This Perfectly Imperfect Life

I've been writing again in addition to journaling, thanks to bff G & I resuming our weekly writing exchange this month and my kicking my arse into gear with the private online writing group I moderate. (I can't tell you how good it feels to be writing again!) Here are two pieces from this week. Prompt (from private online writing group): Write a piece (fiction, non, poem, essay, etc) in which you use the following words: frozen, shaded, frustrated, feather, animated, distant. (fiction) The day after a snow storm usually consists of a brilliant blue and cloudless sky, wind and bitter cold temperatures, and abundant sunshine. Today was no exception. Sophie found herself shading her eyes against the glare with her hand when she looked out on the frozen lake. It, like everything else, was blanketed with fresh snow that had stopped in the early hours before dawn. She smiled when she saw prints in the snow going across the lake from their front yard where the boat and canoe w...

Right off the bat, the thought of a new year makes me sad. New Year's Eve is, and always has been, depressing for me. It signals the end of my favorite time of year (the Holidays, including Halloween) and the beginning of what I call the "ho-hum" time of year (which lasts for me until the Holidays roll around again). No matter how much I'm in love with Winter or the beginning of Spring, it doesn't change this for me. (Thank God I discovered gardening to get me through the warm months of the year!) Some years it's harder than others for me to get through this time. Focusing on something positive, like my overall intention for the coming new year, has been a great way to help me through the end of one year and the beginning of the next. I begin journaling on my "word" for the coming year around the Winter Solstice. I've moved onto a new word for 2011 ("create") from "simplicity" which I focused on in 2009 and 2010. I will say th...

Written 10/23/09 Nothing makes me think of Fall & the coming of cooler weather like the scent of woodsmoke in the air and the scent of cinnamon apple candles . As soon as I catch a whiff of either one, I think of the first time Hubby took me up to his family cabin in The Endless Mountains Region of North Eastern Pennsylvania. It was October 2004, the first weekend of the month and we headed up on Friday evening when he got home from work. I hadn't been away for a weekend in Years and I couldn't wait to get out into the country, especially after hearing so many of his tales. I was enthralled for the entire ride, through parts of NJ I'd never been to and into PA. It was all so pretty with the changing colors. On 81N the reds were just Popping out on either side of the highway. I had the feeling somewhere along the way that I was home. There's a wood burning stove in the cabin, the only heat source and so most of the time when we were there we had a fire going. (The ne...

Quiet. It's quiet! That's the first thing I notice about Fall's arrival, usually before the calendar's announcement. Mother Nature chooses when seasons come & go. Crickets chirping in the daylight. Birds coming back to the feeder. Deer on the move. Less street traffic during. Less coming & going. Children at school, no playing noises. Breezes blowing dried leaves along the side walks. And that's what catches my attention. Then I realize... It's quiet. Quiet! Autumn mornings... Calming. Soothing. Inspiring. Quiet.

(Written throughout the week of and on September 11, 2009) I was supposed to be on the 78th floor of World Trade Center Tower 2 that morning. Instead, I was safe at home in my living room. People I would've been working with, my boss (the wonderful man who hired me), gone. People I didn't have a chance to get to know and wish I did. I called out of my job that morning because I didn't have faith in myself & my abilities and therefore no courage to continue working in Manhattan - no, the job itself wasn't what I wanted to do, but I'd always dreamed of working in NYC, because it was a Beautiful Autumn morning and I just didn't have it in me to go into work. I'd been up for awhile but only turned on the tv just before the 2nd plane hit. They were only reporting Tower 1 was on fire at that point. They didn't know. A few moments later, I watched a plane swoop around the Towers and fly strait into Tower 2. My Tower. My floor. The tv screen went to snow. (I...

These vines were unlike anything I've ever seen, in my garden or wrapped around the trees outside our back yard fence. They'd been there so long, their lengths has turned to bark, as thick as 2 inches around in some places. How long had this barn been here? Better question yet, how long had the vines been wrapped around it? They looked older than the barn itself but I don't know how that could be possible. Unlike most plants which wrapped themselves around a structure, these hadn't forced their ways into every nook & cranny of the surfaces they covered and weren't jeopardizing the barns' stability. No trees grew up and through what seemed to be a vine covered hole in the roof. "Amazing!" I said aloud, standing in front of it, camera in hand, not moving. I had wanted to come out and take pictures of this place since we moved here nearly 4 years ago and decided during breakfast that today was the day. With it being only a short distance up the road f...

The First Time I Tried Writing (And I'm Not Talking ABC's) I don't remember if it was late Winter or early Spring, but I remember it being warm & sunny, one of those first kinds of days after what seemed like a long, cold Winter. It was a Sunday morning. I had just watched an episode on PBS of a British TV version of Little Women. Before this, I'd only known of the book, which I bought at one of the school book fairs. (6th grade and I still have it!) I so adored watching it and seeing my favorite parts of the story, especially Jo, come to life. The day before, my new desk from the used furniture store had been delivered and was still sitting in the living room in front of the large window because Mom hadn't taken apart the old desk to throw out yet. I vaguely remember the desk being brown, but I'm unsure if that memory is correct, and that I was wearing something purple. A sweatshirt? I sat down at the desk and stared out that window, which was open wide. Th...