Friday, March 1, 2024

What I Pay Attention to?

Hi, I’m Judith Ashley, author of The Sacred Women’s Circle series, soul nourishing romantic women’s fiction with light paranormal elements. My stories show you what life could be like if you had a place like The Circle where you are unconditionally accepted, supported and loved. And where, with this support, you make choices to overcome the darkest nights of your life to choose love and light.

When the Blog Queens, Sarah McDermed and Judith Ashley, get together to brainstorm blog topics/themes, their creativity runs wild and ideas pour forth. This is one of them inspired by The Ides of March, the day Brutus killed Julius Caesar. Perhaps if Caesar had been paying attention to his surroundings a bit more, he could have escaped being stabbed?

However, although there is not as much peace in the world as I’d like to see, I’ve found for my own mental health I do not spend copious amounts of time worrying or agonizing over what is happening in another part of the world. It isn’t because I don’t care about other people, it is more that I’m reserving or perhaps saving the energy I do have for issues over which I have some control.


I’ve written an entire blog post for The Glasser Institute for Choice Theory©- US on The Ides of March – Power and Self-Worth. It should be up by March 7th. You can read it here.

Other things I pay attention to in no particular order are:


My Family – How are they doing? Pictures of my great grands always brighten my day.


My Friends – How are they doing? At my age, I’ve lost several over the past few years.


Weather - I know I can’t change it. And yet I do want to be prepared for the winter storms, possible power outages, excessively cold or the increasingly hot temperatures of spring, summer and fall.


My Health – Actually this could be the first item on the list. I’ve found as the years go by, my vision of what I’d be doing now was off a bit. That is an adjustment I find more difficult than I thought it might be.


Traffic – I swear people are driving faster, running red lights and jumping green ones. I’m very careful to enter major arteries at traffic signals and if I’m the first in line, I wait for a few seconds and make sure ALL vehicles are stopped before I start into the intersection.


And one last item here:
Commercials – yep, television commercials. Why? This summer one of the themes Genre-istas can write about are Favorite Commercials. I’ve got a few that I enjoy watching. Can’t always remember the product though. Those that I Really Do Not Like? I can tell you the product and I do not purchase it. 


And I no longer watch the commercial. Mute is my favorite button on the remote and it gives me the opportunity to get up and move around, something that is a positive for My Health.


There is a longer list of things I’m aware of. I do what I can here like recycle, vote, keep a few of the essentials on hand.


Climate change
Politics
Supply Chain issues
When geraniums are in stock at Costco
When the daffodils bloom (they are several inches tall right now)


Looking at that list, now I’m wondering...Should the Geraniums at Costco be moved to the Pay Attention to list?

You can find my books at your favorite e-book vendor as well as through my website www.JudithAshley.net and Windtree Press. Print books are available at Jan’s Paperbacks in Beaverton, OR and Arte Soleil in Portland, OR. Get the addresses from my website. And be sure to ask your library if you’d prefer to read my books through that resource.

Learn more about Judith's The Sacred Women’s Circle series at JudithAshley.net

Check out Judith’s Windtree Press author page.

You can also find Judith on FB! 

© 2024 Judith Ashley

6 comments:

Paty Jager said...

Fun post, Judith! I don't watch the news. I get the news briefs on the radio but I refuse to waste hours watching something that only makes people worry and be miserable.
My list would be:
Family
Health
animals
environment

Judith Ashley said...

PATY, thankfully I did say "in no particular order". My Health would rank much higher if I'd listed items in order of importance. I can certainly see Animals on your list. I do make sure I preserve and promote habitat for birds, in particular, in my yard. While I won't run over a squirrel, I would gladly have the invasive Eastern Grey Squirrel go back home! Extremely destructive rodent.

Lynn Lovegreen said...

Cool post, Judith! Now I am trying to name commercials I like.....

Diana McCollum said...

Good blog post!
I usually only watch local news. National and world news Is depressing and, as you said, I have no control over it. It makes me anxious to watch updates on the wars going on.

Judith Ashley said...

Thanks for stopping by, Lynn. Let us know when you come up with some commercials you like or at least make note of them for the summer month when we share our favorites with our readers.

Judith Ashley said...

Diana, I ration all news. I don't find Local News less distressing than national and world news so I only watch short amounts of any of it. Just enough so I have an idea of what is going on.