Tag: Laura E Rios

  • Z Is For… A Zen‑Like Wrap‑Up!

    Z Is For… A Zen‑Like Wrap‑Up!

    As April comes to a close, we find ourselves at the final letter of the A to Z Challenge — Z, the soft landing at the end of a month‑long creative journey. This year’s theme, The A to Z of Creative Practice, invited our community to explore the many ways we make, imagine, reflect, and grow as artists and writers.

    And what a month it has been.

    Each day brought a new voice, a new perspective, and a new facet of creative life. From Attention to Practice to Yes!, our members shared insights, stories, tools, and encouragement — a collective reminder that creativity is not a solitary act, but a shared ecosystem.

    A Month of Many Voices

    This year, we were fortunate to feature nine guest authors, each bringing their own lens on creative practice:

    • Tina Holland — Bravo, Education, and Travel
    • Rachel Wilder — Characters and Signs
    • Laura Rios — Demos and Discussions, Initiative, and Preparation
    • JaeSage — Gregarious Gusto, Journaling, Liberation, and Resilience
    • Nicole — Observation and Quest
    • Annette Grantham — Friction!
    • Alexandra Sissulak — Unusual Approaches
    • Carol Baxter — V Words for Writers and Xanthippes
    • Evey — Yes!

    And woven among them were posts from our in‑house contributors, including reflections on Attention to Practice, Kindness, and Noon & Wilder.

    Every post added a thread to the tapestry. Every voice shaped the month.

    What We Created Together

    Across April, we explored:

    • craft and craftiness
    • momentum and pause
    • friction and flow
    • signs, symbols, and stories
    • the ways travel, observation, and unusual approaches enrich our work
    • the power of community, curiosity, and kindness

    The A to Z Challenge is always a marathon, but it’s also a celebration — a chance to show up, share, and witness each other’s creativity in motion.

    A Moment of Gratitude

    Thank you to every contributor who wrote, drafted, revised, and hit “publish.” Thank you to every reader who followed along. Thank you to everyone who showed up in whatever way they could this month.

    Creative practice is built on small, steady acts. This April, we made them together.

    Z Is for… Zen

    As we close the month, Z invites us into a moment of quiet appreciation — a breath, a pause, a settling. The work continues, of course, but today we honor the journey we’ve taken.

    And if you’d like to keep the momentum going, remember: Writer Zen Garden sends out a community newsletter on the first of every month. It’s a gentle way to stay connected, catch upcoming events, and keep your creative practice nourished all year long. Click here to subscribe.

    Here’s to the stories we told, the ideas we sparked, and the community that held it all.

    Happy Z‑Day, friends.

  • P is for Preparation, Prompts and Predicaments

    P is for Preparation, Prompts and Predicaments

    Contributed by Laura Rios.

    With many creative endeavors, there are times when we need just a little assistance to get started. Today, I’d like to share a few things that have worked for me. The best part is, most of them can be used no matter with different kinds of creative activities.

    To begin with, it starts with preparation. If you’re going to write or work on an art project, start by clearing and organizing your workspace. I like to remove excess clutter from my table or desk and make sure I have the necessary supplies close at hand. This includes having a cup of coffee, tea, or just a water bottle. If I plan to paint, I arrange my brushes, have sketching pencils close at hand, have a palette set up with my paints, a jar or small bucket of water, etc. The lighting must be good, and my chair should be comfortably set. If any sort of needlework project is planned, be sure your materials are handy, scissors are in reach, and so on. Nothing kills the creative mood more than having to run around looking for the right watercolor paper, yarn, the correct size needles, and so on. I might want to write something but realize a little bit of research is in order before I start. These are all examples of preparation, and you will feel better equipped for creativity once some prep is out of the way.

