perennials are nice, but annuals are the ones that really speak to me. They show me, once again, the circle of life in one short season. Breathing slows and a sense of wonder and content envelopes me.  They are beautiful.  I am beautiful. We are eternal, yet individually all of us are "annuals". All is well with the world. All is well.