Ordinary Life

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...