Sunday, February 21, 2016

Short Stuff


Sunday Gus
Every Sunday before the sun comes up, I listen to playlists with names like "Dissolving Clouds," drink coffee and watch Gus sleep while I think about stuff. 

I think through the past week's unresolved questions or problems, people I love who are enduring a rough ordeal, others who may just be coming out of one. 


I think about the twenty-something man who took a very elderly woman to see Maggie Smith's movie last night, and the guy I saw later on in a restaurant who all but stood on his head to cheer his sulky girlfriend.  


I think about what I'll make for dinner, and if I can maybe put the top down on the car if I also turn the heat up, and why Donald Trump can't do something about the white space his tanning goggles leave around his tiny eyes.


Stuff like that.


More than anything, I think about our kids and what I'm going to write about in the coming week. Today, I decided that I miss posting, but enjoy posting shortstuff and think that's what you'd rather read anyway. .


Today, since I have both raising children and writing in common with some, but have either of the two in common with many, I thought I would offer you a chicken or beef post of things worth mentioning in either category. 
Raising children
My four different people.
Raising four children who are as similar to each other as trees and fish and motorcycles and books, has taught me that I am better at foreign languages than I thought.
Every once in a while, I lapse into the wrong one when I'm communicating with them, and I get the same look you'd give someone who tried to tell you a joke or give you advice using words you've never heard before. 
I realize, this work in progress - to learn the unique language that came with each of them - joyously, has no end.
It is the easiest and the hardest thing I know about being a parent:  to explore the depth of our ability to know and love another person, whether or not they are like us, one fathom at a time. 
Writing 
Maybe I would focus
better if I moved the cat.
It takes me about twenty minutes to come around to what kind of writing I'll do for the day. And yet, if I interrupt that process to open a work in progress, I'll fall in until dinner time. If I could just learn that for keeps, I could spend that twenty minutes each day planning a dinner to reward my efforts. 

Ever since I read the Anne Lamott quote below, I am more mindful of what I want to accomplish in my writing life, and aware of when - and why - I'm avoiding the work of it. You just have to walk so far into that forest of thought and imagination. But I've also realized that the things I do while I'm putting it off, are things I'm bringing back to the page. So only some of the time does writing take place on the actual page, babies. When you don't want to be a writer, but need to be, that's what you do. All the time. 
Strange how mindful living works, but it does. 






12 comments:

  1. I love that quote so much and I REALLY needed to read it this morning.

    The white area around Donald Trump's eyes. HAHAHAHAHAHHA

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    1. There should just be more balance between the extremes. Perhaps, larger eyes. Oh, look at that. I just made a metaphor.

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  2. I saw that quote, too and it really didn't resonate for me. I hate "shoulds". All things happen as they should and books or projects come in their own good time. I refuse to feel like I didn't achieve something I should have. In fact, I am now rejecting all "shoulds"!

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    1. I do love Lamott's quote for the way it urges us to get out of our own way. For sure, some travel less obstructed paths or even create the path as they travel it. I've been in both clubs.

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  3. What a great quote! My children are so different, and you are right they need communicating with in different ways. :)

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    1. Best, easiest work of my life, learning all the people they are and learning from them as well.

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  4. Yes! Be silly, swim freely, and learn all the languages of love.

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    1. Silly is a staple of my spirit diet. Silly in moderation, is a very good thing.

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  5. You are so right about needing to speak a different language with each child--and with four, you are definitely multi-lingual. Many points to ponder here. And p.s., I love the photo of Gus, deep in thought--or is it sleep? ;-)

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    1. Thank you, Lee, for visiting and for the Gus compliment. He looks like that all the time, but his peaceful state is contagious.



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  6. Love this.....It is so true that each of our children speak a different language. Our kids are all grown and are truly our treasured friends now. But I gotta admit.....I do miss "the look" !!! Thanks for sharing the Anne Lamott's quote. It is wonderful.

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    1. Ellen, thank you for visiting, and I agree, the relationships that we form with grown children after all those years are like no others.

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