Category — Microblog Mondays

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

*******

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day (usually called MLK Day) in America.  It feels particularly poignant this year because we’re moving between two very different types of leaders.  Obama guided by pointing out the positive.  And Trump… well… I can’t say that we are being guided anywhere good.  Insurance companies will benefit greatly from his administration.  Individuals, not so much.

King wasn’t a perfect leader or a perfect person, but he showed up and he cared and he tried his best to guide the nation towards a better place where one group of people didn’t need to be down for another group of people to be up.

I think I miss him a little extra this year because we need leaders like that — leaders who can speak eloquently to express our hearts and energize us to keep fighting for equality.  There are strong leaders out there (Elizabeth Warren comes to mind).  We need them to get a lot louder now that Trump is leading us backwards instead of forwards.

To me, King is a great reminder that it’s not about perfection.  It’s about humanness; looking for the good in others and understanding that we’re all in this together.

What do you think makes a great leader?

*******

Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

*******

I just learned about champing from Atlas Obscura, which is sort of like glamping, but in old churches.  It’s a win-win-win: You get an interesting, dry place to sleep for the night without needing to carry a tent.  The town gets money to help support the upkeep of the church.  And the ghosts in the floor tombs get a new group of people to haunt.

Win!

This would have been perfect for 22-year-old Melissa, though 42-year-old Melissa is currently cocking an eyebrow and saying, “I don’t think it’s for me.”  But once upon a time, I liked camping, and I would have jumped at the chance to stay somewhere cool.  Especially a place with floor tombs.

What do you think?  Would you champ?  And if not champing, would you tamp? (I just made up tamping, which is when countries allow you to sleep in famous tourist sites such as pitching a tent in Pompeii.)

*******

Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

*******

Every year between Christmas and New Years, we watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  The goal is to get Aragorn and Arwen’s kiss as close to midnight on New Year’s Eve as possible.  We rarely succeed.  By which I mean that we don’t succeed at all.  Like we sometimes get stuck watching the Two Towers well into January.  We suck.

But this year, we made a commitment.  Watch at least one hour, but hopefully more, daily.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  Do not allow life to get in the way of our goal.

This year, we succeeded.  Even though we had to take a few days off because the kids slept at my parents’ house, we timed it carefully and got the kiss in at 10:59 pm on New Year’s Eve.  I wanted to run around the house, screaming, because I was so proud of us.  Instead, I tiredly ate some M&Ms and said, “Well done, team.”

Sometimes it’s not the big wins.  Sometimes it’s the small victories.  What was your latest small victory?

*******

Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

*******

The day after Purim is usually a bit of a letdown.  There is relief because I pulled off all the costumes and presents, but there are also hours where I feel down because so much energy was directed at getting through the holiday, and now the holiday is over until next year.

I imagine that is what Christmas is like, too.  I mean, most people are off today, so that helps to extend the holiday feeling.  But all good things must come to an — albeit temporary in the case of annual traditions — end.

How do you get through the blues that occur after a big deal event has passed?  Any Christmas traditions for a soft landing?

*******

Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

*******

How is this for meta: a MicroblogMondays post about MicroblogMondays.

If you are looking for a resolution for this upcoming year, look no more.  You should make the commitment of writing in your own space on the Web at least 52 times in 2017.  One post each week; at least one sentence long.  There is no rule that blog posts must be 500 words.  I’ve seen posts that were one sentence or one paragraph, and they were just as thought-provoking as long pieces.  Ask your readers a question.  Tell them what you are doing at that very moment instead of putting those words on Twitter.  Anything.

Why do I think this is important?  Because I think posting things in your own space not only gives you the warm glow of ownership over your ideas, but it also makes people more circumspect.  It makes people support their thoughts with examples, provide links to sources, and unpack their feelings.  When it’s your own space, you think twice before posting.  When it’s your own space, you tend not to forward or link to other articles without checking them out first.

I think blogging in your own space helps keep balance with the quick-moving world of other social media sites.  It’s like the front porch to a house where people sit down to talk and listen.  People don’t quickly scroll past blog entries.  And I think blogging is even more important — especially first-hand accounts of the world — in this day and age of fake news and slippery facts.

So I’m just putting this out there: Go write in your own space in 2017.

*******

Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.