Goodbye but NOT farewell

Using the words which Roger used in his intro for the last post of round 20--- Z

With joy, we'll dream away each sorrow,
With love we'll live for each tomorrow;
So let's part, just you and I
With au revoir but not goodbye.

I want to say "THANK YOU" to all of you who have participated throughout many letters of 20 alfabets already on this meme which was originally created by Mrs. Nesbitt and has been managed by Roger with Leslie as his sidekick for many years following Mrs. Nesbitt.

Starting july 12th, Round 21 will start in a new home.
There are, ofcourse, some changes but I've tried to keep it as much as possible like we are all used to it. The change in URL is the most significant ofcourse...

Until july 12th: http://abcwednesday-mrs.nesbitt.blogspot.com
Starting july 12th: http://abcwednesday.com

I am very gratefull that some 'old' teammembers have agreed in staying in as a teammember, so I don't have to do it all by my self but I can promiss you that we will give our very best to keep this meme running.

The only thing we need.... is YOU!

So.... feel welcome to check out: http://abcwednesday.com and leave your opinion, questionds and remarks but more so the links to your entries for round 21 and other rounds to follow

We would love to see you all there.... andddd...
if you are a facebooker... check out : https://www.facebook.com/abcwednesday21 too!

Double and last

 

Hi all members of our ABC-Wednesday-family.

This will be the last birthdaypost on this url... because in 2 days ABC Wednesday will move to http://abcwednesday.com  where round 21 will start on july 12th.

Coming Monday we may congratulate 2 birthday-girls, on of them being my very own daughter-in-law-to be...although living under our roof for many years now, ,the younsters still are not married ;-) 

 &  

Congratulating the both of you DAPHNE &  UPPAL
and wishing you all the best of Luck, Love & Happiness!!

If someone wants his/her date to be added to our Birthday-Calendar, just let me know!
Mention it on http://abcwednesday.com in a comment or drop a note in abcwednesday21@gmail.com

♫ M e l d y ♫ (abc-w-team)

Z is for Zero Hour

So this is the ZERO HOUR, the last post I will be making at this Internet address. But fret not: when Melody takes over ABC Wednesday at https://abcwednesday.com/ starting the week of July 10, 2017, I'll be visiting folks there. Heck, I've already written my A through G posts, except E.

I'll even be on HER team, so who knows? Maybe I'll write an intro there someday.

Did you ever misremember something? In telling the story of my participation with ABC Wednesday under the tutelage of Denise Nesbitt, I wrote that I started in Round 5 with the letter K. But if ABC Wednesday started in July 2007, and my first post was October 1, 2008, that means it was actually Round 3 .

The URL for that iteration of the blog disappeared, except through the Wayback Machine.

Wow, I've been at this a long time.

And I no longer want to guess when I joined the team. But it was before my mother died on 2 February 2011. I had traveled from Albany, NY to Charlotte, NC after my mother suffered a stroke. Because I figured I'd have no way to write blog posts, I wrote a few before I left, including one about my, at the time of writing, anticipated train trip.

Shortly after my sisters and I came home from the hospital, I read an email from Mrs. Nesbitt, to which I had briefly replied that Mom had died. If you read the comments on the post, it became clear that Mrs. Nesbitt had notified people that my mom was sick - I did no visiting of the blogs that week - and then notified folks again upon the news of Mom's passing.

If I ever have the need to cry, all I need to do is read the sweet comments from this post from about 2:12 p.m. on. And when I got home in Albany a week later, there were fresh flowers on my doorstep from Mrs. Nesbitt.

So when she asked me to take over ABC Wednesday in July 2012, I said yes. And I have visited every post over the past five years and attempted to leave a comment; if I didn't, it was because of I could not for reasons idiosyncratic to the blog I was visiting.

And now, after five years, I'm handing it off to Melody, at a new address - note the change in the URL - but operating at the same time of the week, and with the same alphabetical principles.

