Category: writings (Page 49 of 66)

and no needles

December 25, 2010 / jeanne / 18 Comments

our first christmas tree followed us from the room
so we started anchoring them
to the ceiling.

then there were the times
when we tromped out as a family
in search of
the perfect tree.
even though the trees
were always resplended,
their branches fully laden
with handmade ornaments
crafted from glue
and popsicle sticks
and fuzzy red pom-pom balls,
the actual shopping
excursion was never
our finest moment.

the shortest tree-shopping trip ever
was the year we found the coveted
two-headed tree.
but because it started to rain on our way home
didn’t stop raining till mid-january,
that famous tree never made it inside.

four full-to-the-brim calendars
ushered in the
color-coded tree-in-a-box.

the december daddy died,
hubby went out by himself
and fetched a $5 tree.
we leaned it up in the courtyard.
and for the first time ever,
we were totally unconcerned about
turning its bad side to the corner.
foregoing the ornaments and even the
dreaded tree stand,
we threw some lights at it
and enjoyed looking at it
through the glass
where it became a metaphor
for my life.

there was the year
we wanted to buy
a tree from the
local filling station.
they had two left,
and while the girls
were prepared and willing
(eager, even)
to take both home,
the guys said an emphatic and convincing “no”
so we drove on,
unwilling to separate
the two trees one from the other.
(we didn’t go treeless, though,
eventually paying somebody $25
when they agreed to let us chop down
a tree from their front yard.)

there were the christmas cruises
when we left the decorating
(and the consequent clean-up)
to them.

a friend’s accidental death
this week
caused my son to get home
just yesterday,
on christmas eve afternoon,
which effectively eliminated
any time for the annual
tree-shopping excursion.

scanning the roadside
on the way home from the
asheville airport,
and finding absolutely nothing
suitable,
i’d just begun to mourn
when the idea fairy screeched in to visit
just as we entered the
last curve before home.

we were just too tired
to deal with it last night,
and it would’ve been easy
to skip on past it this morning.
in fact, the kids voted nay,
but my adorable husband
sensing how much it meant to me,
spent the
12 minutes required
(and that’s from fetch to finish, folks)
decorating this year’s tree.

well, it’s not actually a TREE,
mind you.
you see, this year
we strung lights around
the green TRUNK
that’s been in my daddy’s family
for forever
and a day.

looking at that festive trunk,
i see roots that run deep.
i see dints and dings that bear witness to storms weathered successfully.
i see gifts being tenderly cradled on the inside,
till they’re ready to be
shared and laughed and sung right out loud.
i see locks and latches that are easily undone,
but effectively protective when needbe.
i see where the lights are plugged into the nearby outlet
because let’s face it: everybody needs help generating energy every now ‘n then.

what else do i see?
i see stories
and smiles
and laughter.
i see hugs
and tears
and togetherness.
i see resolve
and grief
and love.
long-standing, deep-running love.
and perhaps best of all,
i see a brand new tradition
conjured from the oldest of old traditions: resourcefulness,
or as we might call it just this once: inJeanneuity.

o christmas trunk, o christmas trunk . . .

~~~
this post is my response to today’s reverb10 prompt from tracey clark: Photo – a present to yourself. Sift through all the photos of you from the past year. Choose one that best captures you; either who you are, or who you strive to be. Find the shot of you that is worth a thousand words. Share the image, who shot it, where, and what it best reveals about you.

reacquainted

December 16, 2010 / jeanne / 33 Comments

isn’t it always the way?

this morning
with no makeup on
hair that needed a hat
and in my sloppiest old sweatsuit
and rattiest running shoes
i bumped into an old friend.
a wizened old friend
from my childhood
who was by my side on so many adventures
and who, without uttering a single word,
ever
taught me so much
(even though i didn’t realize it
until just now) . . .

my still-sharp old friend
always knew
that sometimes i need to
make my mark
even if only by
carving my initials
in a tree
in the middle
of the woods.

my still-sharp old friend
always knew
that quite often
you have to
whittle away the unnecessary parts
to reveal the essential, unique, irreplaceable
art.

my wizened old friend
always knew
that you can’t receive the nourishment
if you never open the can
and
it’s just not healthy
to keep things
bottled up
for too long.

my wizened old friend
always knew
that encountering a
rough, uncomfortable
whetting stone
keeps you sharp
and
that you have to
take good care of yourself
if you want to enjoy
a long, useful, active
life.

my wizened old friend
always knew
that sometimes
things need to be cut
to clear the path
or
build the fire
or
open up the view.
and
that sometimes
pruning is necessary
to promote new
growth.

my still-sharp
wizened
trusty old friend
knew these things all along
even if i didn’t.

until now.

(allow me to introduce my wizened, still-sharp old friend)

