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Spring’s Promise

Spring’s Promise

“The spring came suddenly, bursting upon the world as a child bursts into a room, with a laugh, a shout, and a hand full of flowers.” # quote by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Bright blue skies, baby birds, and the budding of new flowers; a few of nature’s reminders that life is renewed  once again after the long days of winter. In the spring life expands and stretches in all directions. The earth is green with exuberance, and life creeps out from the places that have sheltered it, to hope again that good things will be their promise.

Spring is crazy good, filled with hope of the new, and resurrection.  New is glorious, new is wonderful, but new can be scary, a little disappointing, and confusing too. Life is bursting with hope and possibilities, uncertainties and no guarantees.

And like the new springing up around us, it  happens in our lives too.  Suddenly we can see. The landscape we’ve passed before without seeing, we hear the lyrics of hope in the songs of the birds, and waves of the sea. We find the joy in a single moment that renews us enough to face another of the challenges that life is sure to bring us, and we breathe.

Change – Butterflies – and Kitchen Drawers

“If nothing ever changed there’d be no butterflies.” (Unknown)

Being human is often tricky and challenging. Ann Lamott, describes life this way. “The greatness of love and laughter, the pain of loss, the bearing of one another’s burdens are all mixed up – like the crazy catch all kitchen drawer.” I know exactly what she is talking about. I have one of those drawers. I attempt from time to time to clean it out.  I try to separate the good stuff from the junk, but it all seems so important somehow. I have to sort through it often or it multiplies. It’s a constant for me, just like change is. Life is about change.

It is the butterfly that gives me hope that change can really work in my favor. With a little imagination and ingenuity, it is possible to see the changes that  life throws at me…all mixed up, and meshed together as they often are…can be a positive, even when they seem to be a negative.  I change my hair style for a new look. I exercise to help my body. (It works in theory but sometimes I wonder.) So why not change the heart of me?

Like I sort through that junk drawer so it doesn’t take over another one, I also have to see the value found in all of the experiences of  my life. For all of them, the happy ones, the sad,  the good and the not so good, are woven together into the tapestry of who I am. They make me, me. I just want to be the best version of me that I can be.

 

 

#Daydreaming #Creativity #Writing

#Daydreaming #Creativity #Writing

Research has show that daydreaming can help creativity. (I smile) I knew it all along! All the daydreaming I did over the years was really good for me. My mother used to get exasperated with me, my teachers tried their best to call me be back to earth, and in general people didn’t get it, but I did.

Today was one of those days that worked in harmony. A day when daydreams and the incubation of ideas came together, and made for a great day of writing. Another chapter in my novel fell into place with one chapter flowing into the next with a few cool surprises tucked inside. (I smile again)

To me the hours spent in writing are therapy, without the high price. I can explore the complex cause and effects of human actions, all while sitting at my desk. I can create a world as I see it, or want it to be,  right in my own imagination.

As Julia Alvarez said: “A novel is, not after all a historical document but a way to travel through the human heart.” Here’s to enjoying the trip!

 

 

Flying No Wings Needed

“For those determined to fly having no wings is just a little detail.” Jane Lee London

It’s way too easy to play it safe in life. To stay at a job we don’t like, to never move far away from where we are born, or to never branch out and try something new. Is it the fear of failure, the comfort of the familiar, or maybe both that keeps us locked into surviving instead of thriving?

I can remember the first time I flew in a plane. I was both nervous and excited when the plane began to taxi down the runway. I held the seat with both hands until the plane finished its climb to cruising altitude. I relaxed a little but was still jumpy with any new noise that I heard. Coming down out of the clouds evoked the feeling of falling and I was nervous all over again. I still feel that way every time that I fly.

I wrote a novel. And with fluttering and nerves I queried publishers. I left the safety of the familiar and launched out not knowing what I would find. My first novel will soon be published by The Wild Rose Press. I’m now in the process of writing my third novel. My second is in their hands for review.

For me writing fiction was my way to break out of the routine of life and fly. My lack of wings was only a minor detail. I have experienced so many firsts with my characters, I’ve explored new areas, and learned new things all in the name of writing.

“I write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters I am not. I write to explore all of the things I’m afraid of.” (Joss Whedon) I can say yes to all of these.

I love the way my fingers feel flying over the keys while characters dialogue and they come to life on the page. Writing fiction has given me wings to soar and see life in a whole new way. Here’s to flying, and thriving.

Leap of Faith

“By leaving behind the familiar and taking a leap of faith into something new, you find who you are truly capable of becoming.” Unknown

In the height of the great recession I lost my job and so did my husband. He had to go on the road and was gone for about ten months.  Being apart  was something we had never experienced before. Not only had we been married many years, raised our three boys, but we had also worked side by side in the same office. It was not an easy time for us.

I took the leap of faith spoken of  in the quote above. I signed up for a writing class which I had to test for. It was completely opposite of what I had been doing, which included being with people and speaking publically. I wasn’t sure if it was even possible for me to sit in a room alone and write. I was so used to being among people.

During the process of the class I discovered I loved writing fiction. I would get lost in the writing of a story but at the same time I found myself on every page that I wrote. I was being reinvented along with the story that I was writing.

I discovered I was capable of more than I could imagine. I wrote a novel which is soon to be published. And since the first, I’ve finished a second novel with a third book more than 1/3 of the way done. Writing fiction has given me wings to fly. What seemed like the end with the slamming of a door, and a leap of faith into the unknown, I found a side of me that I  never knew existed. I love this new phase in my life which allows my creative side to exert it’s self. My imagination has been set free, and I am at a new place in my life.

Here’s to taking that leap away from the familiar into a new way to be.