Since I may have some interest in music, I thought I'd end with:

Au Revoir But Not Goodbye - Al Bowlly with Ronnie Munro & his Orchestra, recorded October 5th 1939 in London

Lyrics by Joseph George Gilbert

With joy, we'll dream away each sorrow,
With love we'll live for each tomorrow;
So let's part, just you and I
With au revoir but not goodbye.

And Happy Independence Day in the US, and a belated Canada Day sesquicentennial! (I LOVE the word sesquicentennial...)

Y is for YOU

About a decade ago, TIME magazine named YOU as the Person of the Year. "In 2006, the World Wide Web became a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter." And as true as it was then, it's far more true now.

And YOU continue to matter to us at ABC Wednesday. Round 20 is ending under the direction of Leslie and me, and before that, Denise Nesbitt. Round 21 is about to begin at https://abcwednesday.wordpress.com/ under Melody's tutelage.

But it means nothing, NOTHING without YOU. Without YOU, there's frankly no point to it all.

The very first Bob Dylan song I ever owned was on a compilation album called The Best of '66. That was 1966, BTW, NOT 1866. The song was I WANT YOU [listen]. Somehow seems appropriate.
***

20 - X

Hello and good morning, -afternoon, -evening, dear people who all participate is this wonderful photo-meme, which is a joy to me, week after week, after week.

I’m always curious to what you come up with!

 The challenging letter of this week is X and I've chosen for the word: X-tension

 Today in 3 weeks... this photo-meme, some 10 years ago started by (Denise) Mrs. Nesbitt will come to an end in the way we have known it thus far. The url: http://abcwednesday-mrsnesbitt.blogspot.com will stay online for a while but the url on which you can leave the link to you participation will, starting july 12th, be: http://abcwednesday.wordpress.com

So please note this so your entry will not get 'lost' and worse, missed by other participants.

 In X-tra I want to  say THANK YOU to not only Mrs.Nesbitt ofcourse, but also to Roger and Leslie who have worked very hard since they took over from Mrs. Nesbitt after she announced to have less time for the challenge. Last but not least all the other bloggers who did their part in visiting participants and ofcourse all the bloggers from all over the world who in total kept this challenge running for already 10+ years.

Besides that I want to X-press my gratitude also to all of those participants who created all the logo's which have been used in these past 20 rounds. (Want to see them? Click Here!)

 With the start of the X-tended version of ABC-Wednesday on july 12th I also want to introduce to you the new team of participants who will assist me and together with me have the sincere wish to keep the ABC-ball rolling. Looking very much forward to see you in:  http://abcwednesday.wordpress.com, especially starting July 12th with your entry for round 21-A
   
 Have an X-traordinary ABC-Wednesday-day / - week ~
♫ M e l o d y ♫ (ABC-W-team)
 (preview Round 21)
***

W is for Wisdom

My grandfather wasn't much for borrowing money.
He kind of believed that you should only get what you can afford, that you should pay your own way in the world, and that you shouldn't be beholden to anyone.

He had a saying he used to use from time to time. He'd  tell us "You can't raise this year's crops with next year's rain."

Another saying he used a lot,  when we suggested,  attempted,  or wished for something futile,  he would say "Might as well try and hold back the wind with a pitchfork. "

He'd  use this line frequently when somebody would say something like they wished their puppies would stay little forever or they hope that winter would not come so fast.

Time is like the wind through the pitchfork - it just keeps going and there's nothing we can do to stop it; and so here we are at W.

This is the last time my words will appear on an intro here.

It has been wonderful working with all of you and getting to know so many amazing fascinating and talented people all over the world I'm going to miss you all.

I want to wish you all  good luck in your future endeavors.

TROY

And now it's time to go and see what words and works The Winds of time have wrought on your window of the World Wide Web this wonderful Wednesday

Note from Roger: You can follow a new iteration of ABC Wednesday after this round at https://abcwednesday.wordpress.com/>
***

Happy Birthday tooooo

 

Hi all members of our ABC-Wednesday-family.

