It’s almost a week until the official US day of Thanksgiving. I’ve started early! When I was a kid, we drove, hours and hours and hours, to Grandmother’s house for Thanksgiving. I’ve actually caught myself humming along with our tune for today. Also because I’ve been thinking again about the notion that anxiety lives either in the past or the future, while, in the present moment we are, by many perspectives, all right. I’m trying to stay present in this moment. (Not turning on the news helps!)
Category: Contemplations
Writing is a lot like quilting!
It’s been pretty busy around here, lately. A book launch Thursday. Another coming up the day before Thanksgiving! (Details to follow…)
I scribble endlessly on index cards. Sort. Cross out. Number. Pitch. Repeat, just as endlessly. More things keep coming to mind. More things that really belong in the second edition of Grandmothers Are In Charge of Hope.
It reminds me of collecting fabrics for a quilt. Which fit? Which don’t? What will it take to make a particular favorite play along? Scraps. Fat quarters. Sometimes whole yards (or more!) of things I really love. Typography prints. Spiced with deep purples and oranges and a sprinkle of lime green. I can literally feel it in my body when it’s right.
Here. Now. Actual change.
One of the things that never showed up in all my fantasies about being a “published author” was the part about (Dare I say it?) “marketing”! The visions in my head were all about tea in lovely china cups and cozy windowseats full of pillows or even, for you Betsy & Tacy fans, an old trunk that served as a great desk in the days when sitting on the floor was more of an option that it seems like after six knee surgeries!
Well, as the old saying goes, “Elvis isn’t cutting records anymore,” and if you want people to actually, you know, use what you write to make their corner of the world a bit better, marketing is involved! All of which led me to sign up for a webinar this week that simultaneously frustrated the be-jeebers out of me and gave me a cool new thought to contemplate. (Or at least a more immediate awareness of an old thought I’d encountered before!)
Grandmothers Lament
All over the world, children are crying.
Bleeding children in Syria.
Hurricane victims in Haiti.
Poisoned children in Michigan and the Dakotas and too many places to count.
All over the world, children are crying.
Children robbed of their families by gun violence.
Children robbed of their futures by disease.
Children robbed of their health by toxins everywhere.
All over the world, children are crying.
How do we shut out their cries?
How do we not act?
Are we heartless?
Shining A Light On The Path
Most of you probably remember the TV sitcom, Mad About You, starring Helen Hunt as Jamie and Paul Reiser as Paul. In my all time favorite episode, Jamie and Paul were getting ready for bed after a visit from her parents. “How come my family can always push all my buttons?” Jamie asked. “Because they installed them,” Paul replied.
Mic drop!
Over 30 years of working with families tell me just how true that is. (You already knew that, too!) There are a couple of other things that are true, as well. One of them is that others can push our buttons, too. Especially public figures.
Safely Held and Soothed
Not too long ago, Bill went on a mercy mission on my behalf. Life was getting busier and busier. There were more and more things to keep track of. I needed a bigger picture view than the calendar on my phone provided. I needed a paper calendar. A big one!
I was hoping for Newfies. Or quilts. Trees. Owls. I was feeling pretty open-minded. It wasn’t really calendar-buying season at the time, so Bill returned with some rather sappy artwork which wasn’t quite what I would have chosen but it had nice big squares to write in. I was in business! (We’ll leave for another day the complications of having two different calendars.)
I have a plan!
Gerri Ravyn Stanfield is a writing buddy of mine. A couple of days ago, in the midst of all the responses to the extreme testosterone poisoned abuse from the GOP candidate for President, she posted something on Facebook that’s had me thinking ever since.
“If Trump gets elected,” Gerri said, “I’m moving to Narnia!”
Jackpot! I’ve been pondering this issue for quite some time, now. Hence my reply, “Narnia is definitely the answer!”
And then, a bit of back and forth later, me again. “I may move there regardless of who wins!”
It’s tempting! Bill thought it was a pretty good idea. Our resident Newfie rescues, Sarah and Phoebe, are fine with it as long as they get to go, too. No more abandonment for them! We would need a more dependable way to visit than the back of the wardrobe. I’d miss my girls!
This morning, I woke with another voice in my head. But first, a bit of context for the uninitiated.