    Once you feel prepared, you still might find yourself in need of extra push to get started. This is where prompts can help. I belong to a Facebook watercolor group that offers challenges on a regular basis. If I want to paint but don’t already have a subject in mind, a weekly challenge prompt is just what I need to get started. The topics might include various animals or flowers, or using a specific color. The prompt may be themed for the next upcoming holiday, or even to paint anything we want, but in the style of Van Gogh.

    Writers often use prompts as well; something like a single sentence or a specific scenario. My dear friend Google quickly found an article published by Writer’s Digest called “100 Creative Writing Prompts for Writers”. Even AI can come to the rescue with a variety of prompts for any creative situation. I tried asking “What should I knit next?” and artificial intelligence was happy to suggest that I “consider versatile, fast and satisfying items like a pair of socks, a cozy beanie, or fingerless mittens to build skills”. Excellent works of all kinds have come about from a simple prompt.

    A predicament is a special kind of prompt. If you need something but don’t have it, and you can build it/paint it/crochet it/sew it or whatever, then there you are — your next project! If you want to write and don’t have a topic in mind, you can dream up a predicament or allow any acquaintance to provide one for you. Maybe your bff’s fifteen year old daughter has asked if she can get a rose tattooed on her left breast. Or, your co-worker mentioned at lunch that a neighbor made a pass at her during Saturday’s cookout. Or, there was a sticky moral dilemma/difficult situation/crazy coincidence on any of the television shows you enjoy watching. Change the names, gender, locale or other identifying details, and voila! you have a whole new predicament to get you started on writing your next short story.

    The very useful letter P also heads up PRODUCTIVITY. With a little help from preparation, prompts and predicaments, you can be more productive in no time.

  • I Is For… Initiative!

    I Is For… Initiative!

    Contributed by Laura Rios.

    Initiative: the ability to assess and initiate things independently. (Oxford Dictionary)

    Ah, the ongoing struggle of anyone who works alone or pursues any creative endeavor. Make no mistake my friends, the struggle is real. Everyone has heard of writers’ block and the proverbial “dry spell”; they became stereotypical terms for a reason. We’ve all been there! So, how can we stay on track and productive without a supervisor, or assignments, or other external constructs designed to keep us moving forward?

    One thing we can do is to establish that mindset for ourselves.

    • Use a daily or weekly calendar or journal to assign tasks on a regular basis. If that alone is not enough to get you going, add rewards along the way to sweeten the deal. “Finish chapter one” or “start the sweater for Aunt Jane’s birthday” might earn you a chocolate bar, a spa bath, or some television time with your favorite show.
    • Recruit a productivity pal so you can keep one another on task. Midweek, make a point of checking in on one another to see how things are going. Peer pressure is an actual thing, and besides, there is nothing like a gentle nudge from your bestie.
    • Join a group of other creative types and meet weekly or bi-weekly, even if it’s a virtual group. If you can’t find such a group, form one yourself by drawing from your circle of acquaintances, which might include co-workers, neighbors, friends from church, other clubs or societies, and so on. You’ll find encouragement and motivation when you surround yourself with like-minded people who appreciate what you’re doing and who will celebrate one another’s accomplishments.
    • Follow a Facebook group, newsletter, or blog that focuses on your particular creative interest. There are dozens (maybe hundreds!) of such entities. You do have to be a little careful with this one; joining and following too many may backfire when you allow them to occupy too much of your time. Still, there are plenty of benefits to finding a few excellent ones that truly prove to keep you inspired and motivated.
    • Start and maintain an idea list. I used to keep a small pocket notebook nearby for this purpose, but for years now the Notes app in my phone has been the handiest thing for recording those random “aha moments”. When you find yourself coming up empty, choose something from your idea list and get back to creating once again.

    Remember, in any creative pursuit, ultimately it’s up to us to be self-starters. That doesn’t mean we can’t benefit from helpful tips, tricks, and a little help from our friends to maintain our own initiative when the going gets rough. Keep calm and create!

  • D Is For… Demos and Discussions!

    D Is For… Demos and Discussions!

    Contributed by Laura Rios.

