What inspires me #4 Two Thousand One Hundred Ten
Babe with Little Ray Kelly
2110 whoopee! Not talking dollars. Or baseball. Although I do love baseball. And I do have a baseball book forthcoming next spring: The House Babe Ruth Built, a celebration of Babe Ruth’s historic first homer in baseball’s first stadium, comes out Spring 2022 from Familius, just in time for the 100th anniversary of the original Yankee Stadium (more about that later).
Today I’m reposting this cat I let out of the bag 1710 days ago. PSSSSSSSST It’s been a secret! A secret-secret I’ve been doing that now, on this 2110th day, I'm Celebrating! Cue the Band!
“...be kind to your fine feathered friends/for a duck maybe some-body’s mo-th-er!”
For 2110 consecutive days, midst three moves, construction, vacations, births, goodbyes, hellos, and oh no! I have generated a poem a day.
No, I am not going to share any of my poems here, now. (You're safe...for now!}
No, I did not do it alone!
Nor would I ever have imagined getting to day 2110. That's why I'm telling you about it.
Is there something you've been meaning to try, but haven't?
Perhaps a personal goal? Maybe a resolution? Do you keep saying to yourself, as I have/do/probably will again: "I'll start next week" . . . "After the holiday, really" . . . "Tomorrow." . . Tomorrow. . . tomorrow. . . tomorrow . . . tomorrow . . . tomorrow . . .
What's the Gimmick? Gotta Have Skin in the Game.
Here's what I mean: I committed to the challenge with a friend. The rules of the game were set in writer's blood (aka "Ink"). We pledged to email or text our assignments to each other every day by midnight. Or else...
It's that "Or Else" that made the difference.
Rewards & Consequences: Some folks respond better to positive reinforcement. I've shared previously how my author-mentor-friend the late Paula Danziger bought herself pieces of amber jewelry but...gave them to her editor to hold until she met a deadline. In order to get SE Hinton to write her second novel (after The Outsiders), her then boyfriend waited each day for her to finish her pages. Others reward themselves by putting dollars into a honey pot. (Big bucks!)
Rewards do not work for me. It is too easy not to pay myself. Nor have I yet found a payoff big enough (and attainable) to entice me to do anything...and I mean An-ny-thing!
I need Consequences, penalties, shame. That's what motivates me. Deadlines with consequences. So, in order to insure that I'd stick with the challenge, I set a penalty a miserable embarrassing consequence. I pledge to complete each days prompt and send it to Cindy by midnight. If failed I vowed to donate $50 to Trump's campaign publically--on Facebook. Pre-election that was the stiffest-realistic-penalty I could imagine. One I was not willing to pay and so, I did the work Every. Single. Day. Here's the 1-2-3 of it:
Set a "realistic" Goal
Set a "clear" Consequence or Reward
Set a Timer (The secret ingredient!) Cindy and I devoted 7 1/2 minutes each day to complete the prompts. That's it 7 1/2 minutes. Read. Set Timer. Go.
I was amazed at what we accomplished in 7 1/2 minutes. GDC: a concrete GOAL, a set DEADLINE, and a CONSEQUENCE for not meeting that deadline was exactly the motivation I needed to stick with the journal, especially through those first couple of days, then weeks, and vacations, and late nights, and yucky prompts. The answer is YES I CAN!
Tomorrow is here. 2110 down, more to go!
Celebrating 2103 Playlist:
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Fin Pal asks Norman "How Did You Write That?"
WOW! That’s a good question. It’s a question lots of kids ask. The truth is, Norman didn’t write the picture book Not Norman, A Goldfish Story. Kelly wrote it. She also wrote Norman One Amazing Goldfish about the day Norman’s human entered him in Pet-O-Rama.
Norman is a made-up goldfish in her story. Norman is also a goldfish that lives at Kelly’s house. But, let me ask you: while Norman the goldfish is swimming around in his bowl, might he be imagining stories?
Ready to read Norman’s answer? Scroll down . . .
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Say kids:
If Norman did sneak out of his fishbowl, where do you think he would go? What would he do?
If Norman’s idea sparks a story in you, share it with us here! We’d love to read it. And, who knows, your story could become a book, too!
Happy Creating!
P.S Norman did write a story about how he got his human. It’s called Not Curtis! to read it, click!
Do you have a question for Norman the Goldfish—about friends, school, pets, family, life in and outside the fishbowl? Send him a letter!