~~~~~~~~~
this post is my response to today’s reverb10 prompt:
Friendship How has a friend changed you or your perspective on the world this year? Was this change gradual, or a sudden burst? (Author: Martha Mihalick)

today’s tip: “make new friends and keep the old/some are silver and the other gold” were the words we sang at every girl scout meeting, and they’re just as apt now as they were then. with over 3000 people involved (which means so many windows open and twitter running in the background and all this on top of your already busy, busy life), it’s easy to lose your way back to new reverb10 friends. if you haven’t already, set aside some time and create an A List of the friends you don’t ever want to lose track of – be they new friends or old, familiar friends. and hey, if you already have your A List, be sure to add your new reverb10 friends to it as you go along.

i offer this tip as a suggestion you might find useful in juicing every single succulent drop out of this month-long experience. tomorrow (or the next day) i’ll fold into the marrow. and hey, if this tip sparks an idea, i’d sure appreciate it if you’d drop me a note in the comments section so i can sprinkle it out to others. and do some sprinkling of your own: point others to the marrow in case there’s something they can use.

a note

December 11, 2010 / jeanne / 4 Comments

Dear #reverb10 nation,

Please excuse the Fairy Godmother today. She misses you terribly but needed to be elsewhere. If all goes according to plan, she’ll be back by late tomorrow with a full pouch of her special brew fairy dust.

Signed,

The Fairy Godmother’s Fairy Godmother

ask

December 10, 2010 / jeanne / 10 Comments

my response to each #reverb10 daily prompt is a tip, a suggestion you might find useful in juicing every single succulent drop out of this month-long experience. some of the tips are things i learned over the past year; some are answers to questions reverbers have asked me privately; some are things i just pull out of thin air.

at the end of each day (or roughly thereabouts), the tip will be folded into the comprehensive list, a.k.a. the marrow. and hey, if a tip sparks another idea, i’d sure appreciate it if you’d drop me a note in the comments section so i can sprinkle it out to others. and do some sprinkling of your own: point others to the marrow in case there’s something here they can use.

now let’s get on with it cause my wand’s a wastin’ . . .

today’s prompt (from author Susannah Conway, creator of Unravelling, the e-course that i’m gonna’ sign up for one day before it sells out): Wisdom. What was the wisest decision you made this year, and how did it play out?

today’s tip: when you’re stumped, (decide to) ask for help. the assistance is a gift you receive, and the opportunity to help is a gift you give. funny how that happens.

and hey, consider saying “thank you” publicly – in a tweet or a mention (complete with a link to them) in your blog post or both.

today’s tip is enkindled by these 2 tweets from this past week: “RT @traceyclark: good idea! RT @pixie658: Having a hard time on today’s #reverb10 prompt? Ask close friends what they find unique about u”

AND

from thesdcowgirl: “can i cheat on #reverb10 and ask someone what it is that makes me beautifully different? lol.”

it’s my party

December 9, 2010 / jeanne / 34 Comments

. . . and i’ll fly if i want to.

change of plans, my #reverb10 friends. after today’s weekly check-in with my writing partner, julie daley (always a party), i was just plain tickled, giddy, bubbling over. so today’s tip (from @shauna: What social gathering rocked your socks off in 2010? Describe the people, music, food, drink, clothes, shenanigans.) comes with a story:

i’m still hung over from the times when all my selves show up. which is, coincidentally, usually at the party on the page – you know, the one happening whenever i sit down to write . . .

there’s good girl who makes me dizzy in her constant frothy motion making sure everybody’s glass is at least half full (if not brimming) and that the spotlight shines on Everybody Else (though never so much that they glisten, mind you). she says she doesn’t want to take up too much space, professes the last thing she wants to do is be a bother, and tries to make herself believe that all she really, really, really wants to do is make Everybody Else comfortable. good girl knows – she flat-out knows – that the secret to good writing is to never use i, me, mine or any other personal reference.

