Loaded Question, and First of the Eighty Answered

Sooner or later the question is going to pop up, for those who are curious or just hope to view a car wreck:

What have you been doing lately?

And this is how I will answer you, for now. I have been:

• Running every morning to the ocean, despite cold and on some days threat of rain
• Listening to podcasts from Fresh Air, literary groups, Latino music, gambling gurus, and Writer's Almanac
• Visiting the library
• Reading at a frustratingly slow and decadent pace
• Writing at the same
• Eating at the same
• Experiencing meditation instead of attempting it
• Relishing baseball

And you?

*****

Today on my Twitter feed there was a lovely link to a list of 80 Journal Writing Prompts that one could use to prime the pump, so to speak, and while I think they make great journal prompts I realize that having neglected my blog in some time they might be helpful for those suffering from insomnia to enjoy. So herein commences the first of the list...Name something that you lost or gave away that can never be replaced.

This is a tough one--for two reasons: a) there are two that stand out, and b) neither of them are material. The first one is my mother--I would say it was a combination of losing her and being so far away from her for the last ten years of her life (which could be construed to mean that I had, in some essence, given her away) that make her stand out as the first. No one can replace her--and several women have tried. (What I find most amusing is that people who have tried to replace her have been opinionated, and my mother was the least opinionated person on the face of the planet. Not quite sure of that need to fill the gap, but, there it is.) I appreciate the attempts--it's just not possible, ladies.

The second one is pretty unseemly, so skip the rest of the paragraph if this kind of thing makes you squirm, but it's my virginity. I both "lost it" according to the crass saying and it can never be replaced. I think I would be far more trusting if I hadn't lost it and didn't have the desire to replace it, for I was even more gullible than I am now before losing it. On the flip side, if I still had it and I was this age, the self-consciousness might be burning a hole in my brain.

Onward, dear reader, until the next prompt.