Poetry Challenge #227-Popcorn
I’m missing movie popcorn: light, airy, crunchy, salty, buttery bites that grease up your dry skin. Mmmmm! And makes movie-watching oh so tasty!
The first single pops that grow faster and faster until clouds of popped corn flow over the sides of the pan.
Those red and white striped cardboard containers that pop into shape. Or the waxed bags filled until one more piece can’t balance. The smell! The taste!
Poetry Challenge #227
Movie Popcorn
Think of something you miss. Maybe it’s a favorite food. Maybe it’s summer since it’s January. Maybe it’s the sun on a cloudy day. Maybe it’s a friend or relative or pet.
Whatever it is, write an acrostic poem about it using the letters POPCORN as the first letters for your seven lines.
Be descriptive. Make your reader miss the thing too.
“Each acrostic poem has a topic idea running down the left side of the poem. Each letter in the topic word has a new thought that runs off the side from left to right and is relevant to the topic word. The topic word is typically the title as well.”—definition and examples on KidZonePoetry
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 2000+ days ago. Now we take turns creating prompts to share with you. Our hope is that creatives—children & adults—will use our prompts as springboards to word play time. If you join us in the Challenge, let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl):
All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
What Inspires Me #3: MLK, the Biggest Dreamer
Martin, “Martin” of the song, “Martin” of the movement, “Martin” our hope for a kinder country.
Martin Luther King Jr. was as human as all of us, and as vulnerable (and maybe fearful, too.) The difference, is that MLK dared to dream big, big dreams. Dreams for himself, for his family, and the biggest—for us, humanity.
Jan 17, 2022 is Martin Luther King day, a national holiday set aside to honor the man—and most importantly his dream for the world with hopes that we will listen and strive toward it.
On August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, at the Lincoln Memorial. Below is the recording courtesy of NPR.
Fin Pal asks Norman an Earful
Norman T. Goldfish answers letters from readers. Click on the link to read his reply.
If you’ve read Not Norman, a Goldfish Story, then you know something CRAZY happens in class that sends everyone running, screaming, chasing… everything but listening.
Can you remember a time when you were trying to say something, but no one was listening?
What makes Norman a good listener?
Ready to read Norman’s answer? Scroll down . . .
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Do you have a question for Norman the Goldfish—about friends, school, pets, family, life in and outside the fishbowl? Send him a letter!
Poetry Challenge #226-The Think System
How about those New Year Resolutions? Did you make them? Have you kept them so far? Gulp…
According to Discover Happy Habits poll of folks who make New Year’s resolutions:
After 1 week 75% are still successful in keeping it.
After 2 weeks, the number drops to 71%.
After 1 month, the number drops again to 64%.
After 6 months, 46% of people who made a resolution are still successful in keeping it.
Notice, all those statistics are about making and keeping resolution. No one ever says we can’t revise them…
Poetry Challenge #226
The Think System
In The Music Man, Dr. Harold Hill taught the “The Think System” to folks in River City. “Think!” he implored his band students “think” the notes and to imagine themselves playing. The Think System kept Harold out of the Hoosegow. Maybe it can work for us, too.
Poetry Challenge #226
The Think System
Choose one thing you’d like to change in your life. One dream you have for yourself. One hope for the future. It might be that New Year’s Resolution you half-hardheartedly made, or maybe something you haven’t dared put into words.
“Think” of a time, a place, a reality where that change, that dream, that hope is a fait accompli. You are doing it! Living it! Being there!
Write THAT poem. Write a poem based in that new reality! Maybe this clearer image of then will help us refine and keep those resolutions now.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 2000+ days ago. Now we take turns creating prompts to share with you. Our hope is that creatives—children & adults—will use our prompts as springboards to word play time. If you join us in the Challenge, let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl):
All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
What Inspires Me? #2 Dawgs!
You Dawg, you! . . . Sure, when said with a certain intonation it's a sideways compliment, but I personally never aspired to being a Dawg or Dog. Before now . . .
"I really don't want to be dog either. But, I'm not sure a bunny is better option."
What Inspires Me?
#2 Dogs!
Confession time: I read AARP magazine. (The subscription's not mine--really, it's not--It's my mother's...not that there's anything wrong with that.) Or, as they used to say about Playboy: "I read it for the articles..."
