Category: Gratitude

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What’s Worth Getting Dressed For? Stafford Challenge Day 48, SOLC Day 4

Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for building a network of writers worth getting dressed for!

It was that kind of morning here in rural Georgia. I’m an hour south of the world’s busiest airport, but believe me – – nothing was busy here in my small town this morning. Low 60s, overcast with a light mist, and my husband and his brother were installing a motion sensor light over their dad’s garage about a half mile across the Johnson Funny Farm where we all live ~ something that has been on their to-do list since Christmas, but things kept getting in the way. That’s why I didn’t bother getting dressed to be anywhere.

My 80-year old father, a retired minister, was preaching in my childhood church, so I was streaming him on YouTube, kicked back on the couch and flanked by three snoozing Schnoodles. I imagine if anyone was watching through a hidden camera, they’d have thought we’d had a Saturday night party and were still recovering, moving slowly if at all, still in our pajamas.

Actual photo of a Sunday morning sermon-snoozing Schnoodle (Fitz), flanked upside down on the couch cushions next to me

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Glenda Funk’s text came right as the service ended. She’d sent me a photo of her coffee mug a few minutes earlier, since my post was about my dogs on Sunday.

My text conversation with Glenda, who reminded me of the Slicer Meet-Up on Sunday

Thoughts of one particular Slicer Meet-Up came rushing back, the one where I was in California for the NCTE Convention and asked some random people on the street if they were going to the Slicer Meet-Up, and they stared at me like I was packing a blade before hastily walking off in the opposite direction.

I ran for the closet and threw my tousled hair up in a clip, setting a new personal record for putting on a bra and a shirt and looking alive. Boo Radley snuggled in on my shoulder as he usually does, and I took a deep breath and found the email reminder with the Zoom link from Stacey. Sure enough, there it was. I entered into a breakout room with Group 2: Sonia, Pia, and Glenda. We talked about our plan for writing through the month and how we were feeling, but we didn’t get to the part about what we wanted to get out of it. We were having too much fun chatting about the grace we give ourselves in making the timing of our writing and our reading work for us as we navigate the currents of writerhood.

After leaving the Breakout room, we shared our conversations and then had the opportunity to talk with another small group about these questions:

Questions from our Slicer Meet-Up Breakout room

I was in Group 1 with Kristen, Stacey, and Pia this time, and we talked about the way we choose the blogs we read and how we comment on them. Pia shared that she likes to consider the equity of comments; she looks for blogs needing comments, and those are the ones she reads. Kristen talked about managing her time with reading, writing, and commenting and is working on these parts of the Slicing Life right now, Stacey talked about the importance of first draft writing – to share organic slices of life and resist the urge to blog to perfection.

Seventeen Slicers shared an hour of conversation and getting to know each other, offering tips and sharing what has worked for us. Some like to set a timer, some read first to find the inspiration to write, some gravitate to those they know while visiting new bloggers, too, and some read for what we find we need that particular day. As we comment, we like to find connections and keep blogging conversational as we build relationships with other writers and feel the sense of belonging take root in this sacred space of writers all networking, encouraging and inspiring each other.

To Glenda, thank you for the text reminder since I had missed the email reminder. To Sonia, Pia, Glenda, Linda, Pia, Trish, Betsy, Carol, Kristen, Alice, Juliette, Barb, Cathleen, Stacey, Vanessa, and Amy, I want you to know that the hour I spent with you was most enjoyable. You are ALL worth getting dressed for, and I can’t wait to get to know all of this month’s Slicers better as we share our lives and inspire each other throughout this month!

Check out today’s homepage of Two Writing Teachers for a photo taken by Trish Emerson of Sunday’s Slicer Meet-Up Zoom attendees!

Slicer Meet-Up

Slicer
Meet-Up
sharing, inspiring, considering
writers encouraging each other
networking
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For I Will Consider My Schnoodle Ollie – The Stafford Challenge Day 47, Slice of Life Challenge Day 3

Special thanks to Two Writing Teachers for inspiring writers to write each day!

Several years ago, I led a poetry workshop for teachers in my district using Mary Oliver’s Dogsongs as our text, inviting participants to write mirror poems inspired by the late great poet. One of my favorite poems in this collection is For I Will Consider My Dog Percy, which she wrote about her own dog following the form of Christopher Smart in the 1700s in his poem Jubilate Agno, or For I will Consider My Cat Jeoffry.

L-R: Fitz, Ollie, and Boo Radley in February 2024

Over the years, we have adopted several rescues, and they appear frequently in my writing. They’re all named after favorite Literary figures. We have Boo Radley from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, because he was abandoned and found behind a door, an outcast of his original people. His rescue organization named him Einstein for his matted and untamed hair when he was found. I wrote a For I Will Consider poem about my Schnoodle, Boo Radley.

We also adopted a badly-abused (mostly Schnauzer, but some poodle) Schnoodle named Henry at the time, who had road rash and a broken leg that required surgery to save and eight weeks of intense physical therapy with his foster mom. We followed his journey back to health online, and prayed they would place him with us. When the news came, we eagerly met the foster mom and welcomed Henry into the fold, renaming him Fitz for F. Scott Fitzgerald, the party animal author. Turns out, he’d been correctly named as transcendental Henry David Thoreau, because he doesn’t party. Here is a poem I wrote about my Schnoodle, Fitz.

Which brings me to King. He was a young stray found on the streets of north Georgia, and he was supposed to be our girl. I’d put in a request with the rescue about a year prior to welcoming King, but the rescue called one day to let me know that they had a Schnoodle who met all the matching criteria as a good adoptee for us….except gender. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to meet this boy who needed a home but who had been turned down by two other families. It only took seconds. King was renamed Ollie for my favorite poet, Mary Oliver, and rode home with us that very day we’d hopped in the car for the 3 hour drive to meet him.

