Now and Then

When looking over your year, be sure to give yourself credit for any accomplishment. 2021 may have been much more fraught with difficulty than the average year.

Going into 2022, if you set goals, be gentle with yourself. Have a baseline with a fallback plan. You may want to set ambitious goals, but only with alternates.

If your schedule increases with less free time, do not overfill your leisure with personal projects. Rest and recreation are crucial to well-being.

Do you have research to do? Try to include this requirement within your reading goal. Take notes to leverage in creative work. Wherever you are, take pictures that may lead to innovative developments. Try to make your life a multi-use platform.

Find ways to share your endeavors with a broader audience. The world is a smaller place than in the past, but sometimes there seems to be distance between us. Any way you can find for real-world personal exchange, do it. We still need face-to-face contact. Of course, take necessary health precautions, and if video conferencing seems better, you call the shots.

Be open to new things and new methods and tools to do familiar tasks. There are so many ways to bridge the problem gaps. If need be, ask others online how they solved a similar conundrum.

Share your expertise when you can. Learning from one another is still an excellent way to overcome the fear of failure and unwillingness to jump into taxing possibilities.

If it appeals to you, keep a gratitude journal. This tends to make you more aware of your blessings. You may especially find it suitable to trace the hopes and dreams coming true for you.

Ah, I hope your new year brings you closer to your cherished position, currently only a dream.

© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan

I have not fully decided, but a new Creativity Project seems to appeal to me. Stay informed, check back for updates and planned details.

Tanka Triplicate

1.
As moments run down
Falling like foaming water
I become crystal,
Reflecting reasons to be
Light refracted endlessly.

2.
Creativity
Project, shall I once again?
The heart is willing,
The mind less, always objects;
Ability whispers, “Try.”

3.
Lay the burden down,
Fear consuming too much soul,
With Faith become whole,
Trust days will continue by
Storms calm; hope, peace, love abide.

© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan

To you readers, would you like to have me post every day in 2022? Would you read it? Would you interact, at least some?

PROMPT

With this year ending soon, write some haiku or tanka on endings and beginnings.

Haiku have three lines of 5-7-5 syllables. Tanka have five lines of 5-7-5-7-7 syllables.

Mosaic

Picking up pieces
Where expectations derailed,
Only hope remains;
Creativity is not
Shattered but might go unclaimed.
Bring ideas forward
Watch growth always more, galore,
Light passion afire
Find missions with joy in store
Enrich lives, opening doors.
Willing hearts ready
To unlock minds diving deep
Words soon learned to speak
Musing over stories, sweet
Setting success to repeat.

© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan

Home

Home is the hearth, heart, of all abundant things, which come with daily living. Where blessings shine on faces, dearer than the self. Time lingers just a while in passing, sufferings to lessen, teachings to impart, reminding no matter what has occurred, God is near.

Choosing a place to make a home is a painstaking task, a time-consuming selection. A feeling comes at the threshold, a sensation that angels are not far off and soon returning. Though work needed may be severe, still, joy fills the soul when into its home coming.

Home, here is only for a space, a time, for other shores are calling. One can find a bit of peace, but greater peace awaits upon seeing Jesus’ face. When Heaven’s gates open to admit a soul, then all the pleasure of home will overwhelm with multiplication. All the dissatisfactions of the world will cease, and perfect joy will be complete.

© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan

Lost, Under A Chemical Sun

They told the parents everything was a loss, but they refused to give up. They started a prayer chain, hoping the sleeper would not get deeper lost.

Still here, woken up, but there was a cost. Broken, missing pieces, but knowing greater than doctors thought.

Miracles, they happen, more often than not.

© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan