Tag Archive | Story

Roots and Rituals

Feb5

 

 

Today on Writing Camp with Julie Jordan Scott, we were encouraged to take a favorite quote and use it as a writing prompt.

If you know me at all, then you know my favorite author is Billy Coffey.

My quote was found in his latest book “Steal Away Home”.

 “It’s the small things you take for granted that become very big things when they’re gone. Beneath the unanswered questions and secret fears of everyday beats the thin pulse of tiny ritual that serve to root us.” Billy Coffey

Here is what I wrote, 5 for 5 Brain Dump style (2x). If you don’t know what 5 for 5 Brain Dump is, Here to find out more about it.

I read a short piece once about a man who absolutely hated some little blue glass kittens that his wife insisted be on the front window sill. She put them there, he would move them. She put them back. Over and over, 30 or 40 years worth.

When his wife passed, he put those little blue glass kittens back on the window sill, to remind him of her.

My grandpa, used to complain and complain that he could not sleep through my grandmas window rattling snoring.

When she passed, he could only complain that he could not sleep without her snoring.

We have a large tray that our coffee pot, sugar, his coffee cup, a spoon rest and spoon sit on in our kitchen. Every day, when hubby makes his coffee, he sets the sugar on the counter. I move it to the tray. He takes it off.

It used to make me angry. Everyday. I really had to think of how much I would miss that if he were to pass.

Those little things. Those little rituals. How important will they be in the passing of time?

How are we rooted to these rituals?

I remember – They are exactly what life is about. And I smile.

Coffee Tray

 

 

A-Ha Moment.

Jan9

I’m part of a live-streaming group called the PeriGirls. (Shameless plug) They are a tribe of  over 10,00 women live streamers. I have learned SO MUCH from these women! They have activities for absolutely anything and every thing you could be interested in.

If you don’t know them you can Go Here  to find out more.

OK. Back to the A-Ha moment.

The other day, the topic of discussion for the PeriGirls was to talk about an Epiphany or A-Ha moment you have had. It was so interesting to hear other women’s stories, told in their own words.

My Epiphany or A-Ha moment came a couple of days later, and that’s what I want to tell you about.

I was watching a movie with my husband. The scene took place in a news room. A pre- cell phone news room. There were phones ringing, and ringing, and ringing. Everywhere.

A thought crossed my mind about schools. The school system. The schools I went to back in the day.

School, the place itself, the place they MAKE children go to, are by their very nature, very loud, busy, crazy noisy and chaotic.

All that noise without stopping, did the same thing to me then that it does to me now. It gives me brain fog, and makes me want to hide. The difference is that back then, I had no recourse. There was no fix. I had no idea how to make it stop, nor did I even know that something needed fixed. It’s just the way it was.

Nowadays, there are some schools of thought that say we need to teach children in the way that they are wired. That we teach to their strengths. These children feel needed, nurtured, accepted and loved.

These children, are taught that they are amazing just the way they are. They are taught that different is not bad, it’s just different. The square peg does not have to fit in the round hole, nor should we make it try to.

Thirteen years of schooling, old school style, took up until my mid fifties to untangle.

I AM fearfully and wonderfully made. I no longer need to hide. I AM made in the very image of God. God does not make junk, nor does He make mistakes. He wired me how He wanted be to be wired. He knew my days before I had even one of them.

Guess what?

He knows you that way too – Ponder that for a while!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brain Fog or Sinus Congestion?

Dec28

Hello to all.

What I am experiencing this week is one of two things;

It’s either brain fog or severe sinus congestion.

Either way, things are running a tad slow upstairs.

So rather than just medicate, sit and wait it out, I thought I’d medicate, sit and read some old journals.

It’s always quite fun to see what you forgot you wrote.

I thought I’d share one or two of those writings with you this week.

It could turn into a foggy congested kind of thing or you could really enjoy it.

I’ll let you be the judge.

Here goes; from August 6, 2017.

When I Live With My Eyes Open I see …

When I live with my eyes open, I see trees. Green. Trees of every shade. I see trees with no leaves. Boney fingers reaching up into the sky, pointing out the clouds, and the birds, and the other trees. Those clouds I see can be anything I imagine them to be.

When I live with my eyes open I see people, where I was. People lost. Without a plan or a purpose, or someone to guide them. When my eyes are open I see their sadness, their emptiness, and their pain.

But with my eyes open, I can be that guide to gently show them how to be free.

It took me a while, but it was worth it, this living with my eyes open.

I am most grateful for sight, both physical and spiritual.