Beware the Ides of October, Minus 2.5 Days

Remember me being blog-tagged? Remember me mentioning revenge?

Well, it is (nearly) the Ides of October — a day of danger less well known than the Ides of March, but still fraught — fraught, I tell you — with peril for the unwary and the doomed.

Doom is upon you. Or at least some of you. A token number of you. Hardly any of you … an inconsequential, lean, meager, middling minority; a negligible scrap, really. Hardly worth mentioning, in fact. But …

But …

But …

Those whom I curse to bear the mark of the (almost) Ides of October, I shall set loose in the world to curse others.

Or something like that. It isn’t that big a deal, in fact, and I’m trying to inflate it into some epic adventure, and suspecting all the while that it’s falling flat.

So skip the ado. On to my burden.


THE SEARCH FOR JOY

Search your blog for the word “joy” used in the context of “happiness.” If you cannot find the word in your weblog, you may use any of the select list of synonyms below.

joy — amusement, bliss, cheer, comfort, delectation, delight, ecstasy, elation, exaltation, exultation, exulting, felicity, gaiety, gladness, glee, good humor, gratification, happiness, hilarity, humor, jubilance, liveliness, merriment, mirth, pleasure, rapture, regalement, rejoicing, revelry, satisfaction, wonder

If your weblog does not include a built-in search engine, then you can use Google to search it only for the word you wish to find. Just follow the directions copied below.

domain-search  

If you’ve found the word and it was not used facetiously or sarcastically, good for you. All you need to do is link to your earlier entry, and write a few words about that joyous moment. If, however, you have no joy (whole words only) in your weblog, you must dig deep in your soul and find something wonderful in your life right now. One little thing that fills you with warmth, that bubbles you over with quiet happiness, or tickles you with its good-hearted hilarity, or makes you glad you just took a breath, and are getting ready to take another. It doesn’t have to be anything big. A smile someone gave you; your cat on your shoulder; the way the light angles through your window and casts rainbows on your floor. All it has to be is something genuine, something real, something that matters to you.

Because we all need joy in our lives, and need to take the time — from time to time — to recognize it. And sometimes, we need to pass it on.

Even if we’re a big pain in the ass when we do.

When you’ve dealt with your own joy, pass the quest on to five other bloggers.


I tag:

Monica
D. Jordan Redhawk
Jay Penney
Accidental Nomad
Stuart McBride (who doesn’t read this blog, but what the hell — I’ll take a chance.)

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By Holly

Novelist, writing teacher, on a mission to reprint my out-of-print books and indie-publish my new ones.

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Jenne
17 years ago

Ack! I just saw this! I wasn’t ignoring it! (Silly first comment moderating thing.)

macbrides
17 years ago

“Stuart McBride (who doesn’t read this blog, but what the hell — I’ll take a chance.)”

Not true – I just lurk from time to time. Lurk, lurk, lurk… In my socks.

MotherNox713
MotherNox713
17 years ago

“Roo, you just can’t argue with a word like “fraught”.” –Tigger, Pooh’s Heffalump Movie. Which I watched 200 times with my toddlers recently. 🙂

PolarBear
17 years ago

Is this the complete “revenge” or are you just getting started? (Clever idea–I use a variation of the word more often than I thought.)

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