It took a while since the last "Happy Birthday"- post on this blog because we had nobody to congratulate.

Today... we have a Birthday Girl who goes by the name: Rose 

So let's go pay her a visit and congratulate her....

Congratulating you ROSE and wishing you all the best of Luck, Love & Happiness!!

If someone wants his/her date to be added to our Birthday-Calendar, just let me know!

♫ M e l d y ♫ (abc-w-team)

V is for vim and vigor

The vocabulary.com reads:

"Vim is energy and enthusiasm. If you've got vim, then you probably pack a little extra oomph in your life!

"Vim is an odd-looking word, but it stands for a simple concept: being ready for activity, especially vigorous activity. Someone who is always playing sports or going on trips is full of vim. Someone who lies on the couch watching TV all day shows very little vim."

I've almost never seen the word vim stand alone.

The Word Detective agrees:

"One reason we were able to get along without 'vim' until the mid-18th century is that we already had 'vigor, and the two words are considered synonyms by most dictionaries. 'Vigor' does have more elaborated meanings..., but the basic sense underlying all such specialized meanings of 'vigor' is 'physical, mental or moral strength, vitality and enthusiasm,' which is about as close to 'vim' as you can get without stepping on its toes.

"'Vigor' had quite a head start on 'vim,' however, first appearing in English around 1300, drawn, via Old French, from the Latin 'vigere,' meaning 'to be lively, to thrive.'"

I always associated the phrase "vim and vigor" with the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy. Indeed, from Novel Guide: Kennedy's campaign oratory, which often seemed to suggest that any problem could be solved if only enough vim and vigor were brought to bear on it.

But JFK's piece in Sports Illustrated, about fitness, mentions vigor or vigorous nine times, though vim does not appear at all.

I was thinking about JFK because May 29 would have been his 100th birthday, which I wrote about here.

I hope you have enough vim to visit a number of our participants this week, and indeed through the end of Round 20.

Then I trust you will have sufficient vigor to participate during Round 21 and beyond at ABC Wednesday's new home, which will be at https://abcwednesday.wordpress.com/
***

U is for Unity

I was watching the news, and a reporter pointed out the wisdom of the late Fred Rogers. He was the host of the long-running program on the Public Broadcasting System in the United States called Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. The reporter was thinking of the sad events in Manchester, England, but it could also applicable to other tragedies, personal or collective.

Mr. Rogers said:

"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.'"

From Vox:

"Though Rogers was deeply religious, he never attempted to argue that tragedy was part of God's plan for the world or anything similar. Instead, he aimed to keep our eyes turned toward the good things humanity is capable of, which are often in much greater evidence than the bad."

In the midst of the bad, we need to stick together for the good.

T is for TRUST

Trust is the intersection of the past and the future.  It takes evidence from the past and analyzes it into the future.  Then you apply the facts within the context of risk.  To trust a human being is to be able to anticipate generally how they'll behave in most of the future situations in which you might encounter them, and to feel comfort in taking an (often emotional) risk based on that.  If you trust someone, it means you're willing to deliberately put yourself in a situation where that person could hurt you by doing the "wrong" thing. Trust is a balance. Trusting people too much makes you vulnerable, but on the flipside, not trusting people enough makes cooperation difficult or impossible and also severely harms your odds of building meaningful relationships.

Have any of you ever had trust issues? Has a friend betrayed your trust by gossiping about a "secret" you have divulged? Have your children betrayed your trust by disobeying or flagrantly ignoring your expectations of them?  Has your spouse betrayed your trust through lying, cheating, or abusing you or your family's finances?  Has your employer betrayed your trust by prioritizing their personal interests and needs above the team? 

I'm sure we've all experienced the loss of trust in a marriage, a job, or a friend.  There are ways to rebuild that trust, but usually the relationship dies a miserable and irreversible death.  You try to move on, but just as you think you've succeeded, along come bitter and vengeful thoughts.  Trust me! I've been there!  In the space of three years, trust in a spouse, a +20-year friendship, and a family member have been totally annihilated. 

