Musing Interruptus

Renée V.

A promise of a collection of short thoughts I would like to share for no good reason at all. Thank you for supporting Musing Interruptus, you can make contributions via PayPal https://tinyurl.com/59rkj3rv RSSVERIFY

  1. 18.07.2025

    24. Talking Hearts

    Hello, Welcome. I’m Renée Valentina and this is Musing Interruptus. Listen to Musing Interruptus if you like stories and learning idiomatic phrases in different contexts. You can read along; just click on continue reading in the description to open a Google Doc with the transcription of this episode. The idiomatic expressions are in italics. Try to get the meaning from the context and then look them up to see if you were right. If you like it, subscribe, follow, and share, but more importantly, continue the conversation. Drop a comment with your answers to today’s questions! I love hearing from you!  Today, on what it takes to have a heart-to-heart.  It sounds like two hearts talking to each other, doesn’t it? If it weren’t a metaphor, that kind of invitation would seem frightening because of the implications.  When we get through this, you’ll probably come to realize that that image is child’s play. The reality behind this type of conversation is not for the faint of heart. This is hardcore. Hero stuff. The kind of activity that requires you take a deep breath before you start. Wax on wax off.  If someone is inviting you to have a sit-down to talk, and mentions heart-to-heart, you’d better believe that they are looking for the most punk version of yourself, and they want the opportunity to be honest with you as well. Be prepared if you accept.  That’s someone looking for the real thing. Not everyone can offer that, and not all the time, and definitely, not to just anyone. The utopia of having everyone be as honest as possible might be appealing to some, but to others, it is a nightmare, especially if the person on the other side lacks the awareness and sensitivity to identify what messages are necessary and which are unnecessary and hurtful. I think these people tend to get off on reactions and shield themselves behind the overused I’m just saying it like it is.  I’m guessing the antidote is empathy, pertinence, consent, and context.  You know, underneath clothing, we are all naked; we don’t need to see all of each other all the time. But there is a valid point in there, somewhere. Remembering we’re all just naked can  go a long way to being gentler, keeping an appropriate distance, unless invited to shorten the distance.  Continue reading

    8 мин.
  2. 16.06.2025

    23. Good Vibrations and Excitations

    Hello, Welcome. I’m Renée Valentina, and this is Musing Interruptus. Listen to Musing Interruptus if you like stories and learning idiomatic phrases in different contexts. You can read along; just click on continue reading in the description to open a Google Doc with the transcription of this episode. The idiomatic expressions are in italics. Try to get the meaning from the context and then look them up to see if you were right. If you like it, subscribe, follow, and share, but more importantly, continue the conversation. Drop a comment with your answers to today’s questions! I love hearing from you!  It’s going by so quickly. Everyone says that. Everyone feels that.  We get reminded of it, like a swift, blunt kick to the head, every time someone we care about dies. How many times in my life have I had to say to myself, it’s over? A relationship, a person’s place in my life, a person’s life.   It's normal and natural. Last night I had some trouble sleeping. I was uneasy, and I kept wondering what it would be like to die. Can pain reach such a high level that it can kill you? Not yet. People die from other things. Diseases, accidents, old age, not pain, not directly. Some other ways we don’t need to bother mentioning. Someone passing can leave us with the feeling of being stranded at sea. A churning stomach, anguish, and melancholy. Stranded at high sea. I’ve been deep-sea fishing, and it is not only the nausea and the movement that never ends, it is a sensation of helplessness and vulnerability from being away from terra firma. Such as the helplessness when we are faced with a someoneless world.  Continue reading

    11 мин.
  3. 09.06.2025

    22. Gone Fishin'

    Hello, Welcome. I’m Renée Valentina and this is Musing Interruptus. Listen to Musing Interruptus if you like stories and learning idiomatic phrases in different contexts. You can read along; just click on continue reading in the description to open a Google Doc with the transcription of this episode. The idiomatic expressions are in italics. Try to get the meaning from the context and then look them up to see if you were right. If you like it, subscribe, follow, and share, but more importantly, continue the conversation. Drop a comment with your answers to today’s questions! I love hearing from you!  Gone Fishin’ There are many fish in the sea. How many is many? What does that imply? Will there be fish for me? What if I take my fishing rod, go out to sea, and catch nothing? Not even a sardine.  I’d feel terrible.  Plus, I get seasick, so that would make it a doubly terrible day.  Then again, what if a whale takes the bait? I’m not sure I’ll be able to reel that catch in. Whales are pretty big. I might need help.  It would probably be best if I didn’t catch a whale.  Why go fishing in the first place if I can only catch a certain type of fish? I might catch a mackerel or a tuna.  Catchable fish.  What if I like that particular fish? They might have a beautiful name or be excellent conversationalists. I’ll try not to think of it much. I’ll just go fishing.  I’ll hope for Pirates of the Caribbean but I imagine I’ll get something along the lines of Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea. At least there will be adventure.  I know we aren’t really talking about the sea or fish.  It’s about people and opportunities and platitudes. You might hear this when a relationship has not gone your way. You get your heart broken, and that means your friends will provide a list of platitudes that will do nothing, except maybe distract you for a moment. This is a very nice thing to have done for you when things are not going your way.

