A Slightly Embarrassing Accomplishment in Everyday Ramblings

This time last year we had just arrived here at the wonderful cabins on the Metolious River. The only time in three years I’ve been somewhere where we didn’t have reliable Internet access. I know this because I scheduled a few vacation days from 750 Words so I would not mess with my streak there.

I am weirdly embarrassed to say that I have now posted on that site for 999 days straight (except for the break mentioned above). Some days it hasn’t been easy. There were a couple where I had to type my posts on my phone, or my iPad mini or… the real breakthrough was when I realized I could copy and past my post in from Word. So I could work on a post all day in little bits and pieces.

So if I remember and type a post tomorrow I will earn the new Flying Squirrel badge. My favorite badge was the Pegasus with glasses. I would have kept that one if I could.

When I was bemoaning the fact that I hadn’t written any poetry lately to my friend M., she said but you are writing! You write for the blog (here) and on 750 Words and you take notes on what you are reading and of course she is right but it is not poetry.

I worry that I have lost the knack if not the desire. I haven’t though, I don’t think. It is just that I used to write a lot of drafts of poems when I was commuting. I am very good at writing on the bus. It is an art form. But now I walk across the room to my desk most days.

The 750 Words thing helps with my mood. I whine and say judgmental things that are hanging around the top of my head there. And I write a lot, a lot about the cats… and technical stuff about my yoga classes. I work things out. But mostly it is about the cats or the weather or some absurd thing at work. Or something I am anxious about. But mostly the tone is affectionate. And over the years, happier.

I need to develop a new discipline now for the writing of “real” creative work. The memoir Mr. Finch wanted me to write, the poems in my head, the stories I want to share.

So after tomorrow, after I earn my flying squirrel I may let it go. Unless I do it very early in the morning when I am half asleep and unguarded the process often seems like an obligation. I already have enough obligations.

And as I face another birthday on Friday (for which I am most grateful) I have a keen awareness of the transience of things. I have been going through my closet and looking at clothes that have such a rich history, some of them thirty years old and thinking I will never ever wear that again there is no reason to keep it.

So far this week I have cleaned out a stuffed drawer in the bathroom, tackled one fourth of my huge walk in closet, and sorted some papers from the last nine months. I dropped off a bag of clothes at Goodwill this morning and have another bag to go.

I do have a lot to say about this next chapter of my life unfolds. I very much hope it is as rich and interesting as all the other chapters have been.

But first I have to go teach my Caregivers class. I love love love not working. We work way too hard here in this country. I am looking forward to making up for that as much as I can.

Last updated June 16, 2015