Do you go grovelling back to them?  Never!  Once it's done, it's done and there's no going back.  You move on, move forward, move to channelling your thoughts to what is right in your mind.  Let go of the hideous memories, forgive yourself for either being part of the problem or being blind to someone's character.  Remember that song from Disney's "Frozen"?  "Let it go!"

One thing in which I am placing my trust is the new (and maybe improved) form of ABC Wednesday, which will be administered by our trusty Melody.  She has already lined up two assistant administrators and a group of excited current ABCWers to help her with keeping up with commenting on the participants' contributions.  So TRUST IN THIS!  Let's keep ABCW going!  Only a little over 6 weeks until the new ABCW begins so stay tuned.

***

20-S = Signal

Hello and good morning, -afternoon, -evening, dear people who all participate is this wonderful photo-meme, which is a joy to me, week after week, after week.
I’m always curious to what you come up with!

 The challenging letter of this week is S and I've chosen for the word: Signal

 Not as dangerous as the one on the photo but still a signal is what I want to give all of you

 In 8 weeks from today ABC_Wednesday will be moved to another url and I sincerely hope to may welcome you all at ABC-Wednesday in its new home.

 I am very much looking forward to the move and to may keep on visiting all of you to see what you have posted for the individual letter prompts.

 Thanking Mrs. Nesbitt for the first rounds and her team of course because without her, without them we would never know on and other and would also have missed out on lots and lots of beautiful entries during the 20 rounds we almost have completed!

 

Have a nice ABC-Wednesday-day / - week ~
♫ M e l o d y ♫ (ABC-W-team)
(preview Round
***

R IS FOR REFLECTION

As I ponder what to write  about,  I'm sitting here reflecting on the last few weeks/months/years and thinking about the wild  rollercoaster  that has been my life.

They say that the windshield is so much bigger than the rear view mirror, because it is more important to look ahead, but my truck has one windshield and 7 mirrors, so I guess it's important for me to know where I have been as well.

Remember, when you drive into the dark night, the sun cannot rise in front of you, until after it has set behind you

 And the longer the rain falls, the brighter the rainbow appears when it is all over.

I like to look back from time to time, but it's important not to get so caught up in the reflection that you forget to look ahead.

I'm looking forward to seeing which way everyone else is looking.

Keep your eyes on the road, your hands on the wheel, and a song in your heart.

ROLL ON!

***

Q = Qualify

Hello and good morning, -afternoon, -evening, dear people who all participate is this wonderful photo-meme, which is a joy to me, week after week, after week. I’m always curious to what you come up with!

 The challenging letter of this week is Q and I've chosen for the word: Qualify

Trying to live as 'mindful' as possible I regularIy find myself wondering about what exactly is it that qualifies my life to be 'good', good enough to be able to call myself a happy person, or at least a content one.

Like every other person I have wonderful things to talk about and lesser nice things. We all live the 'game of life' and have to deal with the 'cards' that that 'game' has handed out to us.

 What qualifies my life?
Thinking about this question I can not come up with many answers because all the answers that do come up can be categorized under the denominator Love.
Love for life with all its wonderful things in it.
Also, however difficult that is sometimes, love for the miserable things, because they have taught me so much.  Being surrounded by people I love, nature, animals. Doing things I love. Enjoying wonderful moments, however short they are. Keeping that all in mind and pulling it to the front of my feelings and thoughts, to get courage and strength from at the non-desired moments which force me to put up a fight and not give up.

Quality of life... is, to me at least, not dependent of the numbers which tell me how much money I (don't) have. Ofcourse, I sometimes wish to have some more, but don't we all wish for that every now and then? I love people, animals, nature, blogging, music, photographing, reading and movies; scifi, horror, crime and fantasy being my favorites. I love going out with my camera but at the same time I love to be a couchpotato , whatever that certain moment requires.