    7 мин.
  4. 02.06.2025

    21. Why Do It?

    Hello, Welcome. I’m Renée Valentina and this is Musing Interruptus. Listen to Musing Interruptus if you like stories and learning idiomatic phrases in different contexts. You can read along; just click on continue reading in the description to open a Google Doc with the transcription of this episode. The idiomatic expressions are in italics. Try to get the meaning from the context and then look them up to see if you were right. If you like it, subscribe, follow, and share, but more importantly, continue the conversation. Drop a comment with your answers to today’s questions! Inquiring minds want to know!  Why Do It? That’s a decent question. It begs to be asked and sometimes gets ignored.  How many things do we do on autopilot? Thankfully, there are many. That means you don’t have to remember.  Breathing, swallowing saliva (I forget how to do this sometimes, and cough up a storm). It still embarrasses me. There are many biological processes that happen on their own. They are called autonomic or homeostatic processes. I’m glad, because recently I’ve realized that I get more distracted than I used to. I leave little unfinished surprises around the house, a laundry basket with folded clothing that is half put away. Last Sunday, I uploaded an episode of Musing Interruptus to YouTube and then left the it in Spotify as a draft. How odd. That little surprise woke me at 4 am on Monday. One click later, I was back in bed and asleep. Odd. That must be an autonomic process, my body waking up if I don’t finish something, closing the process. I’m glad I don’t have to remember to breathe or tell my heart to pump.  Then there are the things one does because that is the way they have been done for a while. Breakfast time, how you butter your toast (if you still do that), the way you lace up your shoes, the place you part your hair and how many times you brush each tooth in the morning, after lunch, and before bed. Ok, sometimes I forget to brush after lunch. Have you noticed the way you towel yourself off after you take a shower? Do you ever wonder if you follow the same patterns as your parents when they wrapped the towel around you as a child? Being gentle is a tribute to their care. Things become a bit less automatic when it comes to our jobs. If you have a say in it, then you might work in something you like, that interests you, or maybe something you are passionate about. That isn’t always the case. Sometimes we do jobs that pay the bills, nothing more, nothing less. When asked, What is your dream job? Some people quite honestly say: I don’t dream about working.  Truth be told, it is difficult to find remunerated activities that cause high levels of emotional rewards. Difficult, but not impossible. Continue Reading

    7 мин.
  5. 18.05.2025

    19. Water Connoisseurs

    I loved watching TV when I was a kid, almost as much as I loved diving into my fantasy world. Sometimes, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on my dolls for their next dialogues and adventures. Whenever I write, I visit that place. Whenever I’m invited to play, even if it is just for a moment, I get transported there. That was the magic of teaching children for me. We played, and I had to oscillate between keeping the peace and being the guardian of the rules. Not as difficult at you might think. When I was in a classroom, my height helped. However, when I became a high school teacher. I went back to being short. It’s all relative, you know?  Teaching is a very safe place for me, I need it as much as my students need it. And I love that. (I’m glad you can’t see me as I write this. There’s blubbering.) Teaching is a love language and a huge responsibility. Sometimes we have the opportunity to make up for other teachers’ shortcomings, and I pray that other teachers are able to do the same for mine. I’ve been thinking a lot about this recently because a student talked about feeling safe. That made me think about all the mistakes I have made. I hate them. Mostly because I hope they didn’t affect my students. Teaching is an awesome responsibility.  Learning is not always easy. We have to face hurdles sometimes.  Hurdles like explaining that water, although considered tasteless and odorless, is not all the same. But wait. Isn’t it two hydrogens and one oxygen? I mean, that’s it, chemically speaking.  It’s true, but there is more truth than meets the eye.  So I’ll tell you a story https://tinyurl.com/mwk7psr2

    8 мин.

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A promise of a collection of short thoughts I would like to share for no good reason at all. Thank you for supporting Musing Interruptus, you can make contributions via PayPal https://tinyurl.com/59rkj3rv RSSVERIFY