Friday, February 27, 2015

Writing the Stories: Snow...



That was the last time he stopped believing.  Believing in snow. 

Snow had been in the stories she had told, but even those were hard to find anymore.  Where libraries and book stores once were stood clinics.  Dispensaries.  Wards.  Gone were books, and gone were the writers.  You could always tell those that came from the lineage of writers.  The muscles around their eyes were tight, straining to see just up ahead.  Furrowed brows and pursed lips were give-aways.  And they clustered together, talking in furtive voices.  Their hands moved like quick, small birds.  That’s how her hands moved.  Like tiny daggers, emphasizing mere words.


(Just a short "finger exercise" from yesterday's writing.)

Hinges...



 "There are mortal moments and minutes that seem to matter - certain hinge points in the history of each human."
                       -Neal A. Maxwell

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

A huge, foolish project...

 

Start a huge, foolish project, like Noah…it makes absolutely no difference what people think of you.  

-Rumi 

 

Stories can be found anywhere and everywhere.  Art, music, novels, news articles, people, film, poetry, nature, and ourselves. 

 

Stories are how we connect with others.  Stories are how we understand our world.  Stories are how we learn about ourselves.

 

This is my "huge, foolish project" - writing the stories.

 

Each of us is a story. Each day is a story.

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

My son marked his territory...



My girls are teenagers.  My son has to spend a lot of time analyzing and strategizing conversations to be heard.  A split second and someone takes a breath between words.  He dives into a half-thought before being scolded for interrupting.  For whatever reason, there seemed to be a lapse in vigorous discussion that day.


My son took advantage. “Mom?”


“Mm-huh?”


“What’s a trent?”


“Sorry, bud.  What’s a what?”


“A trent.  See.  On that van in front of us?”  All my kids craned their necks to see around heads and headrests.


On the dirty rear window where it should have said “Clean Me” in thick finger-writing, it read “Trent: 92% Calc. Final!!!”


I laughed.  “That’s a boy’s name.  He got a 92% - an A – on his calculus final.  Looks like someone is proud of him, bud.”


One of the girls spoke up.  “Calculus is REALLY hard.  He did pretty well.” 

“Oh.”  The quiet drew over our van again.  Necks withdrew back into quiet shoulders.



I turned to back our van out of the school parking lot the next morning.  And I laughed at what I saw.


My son's own finger-writing. “Trent: 92% Calc. Final!!!” was now on our dirty rear window, but in a mirror-image.


He marked his territory.  He stuck a flag on island beaches.  But he didn’t claim it for himself.  He claimed it for the people of the land of Trent.


Trent – Looks like someone is indeed proud of you.  Calculus is REALLY hard.









Monday, February 23, 2015