 Do I long for an 'excellent' life as the image suggests? No I don't. I am quit content with "Good".
It is good enough for me. Some days are 'average', 'poor' and 'very poor', although we don't want moments like that, they should be experienced because they show us the true value of 'good' and teach us to appreciate the 'good' much more.  To never reach 'excellent' means, at least to me it does, never stop dreaming, never stop reaching for new goals, never give up to try to make things (life... your life....) better.

 How about you?

 Have a nice ABC-Wednesday-day / - week ~
♫ M e l o d y ♫ (ABC-W-team)
(preview Round 21)
***

P for plus

Plus is the sum of a number and the next one(s): Two PLUS two equals four, e.g.

PLUS is a positive quantity: He is a real PLUS to the team.

PLUS is an advantage: Knowing the language is a decided PLUS.

PLUS is something extra: Nat Geo PLUS provides subscribing members "all-access pass for unlimited articles, exclusive ebooks, and streaming films."

PLUS is an indication that the standard of a piece of work is slightly higher than the stated mark: I got B PLUS (B+) for my essay.

PLUS is electrically positive: A battery has both a PLUS pole and a minus pole.

I've been participating with ABC Wednesday for 15-PLUS rounds, covering 7-PLUS years. It has been a real PLUS in my life, where I've been able to "meet" people such as the members of the team and all of you participants. I was going to start naming names, but the list got too long, and some of you would have been nonPLUSSED has I left you off the list.

The number of participants have had their PLUSES and minuses from week to week, but I think it's a PLUS for me to visit each and every one of you. It might take all week, but so be it.

It will be a PLUS to your fellow contributors if you visit one blog on the roster you usually don't follow.

***

O is for observations about the ABC W alphabet

This being the last round that I'M running the ABC Wednesday meme before Melody takes over, I've been musing over a bit of history of the participation by youse folks over the years. I've looked through all of the inLinks data, which started with 6Z (82 participants) - before that, Denise was using a different product to allow you to post. I've calculated the average participation for every letter for Rounds 7 through 19.

The highest numbers were always in Round 7 and/or 8 (it was a tie in the Z week), and the lowest in Rounds 18 or 19, with one odd exception. I'm pleased to note that in Round 20, the numbers are higher than in Round 19.

A-88.54 (high 128, low 45) - A is almost always lower than B, except in Round 13
B-96.38 (high 147, low 47)
C-98.23 (high 149, low 50) - as you can see, the highest average
D-91.85 (high 136, low 49)
E-87.54 (high 138, low 43)

F-95.38 (high 151, low 48) - 151, in Round 8, is the highest number we've reached
G-92.54 (high 141, low 53) - for my own posts, I was tempted to always use green, but I chose otherwise
H-91.15 (high 147, low 48)
I-84.69 (high 139, low 45)
J-82.15 (high 141, low 41)

K-80.54 (high 127, low 44) - K is a difficult letter to find a word?
L-86.23 (high 145, low 50)
M-86.46 (high 139, low 41)
N-78.08 (high 126, low 43)
O-80.00 (high 126, low 51) - I thought that the vowels in general did worse than the vowels around them; not so here

P-88.54 (high 143, low 50)
Q-72.00 (high 114, low 46) - for my own posts, I used Queen more than once, including Elizabeth II and Freddie Mercury
R-80.46 (high 117, low 45) - I've written about two dozen of these intros, probably more than anyone except Denise, who wrote them all in the early days
S-83.85 (high 117, low 49)
T-83.38 (high 137, low 50)

U-70.38 (high 109, low 42)
V-72.54 (high 104, low 45)
W-77.38 (high 108, low 51)
X-56.54 (high 88, low 35) - half the time, this lands around the winter holidays in the Northern Hemisphere; many have used Xmas, and/or shapes that LOOK like the letter X
Y-64.46 (high 94, low 45) - we hit 45 in rounds 15, 17, 18 AND 19
Z-60.46 (high 85, low 34) -the lowest number we reached was in Round 18
***

20-N

      Hello and good morning, -afternoon, -evening, dear people who all participate is this wonderful photo-meme, which is a joy to me, week after week, after week. I’m always curious to what you come up with! 

