Rumors Together

I put the first copy in my bag, wanted to bring it along to show my sister.

About an hour into the trip, I heard my girl laughing in the back seat.

"What are you reading?" I asked.

"Your book," she said.

She'd quietly pulled it from the bag when I wasn't looking. I'd been driving, listening to music, admiring the field grasses now purpling at their tips. I'd been noticing twin bright lemon butterflies dancing on air, and I'd been feeling a longing for the connection that these air-dancers seemed to speak of.

My girl read the whole way, sometimes laughing, sometimes pausing to tell me more about some story I'd told (and had only known the half of).

When I pulled into my sister's driveway and turned off the car, my girl didn't move. "We're here," I encouraged her, wanting her to put the book down.

"I'm on the last page," she said.

I waited quietly, looking out into the pines and the wild-flower yard.

"It's not exactly what happened," she said. "But it's perfect."

"I understand," I said. Then I whispered the last line of the book to her and added, "It's for you too, you know, not just for Sonia. It's my love letter to both of you."

She leaned forward and hugged me, and we sat there holding each other for a long moment. My heart, in its way, danced butterfly-bright on air.



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Available at Amazon Retail.


Floral designs by Sonia, 11. Sara in the car (snapped in transit... I pointed the camera backwards, clicked, and hoped for the best :)

On, In, and Around Mondays: What's Your Klout?

Last week, my High Calling team got into a conversation about Klout. I went to the Klout website to see what the buzz was about...

"Everyone has Klout. Discover yours," says the site tagline.

I thought about this a lot. Klout's definition of clout is something like... how much you tweet and Facebook and get retweeted and shared. It's about who you influence and whether someone "important" influences you. Klout can even put a number on it.



But a number can't describe depth of influence. It can't say who is actually changed by knowing me (or you). And it can't measure how.

On Sunday, because of the hurricane, I stayed home with the girls. Sara had recently told me she misses how we used to learn hymns together. I never would have known, if she hadn't spoken up.

So here we were home on a Sunday, and the logical thing presented itself to me: why not learn a hymn together?

"Could you be our researcher?" I asked Sonia.

"What do you mean?"

I asked her to find out more about the hymn writer's life, the music, the history, the symbols. I think I'll write about that over at Love Notes to Yahweh; after all, she did teach us some very interesting things, some of which I suspect she and her sister will carry forward into their lives.



Mostly, this rich hymn experience on a rainy Sunday morning reminded me that clout cannot truly be measured. Mine, Sonia's, or yours. We never know what the influence of our words, our hands, our song might be on even one heart. It cannot be tracked like a tweet or a Facebook share.



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On, In and Around Mondays (which partly means you can post any day and still add a link) is an invitation to write from where you are. Tell us what is on, in, around (over, under, near, by...) you. Feel free to write any which way... compose a tight poem or just ramble for a few paragraphs. But we should feel a sense of place. Would you like to try? Write something 'in place' and add your link below.

If you could kindly link back here when you post, it will create a central meeting place. :)

<a href="http://seedlingsinstone.blogspot.com"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5083/5217906589_c7120874ca.jpg" width="308" height="69" alt="On In Around button" />

This post is also shared with Laura Boggess, for...

On, In, and Around Mondays: Rumors • Sneak Peek

If you'd like to see a sneak peek of Rumors of Water: Thoughts on Creativity and Writing, and the final cover (photo by Claire Burge and floral designs by my little girl Sonia), stop by this quiet place.

And thank you to everyone who shared thoughts and support, from the beginning of the whole writing process, right on through the discussions of the cover. I appreciate your love.


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On, In and Around Mondays (which partly means you can post any day and still add a link) is an invitation to write from where you are. Tell us what is on, in, around (over, under, near, by...) you. Feel free to write any which way... compose a tight poem or just ramble for a few paragraphs. But we should feel a sense of place. Would you like to try? Write something 'in place' and add your link below.

If you could kindly link back here when you post, it will create a central meeting place. :)

<a href="http://seedlingsinstone.blogspot.com"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5083/5217906589_c7120874ca.jpg" width="308" height="69" alt="On In Around button" />

This post is also shared with Laura Boggess, for...

On, In, and Around Mondays: When the Compass Tilts

"It's a beautiful place," I told my girls. "Antiques, flowers, classical music. A painted chess board in the sitting room."

They were intrigued.

"The tea is delicious. And the breakfast is simple but elegant."

They were ready to go.

"Because I made the reservations late, they actually threw in a room just for you girls. You'll have your own."

It would be our follow-up vacation to last week's few days in New York City. This time we'd go back to Manhattan, but to a quieter place. A place I love and wanted to share with my girls.



"She's going in for a bypass."

I got the call. We turned our car north, instead of hopping on a train south.



"We'll go to the hotel with the fun breakfast," I told the girls. (Holiday Inn Express!) "It has a pool, remember? We'll be together. You'll see your cousins."

(Bypass, six-way. It was a silent heart attack. She's a good candidate for surgery.)



I canceled the antiques, the tea, the chess table. I embraced the visits, the drive, the thought of being, perhaps, a comfort to my mother.



The girls got an unexpected invitation to my Aunt's house. "You'll love it," I told them. "It's, I don't know how to describe it. It's whimsical. It's eclectic. It's like your own personal art museum."



My Aunt taught the girls a glass-painting and transfer technique. They had cream-cheese and jelly sandwiches together. They explored the gardens and played with the collie dog.



I spent days with my mother. More than I have in years. We began in silence, as she slept and recovered. But soon she regained her color, her voice. We spoke of her growing-up times. How had I missed that she grew up on a farm? We talked about how they ate duck eggs and walked the orchards in spring. "There's nothing like the smell of all those blossoms," she told me.

