Month: June 2013

WRITING AND ADVENTURE REQUIRE PATIENCE

Darla Bartos5 Comments

The simple word “WRITE” is written all over my house.

It’s even on my bathroom door, not intended for me to write there, just a reminder for me to go write. I see “WRITE” when I shower, when I brush my teeth. I see it early in the morning. I see it before I go to bed.

I am a visual person. It reminds me that yes, I need to do this. Writing is my full time passion and has been since I saw Lois Lane the first time.Image

Lois Lane was the only woman it seemed who ever had adventure in her life. And although I didn’t know it at the time, I wanted adventure.

She was a writer at The Daily Planet. I was intrigued. And so, I became a writer of newspaper and magazine articles. I now write a blog. And my life is an adventure.

Take now for instance.

My first book of the Mamgoboza series set in South Africa is with an editor. And I have to patiently sit back and let her do her magic. It’s difficult. I can pretend to start a new chapter of a new book, but the bottom line is that I want to see what she’s doing. I want to see — after working on this book much too long — what she sees in my manuscript that I didn’t. I want it done now. I want to be finished with this first book of the trilogy.

And since patience is my strong suit, you’d think waiting would be easier. Yet, I have found it profoundly difficult. And so I set about to encourage myself to work on something else. Or finish the second book. It’s over half completed.

Plus, I have lifted quotes from Pinterest. (Thank you Pinterest.)  Quotes which have helped me hold on and continue doing some form of writing.

And so, you get to read all about it on this blog.

But when you think about it, it could apply to anything. Keep Calm and  ….. What would you choose to put at the end? Keep Calm and ….what? Let me know.

9248f0ab821dc3dccb50073c132ac9ce

THOSE BLANKETY-BLANK-CALLS!

Darla BartosLeave a comment

Nothing is quite as irritating as sitting down to a plate of hot homemade food and getting a phone call without a caller I.D.

Robocall? A company soliciting you to apply for its credit card?

Or worse, a wonderful charity you regularly contribute to begging you for even more money.

b43f1b9cdf9277b17e8f8fe5051f20f2

This very morning a nice perky voice asked for me by name.

I was instantly reminded that one of my own children spent a summer marketing on the telephone.

Plus, I hate to be abrupt and I hate to hurt someone’s feelings, even though that person is encroching upon my time, my schedule.

In the past, I imagined that person and how her day was filled with hope.

That she would be successful, that this mundane job might lead to a bigger and brighter one, that she would ultimately  succeed in this crazy world.

I used to be sympathetic.

But that was before I was inundated with calls even until 9 p.m. at night and as early as 7:30 a.m.

That was before these insidious marketing people stole some of my humanity.

Shocked at myself I blurted out: “I already give regularly to this charity. I don’t want your  sales pitch!  Thank you and I hope you have a great day.” I was not shouting, but I slammed down the phone.

No, wait, I can’t even do that. I merely touched the button to turn it off. She left me feeling guilty on a bittersweet Monday morning.

I could have ignored the call, but twice I missed two long distance calls from my daughter overseas when her calls were routed through California.

Alas, what are we to do? Feeling as if all of us — even if we are listed on the no call registry — are destined to a lifetime of this frustration, I wondered if there was anyone on the planet who didn’t have to put up with unwanted calls. More searching.

“According to 21 March 2013 UN report: 6 billion people in the world already own cell phones. Which means the number who ‘never made a phone call’ has to be less than 1 billion, or 14%. Real number is probably quite a bit smaller, since in places like Africa pretty much everyone knows someone with a cell phone. — ”  Wiki Answers.com

Informationng.com says:

“Do you own a mobile phone or have access to the internet? Count yourself lucky as about a third of the world’s population is unable to access the internet while a staggering 1 billion people still do not own a mobile phone, showing many of the globe’s citizens are disconnected when it comes to modern-day communication.”

Another statistic came from edidyouknow.com 

These statistics vary  a bit. What do you think?

(Thanks Pinterest)

did-you-know-491

MORNING PEOPLE ROCK!

Darla Bartos5 Comments

“Morning is when the wick is lit. A flame ignited, the day delighted with heat and light, we start the fight for something more than before .”   Jeb Dickerson   www.howtomatter.com

I love this quote by Dickerson.

Unfortunately, or so I thought at the time, I became a morning person years ago.

Part of it was due to an  early rising husband. Then came children. Only by rising early, drinking coffee, doing the whole makeup routine (a Southern thing) was I able to feel awake and prepared for that onslaught of energy about to be thrust upon me by five kids.

I had no idea how lucky I was that I begrudgingly developed that wonderful trait.

0

(Sunrise in Malamulele, South Africa by me.)

All you EARLY MORNING PEOPLE Take a look at this article by Courtney Rubin. It will make you proud.

Why Morning People Rule the World

Morning people are more proactive – and therefore more successful in their professional lives — according to new research.

To paraphrase F. Scott Fitzgerald, the morning people are different from you and me – or so says new research.

Early birds are more proactive than evening people – and so they do well in business, says Christoph Randler, a biology professor at the University of Education in Heidelberg, Germany.

“When it comes to business success, morning people hold the important cards,” Randler told the Harvard Business Review of his research, some of which originally appeared in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology. “[T]hey tend to get better grades in school, which gets them into better colleges, which then leads to better job opportunities. Morning people also anticipate problems and try to minimize them. They’re proactive.” (Not that evening people are life’s losers: They’re smarter and more creative, and have a better sense of humor, other studies have shown.)

