FROM the BAY to the LAKE

Liquid Writing Therapy

Cathy GF

Cathy GF
Location
Mt. Tam to Freel Peak, California,
Birthday
December 29
Title
Writer by desire. Poet by nature.
Bio
How much time do you have?

Cathy GF's Links

New list
AUGUST 7, 2011 2:12AM

TRUE FULFILLMENT IS...

Rate: 20 Flag

Fulfillment is a very subjective term.   Not only a mouthful, it is a paradox of what ifs.  The mere thought of it is daunting to me, as it is a word that over-shadows everything in life that is supposed to be.  Or so I think, from time to random time.

Though, I have not spent a lot of time pondering the meaning of the word. Why would I?  Or you, for that matter. It is not a mandatory prerogative or primary focus of one's existence.  At least, not in so many words or the subject noun for which I write aimlessly into the night.

I cannot, will not, pretend to know what fills the fiber of my being, let alone what components should fill the space of my microplasm.  As science is not my stong suit, I will not attempt to describe my quandry in scientific terms, molecules or micro-anythings.  There is no capacity for that which is mysteriously unknown,  in my noggin. Lucky for you, or those around me.

Therefore, if you will oblidge me this late night folly, I would like to present some scenarios whereby you could illuminate that which might, may, does or doesn't fulfill your very being.  Just for fun or the deeper picking of your brainy bits of curiosity.  Or, just mine.

1.  When you wake up in the morning, what defines the fulfilling moments of your first thoughts and actions of your day?

2.  Where would you like to be, if not in your home, for just one day of your choosing and why?

3.  What would you say and to whom if you had just one chance to be anyone in the world?  (state who you are first and what you would say and specify to whom).

4.  Without being domineering and coming from a place of the all knowing, describe what you would do if you had but one chance to speak simultaneously, to the entire populaion of the world.  (assuming you would be understood in all languages at once).

5.  What is your daily mantra? (or make one up).

6.  What is your first thought when you wake up each morning? (not to be confused with question #1).  

7.  What is the last thought on your mind when you hit the pillow at night (if you have any ounce of cerebral activity left in your brain)?

 8.  Is a lucky number.  What is your lucky number and why?

 9.  Define fulfillment for you, if you have the time and desire.  (give it a shot)

Answer one or all of the above questions or any inbetween.  Whatever strikes you or inspires you to respond.  

There is no hope or motivation on my part other than stirring up some thoughtful, creative, amusing and or lively discourse from the folks that I come to visit here as often as possible.  

Without you, I've got nothing to write about or read about and would shrivel up like a slug in a salt bath. 

This may seem weak and unimaginative, so if you choose to ignore this teenie challenge, I will disappear in the day, delete and regroup, when some true inspiration rangles (wrangels) my efforts sometime in the near future.  I am not so easily discouraged when a thought of interest and intrigue crosses my mind and imagination.

Therefore, I thank you in advance for humoring me, if you so choose to take a bite of the shiny, crunchy apple or any other particular fruit of life that quenches your thirst for the ridiculous.

Cheers!  And the best to you all,  this steamy, glowing, softly, serene and silent night.

(somewhere, there is a cat purring) 

Or better yet...sleeping...

 

Your tags:

TIP:

Enter the amount, and click "Tip" to submit!
Recipient's email address:
Personal message (optional):

Your email address:

Comments

Type your comment below:
I know it's late, but I usually have no trouble adding photos, appropriate to my post matter, but tonight, each time I tried to insert a photo, it simply went blank. Poof disappeared. So, indeed, must I.

"Guten tag."
I take it that your “spell check” went down too. What on earth is a “rangles”?

Other than that “Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz........ (ᴼᴥᴼ)

.
Don't mes with my spell check, dude! So, Sky, darling, you are like my high school English teacher, who, while complementing me on my creative writing skills, (B+), always back handed me for my wordiness and misspells, as I so commonly exhibit here. you are my spelling conscience, among other things...and I thank you whole heartedly, albeit, thrashed into the night, I must go and bid you a fond adieu.
Sky - You're "killing me softly...!"
My mantra..."Act as if everything you do matters" (William James)
Number 2: having a leisurly dinner with Benjamin Franklin Anyone who simply decides to make himself morally perfect, then creates a program for doing it, then mocks himself for his own overreaching failure to achieve it, has got to be interesting. Number 4: Be mindful, vigilant; pay attention!
I would like to leave this place and go home.. That is my fulfillment and wish abusive behavior on no one else.
HUGGGGGGGGG
This requires more than a glancing blow. Let me contemplate and I will give it a try.
Kathy, the word "fulfillment" reminds me of the Fulfillment Centers who mailed back product rebates and coupons, as if getting free stuff made you fulfilled!

