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Inspirations

“Let’s sit in the grass in the shade, over there on the hill, across the way.” She sighed, looked around and reminded herself that no one was with her. She had gotten accustomed to talking to her boyfriend Ian, during their daily walks. Then later–after– she talked to him in her head, and sometimes, like today, she spoke to him aloud. She paused, noticing the slowly swaying leaves from the gentle breeze, heard the whispering and faintly she thought she heard Ian say, “that’s a good idea”.

She smiled to herself as she took a seat in the plush green campus grass. It wasn’t often she could hear his voice, it took effort on her part–it had been three months since she’d spoken to him. She finished her muffin. She tipped her bottle and let the water swirl in her mouth before taking in more.

Today was going to be a long day and she needed to stay hydrated. Not only did she need to keep her routine, but she needed to continue to pretend that she didn’t know what happened to Ian and she needed it to be believable. Today was an important day.

**I decided to do a writing exercise today and begin a story with a small inspiration. I was told I sounded “poetic” recently (the first line is my personal verbage) and I found this cool, as I normally consider my writing much less awkward than my speaking.

Books read this week: Radium Girls by Kate Moore, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston.

Quote: The closed doors and rejections you encounter in your path do not decide your fate. They simply redirect your course. You must keep moving because life’s detours can also be meaningful.

Finding Peace.
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My Blog Break

Coming out of my blog break makes me realize there is a connection between writing in my blog and working a “real” job. It appears that one does not go well with the other. Many changes have occurred during the break–with the most challenging being in the last six months (relocation, COVID, graduation, college transfer, job hunting, etc, etc).

My most impactful change was the death of my mom. She brought a brightness and joy to my life that I miss daily and monumentally. I cherish the memories that live in my heart and reveal themselves in the shimmering of the sun, in the whispers in the wind, in the sparkles of the stars, in the coolness of the rain, in the beauty of the birds and animals and in the greens of nature. She was a true nature lover and I am blessed to have her gift. I will likely be including more nature in my writings. Though my mom admitted, she did not enjoy reading books, she did like to hear about my blog, excerpts of my stories and gave me words of encouragement to continue this journey. I could relate to her as she was also a vivid dreamer and story teller.

Here are some general updates on my writing life. My musings did continue in the non-blog formats. I have several scrawlings in pretty little notebooks, ugly little notebooks and in many, many saved word documents. I have even typed story segments and ideas into the notes on my phone. I continued to write Medicine City and did finish it–although in my opinion, it was not my greatest writing. I have not pursued editing. I also took part in “The International 3 Day Novel Writing Contest” in 2018 and did make the Long List with a book called “The Dream Catcher”. For those of you that know me, I am a vivid dreamer and there is a lot of dream content in this fantasy fiction story. Who knows, maybe I’ll edit that little gem and try and send it off to the publishing guru’s. Honestly the book is a blur–that was quite an experience to write a novel in three days– several hours in, I had doubts, but I persevered to made it happen and was able to say “The End”–and yes, it was a happy ending. I have more ideas in mind, but have learned to let the stories simmer and when they start to boil I will do something with them.

In wrapping this up, I will leave you with this. As the girls go off to college and I have an “empty nest”, I hope to blog more. I hope to include writings about life, nature, art, food, stress management, explorations and adventures–but I also hope to include my little escapes and breaks from reality and give you glimpses into my storytelling. I am trying some new things with this blog and redesigning this site. I have been trying to pray and lean on God to give me faith, hope and peace and I know that this is why he has me back to blogging and I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I enjoyed creating it.

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Sunflower Sunday #1

My dear little  sister gifted me a children’s book today.  As she handed it over with a smile and a twinkle in her eye, she said “You may see as you read that there is some deeper meaning”.  For those of you that know what our family is going through (moving), this will make sense; so here is an excerpt from a lovely little Scholastic book called Sunflower House by Eve Bunting.

There’s still the puffy middle part

that’s filled with seeds, enough to start

another sunflower house next spring,

with walls, a roof, and everything.

It’s neat to think when something’s gone

a part of it goes on and on.

It’s such a super-duper plan!

We pick out all the seeds we can.

Thank you author Eve Bunting, and thank you to my sister for finding this treasure of a book!!

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A Two Sided Mirror

I feel like someone just turned a light on in my head and now I can finally see.   At first I thought writing a blog was like taking dance lessons.  I practice, when I become good enough and something profound occurred, then I perform by writing in my blog.  

Then I realized that blogging is like looking into a two-sided mirror with others watching me.  Wow, do I know how the kids at dance feel now, knowing the parents are watching, yet not being able to see any of the expressions on their faces.  Having been one of those parents, I can say that most parents love to watch their children, they encourage them and really want them to succeed.  I think that those on the other side of my two-sided mirror are like parents at a dance class and are cheering me on in this crazy adventure.  

There are those children that take dance because they long for the big show, their time to shine, while others are in it because they feel the music, love the way it resonates through their body, but do not like to really show it off.   Thus far, I am this kind of writer.  I love the craft, have a passion for organizing my thoughts into lovely and poetic form, but do not always feel the need to share.  I realize that true growth in this area requires me to at least perform a bit and see if others would be interested in coming back for more.