    Image of an adolescent orange and white cat curled up on top of an open laptop on a desk.
    Photo: Pixabay (CC0)

    “When you open YouTube for ‘one quick tutorial’ and suddenly it’s three hours later.”

    In most creative endeavors, one of the challenges most of us face at times is finding inspiration. What to paint/sew/knit/weave/write? Beyond your favorite website, supportive Facebook group, Pinterest, magazines, and other media, YouTube has thousands of ways to get ideas flowing.

    As an artist, I turn to YouTube repeatedly. There are tutorials and demos for every medium, from acrylic paint to watercolors. If you enjoy calligraphy, you will find practical demonstrations as well as discussions on supplies, complete with product reviews. In addition to helping you get ideas, demos are great instructional tools. If, for example, you want to practice your “wet in wet” technique in watercolor, or you’d like to work on painting more loosely, simply search the term you like, and hundreds of demonstration videos will emerge for your consideration. I like to use tutorials as a stepping-off point; I can easily change things up to make the final painting or drawing my own. Using a demo is not copying, it’s a fantastic way to get you motivated and on your way to making masterpieces.

    Not an artist? Let’s say you enjoy needlework. A quick search on YouTube will provide you with endless ideas for cross stitch and embroidery pieces, crochet or knitting projects, and garment making. Demos can teach you to make French knots, knit cables, set-in sleeves or operate a loom. Choose your fabric, fiber, and colors to create a fabulous original!

    Writers will also find inspiration and assistance on YouTube.  YouTube offers videos to help with grammar, style, crafting a riveting story, writing clearly and effectively on the job, and any number of other topics. You will find book discussions and reviews. You can listen to Pulitzer winners discuss their techniques and find all sorts of how-to-do-whatever it is you may be struggling with so you can create again. When a slump of any kind has you feeling hopeless or sluggish, demos and discussions can be your best friends.

  • W Is For… Wonder!

    #AtoZChallenge 2025 letter W

    Contributed by Laura E Rios

    We need more wonder in this world. I see so many people who seem jaded, adopting a “been there, done that” attitude, but still, they manage to exhibit a lack of knowledge about everyday things.

    Just to narrow things down a little bit, let’s start with what happens above us. Why is the sky blue? What makes the noise when you hear thunder? How many stars are visible from Earth? How long would it take to get to Mars? Unless you can actually answer those questions, I hope you’ve wondered about them.

    It seems to me that the most interesting people have an active curiosity about the world. I don’t know about you, but I look up a dozen things a day. Google is my very good friend. There is great satisfaction in learning more about something you’ve looked up. For example, the sky appears blue due to a phenomenon called Rayleigh scattering. Blue light has a shorter wavelength than other colors and is scattered by air molecules. This scattering distributes the blue light throughout the sky, which by day, makes the sky appear blue. Now that’s what I call a real blue light special!

    Thunder makes noise because lightning superheats the air, which causes it to expand very rapidly. This creates a shockwave; thunder is what we hear when these sound waves are generated. Imagine my surprise on learning it wasn’t the angels bowling, which is what my mother told me when I was four years old.

    If you’re still wondering about the number of stars we can see, or how long it would take to go to Mars, I suggest you look up these questions. It won’t take long. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

    There is another type of wonder that isn’t simply curiosity, it’s more of an emotion. If you’ve stood on a mountain and gazed out on the panorama below, you’ve felt wonder. A sunrise or sunset can spark wonder. The vastness of an ocean, the constant waves rolling to the shore, and the nearly infinitesimal grains of sand also inspire wonder. Holding a newborn baby, having a stroke of incredibly good luck, (say, winning ten million dollars in the lottery) and standing in front of a famous, centuries-old structure can also invoke this type of wonder.

    I believe we need to wonder, and to feel wonder. Having a healthy curiosity and the ability to experience awe are two things that separate us from lower life forms. When we stop asking questions, and when we no longer feel wonder, I think we stop growing as human beings. Don’t waste these gifts and opportunities!