there’s down-to-business girl who spends gazoodles of prep time making outlines and clearing the desk and making sure there’s ample ink. before arriving, she passes out treats to the dog and cats, gets a load of laundry on to wash, and cleans every single toilet. again. it’s all she can do to keep from charting the arrival and departure times of the party guests and documenting leftovers for future reference.

trophy girl wants Everybody to love every single word . . . and beg for more.

martyr girl nails herself to the cross at least three times a day. her to do list is so voluminous, she spends her best creativity justifying 15 (measly) minutes of writing time.

reticent girl entertains herself by listening in on conversations and wishing she had something blazingly new and noticeably worthwhile to add to the conversation. she vows right then and there to read more – to smarten herself up before writing another word. (i mean, really. who does she think she is?) fortunately for her, she has an ipad and can stop right then and order a hefty supply of books from knowledgeable authors. it’s a quick, easy, and (actually enjoyable, if expensive) penance.

there’s mischievous girl who fantasizes about, well, i can’t really tell you that. not yet anyway.

obedient girl came because she said she would. and actually, now that it’s feeling more like a party, she’s not showing up as much any more. which makes the other guests just about as happy as it makes her.

then there’s wannabe girl who lives in a lush, colorful, vibrant landscape where it’s Very Much okay to blurt things out without worrying-up a single wrinkle from fretting about how to defend them. wannabe girl chokes on statistics, numbers confuse her, and she stalls out on facts wondering why such silly hand-me-down things matter so much to other people when they just seem to get in her way. she is fluent in JustBecause and speaks it with an accent that’s prone to change three times in a single short sentence. and just so you know, JustBecause isn’t only spoken, it’s the language of action, too. wannabe girl writes books JustBecause. she dances JustBecause. she wears what she wants to – you guessed it – JustBecause. wannabe girl can fill a minute with eggs of laughter AND tears that sparkle so you want to take them to the jeweler and have them mounted. there are even things she does NOT do JustBecause . . . and it all makes perfect sense to wannabe girl.

