Modern Days

At older times, you would be reading this by

 candle light, having coffee in a tin cup.

 And my fingers would be calloused after writing

 so much with a quill pen and ink!

Now, we can enjoy a blog with a tablet in

 a charming café, at the airport, in a waiting

 room,or wherever we want. I still prefer

 that books are of paper, but, surely,

 I have to applaud the numerous

 marvelous things progress

 brings us.

Comic Cards

     We all like to see funny images on the social networks, among other places. They make us laugh and relax. Sense of humor is essential in life, and I enjoy writing texts with a funny streak, and I let my comic side come through whenever I have the chance.

     With images of internet public domain, I create cards like this one below that I call “Comic Cards” as a hobby, just for fun. They are great for Twitter, facebook and give a relaxed touch to a blog. I’ve got ideas for them from images I see, or some phrase pops in my mind, and then, I look for an image that fits. They’re simple phrases that come from the daily life subjects, nothing too much elaborated and with a light sense of humor.

     What about starting to create your own Comic Cards too for your blog and pages?

Happy World Writers' Day!

     Besides the techniques and rules of his language that a writer learns to improve his gift, the most important thing is to write with feelings. Writing is a gift that walks hand in hand with imagination. Imagination is the main raw material of the writer.

     We can ask a writer to write about practically everything, even the most trivial things, and the words will flow naturally for him/her when composing his/her text.

Compost!

     

     Make a natural fertilizer (and thus also diminish the quantity of domestic garbage you discard) gathering eggshells, fruit and vegetables scraps, coffee grounds including filters, leaves and stalks you don’t use, etc. to bury into vases or in flower beds.

     A good idea is also to gather a group of people to make a compost like this one in a nearby square or park, below a mound of earth, so that the resulting organic fertilizer can be used in the already existing trees and plants, or when planting new ones. Coffee grounds are also a natural fungicide and they are useful to help to keep mosquitoes away, including those which transmit dengue.

The Art of Writing

     As the saying goes, no one is born knowing everything, but we do know at least one thing when we are born. Our gift.  Whichever it will be the point in our lives that we will be able to discover and develop it.

     I believe writing is a gift, a vocation, that we have since we are little, such as painting or singing. What happens with gifts is that we are able to develop them, improve them with time. But if one does not have a specific gift when he/she is born _ and everybody has one or more of them _ it can’t be created, fabricated. When we try to do that, the result sounds false, artificial, or, at most, sufferable.

       There is a difference between having a gift and the capacity to learn countless things. The human being has a huge capacity of learning, even things he doesn’t think he’s capable of. And, in certain areas, when one “learns” a specific thing and succeeds it is because he/she already had the gift for that without realizing it yet.

     Writing is a gift that usually manifests itself still in childhood, through the easiness in writing essays for school, diaries, in creating stories and texts in general. Writing is a gift that walks hand in hand with imagination. Imagination is the main raw material of the writer. We can ask a writer to write about practically everything, even the most trivial things, and the words will flow naturally for him/her when composing his/her text.

     So we can’t learn to be a writer? In this case, what are the “writers’ apprentices”?

    One can’t learn to be a writer because writing is an ability connected to the gift. We can’t teach a person to have imagination and inspiration he doesn’t have to express his thoughts and feelings through words. What we can learn is writing techniques, rules of the language, but, for them to bear fruit, they must be supported by an already existing gift. Which means that a person who has the writing gift can improve it with those techniques. This way, the writer apprentice is the one who is already born with the writing gift and aims to improve it. He/she learns with masters, not to imitate them, but to improve his/her own techniques and feel encouraged by them.

   

With the due humbleness, I think I have this writing gift. I’ve always had the ability to create texts. Since childhood, I’ve always loved books, and I wanted to be a journalist. Life took me through other paths, but I ended up studying Letters and becoming a translator, always dealing with literature, languages, books. These have always been recurrent themes in my life. Some say a translator, though always faithful to the original text, is a coauthor of a book. And, in fact, it is what happens. The translator has to transcribe the original text to his own language, faithfully, but in a way that is clear and natural to the reader. However, the inspiration and imagination to create and write belongs exclusively to the author.

