But I Smile Anyway…

Linda’s SoCS prompt…

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “perfection.’” Use it any way you like. Enjoy!

Do you strive for perfection?

Always seeking satisfaction
Of that perfect photo
Or the perfect word
The perfect recipe
The perfect song heard...

Or is good enough, enough?
Will it get you by?

Do we need to lower standards
To decrease the pressure
And ease our mental health?

Perfection is a thing of beauty,
When it's presented to us
by Mother Nature

It shows perseverance
If we achieve it
By ourselves

Some things, yes,
They have to be perfect

But some can slide
Don't give yourself the stress

Ritu 2023

Linda’s SoCS and JusJoJan prompt…

Your prompt for #JusJoJan the 28th and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “throw in the towel.” Use the phrase “throw in the towel” somewhere in your post. Enjoy!

I’m late!

Well, ate in my own books. I know there is no time limit for these posts as long as they are on the right day.

But if you follow me, you know I am a stickler for scheduling these regular posts at 5am in the morning.

Fear not, my fellow #JusJoJan-ers! I did not decide to throw the towel in! (See what I did there!)

I was exhausted, and I had another personal issue to deal with last night, which meant that I couldn’t write or schedule this post earlier, but it ended up being quite handy since I could use the given phrase!

I’m pretty hardy like that. If I commit to something, it will take a huge thing to shake that promise I made to myself or someone else.

But, having said that, I don’t believe that if you can’t complete something, it doesn’t make you a quitter.

Sometimes we have to throw in the towel before we want because the goal may be unfeasible, or the situation we are in means we cannot complete what we started.

Oh, come on, Ritu, stop getting philosophical on a Saturday. That’s for Spidey and Sunday!

Linda’s SoCS and JusJoJan prompt…

Your prompt for #JusJoJan the 21st and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “count on it.” Use the phrase “count on it” somewhere in your post. Enjoy!

A simple one, this…

If there is a doorframe, table, chair, or anything. in my way, you can count on it for me to walk into it!

I am one of the world’s clumsiest people and have even broken my toe on a radiator pipe that is so flush with the wall that most would say it was impossible. (And that was a few months before I got married!)

Nope. I did it!

Linda’s SoCS prompt.

Your prompt for #JusJoJan the 14th and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “once upon a time.” Start your post with “Once upon a time,” then write whatever comes to you, whether it be fact or fiction. Have fun!

Once upon a time, there was a middle-aged woman who never had any time to herself.

What with work and life at home, answering to the whims of teenagers, and her third child, sorry, husband, as well as those of the wider family, and not forgetting the cat, she never had any time to herself.

The hours would slip away, and another day would pass when she hadn’t been able to engage in her own passions.

But on the days she could carve time out for herself, it was wonderful. She’d go to sleep tired but content.

I wish I could write that something magical happened and end with ‘she lived happily ever after‘, but it’s not quite a fairy tale as it’s my life, and probably that of many, many other women out there!

But not to say it’s a sad ending, because I am happy and I’m still here, so it’s not The End!

Linda’s SoCS prompt.

Your prompt for #JusJoJan and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “out of the box.” Write about the first thing that comes to mind when you think “out of the box.” Enjoy!

“Sonu, get OUT OF THE BOX!”

It’s a commonly used phrase in our house as the cat loves a box. Any box.

Pretty much like most cats out there.

Whether it’s a giant cardboard box that just housed the new washing machine, or the smallest of tissue boxes that he can barely fit his furry bottom into, he will sit there, regally, as if to say, “This is my new throne!”

Of course, he ends up with his favourite boxes. We tend to leave one or two around the house, even though he has plenty of choices with real cat beds dotted around, but he always comes back to the box.

Some he’s used until they have fallen apart. Some, he eyes up as we unpack a delivery, and you can see his mind whirring. “When will they be finished with my new home?” Some he looks at with disdain. Picky kitty, my cat is.