Drops of Inspira

  Hello! One of my favorite things to do nowadays is watch the play of the sun as it hits the trees and casts shadows across the road. There's this special time of the evening where it's particularly beautiful. It's a magical moment where the world seems to hold its breath and anything can happen. It's a moment where the world seems to stop; a moment trapped in time. My response to this month's prompt came from my observations of this time of day. As always, please feel free to use the prompt below to generate your own creativity.  Here is the prompt: Last week, I took my red Lord of the Rings notebook and my red pen (I really like red. Don't know if you can tell.) and went outside. I found a place where I could watch the road by my house and just sat, observed and listened. I must have sat there for a good half an hour; it was so peaceful! Out of that time came this poem. Now, I'd like to hear from you! When was the last time you simply sat outside, observe...

     This quote has stuck in my head since my mom first read Miss Rumphius  to me when I was a child.      To me, it's a challenge to leave the world more beautiful than it was before. To leave something beautiful behind. It can be an act of kindness, coming alongside someone that needs help, making a meal for someone... Really anything.       For Miss Rumphius, it was planting lupines everywhere. For the Phoenix Fiction Writers, it's art and writing. Not familiar with this group? Let me introduce you.     The Phoenix Fiction Writers are a group of eleven speculative fiction writers dedicated to creating beautiful and meaningful stories. Their stories are not only engaging, but also challenging. These are stories that leave you thinking and chewing over what they have to say long after you finish.      If you want to know what I think about their stories, there are some reviews I've done for them under the "...

 Hello March!      I'm at the age where the months seem both to drag on forever and fly past with the speed of a jet simultaneously. I don't know if having busy months contributes to those feelings or if it just results from something else.       I like to look forward, sometimes a couple months ahead, sometimes years into the future, but last year and this past month, even, has been teaching me to slow down and take it a day at a time. I call it living at the speed of a flower. What do I mean by that?      When I was very little, I didn't keep time by a calendar. I kept time by what was going on around me. I always knew that it was March when I saw daffodils blooming. Before that, it was simply winter, but daffodils were a herald of Spring.     Flowers aren't in a hurry. They don't have to be anywhere. Their job is simply to grow. They are reliant on the rain and good soil, but they don't have a will of their own. They do...

  Hello! I have a question for you. When you think of February, what colors come to mind? Red? White? Pink? Maybe gray? What about blue?   For me, the color blue, has always represented friendship and going deeper. Since this month is International Friendship Month , I chose my favorite color for this month's prompt. (Well, technically, my favorite color is cerulean, but that is a shade of blue.) Here is the prompt: As always, please feel free to use the prompt to generate your own creativity. It doesn't have to be a poem. The prompt is mainly to get your creative juices flowing again. Here is my response: This is it for this month, but I'll be back, Lord willing, next month for some posts about Spring. Until then... -Julia Garcia / Arysta Henry

  Hello!      Today I want to talk to you about one of my favorite subjects: friendship. I know I may be the odd one out talking about friendship in February when everyone else has Valentine's Day on their mind, but hear me out.       True friendship is love too. It's not the romantic kind, but it's just as important.       Love lets someone know they matter to you. Love is being patient with a friend that may be insecure and pester you night and day. Love is being kind, even when your friend is not. Love is not jealous of your friend when he or she is doing something that you really want to do, or is in a relationship and you are not. Love is not prideful. It's preferring someone over yourself and encouraging someone, even when you're not having a good day yourself. Love is not ripping someone apart. It isn't backstabbing the person or gossiping about the person behind their back. Love is selfless. It thinks about the good of ...

 Hello again!  So, we've full circle again. It seems hard to believe that it's been a year since February (last year seems like it had several Februarys in it. Maybe that's just me, but I doubt it.), but here we are again.  So, the month of love. Valentine's Day, hearts, candy, cards... Yeah. That's what most people think of this month, but February is also International Friendship Month, which is pretty great. I mean, an entire month devoted to celebrating friendship? Epic.  I've got a few things brewing on the back burner of my mind. One is a post about friendship on the fourteenth of this month. The other is my Poetry 15th . I might do something besides the poem this month. It's still undecided. I wanted to talk about something that surprised me last month. So, every month I take out my small corkboard that lives on my wall and paste inspirational quotes on it. Usually, I find these quotes from the page-a-day calendar at work or just things I see online t...

  Okay. Seriously.  Who stole the first half of the month? It's hard for me to believe that January is halfway gone already. Didn't it just start? Just me? Alright. Moving on.  This month's prompt is a little different. Here it is: Pink might be an odd color to associate with January. I know it's associated with February and Valentine's Day, but to me, I've always associated pink with beginnings and with hope. I'm not entirely sure why. I'll have to think more on it, but that's why "pink" is the prompt for this month. In case you were wondering. Here is my response: Feel free to use the prompt to generate your own creativity, whatever that may be: a poem, a song, a piece of art, a sculpture... Go wild!  Unless something occurs, this will be the last post for the month. I'll be back next month for International Friendship Month. Until then... -Julia Garcia / Arysta Henry