  • J Is For… Joy!

    #AtoZChallenge 2025 letter J

    Contributed by Laura E. Rios.

    Joy. It may seem to be in short supply these days, and that is exactly why we need to “grow” it. We need to make the effort to identify things in life that bring us joy, and cultivate them, with the goal of becoming happier as individuals. 

    According to a recent article in Greater Good Magazine, there are several ways happiness is good for your health. First, there are cardiovascular benefits. Joy and happiness can lower your blood pressure, plus, studies show that happier people are less likely to develop coronary heart disease.

    Finding more joy in your life also strengthens your immune system and makes you more resistant to things like the flu and the common cold. Making a point to increase your level of happiness helps you combat stress and results in a lower level of cortisol, the stress hormone. 

    Happy people also have fewer aches and pains, and they even live longer lives. 

    It seems clear that there are many advantages to finding more daily joy. The only obvious question is: how can I be a happier and more joyful person, especially when the world around me isn’t making it an easy thing to do? 

    • We can start by focusing on gratitude, positive interactions, self-care and mindfulness. 
    • We can deliberately find opportunities to engage in activities we enjoy and make a special effort to share those activities with positive people we care about. Taking walks, finding ways to be creative, participating in a yoga or art class, taking long scented baths, browsing flea markets and bazaars, and a host of other activities can help lift your spirits and take your mind off some of life’s unpleasantness. Whatever your particular “happy place” is, give yourself permission to go there more often.
    • Give yourself permission to create more opportunities to experience moments of pleasure, view a sunset, pay for someone else’s coffee or snack. 
    • Connect with loved ones and actively seek out positive people.  
    • Read a good book, create a new recipe, view a sunrise or a sunset.  
    • Set some measurable and attainable goals for yourself and then reward yourself when you achieve them. 
    • Create opportunities to laugh more by watching a funny movie, playing a silly game with good friends, or seeing one of your favorite comedians. 
    • Get out in nature whenever you can. Tend a garden; listen to bird songs. Breathe, deeply and slowly.    
    • Volunteer your time when you can for a cause you truly believe in. 
    • Listen to your favorite upbeat music and dance while you do household chores. 
    • Create a happy living space; surround yourself with your favorite things, colors and people. 

    Making a conscious effort to do some of these things can help you literally grow more joy and happiness in your life, just as providing sunlight and water will help you grow beautiful flowers. It won’t be long before you find yourself becoming a more joyful, less stressed and healthier person. 

  • X Is For… Xennials!

    Contributed by Laura Rios.

    I love Xennials. In case you’re not familiar with the term, Xennials describes the “micro-generation” of people whose birth years are between the late 1970s and the early 1980’s.  Essentially, this group of people are on the cusp of Gen X and Gen Y. They’re the younger Gen X’ers but they are definitely not millennials.

    What makes a Xennial so special? Xennials are the first people to grow up with computers and have access to the internet, giving them a major edge with technology. They experienced the rise of the internet as they grew up; they weren’t simply born into the current world of online shopping, social media, and VPNs. Xennials were the last group of young people to get through high school without Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Most of them didn’t have a cell phone until they became adults.

    In addition, Xennials entered the workforce while it was still dominated by hard-working baby boomers. While these “youngsters” had a clear advantage with technology, their supervisors and mentors modeled a strong work ethic, common sense, and a lot of on-the-job know-how. Xennials sucked all this up like sponges. They are often savvy, confident, and determined risk takers.

    These qualities can make Xennials a force to be reckoned with, for better or for worse. They are uniquely positioned to be movers and shakers. They’re often in the limelight and can become brilliantly popular or dangerously notorious. More than 20% of the current US congress fall into this microgeneration. Late basketball superstar Kobe Bryant was a Xennial. Dictator Kim Jong-un is also a Xennial. Other well-known Gen X/Gen Y hybrids include: songwriter/singer/musician John Legend, the late rapper Tupac Shakur, Kim Kardashian, Tony Romo, Paris Hilton, Macaulay Culkin, both Serena and Venus Williams, pop star Pink, Tiffany Haddish, novelist Colleen Hoover, and Sarah London, CEO of the Fortune 500 healthcare giant Centene Corporation. Xennials, all.

