Guess What?

I’m going to start writing again this summer.

I’m going to start writing again this summer.

I’m going to start writing again this summer.

I’m going to start writing again this summer.

I’m going to start writing again this summer.

I’m going to start writing again this summer.

I’m going to start writing again this summer.

I’m going to start writing again this summer.

I’m going to start writing again this summer.

And if I do not, please feel free to heckle the hell out of me!

Did Someone Say It's National Poetry Day?

Well then, HOORAY! 

I am thankful for the gorgeous one who introduced poetry to me, though I encountered my favorite on my own. 

I remember the exact Saturday in early September (It was 8:30 in the morning.) I remember precisely what I was doing (If you care to know, I was laying on my back in Millennium Park preparing for a 100 person community yoga class. My eyes were closed.) I remember exactly how it felt at that moment (The bright, Indian summer sun was warming my body. Anticipation.)

And this is when I heard it for the first time…

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles throughout the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

- Wild Geese by Mary Oliver

Team Dylan

Always!

Perennially a Challenge: Yeah Write Micro-story (49 words)

“Seven seconds of utter confusion because I answered, ‘Sometimes you feel like a nut. Sometimes you don’t.’ Would this be any clearer? ‘You do you, homie.’ It’s what originally drew you in, you know, and then you couldn’t help but have me.” 

She smiles. Sassy even after thirty years.

"Prayer" by Mary Oliver

My Lucky Day!

I haven’t “won” a Goodreads giveaway in years. Used to score them regularly five or six years back.

But time’s a changing, and I’m thrilled to freaking pieces!

I was notified by Goodreads email this morning that “The Female Persuasion” by Meg Wolitzer would be arriving soon. You know her; she wrote the amazing “The Interestings”.

If that wasn’t crazy, lucky enough, LitHub also informed me today I will be receiving “The Italian Teacher” by Tom Rachman. I have always, always, always wanted an Italian teacher of my very own, and it shall be mine. Sort of.

I must be living right.

Who doesn’t love to laugh? Five Minute Friday

There are nine people who I believe actually get my sense of humor. Yes, I counted prior to starting these five minutes and those 30 seconds will not be included. Not sorry.

The interesting thing is only one I see daily. The rest are essentially long distance. But it’s the kind of distance that takes a split second to cross. They’ve always been in exactly the same place they always were. There. No need to question.

These people make me feel good. No matter what. And who doesn’t just love these kind of people so hard?

We can start a conversation down in the dumps, talking about something very seriously wrong about life, about us, about someone we care deeply about, and then something makes us laugh or one of us says something, usually inappropriate considering the context of the conversation but soothing nonetheless and somehow it feels perfectly right. Again.

Laughter, aside from the random, funny stuff we all see on the internet or the unexpected events during the usual course of life and for me, comes from comfort. Am I comfortable enough with this person to be vulnerable, quirky and oftentimes irreverent?  Are they comfortable enough with me to let their words flow without judgement? This is the magic place where uninhibited laughter happens. Those are the times I laugh the hardest.

There are nine of you.

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This was a Stream of Consciousness Friday post. It's the Week 3, of the old school blogging, prompt for the Finish the Sentence Friday writing community co-hosted by Kenya Johnson right here and Kristi Campbell of Finding Ninee. This week we set a timer and wrote for 5 minutes on the optional prompt "Laughter".

Hoping today, while still early, is filled with a few funny moments. Not sure my class in American Art History this afternoon will spawn any giggles, but you never know, right? Here’s to hoping for the unexpected. Cheers!