Wednesday, October 7, 2015

9 PM Ramblings

Day 7-Love

I don't really like to blog at 9 PM in the evening, but here I am because it's only Day 7 and I'm not ready to throw in the towel just yet. I am ready however, to make a few adjustments to the Challenge routine.

I love blogging. I love having a little corner of the Internet to dump all my words and I love the connections I've made both online and in real life through my blog. I especially love the way other bloggers words have made me think, made me laugh, made me a better writer.

Here's the thing...I'm a serious thinker, but a light hearted soul. When I signed up for the Write 31 Challenge I had to pick a category to link my posts to, and that's always a little bit hard for me.  A big chunk of my blog is all about home and family, but when I looked at the links there they seemed to be more moms navigating life with young children or homeschooling and the like. In other words, not me. I could have gone with the category labeled Too Awesome to Categorize, which I might be, but it seemed a little over the top to say so myself, so I went with faith and inspiration.

It's not an exact fit, but it felt right. When I meet someone and the subject of my blog comes up, I struggle a little bit with how exactly to describe what it is I write about on From This Side of the Pond. I've settled on this-a slice of life, because that's pretty much what you get here.

And it's a generous slice topped with whipped cream and a cherry, served on a pretty china plate because that's who I am.

Back to the Challenge. So many of the one-word prompts I'm trying to keep up with lend themselves to more serious posting, and I just can't do that every day. I can't be deep and inspirational 7 days a week, at least not on purpose, because I need to tell you all about my daughter's quirky Greyhound and how she likes to hang out in the closet.

I need to tell you that little girls grow up, but never outgrow their love of all things Harry Potter, and how my 27-year old daughter is like a kid at Christmas when she talks about her upcoming trip to Florida.

I need to tell you how I spent the day wrestling thorny vines from around the trunks of tall tall pines and how I secretly love operating the giant loppers. How my hubs let me carry on lopping even though I knew it was absolutely killing him to watch me try to get those clippers around the base of those tangled up vines, tug with all my might, and not injure myself in the process.


I need to tell you he just smiled and said he was glad I was there by his side.

I need to tell you how the bright blue autumn sky makes my heart leap and how we sat on our very own shoreline and agreed that buying this lot and building this house was the absolute best decision we'd ever made.

I need to tell you love can last a lifetime.

I need to tell you that seeing septic lines installed on your recently cleared lake lot ranks right up there as best.date.ever. That watching a giant digger turn the red clay earth into your future home is downright thrilling.

I need to tell you there is magic in the beauty of an ordinary day.

So I'm giving myself a break, although I'm still determined to meet the Write 31 Challenge and blog every day this month. I so appreciate the prompts for those days when I'm stuck, but have figured out too why they're not working for me like I thought they would. The way I write best is to pour out all my many words and figure out the one word theme when I'm through, not the other way round.

I need to tell you I still love to write and when I write I need to be me.

11 comments:

  1. Excellent post Joyce. I look forward to reading your posts these next weeks. You are always fun to read.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great post. I think many of us are getting bogged down. It's supposed to be "free writes," but many have made it much more complicated than that. I'm having to do the same thing; just write what comes up and be satisfied with it. BTW--I'm inspired by your words, Joyce.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Whatever, whoever, or wherever you are inspired to write I am there....I love it every time. You make me think, smile, laugh, cry, reminiscence and identify. Doesn't get much better in my opinion. So keep it up please! lol Enjoy your day. btw, watching your house go up must be beyond exciting and satisfying. I am enjoying reading about it too.

    ReplyDelete
  4. You look so cute in that photo - so happy :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Cute picture of you. Amen to your post. I am like that too.

    ReplyDelete
  6. When I checked out the list of prompts, I thought the same thing. Seemed all deep all the time. And lord knows that is not what/how I write. Ha ha. You do a fabulous job of making it all relevant and totally and simply YOU. And THAT is why I like you so much.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Good for you. That is called being adaptable!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Septic lines -- funny how our perception of romance changes over many years of marriage. But I get it.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Great photo and I agree that those trimmers are lots of fun to use!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I always enjoy reading your posts. I can understand wanting to follow a challenge but my view would be I blog for me. Therefore it has to work for me. If others like what I write that's a bonus.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I agree with your writing approach. Requiring you to write about a particular word or phrase is too much like a test. We all are tested many times but who needs more tests than life already gives us without asking?
    BTW - I suspect you had that picture taken BEFORE you started attacking those tough vines. You don't appear to have been working too hard.

    ReplyDelete