My friend Margaret Simon shared Georgia Heard’s Substack with me, and I love reading about her travels and writing experiences – and her book recommendations.
I love that she offers writing calendars that work for both children and adults. Here is her February Valentine Mini Writing Calendar, inspiring us to fall in love with the everyday. Join me with a journal and a pen – and fall in love with the living!
Day 4 asks us to fall in love with love with something living: a tree, a spider, a dog, a person, and then to describe it with care. I’ve been house hunting in the place where I plan to retire, and watching carefully for signs of just the right vibe. My brother reminds me: You’ll know it when you find it. I chose a sign along the way ~ a friendly daffodil ~ and wrote a shape poem, also known as a concrete poem.
My friend Margaret Simon shared Georgia Heard’s Substack with me, and I love reading about her travels and writing experiences – and her book recommendations. A couple of months ago, she was reading The Salt Stones: Seasons of a Shepherd’s Life, recommended it on her post, and I picked it up and loved every page of it. You can see her posts here. I think what I love most about her book recommendations is that they are journey-related and not necessarily bestsellers that everyone would naturally pick up and read. I like books that take me down back roads, and she does a splendid job of this.
I love that she offers writing calendars that work for both children and adults. Here is her February Valentine Mini Writing Calendar, inspiring us to fall in love with the everyday. I’ll be starting this today and walking with Georgia through the week. Join me with a journal and a pen!
Day 2 asks us to fall in love with love with a sound: birdsong, traffic, a voice, silence…..and to share what touched our hearts.
My friend Margaret Simon who blogs at Reflections on the Teche shared Georgia Heard’s Substack with me, and I love reading about Georgia’s travels and writing experiences – and her book recommendations. A couple of months ago, she shared that she was reading The Salt Stones: Seasons of a Shepherd’s Life, and recommended it on her post. I picked it up and loved every page of it. I think what I enjoy most about her book recommendations is that they are journey-related and not necessarily bestsellers that everyone would naturally pick up and read. I like books that take me down back roads, and she does a splendid job of sharing sacred places, both inward and outward.
Georgia Heard offers writing calendars that work for both children and adults. Here is her February Valentine Mini Writing Calendar, inspiring us to fall in love with the everyday. I’ll be starting this today and walking with Georgia through the week. Join me with a journal and a pen!
Day 1 asks us to fall in love with love with something ordinary: the sky, a pencil, a crack in the sidewalk, and to write a few lines about what we noticed.
Rabbit, rabbit! It’s the first day of February, and here we are almost to Groundhog Day again, about to hang all our faith and hope in a soothsaying rodent. It’s 15 degrees here and feels like 3, and I’m not sure whether to wish for more chances of snow for mid-week reading or hope for the greeting of the roadside daffodils.
One type of poem I’ve been writing since last year is a gift basket poem – – what would I give a recipient in any given month of the year? For February, the choice is clear: it’ll be filled with oatmeal colors to help keep you warm.Â
If I were giving you a gift basket I’d go with oatmeal tones
This cold weather has my memories of Alaska swirling like magic-dust snowflakes of wanderlust. I’ve been there twice, both times on cruises – so even though I tasted none of the “local” flavors of the non-touristy places in the nation’s largest state that was anything but a folly, both times I’ve indulged in that spectacular smoked sockeye salmon that is sliced thin and served with eggs, capers, lox and bagels. We’d go to brunch, and they’d serve it as an early tea time with breakfast for late risers being more of a light lunch.
The cold weather brought the memories, but the threat of power outages last week brought shopping for things we could eat with minimal preparation. I found a good brand in Publix over in Peachtree City and gave thanks for the fish, imagining it swimming upstream to spawn, trying to avoid the fish-spearing claws of grizzly bears out there standing on those shallow rocks as ribbons of fresh red fish flitter past their feet. The one I was holding made it back home to do its one last thing before ending up in a sliced and packaged fillet.
I always boil all of our eggs prior to a winter storm. We’ve discovered that they keep fine in a cooler on the back porch and can feed us for days on end. And when we put a little sliver of salmon on top, it’s just the ticket for an Alaskan meal right here at home in middle Georgia!
This company also publishes “Write The Poem” which I will also share in an upcoming blog post
I was browsing through our local used bookstore on a lunch break last week when, on my way out the door, a book caught my eye. Its title, Write the Story, glimmered in gold lettering down the spine, as if to plead: Hey, over here! See my sparkle? Take me home with you!
Already reaching for the doorknob, I changed course and went back to check it out. I expected a how-to on the writing process. Instead, I discovered the hidden treasure of a delightful writing challenge. Each page bore a titled topic with ten pre-determined (seemingly random) words to be used in the writing of a story.
The pages appeared to be blank except for one on which someone had penciled a story to satisfy one singular challenge and apparently moved on with life, abandoning the book and donating it to the bookstore, where it now rested in my hands. Treasure, indeed!
Poems to be written. Winter seeds of poetry, all scattered between the covers of one book. Destined for me, cast off like a stray no one else wanted, knowing all the while that a cultivator of words and writing would be most likely to pick it up, fall in love with it, take it home, and feed it.
I bought it and realized that other members of my small-group Stafford Challenge writers must have a copy. When we commit to writing a poem a day for a year, we all need a little prompting from time to time when the well runs dry or life gets too busy to think deeply like a poet. Once back inside the car, I turned on the heat and warmed up. I ordered three more copies online from the parking lot to send to Glenda Funk, Barb Edler, and Denise Krebs upon their arrival. Then I took a few snapshots to send them in the mean time.