 The challenging letter of this week is N and I've chosen for the word: Nothing

 

Thinking about that word... I realize that I think that it is a strange word because what does it really mean?  Does it even really exist? 

 In the province of The Netherlands, where I was born and raised, we have flat land, and much much much empty spaces like you see on my photo. One could say, there is nothing but is that really true? 

Can one see nothing, can one hear nothing, can one feel nothing? I would say: No one can not because there is always something, no matter how small, invisible even maybe, but still, there is something. To be seen, to be heard, to be felt. 

 In another way... having to live with a bi-polar disorder... nothing is a word that can frighten me sometimes. How strange is that, as I am convinced at the same time that 'nothing' does not exist? Still my conviction does not always have the upperhand. Feeling 'nothing' is not possible but feeling 'alone' in the sense that there is nothing / nobody for you at such a desperate moment... makes anxious. 

 Nothing... if it were up to me I would erase that word in any language, or change it into something which tells us that it is something 'strange', non existent even perhaps.  

What ever it really it... we all see, we all hear, we all feel. 

We all are human and living. 

Life is, however less it sometimes might look, never nothing but always something.

 I am very curious to your ideas about this word, so please share them with me?   

Have a nice ABC-Wednesday-day / - week ~ 

♫ M e l o d y ♫ (ABC-W-team) 

(preview Round 21)

***

An InLinkz Link-up

Congratulate

 

Hi all members of our ABC-Wednesday-family. 

On April 6th, we could congratulate MARY KISS
But her blog on http://contextoflove.com is empty....  

So... although I don't know if she will see this... I still want to

Congratulate you MARY and I am wishing you all the best of Luck, Love & Happiness!!

If someone wants his/her date to be added to our Birthday-Calendar, just let me know!

♫ M e l d y ♫ (abc-w-team)

20-M

Hello and good morning, -afternoon, -evening, dear people who all participate is this wonderful photo-meme, which is a joy to me, week after week, after week. I’m always curious to what you come up with!  

 The challenging letter of this week is M and I've chosen for: Middle

 

  M is the 13th letter of our alfabet, at least in the perspective which we use to participate in this meme. So we are in the MIDDLE of that alfabet of round 20.

That also means that we have 13 letters left to go before we reach the final end of ABC-Wednesday in the way we all came to discover, learn and love it.  

Today in exactly 14 weeks, I sincerely and intense hope to may welcome you all in the 21rst beginning of the new ABC-Wednesday on its new location at Wordpress, were we hopefully all will be witness of many 'beginnings, middles and ends'  

 Have a nice ABC-Wednesday-day / - week
♫ M e l o d y ♫ (ABC-W-team)
 (preview Round 21)

***

LAPSE OF MEMORY

Welcome to ABC Wednesday, Round 20, Letter L!!!  I have to admit that I had a slight lapse of memory this past week about doing the introduction.  I did remember but then got busy doing my own personal contribution and then proceeded to figure I was done and ready!  So, I'm just getting into bed here and thought I'd check my emails one last time and what do you think...an email from Roger, our level-headed administrator asking if I was doing it!  He must be laughing at me because usually I'm so organized.  I'm so lucky he emailed me.

Anyway, it's past my bedtime now so I better just wish everyone a lovely and lively week and I do  hope your Spring is springing better where you are than it is here.  I think the crocuses have given up because I see daffodils trying to sprout but not many blooms around just yet.  See you over at The Pedalogue (my blog site) where I am lamenting how life is passing by like the speed of light.
***

Happy Birthday toooo

 

Hi all members of our ABC-Wednesday-family. 

On March the 25th, we all can and may congratulate NORA with her birthday!

Congratulating you NORA and wishing you all the best of Luck, Love & Happiness!!

If someone wants his/her date to be added to our Birthday-Calendar, just let me know!

♫ M e l d y ♫ (abc-w-team)