    Besides the techniques and rules of his language that a writer learns to improve his gift, though the most important thing is to write with feelings, he also does a lot of research for his books, and travels when it’s possible. The more experience in life a writer has, the more emotional baggage he possesses, more material he will have to add to his gift.

    Though I think I have a gift to write, I’ve never written a fiction book, which is an old dream, but now I have an idea for a romantic story, and I’m starting to work on it. Anyway, I believe that, when writing, certain things flow more naturally and easily to us than others, or we prefer determined genres or styles to write. Up to now, I’ve only written articles, chronicles, phrases, and general texts, and I published my first book with my articles and chronicles in Portuguese. It’s a self-help book called “Meu Próprio Livro”, and I’m translating it to English to publish it in this language as well.

Sustainability

     We must preserve more and more the planet’s resources, take care of Nature, and respect it. It's fundamental to recycle whatever is possible, and to always keep sustainability in mind.
We hear everyday about what we can do to help, such as saving water and keeping it clean; recycling in general; taking measures against all kinds of pollution and discarding waste properly; encouraging and taking part in carpools; contributing with reforestation (from planting one single tree to reforestation itself, in a bigger scale); using alternative energy; and so on. It’s really up to us to do our part, the way we can.
     A good and simple thing everyone can do is also to stop using plastic bags and to substitute them as much as possible for the called “eco bags”, or returnable bags. In order for such a measure be really effective, the ideal thing would be the usage of biodegradable bags for waste, for most people use plastic bags in general to discard the garbage.
     If people take care of the planet the way it deserves, it will always be here _ beautiful, productive and wonderful, the way God created it. We have to take care of the planet properly, as if it were a garden, so things won’t be desolate like in that Elton John’s song, “Empty Garden”, composed as homage to John Lennon. This was a great man, a wonderful and wise man whose ideals, concepts and ideas exemplify, among other good things, what people should do to preserve planet Earth. No to mention uncountable other people engaged in that, activists and charitable people as Madre Teresa and her good deeds towards mankind. Because Mankind needs to be saved as well, in order for all of us to be able to save Earth. It’s inconceivable, for instance, that in such a fertile planet hunger may exist; it’s impossible that a human being won’t feel deep regret and sorrow when he/she sees another one starving.
     Earth is so beautiful, so plentiful, and so sacred that is up to each and every one of us to do whatever we can to make society a better place. We all hope that peoples and governments around the world get more and more conscious about the urgency of saving our planet for ourselves and future generations.

Reading as a Means of Social Contact

      Reading mustn’t be faced as a form of refuge in the sense of absolute escape from reality, as it happens in some cases. It’s naturally delightful to plunge into a universe of fantasy for some time, but it’s also essential for us to be aware of the real world and interact with it. Reading, which not only serves for entertainment but also for information, may be a way of encountering ourselves, but it also prepares us for encounters with other people, for a satisfying, healthful interaction with them.

     Through the several kinds of reading material available, we improve our knowledge, and we learn more and more things to share with others. Reading can be a pleasant retreat, where we go to when we want to entertain ourselves, but it mustn’t be a too much introspective thing, that could end up depriving us of other people’s company and making us withdraw from other activities.

     It’s very good and useful to read alone, but it’s also great when we read with others, especially when we read for children. To read for children is one of the most gratifying experiences in life, a mutual benefit, because we not only unveil a new world for them through the books, but we also enjoy moments of cheerful human contact, and strengthen bonds.

    You can create an amusing Book Club with friends and/or take part of the existing groups of this kind in the social networks. You will be able to exchange ideas about several subjects that you’ve been reading about, or to talk face to face with interesting people about a book that has captivated you. Reading is great to bring people together.

     The possibilities to expand and enrich your social contact through reading are comprehensive and you can’t miss the chance to reap the fruit it can bear.