For the complete article: http://www.inc.com/news/articles/2010/07/research-says-morning-people-are-more-proactive.html

There are mornings we all feel like this.

cbaf904e73f778baeee6b451ce095210HOW

DO

YOU

GET

UP?

TELL 

US!

THE MOMENT

Darla BartosLeave a comment

Moments ago I was sitting in Belmar under a yellow umbrella with perfect warmth billowing down upon us at the Bakers Street Pub and Grill. People sat and chatted about the weather. It was a perfect day.

Image

An hour later grey clouds rolled in west from the Rocky Mountains. Temps fell. And I was once again reminded of the importance of the moment.

Raindrops now fall on my windshield and I am enjoying listening to the sound of soft rain, sunglasses folded and returned to storage near my visor.

Image

How quick. I sat wondering did I enjoy it enough? The conversation, the blue eyes starring back at me, the lilt of his voice in conversation. That moment in time.

How important is the now, the moment.

Unexpectedly, a moment in time creates a memory remembered for all time    Alone you walk across the street and bump into someone you will know forever.   The beauty of life is the mystery, the unexpected.

The moment itself will not come back.  But if you miss one, never fear.  A new one will momentarily present itself.   Catch it.

Revere it.

SURPRISE AT SIX

Aside Darla Bartos3 Comments

Grand children watched early morning television as I was scrambling eggs. Gulping down the breakfast, I opened the sliding glass doors, turned off the air conditioning and the television and threw out a thought.

“Did you know the birds talk to each other every morning?”

They looked at me with wide eyes.

We stepped out onto the patio and quietly sat down on a large pillow in a glider. “Can you hear them?”

Mesmerized, they listened intently.  I was absolutely amazed to see the two year old sit still. And the listening seemed magical to the six year old.

Then next door I saw movement under their deck. It took my breath away. “Look there’s a bunny!”

The little one made a movement, but I held him and whispered in his ear.

“He’ll run away if you go over there. Shhhh.”

It was unfortunate that I was telling the truth and the baby sensed it. Good thing too because suddenly there was a smaller bunny. And then another. And another. And another.

Image

Before we knew it, there were five or six baby bunnies hopping all over the place in the shadows near their Mommy. What absolute joy and delight for my two grandchildren. I exhaled and treasured this moment, this sense of appreciation it gave to me.

I felt a lifetime of love bundled in this moment, seeing this brief but personal piece of nature so close, so sweet, so lovely.

So much joy and it wasn’t even six in the morning yet. Who knew what lay ahead the rest of the day?

(Thanks Google for adorable pic.)

Escape Hatch

Darla Bartos3 Comments

My reasons for going to the movies have changed. It was gradual. So gradual that I didn’t even realize it was happening.

Movie going was simple in the early days in the small Texas town I grew up in. Mom dropped my brother and me off on Saturday afternoon for a a double feature plus shorts. We paid nine cents each and were thrilled to return week after week. I’ve been hooked on movies ever since.

image

Pop corn and a movie is good for the soul.

Movies  can stimulate, entertain and inspire.  I love almost any movie. But these days,  movies have become a respite.

When you are all alone in the dark theater waiting for this digital miracle — which has taken hundreds of people — sometimes thousands — hours to create, you join with them in the celebration of their work by purchasing a movie ticket.

But there’s more these days to catching a flick.

Now you can experience disconnection.

Who ever would have thought we would want to celebrate the act of being disconnected.When you arrive at the movie, before it even begins, there’s a cute video mandating you turn off your phone. For two and a half hours you leave the world behind. It’s an excuse  to turn off your phone. No texting. No phone calls. No one can reach you.  Virtually, no one knows where you are. You’re in an escape hatch from daily life.

I enjoy watching people as they power down. Amazing how most wait until the absolute last second.

Often I wonder why we don’t do it more. Power off I mean. The limbo of being where no one knows  what you’re doing or where you are. Applause. Applause for oneself. Not a bad way to do it. And it’s only for two hours. How about you? How often do you power off and feel the peace?

(thanks Google and Pinterest)

IN THE CLASSROOM

Darla Bartos1 Comment
Thanks Google!
Thanks Google!

After preaching the virtues of honesty to my own five children through the years, I received quite a shock when I returned to college as an older student.

Test time came and I studied like crazy afraid I would disappointment myself or, God forbid, have to tell my children that I’d flunked a test. And so I memorized every possible answer and actually found myself looking forward to seeing how well I might do on the very first test I’d taken in over 25 years.

My heart raced while I sat quietly with my trusty pens as the professor passed out the tests. I glanced up as he then left the classroom.

As I scanned the exam, I began smiling because I knew so many answers.

Just as I was about to fill in the blanks for the first part of the test, I heard whispering across the room. Within a few minutes, the students were openly discussing the answers. By the end of the test, several shouted the answers so everyone could hear them. I gasped. I could not believe that they were openly cheating and that no one was around to care.

Near the end of class, the professor walked back in and happily took up the test papers, dismissing class.

I waited until the end of the term. My moral code could no longer be quieted.  After much thought, I wrote the dean a letter describing the situation and my experience. I never received a response.

When I became a professor myself years later, I never left the room.