The writing group I belong to used to meet weekly. That was before COVID. Then, for a while, we didn’t meet at all. Eventually, we started getting together via Zoom, although we didn’t meet every week. Like many people and organizations, we discovered there were pros and cons to Zoom meetings. They were better than not being able to meet at all, and allowed long-distance members to take part. But technical glitches were frustrating and annoying. When it was okay to start meeting in person [...]
“As we get older, we get wiser. At what age are we the smartest?” That’s the question that was asked of contestants at a Toastmasters Table Topics competition I attended recently. In a Table Topics contest, participants are given the question, and must immediately give a one- to two-minute response. The purpose of Table Topics, in competition and at regular Toastmasters meetings, is to help people learn to think on their feet, organize their thoughts quickly, and give a confident, intelligent-sounding response to spur-of-the-moment questions. [...]
I spent the weekend in Duluth – Georgia, not Minnesota – attending a Toastmasters District Conference. It was our first live conference since Spring of 2019, and it felt wonderful to be there again, live and in person. Numerous safety measures were in place, including mask and social distancing rules and recommendations, and a requirement for proof of a negative COVID test taken 24 hours before the start of the Conference. A testing station was set up near the registration table at the hotel, for [...]
For those of you who aren’t aware of this, April is National Poetry Month. I know this because a friend of mine is a poet and celebrates it every year, and also because Georgia Writers Museum always has poetry-related events during April, whether it’s an open mic night for poetry readings, a “Meet the Author” event featuring published poets, or a contest for students asking them to write a poem – or submit their favorite poem, along with a paragraph explaining why it’s their favorite. [...]
“What have you lost that you’d most like to find?” That was the question at a Toastmasters Table Topics contest I recently attended, via Zoom, at the club in Minnesota I belonged to when I first joined Toastmasters. “Table Topics” is a part of every Toastmasters meeting, and it’s designed to help members learn to think on their feet and organize their thoughts quickly by responding – for one to two minutes – to an open-ended question. In a Table Topics competition, the contestants are [...]
Our last Toastmasters meeting had a theme of “Trick-or-Treat.” As the Table Topics Master at the meeting, I decided to have a costume party as the focus of my questions. The purpose of Table Topics is to help people learn to think on their feet and organize their thoughts quickly. The Table Topics Master will ask an open-ended, no-right-or-wrong-answer type of question, and then call on a member to respond. They have to talk for one to two minutes, and responses can range from serious [...]
Many years ago, I had surgery for breast cancer, followed by a year of monthly chemotherapy treatments. After each one, I went home and spent the rest of the day in bed, nauseous and exhausted. I was tired and a bit queasy for most of the week, then I’d have three weeks off until it was time to do it all again. One of the things I remember about that time is how eagerly I kept counting down the number of treatments I had left. [...]
There are many words we could use to describe the year 2020, and “surreal” is probably one of the kindest. The same can be said for how we’ll be celebrating Christmas this year. Like many people, my husband and I will be staying home for the holidays, rather than going home for the holidays to celebrate with family members who live in other parts of the country. It’s not our preference, of course, but we keep reminding ourselves that by staying safe at home this [...]
North and South America. Asia, Africa, and Australia. Europe. The Middle East. The Caribbean. No, I’m not studying for a geography test, or memorizing different areas of the world in case I ever become a contestant on “Jeopardy!” and that’s one of the categories. I’m just thinking of some of the people I spent a few hours with this week, and marveling at all the different places they’re from. A number of them are people I’ve met as I “traveled the world” from home via [...]