A Writerly Friday Afternoon ~ 1

Yesterday’s blog post - An Awakening - was my completed assignment for our November Writer’s Ink group meeting. The topic - ‘the missing month’ - was suggested by one of the members - oh, yes that would be me - as our topic. As usual we each created a different, and entertaining, scenario for this topic.

Yesterday afternoon, our small group of five friends gathered, assignments in on paper or computer, for our November Writer’s group. We wrote just a bit more following our discussion of the upcoming Writer's Festival. Each month, the host of our group chooses a timed writing exercise. My piece, which I’ve edited for the purposes of posting tonight, was written over four minutes with the parameters below:

The required theme for this exercise was 'Nature' with the direction for the use of the following list of five words in the timed piece -
Hard drive
Stapler
Phone
Car
Billboard

Technology and Nature

Morning walks in Beacon Hill park seem to be a thing of the past. The past summer at least. My faithful phone has always come with me. In the beginning it was just to keep track of the time. To set my timer to see how long and how far. If the morning was still dark to turn my flashlight on. No phone calls though. The camera feature I did use - pictures of squirrels, morning fog, deer, playgrounds  - and anything natural came zipping into my phone’s photo albums. Walking home, waiting for cars to pass before I crossed the street, I fed said photo’s onto my hard drive, to be used later on for attachments to letters, notes, and emails. If I sent an actual paper letter to someone, I could print out my pictures and use a stapler to attach them to the letter. Billboards are another issue entirely. I have taken pictures of them on my phone from my car but billboards are the only thing missing from these morning walks, and one not terribly missed at all. There are  the bill boards that line the highways coming into Kelowna, B.C, or on the way home to Victoria from the ferry. The vitality of both nature and technology are mated and married on a walk to the park, down a street or driving in the car from one place to the next. Technology, ever growing, as weeds and flowers in a fertile land, comes with us wherever we go so trips come home with us, whether walking or riding. When will technology bring us the smell of the flowers in spring, or the lovely aroma of curried chicken floating from a kitchen window? I suspect this technology has already been invented, just is not in my hands yet.

“Technology is the campfire around which we tell our stories.”

~ Laurie Anderson

An Awakening

An Awakening

Camilla woke up one morning, as she did every morning, preparing to go to work. Or was it to join the Walking Group that met each Monday at Dallas Road? Hmmm. In the snug warmth of her bed, she mused about what day it was ~ maybe it was…………… A thought struck her ~ enough to make her sit straight in bed ~ not only what day was it but what week or month? And was it really 2014? Pushing her covers aside, she remembered all the times she had asked these very questions of patients and clients over the years. Sometimes quite impatiently so, because she was in a hurry and had work to get done. Now it was her turn to be impatient with herself. Grabbing her cozy housecoat and pushing her feet into her floppy eared bunny slippers, she decided that a good cup of tea and checking her calendar would be wise. She could depend on the big calendar, with inspirational sayings from Thich Nhat Hahn in her kitchen to restore sanity. Today, it was not the inspirational saying that she looked for, although ‘Smile, breathe and go slowly.’ was exactly what she needed to hear. That piece of wisdom was right there beneath the month ~ November, 2014. 'At least I got the year right' Camilla muttered to herself. November!!! Where did October go? How could I miss an entire month. And a month with thirty one days. With Thanksgiving and Hallowe’en celebrated with many, many smiles, food, candy, pumpkins. She had to steady herself with the awful thought that she might really be losing touch with reality.

As though she had someone watching her, she blushed at her agitation. Then she read all the things on October's page done, participated in, and enjoyed ~ an October life well lived. Smiling at her morning panic, Camilla’s mind began to clear of her fears. The only part of October that had been missed, was not the entire month, but Writer’s group on Oct. 3^rd when group members had been off and away, not back before that first Friday of the month had passed.

For Camille, it had seemed such a gaping hole that she felt as though a whole month had been missed. Added to that was the speed with which time had seemed to vanish as one day swallowed the next day like some kind of a hungry ghost. Camilla’s work with clients with dementia had been the final piece of her morning’s frightening puzzle. All of that swirling fear and impatience, left with her first sip of hot tea, replaced with vitality, calm and awareness of time, day and clarity of mind. Picking up her book, she settled into her deep, soft armchair to read.

“Smile, breathe and go slowly.”

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Family History

We are spools of brightly coloured thread wrapped tightly around inner cores of light.
Passing days unravel and weave threads through families over generations of mothers and fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles ~ ancestors back and back and back………

Fabric - tapestry - bolts of cloth or small remnants ~
Each individual, each connection vital to the whole.
The vitality of a family, bright gold, shining silver and shadowed black tells the story of generations come, gone and moving into futures yet to be told.

“The tapestry of history has no point at which 

   you can cut it and leave the design intelligible.”.

~ Dorothea Dix

Engaging Controls

A little boy danced his full body jig,

mom frantically attentive at his side.

Little sister stayed close to young mom.

Big blue sedan stopped as it should,

at the big red stop sign for big people rules,

watching for pedestrians walking politely across ~

except for the bouncing little boy,

who straightened up tall with serious face ~

marching, controlling the jig that he danced.

The vitality of young ones,

jigging a jig or marching a march,

need mom to slow the dance to march 'cross the road.

“The blessedness of being little!!”

~ William Shakespeare

Remembering the Old Ones

Blindness and frailty

Eyes milky with age

glossed with muted sparkle

Voice trembles

Words mix awkwardly

Strengthened by long ago character.

The young woman, the core of her elder self,

still learning, finally lets

vitality fly into the ether.

The old one’s form and substance

from all the growing up and growing through the years

washed and tucked away in many memories.

“Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced.”

~ John Keats

Life Force ~ #2

I don’t really use the word ‘vitality’ a lot, so I’ve contacted Professor Google again to see what I could find. My question was - is there a difference between energy and vitality?  It seemed a simple enough question and one that I could probably answer myself. Posing the question, I recognized a slight difference between the two words. A difference that is like holding an object up to the light and turning it just a tiny degree so it shows a different facet of the same object.

Many times I have had the energy and even the stamina to complete a task or group of tasks because of some form of commitment, whether to myself or to someone else. If the job involves something that does not really interest me, the time seems to pass so very slowly; however if the interest is closely aligned with my own there is a difference to that energy. Much like the difference of holding an object up to a light and turning it just a tiny degree to find that what is beneath the slowly draining energy and waning stamina that still glows with its own energy.

What is vitality? Where does it come from? The reading I have done so far speaks of spirit and inner fire. When my soul is dampened by my own negative self talk, or the negative ‘vibes’ of others, my vitality is weakened. I am pleased to say that today, I feel vital and alive, willing to step forward into my life.

“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, 

that is translated through you into action, because there is 

only one of you in all time, this expression is unique.”

~ Martha Graham

Qualities of Vitality

Vivacious
Iridescent
Tranquility
Artistic
Lyrical
Inspiring
Tenderness
Yummy

“Look beneath the surface; let not the several quality 

of a thing nor it’s worth escape thee.”

~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations