Yearly Archives: 2015

Growth

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Germinating beans

Growth is not just about sprouting.

Growth is learning about your surroundings

and how to thrive,

how to become a bigger, better version of yourself.

Nourish yourself,

grow to your full potential,

but every now and then,

allow yourself to look back at where you came from.

The risk of not growing is more painful

than the risk of being constricted by what you once were.

~~

Written for the Grammar Ghoul challenge.  For this short week, we’re going to ask you for exactly 66 words of micro-fiction or poetry. And we’re only going to give you one prompt, an image, which you’ll find below (above). Your job is to give us a micro story or a poem inspired by the photo.

gg-wkbadge-e1411321572196

 

 

 

 

Sometimes you just need to look backwards

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reflection quote

“A lake that is noisy cannot reflect anything”

– Robert Adams

~~

I like to spend time reflecting.  I don’t dwell on the past but I do visit from time to time so I can take a moment to appreciate the lessons I have been taught along the way.  I am a different person from the one I was masquerading as many years ago.   And yesterday, the serenity of my day off provided me with ample moments to look back and plenty of time to plan my journey forward based on where I am in my present.

My lake was quiet today.  It afforded me a few precious moments to realize that if I hadn’t experience failure, I wouldn’t have learned to appreciate success.  If I hadn’t lost pieces of myself along the way, I would never have been able to have found the real me and respect who I truly am.

Looking backwards may seem like a waste of time but that personal reflection will remind you of where you came from and make you acknowledge where and who you are today.

A rose by any other name is just how I choose to describe it

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Moon

Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.
–Anton Chekhov

~~

There have been times when I have been writing that I feel my words have become too “flowery”, too descriptive.  I love to take imagery and let the reader truly visualize what it is that I am trying to convey.  I am also a big fan of using metaphors to get my point across.

For a few brief sentences, I tried to rein in the flourish in my writing and then I realized I would be doing myself a grave injustice.  I would be writing with another voice that is distant from the one I have come to know and love.  Sure, I could artlessly tell you that the rose petal was falling off, but I would rather tell you that the withered skin of the aging rosebud hung listlessly, clinging desperately to the last breath of life held in the stem.  That is my writing voice, that is who I am when I am being true to my craft.

But it is hard to find the balance between too much and not enough.  When I write, I want the person reading to be able to smell, taste and feel my words.  I want that person to be so immersed in the images that they feel like they have left their physical world and have been transported into my words.  But I don’t want them to get so lost in the description that they feel the train of the story is going recklessly off the tracks.

Perhaps the delay in writing my book was to allow my voice to develop through my blog.  I have achieved a level of comfort here with my words and my ideas and I know that my voice is my own and not a weak interpretation of another.  I don’t just feel like I am telling meaningless stories anymore, I feel like a writer.  And Mr. Chekhov, I will never be the one to simply tell you that the moon is shining.

 (Thank you Daily Post for the encouragement)

A funny thing happened on the way to the finish line

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Apparently, I am no Job.  I have no patience when it comes to many things and I just want to get from the start to the finish line.  The problem with sprinting to the end is that I forget to enjoy the scenery during the marathon that is my life.  I have a very bad habit of trying to make things happen instead of just letting them happen.  The meaning of the song ‘Que Sera, Sera’ is hopelessly lost on me.

I don’t know why I cannot let whatever will be, just be.  I need to teach myself to relinquish some of the control I so desperately want to have and let life unfold in front of me.  There is more beauty watching the petals of a rose open slowly than the rose itself at the end of its blossom.

rose

(image credit)

Perhaps wisdom really does come with age.  Maybe I am at the point in my life that I am willing to sit back and loosen the reins a little and see how the proverbial cookie crumbles without me breaking it into a thousand tiny pieces.  It’s time to let life happen and for me to find strength in patience and wait for those good things to come.

 

 

Riding the waves and becoming yar

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Meaningful-quotes-16-Meaningful-quotes-everyone-should-know-8

I can honestly say I haven’t had the smoothest of seas to navigate the waterways of my life but I have never had the urge to abandon ship and head for the calmness of the shore.  Sometimes being adrift in that expansive sea brought challenges I had never anticipated but, through those unexpected waves, I found I had more ability to navigate than I gave myself due credit.

I could feel comfortable being captain of my ship knowing that I could sail those high seas with confidence.  I stood my ground at the helm.  Although the sea threatened to swallow me more than a few times, I anchored myself to my craft, trusted in my strength and rode the currents to safety.

Experience is the greatest teacher and life is certainly gracious enough to acquiesce and provide a heaping dose.  Becoming able to weather any storm is knowing how to learn from that experience and store it for the future.  I can now sit back and let the wind blow my sails in any direction because I am well prepared for the next tempest.

 

 

 

Awfully glad to be unhappy

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I work in the hospitality industry so it should go without saying that I am a people person.  I love interacting with new guests and getting to know them, having a few laughs and making sure they feel at home at the lodge.

There is something very personal about our small resort that allows us to really become friends with our guests.  We know them on a first name basis by their first or second day, we know their kids’ names, we get to know where they are from and eventually we remember that they prefer rye toast and how they take their coffee.

It really is like spending a weekend with an extended part of our family.   When it comes time to say goodbye, I really am sad to see them leave.  Knowing they will be back again slightly eases the sadness but I am glad that I can feel that melancholy feeling because it truly means we have had an authentic effect on each other during their stay.

MM front

I know that the long hours pale in comparison to the number of smiles I have seen or the many sounds of laughter that have echoed within the walls of the lodge during their stay.  And although it may be another year before we see them again, we are genuine when we say we look forward to having them come back “home” again.

 

 

 

Starting 2015 the ‘write’ way

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I was going to be lazy today and not pull the starter cord on my brain.  I was content to let it sit idle and enjoy the distant hum as it sat listless but that would go against everything I want 2015 to be – creative and filled with stories.  And although I am closing in on the end of a 70-hour work week, I still feel like I should at least try to conjure a few words from the recesses of my imagination and begin the new year the way I should, by writing.

words

I would like my brain to become so flooded with words and images that they spill over each other to fight for their right to be etched on paper.  I want to feel so full of inspiration I can do nothing BUT write to be able make room for the new ideas being born.  I would like to wake up in the middle of the night and rush to the computer to capture those ideas before they escape and trickle down into the abyss of lost thoughts.

If I can do this every day, if I can play my metaphorical flute and conjure those words like a snake,  writing will become a need, a desire much more passionate than just wanting to write.

Day one – success.   Happy New Year everyone and may all of your wishes come true in 2015!