I’ve spent a whole lot of time flinging red ink around the world.
It’s often called editing and, back in the dark ages, when I began doing that sort of thing, we really did use red ink.
It all began with yearbook staff when I was in high school. I got named head of the grammar police!
I don’t know why I’m good at it. I just am. And that may be helped along by the fact that my brain hears what my eyes read!
So, I’ve needed a good bit of virtual red ink this week. Here’s what happened…
A week or so ago I had a conversation with a paint sister. One thing led to another, as things often do, and I ended up agreeing to shake an idea out of my head and into a form that could be shared. With more people.
Gulp!!!
That meant fluffing some not-quite-current things here on the website. Which meant adding a recent book title and replacing a couple of photos, and the kinds of really tech-y things for which I need – and am blessed to have – serious help.
And, while all that was going on, I was wrestling with a painting. Flow Nouveau!
I spent much of my weekend flow-ing. And it was fun. Except for the part where the next right thing totally didn’t work for me! A couple of times!!!
All of which made it kind of a miracle that I got any sleep at all.
Then, Grandmother Moon showed up early this morning, to help. (And, yes… I was getting nervous!)
Along with the usual whispering in my ear, she left a story under my pillow. And, oddly for me, a glimpse of an image in my head. A glimpse of the next right thing for my painting.
Story first!
My son is mostly colorblind, which I didn’t know until he was about eight!
The new eye doc with the fancy kiddie-cartoon tools figured it out and a whole lot of things made more sense.
One of those things has kind of taken up residence in my head. It has to do with Dave’s first grade teacher. You see, Dave made lots of marks in the way the world refers to as backwards.
Math was a struggle. I asked for a meeting with his teacher.
I tried really hard to explain that when he made numbers backwards it didn’t mean his answer to the math problem was wrong!
I begged her to use a color other than red to re-draw the number in the more usual left-to-right fashion.
And, yes… it was about two years later before I learned he was colorblind. Which gave both of us more information for learning!
I even tried editing my work in other colors for a while, but my brain understands “fix stuff in red” so I mark my paper stuff up that way. Still! Also, some of the professional projects I help with. Book drafts and such.
I did a bunch of red ink stuff this morning and things are way better. So much so that I pushed the button and sent the thing and set up a meeting. (I’ll keep you posted!!!)
Then, I took advantage of that rare inner glimpse of an image
And I spent a bunch of my day helping my painting make its way back much closer to where it was when I fell in love with it. It wasn’t that I did it wrong. I just didn’t know where I was headed!
There’s more to do… fixing the fixing, if you will. And then a few finishing steps I didn’t quite make it through, before. Kind of like the undo button!
It FEELS so much better, already…
If you squint a bit, you may notice that the paint – much of it red – is still wet.
And I have huge hope!
ps… these days I think of red ink – and red paint – as symbols for the red yarn which connects us with all those who will be important in our lives, if we’re willing!
pps… there’s one more thing I’m done editing! It’s the first thing you’ll find when you click here and it’s really, really cool!!! Go for it…………………… (The other stuff is really cool, too!)
