Howdy! It’s been a while. Recently I decided that I would change the name of my blog. The old name, Gallivanting, has bothered me a bit. It sort of has a silly-old-lady-kickin’-up-her-heels-and-making-a-fool-out-of-herself vibe that doesn’t accurately describe me. Well, maybe sometimes…

I have not been writing much lately, rather I’ve been in a bit of a survival mode…just getting through, as we sometimes have to do in life. 

I thought about giving up the blog. It’s so public. But it’s a place for me to make public one of the things I like to do most in life, write. But it’s so public, and I am a private person. You will never see a TikTok video of me wrestling a python. Or jumping off a cliff in a string bikini.

As I wavered between yes and done-with-the-blog, I wrote a thank-you poem to relatives who have been incredibly generous and kind to my husband and me lately. They loved it; they teared up. That’s all the encouragement it took for me to decide.

Now for the rename:

The word still came to mind; this word can be used as a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, or conjunction. It’s a short, sturdy word, much like me, I suppose. It reflects the me who remains after life shredded the gallivanter.  I picked Still for the new name of my blog. Then I Googled it to make sure it hasn’t already been used. I discovered that Still was the name of 2023 movie that actor Michael Fox made about his life. I went to Barbie this year, but I didn’t see Still. Rotten Tomatoes gave it great reviews. I need to watch it; however, now that I know about it, I feel that Still is Michael Fox’s word, so I searched my brain and my thesaurus for another title. Also, I drew inspiration from Jeopardy, which was on while I was thinking about this.

 Here’s my list of ideas:

Love from the Endless Mountains

Forget-me-not

Still a work in progress

Some words

Sometimes sitting still

Still stringing necklaces

Dancing with words

Dagnabbit

Proceeding at a gallop or sometimes sitting still

What I know

Words on my mind

Yackety-yack

Yackety-yack almost made it, but then I had another thought.

 Love in My Heart and Words on My Mind

It might sound a bit sappy to some. Love in my heart. My sons accuse me of being a hippy sometimes. I was a little too young to actually be a hippy during the 60’s, but if peace and love is where it’s at, let me jump on that bandwagon. Call me a hippy if you wish. I’m all right with that.

I promise you that when I write my words, I try to start from a place of love. I try to make whoever reads my words feel some humor, feel some happiness and maybe some sadness, feel something of the beauty of the earth, as the hymn goes. I’m not really into controversy. God knows there is enough of that in this world. So, there you have it.

Words are always on my mind. I love words: love to read, love to listen to books, love to think about words. Love to do Wordle.

And love is the place where I’m coming from. I hope you feel it.

I’m still here, in case you were wondering.

And in case you are still reading, a thousand thanks!