Of course I opened it. Kevin Costner aside, who can resist a lead line that reads"6 Bad Habits that are Really Healthy?
Moving on: An article titled Our Dog Years in the Dec. 2014-Jan. 2015 issue, caught my attention. (So, I'm a little behind in my reading.) OMG I thought, wanting to rip it into shreds and compost it. What's the deal with all the books and movies starring dogs? It's as though mid-life crisis, once synonymous with mistresses and souped-up convertibles, is now all about dogs. Reminds me of the play Sylvia, in which an adopted dog becomes the "other woman" in a middle-aged couple's marriage. Funny play . . . Scary thought considering how many other recent movies feature leading men who love their dogs more than humans...Richard Gere, really?
Curious about just how many mid-life dog crush movies have been published recently, I Googled "Dog-Lovers+Movies." This list popped up:
The Greatest Dog Movies of All Time
List Criteria: Films must be about dogs or feature dogs / puppies as major characters
(Turns out it's an interactive list! We--you and me--can influence each movie's placement on the list by voting. I've hyperlinked it above in case you'd like to do some investigating--voting--dog movie watching later.)
Anyway, back to the article. As a non-dog lover, I must confess it was a bit of a yawn:
The best part was the end. (No disrespect intended, David Dudley.) The article closed with a nugget of advice from neuroscientist Elizabeth Head.
Dr. Head studies aging beagles at the University of Kentucky. She’s noticed the plaques (hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease) found in aging dogs is similar to those found in humans (more similar even than those found in primates.) The reason, Head poses, might be that “living in our environment—our food, our water, our homes—has made dogs more vulnerable.” That age-related dementia might actually be a “side effect of civilization.”
If, as Head suggests, domesticating dogs has made them prone to human “Old-timers” then might the reverse be true? Rather than “Gone to the dogs,” meaning something has “gone badly wrong and lost all the good it had,” is the converse true? Maybe going to the dogs the better way? Rather than singing along, should we heed the call of the song: “Duh-duh-duh duh da- dut/duh-duh-duh duh da- dut/duh-duh-duh duh da- dut/duh-duh-duh duh da- dut/Hey baby…”
Dr. Head is confidant she will figure out how to “stop brain decline entirely in middle-age animals" (hopefully humans included). In the meantime, she's offered, via Dudley's article, this sage advice:
“Everything you do for a dog to help them age well, you should do with them”
TREAT YOURSELF AS YOU DO YOUR DOG:
Eat the best food you can afford
Go for a walk, even when it’s raining
Keep your teeth clean and your breath fresh, so that people you lick will not flinch
When someone you love walks in through the door, even if it happens five times a day, go totally insane with joy
Take your vitamins! Like these from topdogvitamins.com!
So now I'm thinking: If we can learn all this from living like a dog, what wellness tips can we learn from our cats? Or our Fish?
Living Like a Dog Playlist:
Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl). All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in my “Winner-Winner Chicken Dinner” Quarterly Giveaway!
Fin Pal asks Norman "What's your Favorite Animal?"
Norman T. Goldfish answers letters from readers. Click on the link to read his reply.
A brand new year! Celebrating with 2-for-2022 with a letter and question from Finpals! Letter (with super cute drawing) first:
Finpals who are just learning to write,can tell a teacher or adult their questions for Norman T. Goldfish. (The T stand for “The” because “The” is Norman’s middle name.) Like this one:
Do you have a favorite animal? If so, why? Do you think Norman the Goldfish has a favorite animal? He sure does! Actually he has 2. Can you guess what they might be? Here’s a hint:
T also stands for “tell” and “tricks” and “tail”—as in Norman’s tail is finny and long. One of Norman’s favorite animals doesn’t live in water or have a tail. The other one only lives in water (but salt water, not fresh water). And it has a long tail—so long it can wrap it around coral or grass and hold tight during rough seas.
Ready to read Norman’s answer? Scroll down . . .
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The Longhorn Cowfish (Lactoria cornuta) inhabits the reefs of the Indo-Pacific. They are not good swimmers—but they do have horns—lust like a longhorn cow. Want to learn more about cowfish? Click here!
Wonder if cowfish say “Moooo” instead of “glug-glug”?
Did you know seahorses move by using a small fin on their back that flutters up to 35 times per second: 1-2-3…35. For more “Amazing Facts About Seahorses” click over to OneKindPlant.org.