I felt I'd been propelled back in time. And somehow, forward.



The days passed. We turned our car back to the south. The girls, for the first time in a long time, sang together. A round.




Artwork and Home shots taken at the house of Gail Nadeau, by L.L. Barkat.

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On, In and Around Mondays (which partly means you can post any day and still add a link) is an invitation to write from where you are. Tell us what is on, in, around (over, under, near, by...) you. Feel free to write any which way... compose a tight poem or just ramble for a few paragraphs. But we should feel a sense of place. Would you like to try? Write something 'in place' and add your link below.

If you could kindly link back here when you post, it will create a central meeting place. :)

<a href="http://seedlingsinstone.blogspot.com"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5083/5217906589_c7120874ca.jpg" width="308" height="69" alt="On In Around button" />

This post is also shared with Laura Boggess, for...

The Glinda Guide to Creativity

Absurdity breeds creativity. At least that's what Psyblog claims.

And I think they might be right.

While many of us wish that life would come with a map, it's the unmapped experiences that often seem to spark the most new thinking. The dynamic? Absurdity is a meaning-threat that causes us to want to... make meaning. This can be good news on the Creativity Front, especially for parents of toddlers and teens, don't you think? :)



This past weekend we went to New York City. It was a whirlwind trip, barely planned.



Teen girls in tow, we mostly let our days unfold. The city is its own brand of absurdity. The show we attended (Wicked) was too. I came home in a kind of bubble, my mind filled with rainbow magical thoughts, my creativity lifted.

Psyblog doesn't follow up with it's assertion about the relationship of Absurdity to Creativity, but I'm guessing it's important to have a rhythm in place. I'm guessing that non-stop absurdity might not be beneficial (and this is why we must put our toddlers and teens to bed at a reasonable hour :). I'm guessing it is also useful to extend our Creative ideas over time, after our absurd experiences.

So here I am, thinking about Glinda again. Three's a charm, so they say.

On, In, and Around Mondays: Art is a Touchdown

Implicit in any art, says Luci Shaw, is a "certain unpredictability, an element of surprise."

Can a mini-vacation, then, be a form of art?

Maybe. This weekend, we sneaked away to New York City. It is the kind of place where you can lose yourself, let yourself be carried by a certain unpredictability. Make plans, then change them when you see a line with a two-hour wait to view the fashions of Alexander McQueen at the Metropolitan.









This morning I am too tired to do what Luci says art also requires, and that is a gathering of the "watered wrinkles" of time, into "prisms refracting the light."

Perhaps I will wake up by tomorrow. Or the day after. And take you with me to the Russian Tea Room, Central Park, The Highline, or Wicked.

For now, like Glinda, I'm still traveling a bit by bubble. Finding it hard to touch down...




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Over at The High Calling, we're walking beside each other, discussing Luci Shaw's Breath for the Bones: Art, Imagination and Spirit: A Reflection on Creativity and Faith. Want to join us?

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On, In and Around Mondays (which partly means you can post any day and still add a link) is an invitation to write from where you are. Tell us what is on, in, around (over, under, near, by...) you. Feel free to write any which way... compose a tight poem or just ramble for a few paragraphs. But we should feel a sense of place. Would you like to try? Write something 'in place' and add your link below.

If you could kindly link back here when you post, it will create a central meeting place. :)

<a href="http://seedlingsinstone.blogspot.com"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5083/5217906589_c7120874ca.jpg" width="308" height="69" alt="On In Around button" />

This post is also shared with Laura Boggess, for...

Rumors • Book Cover, Take Three

The back cover is a place to do things too. So I'm thinking this might be a way to keep my dear Little One's designs— even give them more play.

I felt there still needed to be a nip of hand-drawn design on the cover. It adds something of the human. I am still undecided about whether I should go with the nip or the ribbon across the bottom.

Click to see large nip cover.

Click to see large ribbon cover.

Well, in any case: Take Three. :)




Take Three and a Half:

Click to see large image of Whole Leaf cover

Ready for an Onion Date

How to stay creative?

There are so many answers.

I like Julia Cameron's idea. The Artist's Date.

Yet my life doesn't easily accommodate such goings-on. I have two girls who I home-educate. I take care of my house (okay, I try :) — mowing, clipping, cleaning. I work as a writer and manager.

When would I possibly plan a date? It's hard.

Thus, my boy-scouts (girl scouts?) approach: always be prepared. There are dates lurking around unexpected corners, if only we are ready for them.

On Saturday, for instance, I ended up needing to take my daughter to a friend's house, far away. Spur-of-the-moment sleepover invitation. I had meant to spend the morning writing, but suddenly...

I saw my chance.

Camera, notebook, Luci Shaw. Into the bag. Water bottle, tissues, and banana muffin (in case I needed a survival kit)— also into the bag. And Lady Gaga, of all people: into the bag. Her music inspires me, despite that her risque lyrics, triangle hair and dresses are... what shall we say... creative.

Gaga in the speakers, the hours before me, I made a date with the day. I stopped on the side of the road to capture a little cottage.



I found a barn full of antiques and... corn, squash, onions, tomatoes.





As part of my survival plan, I stopped at a park that has a bathroom with running water and a brass lock on the door. Along the way to tile floors and paper towels, I found pinecones new-minted, red leaves flaming against blue skies, and bare-faced wildflowers that Lady Gaga could never rival with plastic or pop. On the way home, I did, however, turn up the music and dream.





The creative life doesn't hand itself to us. We hand ourselves to it. One creative date at a time.



Wordle by Sonia. Used with permission.

Rumors • The Book Cover, Take Two

Listening to your feedback, I wonder if this might work...

:)


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Maureen, here it is with the other text :)