I’ve never written a For I Will Consider poem about Ollie, so today is the day especially set aside for my trophy dog we call the baby..

For I Will Consider My Schnoodle Ollie

For I will consider my schnoodle Ollie.

For he was a young stray running the streets, a real canine gangsta.

For he was named King like royalty, taken to a foster castle.

For he was rescued, brought to our Funny Farm with his one true love: a ball.

For he was renamed Ollie after Mary, who loved dogs through and through.

For he needs no bells and whistles when simple will do.

For he realized all too soon he had brothers vying for position. 

For he rejected all possibility of being low dog.

For he rose like a king to the throne.

For we call him the baby.

For he eats sheets.

For he listens for empty K-cup boxes to hit the floor....(for he eats those too).

For he bites ankles and eats Ada Limon poetry books.

For he places one paw on the head of his brothers (sibling annoyance tactic? or knighting?).

For there is no such thing as a quick pee when there are things to see.

For he "kicks" the ball with his nose like a gauntlet at our feet.  Throw, he commands.

For he catches popcorn mid-air.

For he fully belongs in our tribe.

For we whisper to him:  you're the best dog we've got.  

For he returns our love with royal full-face kisses.

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The Quarreling Songbirds – Stafford Challenge Day 40

Today’s poem is a Haiku, inspired by the footage on my Netvue bird camera. We always seems to find such joy in watching birds, but the truth is that they argue and antagonize each other as much as people. Perhaps we laugh because they help us see the humor in human nature and how ridiculous we look.

The Quarreling Songbirds

quarreling sparrows
bicker, spar over birdseed
like squabbling siblings
Chipping Sparrows spar for the Johnson Funny Farm Birdcam
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Redbird Greeting Haiku – Stafford Challenge Day 39

As our birds return in greater abundance making their way back from their winter in the south, I again find the deep peace of birdwatching on my front porch in the early hours of the day. It really should be called birdlistening, I’m convinced, as the sound leads the way to the sights. The breaking sunrise that shows up for work each day, combined with the gratefulness of birds singing praises, brings joy! 

Redbird Song

redbird song greeting

farm morning praise at sunrise

my mother is near

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Day 5 of February’s Open Write with Amber Harrison of Oklahoma, Day 36 of The Stafford Challenge

Ollie, tugging a stolen sock

Today’s host at http://www.ethicalela.com for Day 5 of the February Open Write is Amber Harrison of Oklahoma, who inspires writers to write a borrowed form poem using a fill-in-the-blank approach. You can read her prompt and the poems of others here.

Amber writes:

Today, I invite you to fill in the blanks in these lines by Whitman, or create and refill blanks of a stanza by another poet of your choice (this could be a time when you fill in the blanks expressively or reflectively in zine form):

I celebrate ________,

And what I _____ you ______, 

For every ____________________ me as good

___________________ you.

Original lines by Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself”

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,

And what I assume you shall assume,

For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

Boo Radley, Stolen Sock World Champion, taunting with those eyes
Stolen Socks

I celebrate stolen socks
And what I tug, you wrangle
For every muscle moved by me as good
as hackles you.
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Remembering Miriam on Her Heavenly Birthday – Stafford Challenge Day 34

Today’s host at http://www.ethicalela.com for the third day of February’s Open Write is Dr. Sarah Donovan, who inspires us to write poems that experiment with broken lines. You can read her prompt here, along with the poems of others.

I took the ghazal form today of 5 couplets with AA BA CA DA EA rhyme scheme and measured meter, reframed the whole form, relaxed the rules and broke the lines as I thought of my mother’s 81st birthday and the moments I’m so glad my camera captured before she left us in December 2015 with Parkinson’s disease. Above, she reads to her great grandson from The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss. 

Shaping Future Tense

when nothing else
made any sense

when family strangers
made you tense

your lap unfolded
picture books

that tore down 
every guarded fence

great grandson's 
heart and mind you shaped
each page
a moment so immense

your fingers curled
his eyes unfurled
his focus on you
so intense

when nothing else
made any sense
picture books
wrote future tense
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Buttons Acrostic – Stafford Challenge Day 29

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I was cleaning out a tub of sewing notions when my eyes were drawn to a trio of heart-shaped buttons that cost 70 cents a long time ago. My mother, a master seamstress, always had an ample supply of colors of threads, buttons, and laces for her next project. She made us matching dresses and taught me to sew when I was in elementary school, even though I never graduated to zippers, braking to a hard and fast stop at buttons. Today’s acrostic poem was inspired by these heart-shaped buttons, which I believe may have been destined to be sewn onto a Valentine’s Day top for me. Mom would have been 81 next week, and she still lives on in our memories.

Actual old buttons from my mother and grandmother’s age-spotted collection of notions

I Love Buttons

Because I wonder what
Unfinished dress, never-
Touched pattern, fabric-
To-be-imagined
Outfit
Never quite got
Sewn........
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Gratitude for Felix – Stafford Challenge Day 27

Tomorrow is my father’s birthday, and he’ll be celebrating eight decades of this journey. He loves his Schnoodle, Kona, and takes her to the dog park so that she can socialize with her friends while he socializes with his. Here he is, in the spirit of Valentine’s Day red, talking over the big dog/little dog fence to a fellow canine enthusiast. 

Happy Birthday, Felix! 

Father's birthday tomorrow, so
Everyone join me in wishing Felix a
Lovely day
In all his favorite
Xenial dog park conversations!