A week ago, Lainie Levin posted an announcement that I wish could be reposted every day. Below, she states that engaging with others is the single most powerful thing that builds community during this challenge.
I emailed her immediately to ask if I could repost this announcement. She readily agreed.
Which brings me to a connection that stopped me in my tracks. I was having a conversation with the Poetry Fox as we were working out the details of his visit to Georgia from North Carolina. I asked him to describe what his events look like, and he told me that he sits at his typewriter and writes on-demand poetry for people who give him a word. He said, “And really, it’s not even about the poem. It’s about the connections I make and the people I get to meet. Those moments of connecting with someone are what it’s all about.”
I’ve thought about this again and again as I have returned to the conversation and the blog announcement and reflected on the power of connection. This community would be nothing without it. I realize that when I wake up during March and get to open the blogging windows and drink my coffee with an entire community and we’re all talking to each other about the slices of our lives and what is happening, there is power in these moments. We may all be tired and worn thin some days, but I know things about you – the people in my community – and I know many of your family members and how you spend time.
I know Paul likes to cook and actually likes Brussels sprouts (I thought I was the only one), Glenda likes to travel and has a voracious appetite for adventure (and will be having quite an adventure today – – I won’t spoil her surprise, but be on the lookout for something uniquely and colorfully …..uplifting)! Denise hikes in the desert and has a stargazer window in her house, Fran watches birds and is teaching her little granddaughters to love them too, Maureen also has two young granddaughters who love music and art and the outdoors, Peter is beginning to grieve the loss of a loved one and many of us are keeping his family close in our thoughts, Barb loves poetry slams and art exhibits and spending time outdoors, Sally checks in on her mom and has a granddaughter with new shoes, Margaret lives on the bayou and has the cutest ducks that jump into the water on jump day, and Joanne loves flowers and gardening. And I’m getting to know each of you, too!
Even though we all live in different places across the nation and beyond, I imagine a high rise brick apartment building where we’re all sitting in an open window chatting, waving, greeting each other at the start of the day, and smiling, rather like we might look from windows on the cover of the New Yorker if someone illustrated all of us in one drawing. We’d see floral window boxes for the green thumbs, cats and dogs with the animal lovers, and food cooking on the stoves of the culinary artists. We’d see children playing with grandmothers and, in a Paul Fleishman Seedfolks-ish kind of way, we’d all be connecting, contributing in beautiful ways to the community vegetable garden and sharing what we have to share, helping as we can, reaching out as we have needs that others can help meet.
Connection. Conversation. Sharing. Caring, Responding in kindness. Giving. Living.
Because that’s what community and connection are all about, and it’s also what writing is about – – reaching the next person. Not the word choice, not the capitalization of proper nouns, and not the run-on sentences (which, like Brussels sprouts, I love, by the way).
Thank you for these marathon days in March where we build our own neighborhood, and the Tuesdays throughout the year where we keep in touch! And to the owners of the Slice of Life apartment building for letting us move in for a month, rent-free, a huge debt of gratitude is owed for all of your hard work in keeping the lights on and the water running.
You each make a difference!
Slice of Life Challenge
Slice of Life Challenge
community connections:
open your windows!
pour a cup of tea
share family recipes
show trip photographs
compare hobby notes
reveal hopes and dreams
share fears and shed tears
open your windows!
connect with fellow writers
plant seeds. water them.
Common Threads 
Thanks Kim, for this lovely post! I really understand where you are coming from! I actually feel I know quite a few of the slicers better than I know some of the folk around me. I just wish you weren’t all so far away! Thanks for reminding us of Lainie’s post too.
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Thank you, Celia!
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“Because that’s what community and connection are all about, and it’s also what writing is about – – reaching the next person.” This is my favorite line of this wonderful slice because, for me, it captures the essence of writing. SOL is an incredible forum. We begin with the common interests of writing and teaching and build from there. Over the years, I’ve come to view many of you as friends. I cherish your work, your encouraging comments and the unique parts of yourselves you so willingly share. I love the metaphor of an apartment house, Kim. I, too, am grateful that the owners let us move in rent-free for a month. Thanks for this beautiful slice.
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Thank you , Rita!
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Ahhh, Kim! Waaaah! I’m here blubbering from your precious prose and perfect poetry. This is just beautiful. And yes, thank you to the Slice of Life organizers for this sweet space to share. I laughed at the reminder that writing is about the connections we make with people “Not the word choice, not the capitalization of proper nouns, and not the run-on sentences (which, like Brussels sprouts, I love, by the way).”
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Thank you, Denise!
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“plant seeds. water them.” yes, what a perfect line to show the power of communicating in a special supportive place. I adore your post today and am thankful I have had the opportunity to get to know you here and through Ethical ELA’s Verse Love and Open Write. You’re a wonderful person who loves dogs, camping, and creating special poetry events for others. I feel blessed, Kim. Thank you!
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Thank you, Barb! I appreciate your kind words so much and I feel blessed!
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Kim, this slice is a gift to all of us; thank you so much. It is so dear. I love your idea, “I imagine a high rise brick apartment building where we’re all sitting in an open window chatting, waving, greeting each other at the start of the day” – and I immediately thought back to picture books by Ezra Jack Keats, and how they were one big connected community of characters, also living in a building together. I am also thinking of Oge Mora’s “Everybody in the Red Brick Building”…I am having so much fun connecting with everyone through our writing.
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Thank you, Maureen!
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Kim – so beautifully written, this wellspring from your heart. Connections ARE everything. Writing has a unique way of connecting humans to each other…and…I’ve said it before, I’ll say again…story ties us together by our heartstrings, as you illustrate here so perfectly. Then there’s poetry – a unique form of magic, the awe-spark that reminds us that great wonder lies in even the simplest of things – this is why Poetry Fox excels. He knows. And he shares his gift for the benefit of others. I once read a definition of ”awe” which said it makes you more altruistic. It’s true. The key is in the sharing. Here in our challenge, the thing that keeps it running are the comments, the mutual giving and receiving …that’s the fuel, the connection. You and your words are a gift, my friend. I treasure my writing-community connections.
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Thank you, Fran!
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Kim,
I love the apartment building neighborhood metaphor and am honored to share the stoop w/ you. You know how I feel about reciprocation and connection in this community. You honor that idea w/ your words. I often think about how I’ll write my life these days and how those in this neighborhood will receive my words.
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Thank you, Glenda!
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