    As an aging “boomer”, I find Xennials fascinating. There’s a certain understanding between us, a special symbiotic relationship, between their generation and mine. I’d keep my eyes on Xennials, if I were you.

  • S Is For… Surprises!

    Contributed by Laura E. Rios.

    As surely as winter follows fall, spring arrives at the end of winter. This repeating cycle comes every year. Most of us happily anticipate the changes that spring brings along, like nature’s beauty, longer days, and warmer weather. There are undesirable situations that we know are coming too, such as the annual tornado season, the IRS income tax deadline, and so on.

    Obviously, something as inevitable as spring can also bring surprises. Some surprises are pleasant ones. One year we had a volunteer giant sunflower sprout in the back yard. An errant sunflower seed from the bird feeder brought us the most amazing six-foot-tall beauty, totally free! It was so fun to watch it grow. I felt like Mother Nature had presented me with a wonderful and unexpected gift.

    Another spring, I bought a new hanging plant and brought it home and hung it on the front porch. Then, a pair of mourning doves surprised me by building their nest in it. So, I sacrificed the impatiens plant and instead, I spent the spring watching a pair of doves raise their family. That was an unpleasant surprise that ended up being a happy one.

    This spring we’ve been surprised by hailstorms, increasing gas prices, and a dental emergency, and it’s only April. But, if not for those things, it would most certainly be something else, because as Gilda Radners’s Roseanne Rosannadanna used to say, “It’s always something”.

    Daily life really does fling something new at us all the time, like bird droppings on your freshly cleaned windshield. Charles R. Swindoll said “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you deal with it.” He would have been good friends with Roseanne Rosannadanna. They shared a similar attitude about dealing with surprises.

    Ultimately, it’s healthiest to embrace the surprises that come our way, whether they are pleasant or unpleasant. We might as well expect good things as well as bad, since they’re both part of life. They can come any time of the year, so we can always be on the lookout for them. Keeping a positive mental attitude and remaining flexible are good strategies for dealing with whatever this spring throws at you. Surprise!

     

    The Image accompanying this item is royalty-free from Pixabay.

  • F Is For… Fresh Starts!

    Contributed by Laura Rios.

    As I sit to write this, I’m looking out through the patio door at the neighborhood treetops showing all kinds of colors: white and pink blossoms, the reddish color of new buds on the maple trees, and the bright new green best called “spring green”. The varied colors bring a welcome change of scenery after the starkness of winter. Nature is making its fresh start, as it does just about this time every year without fail.

    Some fresh starts, like springtime, are connected in some way to the calendar. We’re all familiar with the first of January. Many of us establish New Year’s resolutions, determined to make positive changes in our lives as we set off on a new journey around the sun. Perhaps our birthdays spark a similar motivation in some of us.

    Late summer or early fall brings the start of a new school year for most young people. If it means attending a completely different school, it’s truly a fresh start. These new beginnings can be both exciting and stressful; either way, they rarely come as a surprise, and we generally take them in stride.

    Other new beginnings have nothing to do with dates or moon phases. These fresh starts can be brought about by the ends of something, often due to circumstances beyond our control, and they can cause major upheavals: perhaps the loss of a job, learning that we suddenly need to move, or finding ourselves newly single. It’s natural to feel adrift in such times and face these enforced fresh starts with some trepidation. Maybe we nurse some self-pity. Where to start? Might we glimpse some positivity in these situations so that we can find a little excitement and less dread in such cases? After all, when one door opens, there is usually another one that opens somewhere else. It may be up to us to figure out where that is.

    Or maybe we simply feel compelled to make some changes. Possibly we’ve decided we don’t like what we’re doing, what we’re eating, how we look or how we feel. Luckily, we are largely in charge here, and all we need to do to begin anew is to put one foot in front of the other and set out on a new path.

    As we search for the next open door, or to pursue a road untraveled, it can be helpful to view new beginnings in a positive light. Fortunately, we don’t have to do this alone. Many wise people have pondered this very subject, and maybe you’ll find some pearls of wisdom in their words. Here then, in no particular order, are quotes intended to lend support if you’re facing a fresh start, large or small.

    So, set all that old baggage down and let the past serve only as a memory from which you’ve learned. Take a deep breath. Ready… set … go!

    “Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?” – L. M. Montgomery

    “The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoiled, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your life. You can turn over a new leaf every hour if you choose.” – Arnold Bennett

    “Holding on is believing that there’s only a past; letting go is knowing that there’s a future.” – Daphne Rose Kingma

    “No, this is not the beginning of a new chapter… this is the beginning of a new book! That first book is already closed, ended, and tossed into the seas; this new book is newly opened, has just begun!” – C. Joybell

    “Stay away from what might have been and look at what can be.” – Marsha Petrie Sue

    “It’s never too late to become who you want to be. I hope you live a life that you’re proud of, and if you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start over.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

    “Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It’s the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

    “You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down.” – Mary Pickford

    “Although now one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.” – Carl Bard

    “The beginning is the most important part of the work.” – Plato

    And finally:

    “The beginning is always today.” – Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

  • T is for… Taco Tuesday! or, The Dubious Value of Trademarking

    Contributed by Laura Rios

    In October 1933, the White Star Cafeteria in the Saint Regis Hotel of El Paso, Texas launched a weeklong advertising campaign to announce that they would be offering “Mexican tacos” each Tuesday. The tacos were a terrific value, even during the Depression, at three for fifteen cents!

    The Saint Regis Hotel, El Paso, Texas

    Photo source: THC Historic Resources Survey Collection  provided by the Texas Historical Commission to The Portal to Texas History, digitally  hosted by the UNT Libraries. Used with permission.

    In the 1940’s, Albuquerque’s Zia Lounge gave away free tacos on Tuesdays. In 1965 a restaurant called La Cucaracha advertised tacos as their “Tuesday special”. (Let’s not debate the wisdom of eating anything – even tacos – from a greasy spoon named for a cockroach.)

    During the next several decades, a number of restaurants across the nation began designating Tuesday as The Day for great deals on tacos. Maybe it was our growing love of Southwest cuisine. Possibly it was because we all love bargains. Or it might have been our love affair with alliteration. Whatever it was, having tacos on Tuesday became a thing.

    The first use of the actual phrase “Taco Tuesday” is shrouded in mystery because restaurateurs disagree on that point.  Gregory’s Restaurant and Bar in New Jersey holds the oldest trademark on those two words, dating back to 1979. But alas, they only trademarked Taco Tuesday in the state of New Jersey. Ten years went by before the government granted Wyoming-based Taco John’s the U.S. trademark for the phrase they “invented”; Taco Tuesday is still officially trademarked nationwide by Taco John’s.

     Many times, Taco John’s has threatened legal action against smaller restaurants and bars that offer discounted tacos promoted by the phrase “Taco Tuesday” but to date, their cease-and-desist efforts haven’t been very effective at quashing the practice. Using those two words in tandem to advertise a special has become so commonplace that it is virtually impossible to legally regulate the use of it, even when a particular entity holds the lawful trademark.

    So, is there any real value in trademarking? In the end, both the phrase and the tradition ensure that nearly ALL taco joints enjoy a brisk taco business on Tuesdays. To trademark or not to trademark? That is the question, but the answer is not clear.

    If today happened to be a Tuesday, I would happily discuss this further over a couple of bargain tacos from virtually anywhere except a place named for cockroaches. But alas, it’s Saturday so maybe we’ll just grab a pizza.