My mantra, if you can call it that, is "this", a word that brings me back to the moment when my head is somewhere else.
fulfillment is when i write something really well or teach an idea really well atop all is when my son and i are communicating deeply and frankly


r.
Thanks bunches for these thought-provoking questions, that may alter the path of my life. Am going to pack it in my bag and reflect on it tomorrow, which happens to be the first day of the week. :-). *R*
Patrick - Love that! Thanks much.

Jerry - Awesome, thanks for the wise words..."overreaching failure to achieve.." Pow!

Macc0 - You're not off the hook! Get back here with some Macco wisdom!

Linda - Home is wherever you are. You have a gifted ability to create a warm inviting home in all that you write and share. You are home to so many.

bobbot - I look forward to reading your thoughts on this, thanks!

greenheron - Ahh, yes, free association and to a meaning that does take one in a totally different direction. Point well taken.

Jon - Thanks for your response; especially love the connection between father and son. Wonderful!

Golden Phoenix - Thank you for your enthusiastic response! Please send a postcard!
its a subj I think about quite a bit. to me, it is simple as someone once stated. "a life of more play and less work". the Corporatocracy seems to be the main drive pushing for the latter. aka The Machine. alas, Corporatocracy is the main instrument of Capitalism and neither one is going anywhere soon.
After living a life of ups and downs, on the razor's edge I guess, I mainly stay away from fulfillment and I'm trying to master contentment. It's not as easy as one would think!
vzn - I have thought that if we work hard we earn the right to play hard. That may be a fool's thinking these days, as we have turned it all upside down;inside out and cannot right it again. It's Humpty Dumpty all over again. We work, work, work, for less, less, less or we have lost our work and means all together. Will we ever right this broken balance again or was it never really there to begin with? False security surrounded us for most of our lives, it would appear.
Scanner - I am with you. Contentment is something completely within our own control. It is entirely up to us to define, process and embrace, no matter what else is going on. It may be the one true necessity alongside air, water and sustenance. Thanks for this.
I'll posit something that will never come to pass, but wouldn't it be truly fulfilling if the certainty of childhood (or at least my childhood) was a reality, that we lived in a world where all children were loved by their parents, where adults were wise, and they acted wisely in the interests of society at large rather than in the interests of personal gain and power, and there was general agreement on what constituted the facts from which wise decisions could be made?

I know, I'm dreaming.
Number one and numbers two and six all fit together for me: the North Rim of the Grand Canyon is where I would do the thing that I think of first and that defines my most fulfilling moments, always: writing 'til my fingers cramp. I write...therefore I am. Have since I was a tot. Slave to the empty page or screen...but a willing one...
Procopius - Dreams do come true. Yours are worth framing and positing for a better tomorrow.

Keka - Awesome visual you painted with your words, your gift, your vision...Thanks!
Oh, you want to make us work, do you? : )

I have more thoughts than typing time today, but you do pose some interesting queries....

I do know that I wake up and no matter what the first thought might be -- and they can run the gamut which is why I started this -- it is pushed out to make room for :

"Thanks. For the safe night's sleep, for all of my blessings.
I am alive today, let me make the best of *today* ."

This practice took awhile, but it is worth every effort. Every day has been better since I started this conscious practice.
Just Thinking - Yes, perfecting the practice is the secret! You're on it!
Thanks for your great response! Oh, and notice I haven't answered a single one of the questions I posed! Sitting back, taking stock in the wisdom of others. Tee hee.
I've been looking for some "writing" inspiration. This may be it - thanks Cathy.
For the moment, fulfillment to me would feel like not needing anything, not wanting anything, and be happy exactly as things are. I have no idea what that imaginary place looks like, so I am hoping it is a sense of being that comes along for the ride.
I'd love to be in Hawaii, even for one day!
Guess I'll take a stab at it.

1. So doggone happy to wake up another day and kick into high gear, starting with making my bed real nice and picking up my room. (mama would be proud)

2. Ummm, harder than it sounds. Maybe the White House on a Monday, like a fly on the wall, taking it all in, following the prez around from room to room, save one!

3. This one has me stumped. What was I thinking? May have to come back to this one later.

4. Hello, my name is Cathy. You don't know me, but I was wondering if we could collectively decide just one thing we all could do to better the lives of our families, neighbors and ourselves that would benefit us all?

5. Daily mantra - Live each day fully and with an open heart for everyone I touch, through thought, words and actions.

6. Did I get 7-8 hours of sleep? Peeks at clock, does the math and sets the mood for the day.

7. Yep, that would be a big thank you to the universe for the privilege of living another day with my precious loved ones and a prayer for the safety, protection and happiness of my grand kids.

8. My lucky number is and always has been the #3. Three for my 3 daughters and all the amazing life events that has revolved around these wonderful beings who's existence has helped to define my own.

9. All of the above.
Trilogy - Thanks! Writing this and receiving such diverse responses has been inspirational to me as well.

Oryoki Bowl - Thanks for that very Zen response and the simplicity of want for nothing beyond what is already right here. Nice.

Christina - Wonderful place to be but need a good week with all that travel!
1.coffee.and caffeine resurrection of my neural net.

6. i must do good today. for me, and for those few i love.
7. i have done all i could.

9.knowing fullness. full heart, mind. not even 1 percent missing.
from...?....meeting the requirements. which always change. which makes this impossible.
Fulfillment is that feeling in your soul that it is good and it is LOVE
that encompasses us all. Great post my friend. Rated with a Jali Smile. :-)
James - Thanks for that great perspective. Don't like the word, impossible, for myself, but can see why this might seem so. And let's just say, no requirements needed to define fulfillment, which can and often does, change frequently, always leading us to our better selves...if we're paying attention.

Jali - "Love encompasses all..." Love that! Thanks sweet girl!
Number nine: family, and writing....bread...okay family, writing, bread, and maybe pasta....okay family, writing, bread, pasta....oh and sugar free, gluten free cookies--family, writing, gluten free bread, pasta with real butter and sugar free, gluten free cookies.
I'm new at this, but I'd like to give it a shot.

5. I remind myself daily that I am a good, worthy person who deserves to do well.
6. I'm usually surprised to find that I've hit the snooze button without waking up.
8. 13. It's the date of my birthday, and Friday the 13th has been a really intense day at times.

These are wonderful questions. I'd like to print them out and post them somewhere I can see them often.
1- Morning Thought:
Glbubble gnogwich? Freegnu slonkum. COFFEE!!

2- I’d like to be:
In my kitchen scarfing down those first two cups’a coffee!

3- Who I’d be and what I’d say:
I’d be God; and I’d say, “Oops, sorry about that folks.”

4- I’d say to the world:
See #3, above.

5- My Mantra:
“I am therefore I am.”

6- First thought of the day:
Glbubble gnogwich? Freegnu slonkum. COFFEE!!
(Not to be confused with the first cup’a coffee)

7- Last Thought:
...........................................

8- Lucky Number:
My lucky number is “lots”. Especially referring to money!
It’s gonna work for me any day now....

9- Fulfillment:
How I feel after the third dessert.
...and contented too.

10- My wish for the world:
That you all get everything you want so that when I get everything I want you won’t try to take what I want to fulfill what you want.

(*‿*)

.
Christine - Yes, culinary fulfillment would be top on my realistic list as well!

Phyllis45 - Hi there! Great points! Thanks for coming by and playing with this list.

Sky - Thanks for playing! Love your list! Especially, "Glbubble knobwich!" Can I get that recipe?!
Tweet! tweet! This post and all the replies here ...just so intresting to read. My mantra:
Sky is my limit, I can fly as high as my wings permit.
People, I suspect, are either too busy or too silly to have the same thoughts as you do.
Thanks for your kind words, Doc!
Hi Kathy,

To anwser just one,

You asked,
"5. What is your daily mantra? (or make one up)."

In Tsulsala's Song, a story I wrote some years ago a young Bard Encounters the Wolf Mother and Goddess of Death in her world; who shares her story with the Bard. Near the very end of the story ...

"Your really her, I mean Tsulsala the Queen."

She smiled a knowing slightly wicked smile, "Of course child."

"Do you mean too.." I could not bring myself to say it.

"No, well not now at any rate, not for quite sometime child."

"Then what do you want of me."

"I want you to live out your dreams little Moondreamer. I want you leave this hamlet. I want you to take your songs, and give them to the world, and when you do, play for them my song as well, if you please."

"But I"

"Have nothing to fear, accept my gift, that silver coin, and so long as you have it you will never go hungry again. Where ever you go fortune will smile on you, and no matter how you seem to tumble you will always land a'right."

"Live Fearlessly, And Know You Are In My Grace."

The Quote hangs above my alter now, I seldom live up to it, but I strive too, I think it is an amazing gift; what would be do with our lives if we truly believed it if we felt God/dess however one calls deity had said this to us,

I hope this Anwser has not been overlong or personal. I dont mean to crowd you blog. Blessings, BB.

http://www.anar-mura.com/mura/Tsulsalas_Song.html
I feel much better already. Thanks for this...
Black Bird - You can crowd my blog all you want! That was a wonderful contribution to this post and to my morning inspiration! Have be absent this place for a while, frolicking much in summer's embrace.

Thanks you and come back often, please!

Algis - Thank you and you're welcome!
TY... flattered you were pleased. : ) BB.
Well, Cathy, it is thought provoking. After a margarita tonight, I don't have any profound thoughts.

When I awake in the morning, I try to visualize my day and develop a plan to make the most of it. In retirement, that's a big accomplishment!
These early morning questions are just great. Thanks for posting them...