if you want to know the truth, wannabe girl has a standing invitation, and when she shows up, she is always – and i mean always – the ravishing guest of honor.

~~~::~~~::~~~::~~~::~~~::~~~::~~~

today’s tip: make every prompt a party and delight in who (or what) shows up on the page. if you’re delighted, we’ll be delighted, too.

you know how it goes: every day i post a tip, a suggestion you might find useful in juicing every single succulent drop out of this month-long experience. some of the tips are things i learned over the past year; some are answers to questions reverbers have asked me privately; some are things i just pull out of thin air.

different

December 8, 2010 / jeanne / 18 Comments

now let’s get on with it cause my wand’s a wastin’ . . .

today’s prompt: Beautifully Different. Think about what makes you different and what you do that lights people up. Reflect on all the things that make you different – you’ll find they’re what make you beautiful. (Author: Karen Walrond)

today’s tip: reach out to at least 3 people every day and smack ’em with a smile, sprinkle a compliment, dabble out a spot of encouragement. twitter brings out the nice in people, and let’s face it: nice breeds nice.

—:::—

something new: recap i don’t know about you, but cali‘s prompt on community really revved up my circuits and lit up my board. i didn’t make it around to everybody, but here, in no particular order, are some of the blogs that i especially enjoyed on yesterday’s blog crawl:

any last word
julie unplugged
this space intentionally left blank
sally g: lighting up the heart of ordinary
first pages
amy oscar
mrsmediocrity

community

December 7, 2010 / jeanne / 9 Comments

now let’s get on with it cause my wand’s a wastin’ . . .

today’s prompt: community. where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? what community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011? (author: cali harris, @caligater)

today’s tip comes from the effervescent @tiasparkles, solopreneur coach that you’ll definitely want to get to know. and hey, before we go any further, let me take a moment to offer another red-faced apology to tia and to give you the correct link to a post that just lit up my night a coupla nights ago. i meant for it to light up yours, too, but i had so many windows open, what with so many reverberations and all, i guess i inhaled some of my fairy dust cause something went wonkers and i tweeted out the link to another spectacular #reverb10 post. anyway, here you go: the right way to get to tia’s post you do not want to miss.

and tia’s tip: Pick 10 different peeps daily. Say hi & read & comment on their posts. You’ll be AMAZED at the community you create via #reverb10.

now get on out there and reverberate. and don’t forget to bear witness to others doing the same.

making good time

December 6, 2010 / jeanne / 9 Comments

now let’s get on with it cause my wand’s a wastin’ . . .

today’s prompt: make. what was the last thing you made? what materials did you use? is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it?

today’s tip: if you want to be found, make it easy for people to find you. if you want conversation, make it easy for people to comment.

check your twitter and facebook profile pages. is there a link to the blog that you’re using for #reverb10? several people have multiple blogs and list them all, or a business blog and a personal blog and link only to the business blog (the blog that’s paying for the dsl, no doubt). while we love knowing that you’re prolific and productive and wordyversatile, tick-tock, tick-tock, folks. we’ve got more than 2000 other blogs beckoning, so we need you to give us the shortest possible route to your reverb10 posts.

and about those comments . . . do people have to register/log in to leave you a comment? do they have to watch a commercial before being ushered to the comment box waiting to be filled? you’re clever – i like that. but does your invitation to comment clearly let people know that this is where/how they drop off a comment for you? think about it. tend to it.

now don’t go all red-faced on me – if it’ll make you feel better, i’ve private messaged many, many, many reverb10ers about these very things. i mention it here because not every reader has a fairy godmother clock that allows them time to track you down, so take a minute or twelve to show the way and clear the way for us. make it easy for us to find you and cheer you. go on now, scoot.

letting go

December 5, 2010 / jeanne / 22 Comments

now lookahere, y’all: i’ve decided to shape my response to each #reverb10 daily prompt into a tip, a suggestion you might find useful in juicing every single succulent drop out of this month-long experience. some of the tips are things i learned over the past year; some are answers to questions reverbers have asked me privately; some are things i pull out of thin air.

at the end of each day (or roughly thereabouts), the tip will be folded into the marrow. and hey, if a tip sparks another idea, i’d sure appreciate it if you’d drop me a note in the comments section so i can sprinkle it out to others. and do some sprinkling of your own: point others to the marrow in case there’s something here they can use.

now let’s get on with it cause my wand’s a wastin’ . . .

today’s prompt: Let Go. What (or whom) did you let go of this year? Why? (by @finslippy)

today’s tip: you will be let go. in twitter terms, you will be unfollowed – it’s gonna’ happen, you can write it down – but don’t take it personally. don’t you pull the shades, turn off the phone, and take to your bed. you haven’t been dumped out on the side of the road by the (self-proclaimed) cool girls in the convertible. shoot no. you’ve just been unfollowed, and sometimes the tweep doesn’t even know about it cause sometimes the glitching gremlins do it without warning and without permission.

what to do? well, you can ignore it and continue to follow them. or you can send them a note asking “what’d i do?” (or maybe “what were you thinking?”; “have you lost your mind?”; or “what the heck?”, depending on your mood) or you can mash the unfollow button and let them go, too. i guess you could even use it as an excuse to lay out of work a day or two (and for the record: no, i will not sign your excuse), but listen up cause i’m gonna’ tell you what any self-respecting fairy godmother worth her fairy dust would tell you: they’re just jealous.

wonder

December 4, 2010 / jeanne / 39 Comments

i wonder
if you’re having as much #reverb10 fun as i am. (if not, let me know and i’ll toss an extra handful of magic sparkle dust your way.)
why anybody wants to play football.
what little orphan annie did when she grew up.

i wonder
how much longer till we all understand that living into our greatness does not diminish the greatness of others.
why so many people are depressed.
if vinegar does even half the things my mother claims it does.

i wonder what i’m really supposed to be doing with my life.

i wonder
why i waited so long to dress myself in VivaciousBoldness.
if i’ll ever sleep for 8 consecutive hours again.
what the woman who lives in the pink and blue house with a yard full of words spelled out in rocks would tell me if i knocked on her door with a hot pound cake and an afternoon to spend.

of course i wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who,
who wrote the book of love.

and at least once a day,
i wonder what i did to wind up with a husband and son who bring me such marvelous treasures.

~~~
Today’s post is my response to the #reverb10 prompt for today: Wonder. How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year? (Author: Jeffrey Davis)