Ordinary Life

Now I lay me... still awake it's Three AM Midnight of the soul  I'm fishing for words fathoming depths only imagined I cannot anchor here,  Do not wake my love I pray... Keep moving on. 

Same old, same old song, new melodies interwoven... You're not here It's better that way And also, no  it isn't. I watch a low-budget movie We are in it. We are everywhere When you disappear I tell a friend that I have been Both May and cold December Himself,  an August Eagle circling nearer  me He is as far from you as I can get Better or not, we agree It's how things have to  be The movie says Grenen is a land between two seas. Quick embrace on shifting sands, before you fade into you and I flow back to me. Read About Grenen here:   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenen  'Same Old Song' by Iron & Wine: 

  'Just friends' will do. 

Ten years ago in April, Tyler Johnson turned 14. We'd not seen him since he was 12 and his biological dad agreed to let Tyler's stepdad adopt him. Before this year was up, we would halt our plans and move across the river, back to Georgia, where I would add Tyler to my homeschooling line-up and a new installment of 'As The Family Business Spins'  would begin.  My children now have a stepmother of their own and though we've only briefly met, I  understand the auxiliary nature of my role in Tyler's life better than before, but also the importance of being patient and kind. Tyler has a mom, whom I didn't try to replace  and a bio-dad  I tried to encourage to step into place...  but, in the end,  my willingness,  the trying,  the birthday cakes and hair dying -  now lay buried beneath the lie  that it was not his dad but I  who tried to erase the chapters he was written on As he now hopes to erase me.  Theory: Make the cake yo...

Today, my friend's book released on Amazon: #TheTruthAboutUs I participated in a launch team to help raise awareness of the book. I only get involved with things I  believe are worth multiplying. That is hands down the truth in Brant's case and in the case of this book. God not only put Brant on the radio in His great providence, I firmly believe He also formed Brant as a radio in his own right, emitting a unique frequency that is the only signal a select few of us are able to pick up on. Those of us who get the clearest signal when tuned into Brant's frequency have an assorted variety of super powers but one thing we seem to share in common is this ability to feel at once isolated and privileged to be grouped together. Brant speaks directly into that. And I, for one, appreciate it. Remember Gilligan's Island? Brant is a radio,  powered by salt-water and coconut shells , broadcasting messages of hope and rescue to our motley band of 'three hour cruise' castaways...

In more good practices I should still be doing from The Artist's Way, Kate prescribes routine... a date set with one's self for writing at the same time each day. When I have managed to be disciplined about it this, it is always a good time, just me, myself and my words. I am working on the part about sitting down at the same time every day for the sake of my writing muscles but also in hopes of returning to a somewhat normal and healthy sleep cycle. I'll let you know (or oversleep a bunch and forget to)

This week Kate reminded us about the importance of taking time to read. As writers, we likely all came to our love of writing through a love of stories and reading. But, it is easy to get in a rut where life is too busy and there's no time for stories of any kind. So, I made time to finish a book I've been stalling on for over a year then started the next in the series, too. (Mitford books)  It makes complete sense how reading primes the writing pump, but like staying hydrated, it's an easy essential to lose sight of. Writers are watered by words.

As part of the writing challenge with Candlewick Press hosted by Kate DiCamillo, we've been asked to keep a journal. I usually prefer a new journal for each new batch of thoughts or 'season of writing' but I pulled a barely used one out of the stack and determined to use it despite the few scrawled in pages. This is what I found in there, without dates but (obviously) before the final decree. ***Begin Transcription*** Things You Interrupt Before I Can Say (and to keep me from saying) or Things That I Think To Myself Sometimes : You say (to our oldest daughter): Your mom wasn't dressing to attract. She was wearing baggy clothes when we met. I think:   Tell her the rest..."she told me her plan to wait but I talked her out of that nonsense. But, you dear daughter, should do as I say and not as me and your mother.  Notes: My choices are and ever have been my own. I am not freed from them because you were involved. I am not who I started out as (for better or worse) and...

This week, Kate reminded us that keeping everything in one notebook is smart and keeping that notebook with us all the time is even smarter. I try to do this, though I tend to want a fresh notebook for each set of thoughts. For this challenge, I chose a notebook with only a few entries from a year or four before and decided I would just use it all 'willy-nilly' til full. In the spirit of 'I always enjoy writing when I get back into the practice of it' - I now share some of the writing that was already in the notebook chose. I wish there were dates, but it seems safe to say I was still married... or mostly. 'Some men want an impossible thing: A woman whose beauty makes him the envy of everyone he meets And also, a woman, the very same woman, that no one else can see.' ~~~ --- I still exist, beating heart, daily breath the rest of me invisible ~ I seek the sun, its warmth and cheer ~ I am complimented on my eyes. he says this makes me a hoar, ~ I didn't solici...

:: I paid full price for my copy of 'The Truth About Us'. This is not a purchased review or review for trade.  :: Full Disclosure:  Even after all the personally affronting, bracing-like-cold-water truths he felt compelled to share in  ' The Truth About Us ' , Brant Hansen is going to have to try much, much harder to get me to "unsubscribe" from his personal brand. However, I cannot keep this man's books on my shelves - here's why: As a long time listener and reviewer of previous books, I can't look away from the puppet-driven Hansen train as it plows happily through our comfort zones and leaves us asking pitifully for more accordion. In  ' Unoffendable' , Brant checks the mic: "Testing, testing, 3...2...1 - you have no right to be angry but you're not the only one" In  'Blessed are the Misfits' , Hansen raises the house lights: "Look around, all quirky, jaded and flawed souls, we do not misfit alone." And no...