Today’s title: In the Middle of a Long, Cold Winter
concluding a futuristic opera treading frozen spring water
winter cleanses our lungs
razor-sharp alveoli icicles fall sun breaks out in a crescendo of seasonal transition melting the white powder milkshake from the mountainside grace of its forgiving kiss beckoning crocus, groundhog-like peepers stretching up through frozen ground ready to crawl out of bed emerge from quilted slumber shed their corm-sewn bud vests and sing a new song
Happy birthday to my first-born child today! She’s a kid at heart, and she loves to read. When she was little, we’d pile up on blankets or beds for book picnics – – she, her sister and I would do nothing but read all day long while the boys were out fishing. Last year, she read 144 books, stomping my 20 down to a pancake compared to her skyscraper. She still calls them her “chapter books.” Today, instead of raising a glass to my daughter, I open a book. It’s what we do best in our DNA.
One minute we’re expecting snow along with the ice storm of the century, but the next it’ll be 75 degrees and sunny. There’s a chance of snowfall, ranging anywhere from 0″ to 145.” I’ve heard it all this week, and I guess it’s safe to say we’ve prepared for all or nothing, just as they’ve said: prepare for the worst, hope for the best. And The Weather Channel is the best place to find a time loop where you live the same ten minutes on repeat. It may well be the portal for time travelers to take a jaunt in time somewhere far more stable than here.
I’m not sure what I’d take with me, but no matter where I am, all I really need are books, dogs, a comfy chair and a cup of coffee. My TBR stack is taller than I am, and I keep reading blog after blog after blog. This morning, Tom Ryan’s Substack featured the most joyful photos I’ve seen all year ~ his dog Emily (Samwise in the background) leaping for joy. He and his two dogs have just move to Cape Cod from the White Mountains of New Hampshire and are walking the woods where Mary Oliver wrote much of her poetry.
Today will be a day of quiet, peaceful living here on the Johnson Funny Farm an hour south of Atlanta’s Hartsfield Airport, right on the flight path where we use our Flight Tracker app to check where all the planes have left and where there going. Fun times. Quiet: at least, that’s what’s planned, but things can go sideways here pretty fast. Fifteen times in the past five minutes, there have been earth-shaking gunshots out here in the deep rural country ~ deer? ducks? Who knows? The important thing is that the dogs are here tucked safely in our bed, the gas logs have plenty of propane, we’re stocked up on candles and have 12 pouches of tuna, a dozen boiled eggs, and cheese and crackers. And instant coffee.
Let the reading commence! Wherever this day finds you, even if your power goes out, I hope you stay warm and cozy.
the book is better
than any movie ever
our own minds film scenes
pennies, nickels, dimes
won’t buy a movie ticket
reading a book: free!
I’m currently reading Theo of Golden by Allen Levi.
I work in an open space that used to be a midde school library, now converted to the District Office and divided with partitions into cubicles. The partitions don’t reach the ceiling, and there are no doors on the cubicles, so sometimes conversations make it challenging to stay focused and mind my own business.
A colleague suggested noise-cancelling ear buds – – said hers were “a game changer” for focus, especially when working with data and reporting.
I considered it. But it’s hard to have a pair of ear buds at home and a pair at work and feel like it’s worth springing for anything new that might be just a smidge better. Still, I checked my ear buds, hoping they had a noise cancelling feature I hadn’t yet figured out. They did not.
As I started looking at noise cancelling options, I came across a pair of headphones, not earbuds, on sale. I’d seen a good many passengers on a recent flight wearing these – in the airport and even as they boarded the plane, some even wearing them straight through the three hour flight. What was I missing?
I decided to take a chance and try a pair. If I didn’t like them, I could always send them back. They were over 50 percent off, and from a reputable brand. Most important, they were noise-cancelling, and they came in faint rose petal pink!
I’m not sure whether it’s their petal-pinkness or their noise-cancelling magic, but my colleague was right – – –these are 100% a game changer. As a bonus, I recently discovered Kate Baer’s writing playlist, so this is my go-to for sustaining focus. My work buddy has helped me find a way to enhance my work experience with calming music.
Have you ever wondered whether you could write daily?
Do you love poetry and prose?
f Are you strapped for time and wonder about the commitment?
Wonder no more.
Come on, take my hand and walk down the shore. See the beauty?
Join the Year 3 kickoff of The Stafford Challenge today. It’s not too late to sign up, and you may just ask yourself what took you so long to join. This writing circle is completely free (you can make a donation only if you want – and I did not donate until the 3rd year). You will meet writers from all over the world, be inspired by them, and have the option to join a small group writing circle (you can join with others you don’t know or form your own like we did), where you will share and form some of the closest long-distance relationships you’ve ever had. Even if you don’t consider yourself a strong writer – – or a writer at all.
Come on, stick your big toe in the water. It feels refreshing in here.
My small writing group meets the first Monday of each month ~ Barb Edler of Iowa, Glenda Funk of Idaho, and Denise Krebs of California. We catch up on life, we talk about what we’re reading and what we’re writing, and we share our poetry. Sometimes we write during our Zoom. You know that poem The Cure by Kate Baer in her latest book How About Now? It’s how I feel about my writing circles. This is so much more than breakfast.
Today is the kickoff, and you can sign up at this link. I would love to see you there today. I’ll send you a wave from my tiny screen.
Come on, dive in! You can swim or float, and either is divine.
Common Threads 