I Want A Cowgirl Hat

Spring cleaning is a four season project; sorting through, giving away, re-cycling, tossing. 


Occasionally, I find a treasure like Claire's Christmas letter to Santa, circa 2003? She dictated it to her Dad, then drew illustrations just in case...


Claire wants for Christmas please:


1. Mickey Mouse doll that's Mickey Mouse
2. Horse for Real Life.
3. The book, Red Riding Hood
4. Stuffed Green star
5. Pretty pillow for Claire's bed
6 Frosty the Snowman book
7. I want a cowgirl hat


She got everything on her wish list except for #2. 


I want a cowgirl hat.


Make a simple clear list about anything in your life.


Write. Draw.


Put it down in black and white.


or crayon?


see what happens.

Very Quiet

Your breath should be light, even and flowing, like a stream of water running through the sand. Your breath should be very quiet, so quiet that a person sitting next to you cannot hear it. Your breathing should flow gracefully, like a river, like a water snake crossing the water, and not like a chain of rugged mountains or the gallop of a horse. To master our breath is to be in control of our bodies and minds. Each time we find ourselves depressed and find it difficult to gain control of ourselves by different means, the method of watching the breath should always be used.


- Thich Nhat Hanh

Light Spirits

Last night, I taught a Scratching On Paper writing workshop at our local library. Taught doesn't feel quite right. Shared some thoughts on writing sounds better. I shared. We wrote. Some people read aloud. We listened. It was a good crowd. I wanted to make eye contact with everyone but a big post dissected the room so I walked from side to side, like in a tennis match. I wanted to hear everyone's pieces too. But there were too many of us for that. We would've had to have a sleep-over to hear everyone read.


Making eye contact and listening to everyone is not easy to do. 


I try hard.


But I am circling my writing in this moment. What I want to say is how great it was that so many people came out with notebooks and pens to write under the white fluorescent lights. 


There was Hu (without the gh) in his suit and bow tie. Iretha with an I, not an A, in her black and white dress. Larry. Mike. Denise.Yvonne. Donna. Mary and her daughter, Lisa. Tom and Rosemary - to name a few.


"Do you ever get stuck, frozen with your pen hovering over the page? What do you do about that?" Dale asked.
"Write I don't know what to write, I don't know what to write until something pops up. Even if you have to fill three pages. It's okay. You'll get un-frozen," I said.


I came home wiped out from all the adrenaline coursing through my veins. Speaking to large groups does this. It's a huge rush. But afterwards, I'm completely spent. Sometimes, later, comes the analysis, the going over. Small mind (aka EGO) steps in and wants to have a few words with me. Share a few pointers about how to do it better next time.


We wrote about our critics last night. Mine is always changing. Last night, she showed up on the paper as Jean. Jean was my grandmother's name. My cousin's too. It's a beautiful name. Two beautiful women. Why Jean? I don't know.


Jean is petite, wears a push-up underwire bra, has very straight white teeth. She follows me around the house, plumping pillows, pushing in kitchen chairs, re-folding dish towels.


When I sit down at my computer, she sighs, loudly. And then bends over to straighten the fringe on the carpet. Jean is forever straightening the fringe on the carpet.


Fortunately, Jean doesn't come around as much anymore.


That's what I wrote last night. That she doesn't come around much anymore. But she's been around most of today, straightening and folding and nipping at my heels. Whispering about how I could have done things differently, maybe not rushed so much at the end.


Even after I received the loveliest emails from participants thanking me for the evening, you are a light spirit. you lifted mine. thanks, for some reason I am letting Jean get the best of me today. 


It's all so tender, this being human. And writing is so vulnerable, even if it never sees the light of day. Here's to the writers who came out last night to sit under the bright lights and write in community.


Thank you.


You are light spirits. You lifted mine.

Gloriousity

"Gosh, aren't the daffodils stunning, Dad?"


"Gloriousity," he said.


word for the day: gloriousity

Good With My Time Here

Sam was out running with her dog when she came upon a small tree that had fallen across the path. When she moved the tree, a sudden terrible pain pierced her chest. Somehow she managed to get home to her husband and three children. That same day, she had emergency triple by-pass heart surgery.


When I heard the news, I damn near fell to my knees. 

How could this happen? 
She's young, fit, forty. 
It happened.

I was lucky and this was a freak thing, she wrote in an email. I still have "lots of livin' to do" (to quote Bye Bye Birdie)! I will value that and be good with my time here.


Sam is very lucky and very brave.


Just for today, let's feel very lucky (and very brave) too.  


Repeat after me:


I will be good with my time here
I will be good with my time here.
I will be good with my time here.

The Swimming Lesson

It's called the doggy paddle, Chewy.

Within Ourselves

Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise
From outward things, what'er you may believe.
   There is an inmost center in us all,
      Where truth abides in fullness.


- Robert Browning