Ch-ch-changes…

What’s the difference between my social media presence now and how it was before Covid, the election of 2020, etc.? Welp, several things have changed. First, I’m mellower now, and I prefer lightness and kindness to intense conversations online. That may seem strange, given that so many others seem harsher, less forgiving, and more argumentative. But I’ve never been one to follow the crowd, and I see nothing beneficial in fighting with trolls or even interacting with angry, stubborn, opinionated “friends” who would never consider another POV.

My two-year Facebook break put a lot of things in perspective. While I focused on blogging and tweeting, I realized that not only do I enjoy nice things, but it is within my power to create them. Instead of moaning about all the T* in my feed, for example, I began hiding and blocking the accounts who focused on him 24/7. Suddenly, my reading selections were much more fun. I even muted accounts I agreed with, if they were solely posting negative stuff.

Then I turned the lens on myself. I deleted posts and tweets that were full of nasty sarcasm and toxic words, or agreeing with same. I dumped my “dating stories” because even though some were funny, most were just a big fat bitchfest. When I returned to Facebook, I was surprised at how much worse it had become in two years. People were constantly seeking confrontation! Reluctantly, I began to hide/block the worst offenders, which sadly included a few long-time friends. We do have the tools to curate our own experience, which to me is preferable to continuing to complain about other people’s speech. I take responsibility for what I allow into my life.

Here’s another example. I have managed to rid my feeds of most celeb stories in the past month or so by religiously blocking all garbage media at the source (aka tabloids) and hiding celeb articles from sources I like otherwise. Now, I’m not so frustrated when I go to read real news. It really makes a difference to use the tools we have at our disposal.

~*~

Written for Linda’s SOCS.

Image from Pixabay.

©️2021 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon. Thank you.

The Eleventh Plague [Repost]

O Elijah…
Your chair is bare.
No call, no text;
I wash hands next.
Time for a prayer.

O Elijah…
The herbs are bitter,
But the wine is sweet;
I try not to look
At your empty seat.

O my…
I have lost count
Of cups of wine—
Is this the third?
From Elijah, no word.

O matzo…
Why are you so dry?
Can I dunk you in wine?
Much better, no butter;
Oops, need new glass.

Alas, Elijah…
Seems I have drunk your wine;
Blackberry, mmm, so fine.
Don’t be sad, my friend:
Next year, in Jerusalem!

Ugh, migraine…
It’s your fault Elijah.
Turn off the light.
Is this a new plague?
Mine go up to eleven.

~*~

Poetry form: free verse.

Image is mine.

Happy Passover!

©️2021 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon. Thank you.

Distance [repost]

For Sue Vincent, Rest in Peace.

Everything
That ever was
Is still here
In one form
Or another;
Won’t keep us warm,
When winter comes,
But it’s something.
One of these texts
Will be our last,
Though we won’t know,
Till silent weeks
Have floated past.

~*~

Written for Sue Vincent’s Daily Echo.

Image from Sue Vincent.

Poetry form: free verse.

©️2021 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon. Thank you.

A Refreshing Smile

My weekly smile is regarding my blog’s refresh. I learned a lot while conforming my older posts to the block editor and deleting posts that don’t make me happy. I view social media/blogging as a hobby, not a job, and I want my writing to reflect this. Not that all posts will be upbeat; I’m reposting plenty of sad poetry. But it will be poetry I like, not lines strung together simply to respond to a prompt. Note, I am not criticizing anyone who has a different view of things, nor am I fussed if you’re trying to make money via blogging. I’m speaking only about myself.

I’ve deleted the WordPress app and have been using a browser exclusively to write and edit. That’s working out much better for me. Apps in general create an aura of mindless clicking and posting (in my case), and one of my goals is to be more mindful of what I write and comment on.

I’ve also discovered that contrary to all I’ve read, we can write single-spaced poetry from our phones. If you hold the shift key while pressing return, you get a single space. You do not have to go into the code and insert “br” a zillion times while deleting the P breaks. Unless I’m writing a haiku or something very short, I do not want my poems to be double-spaced. It looks terrible (imo) and I’m fixing them all ~ the poems I want to keep anyway.

I’m also resizing all my images to “medium” and dumping duplicates. I don’t want to sound paranoid, but it seems that WP encourages multiple uploads of the same image and makes it difficult to find previous ones. Then suddenly your library is full and you have to upgrade. I’ve already cut my library in half and freed up lots of space. While I do have a paid plan to get rid of ads, I don’t want to keep upgrading it.

Also, I’m writing for adults and see no need to insert multiple images in most posts (there are some exceptions, such as when I will be talking about the various actors who played Blofeld). If people are turned off because there are lots of words in my posts and few images/emojis, then they aren’t really my kind of reader. I’ve dumped the Bitmojis for the same reason. I know I may lose some readers and am okay with that.

I had over 100 tags, many of which were other people’s, and I couldn’t even remember whose or why they were there. Some were used only once or twice. I’ve deleted those and streamlined the rest. If I respond to a prompt in the future, I’m not adding a tag just because the prompter asks. If they delete my trackback link because of that, fine. When I was hosting prompts, I never actually searched on the tag ~ I only followed the links in comments.

I’m excited about my refreshed blog. During April I will be doing the A2Z prompt and posting about James Bond. Researching the movies and trivia has been a blast, and I hope at least some of you will enjoy reading it. I also have loads of other reposts scheduled: my favorite fiction and poetry pieces and a few humorous question posts. Most question posts have been deleted. Please don’t take offense if I rarely respond to those kind of posts from now on. I may take one interesting question and write a whole essay on it, but I don’t want my pages to be full of other people’s prompts.

That’s it then. Looking forward to April first!

~*~

Image from Pexels.

©️2021 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon. Thank you.