#WednesdayWisdom
Month: March 2020
This Week’s Question
Would you rather read the book or watch the movie?
Cover Reveal!
This is the cover for the first book in the Guinness the Therapy Dog series. This is a new series featuring Guinness, a 95-pound Bernese Mountain Dog, who wants to do something meaningful.
At the suggestion of his older sister, Lucy, a rescued mutt, he decides to become a therapy dog.
Read about what it took to become a certified therapy dog–training, assessments, and a whole lot of self-control!
Available exclusively on amazon.com, these books are available in paperback and ebook.
I hope you enjoy reading about Guinness the Therapy Dog! Sonja
International Women’s Day
I took the following verbiage and hashtags from www.internationalwomensday.com. I added the Oxford comma at the end of the text:
International Women’s Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women’s equality.
International Women’s Day (IWD) has occurred for well over a century, with the first IWD gathering in 1911 supported by over a million people. Today, IWD belongs to all groups collectively everywhere. IWD is not country, group, or organization specific.
#IWD2020 #EachforEqual
Sonja
It’s Time to Spring Forward!
Unless you live in a place that doesn’t observe Daylight Savings Time (DST), you need to move the hands of time tonight.
DST goes into effect tomorrow morning. Since it’s Spring, you need to turn the clocks forward one hour, which moves the morning to an earlier time. Hello, caffeine!
You can thank Germany and Austria for DST. They were the first countries to use the new time in 1916 to make better use of fuel during the war. This was adopted by several other countries just weeks later, including the United Kingdom and France.
DST was rescinded at the end of WWI and was repeated for WWII. Today, more than seventy countries observe DST.
A plan to make the most of seasonal daylight was actually put forth by Benjamin Franklin. Yes, that Benjamin Franklin. One of the Founding Fathers of the United States.
But he meant it as a joke–for Parisians.
He was living in Paris and wrote a letter to the editor of the Journal of Paris. The essay, entitled “An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light”, called for the people of that city to awaken earlier in order to reduce their need for candles.
Oh, that Ben. What a kidder.
The citizens of Ancient Rome relied on water clocks that used different scales throughout the year in order to follow the solar calendar.
But B. Franklin and Caesar are not credited with the invention of DST. That honor goes to New Zealander George Vernon Hudson and British builder William Willett. Do you thank them or curse them? I think that depends on which way the clock is bouncing–a thank you for the ‘extra’ hour in the Autumn and a curse for losing an hour in the Spring.
We can all be thankful that their particular schedule didn’t go into place. Hudson suggested moving the clocks by two hours, and Willett wanted the clocks to move in twenty-minute increments over four-week periods.
Wow. And you thought one hour twice a year was hard!
Don’t forget so you’re not late tomorrow! Sonja
This Week’s Question
How many hours of sleep did you get last night?
In our society, a lack of sleep seems to have become a status symbol. I don’t understand it, but have fallen into that trap.
“I slept only three hours last night” with the implied, “Look how fabulous I am/how hard I can work while sleep-deprived.”
I sleep an average of seven-and-a-half hours a night. Less than that and I’m tired all day (not a caffeine-drinker)-more than that and I walk around like I’m on cold medicine. You know that ‘my head is tethered to my neck only by a thin string’ feeling? That’s me if I sleep for too long.
Tell me how you slept last night. No judgments. I promise.
Sleep well. Sonja
#pitmad
Here’s the scenario: You stand in a hotel and wait for the elevator. Your current manuscript fills your head. You know it needs to be published. You have done your research and know which editors are best for you and your work.
The elevator doors slide open.
Lo and behold! There is dream-editor standing alone in the car. Your time is now. Take the chance!
But you have only the length of the ride up or down to pitch your current work-in-progress (WIP). That’s usually less than thirty seconds. How are you going to boil down your plot and your subplots into such a short time?
That’s the premise of a pitch. Don’t waste the editor’s time with ‘ums’ and ‘uhs’. Don’t squander this opportunity.
Be ready!
#pitmad is an opportunity to go through the same scenario from the comfort of your own home/work/rock. Using Twitter, #pitmad is going on today. Can you feel the anxiety permeating the world? This is the Olympic Trials and we (the writers) want to be selected for the team.
If you’re a writer, get your pitch ready and head over to Twitter! Sonja
This Week’s Quote
Yes, You Can!
Have you ever tried something and failed?
Did it make you feel bad?
Your brain instantly starts to call yourself a failure, a loser.
Here’s the thing: you tried. That’s more than 98% of the population. (Okay, I made up that number.) Lots of people TALK about doing whatever it is you tried; few actually attempt it and even fewer are successful.
The thing to focus on is that you TRIED.
A coach of mine always said that if you don’t fall sometimes, you aren’t trying hard enough. I think that’s true.
When I ski raced, you have to ski ‘on the edge’ in order to win. When you ski ‘on the edge’ you have to be willing to go one way or the other. Which means, you either complete the race of your life or you have a spectacular crash. I have had many (with the evidence of a few broken ribs on MRIs), but also I have my share of wins.
Let me tell you, the wins more than make up for the crashes. I don’t call them failures because they’re needed to get to the wins. Not every idea or plan is golden.
Embrace the tarnish and polish it off the next time. Sonja
National Read Across America Day
Today is also called ‘Dr. Seuss Day’. These books are mandatory reading for pre-readers and early readers, it seems.
My favorite titles are ‘Go, Dog, Go’ and ‘Oh, the Places You’ll Go’–
I don’t know why these books are my faves–
I love dogs and loved climbing trees when I was younger, so maybe that explains my first choice.
I’m big on motivation and taking chances, so I love the message in ‘Oh, the Places You’ll Go’. “And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)”
Wait, I think this stream of consciousness has answered my question.
When Guinness the Therapy Dog and I go to play with the at-risk kids at the domestic violence transition shelter, we always read at least one book. Last week, we read a book about a dog with no tail who had a pretend tail attached by a button.
My first question was: how was the button attached to his butt??? My second question was: why did the tailor (get it!) make the tail so long???
The poor dog already had self-image problems and now he has a tail that vies the length of ribbon used by Olympic rhythmic gymnasts.
In the end, the dog and his friends decide it’s better to be yourself than to rely on a fake tail. That’s a good message for the kids and the wordplay by author Kate Feiffer is fantastic.
Good reading! Sonja