What roles have I played in 2009? That photo to the right here shows me in costume to play the last role I played in 2009. Sister Veronica. to be precise. On stage - but I don't think this question is concerning herself with fiction, so I will try a different approach.
Well, overnight – from midnightish… 12:44 am to be exact until about 3:35 I played the role of the trusted, service oriented friend. Did I want to be there? Was my dream coming true in being there? No. And Yes.
How long has it been since I have been comfortable calling a friend up and out of bed in the middle of the night to take on a three hour long chore to take care of me? Never. I have never done that, made that request on someone’s behalf.
Well, unless you count Cornell rescuing us from Chamberlain this Summer, which wasn't in the middle of the night and was, sort of, pre-planned.
So I have played rescuer and a rescuee.
I have been a creator and a model.
An artist and a subject.
“You are such a hippie!” said Parker and Emma in a giggling duet.
“No, I am not a Hippie, I am just me.” I quietly explained, Hippie-Buddha like.
Roles are the things other people put on me and say, “Wow, that role looks great on you.” To which I choose to say “Thank you!” and keep humming my song.
I play roles on stage: characters, time periods, archetypes, sometimes comedic relief.
The rest of the time, I am just tangibly, whole-hearted and whole-souledly…. Me.
Gwen Bell wants to know our Best09 ….Stationery on December 28.
When you touch the paper, your heart melts. The ink flows from the pen. What was your stationery find of the year?
I enjoy the simple things in life. It started unconsciously and then moved into necessity and now, it is by choice.
I love stationery stores, office supply stuff – back to school sales make me salivate and it takes everything in me not to go berserk for the new stuff, the new stuff, the new stuff!
This year, 2009, I returned to the old fashioned composition book as my favored journal. I found them for something like 49 cents at a discount store at a back-to-school sale in July and bought a whole bunch.
They have been my faithful companion ever since with part of my process being creating fanciful covers for them… well, painting and collaging their covers – which you see in the images here.
I thought a final punctuation mark on this particular #Best09 Blog entry would be to share the first sentence in each book.
The date on the first one says “December, no…JULY 26, 2009.”
“I am looking into the future, to the day after Katherine turns 18.”
August 15, 2009
“It is Saturday morning.”
October 1, 2009
“Welcome to October.”
November 21, 2009
“It is almost noon at my cluttered kitchen table and I return to the page, my pencil leaving its non-xeroxable faces against the paper: truths which refuse to be replicated.”
1. 10 Walks of at least 10 Minutes in length
2. 10 Intentional Conversations with 10 Different people I love
3. 10 Days of Food Diary entries
4. 10 Sessions of Mindful Decluttering
5. 10 Days of the 5 Tibetans
6. 10 Days of 10 Minute Stretching
7. 10 Poems selected for publications
8. 10 Chapters edited
9. 10 New Works of Art
10. 10 Handwritten notes
All the formalities were dropped and we dove immediately into the good stuff, you know?
First, I met Jodi. We decided to spend the morning at the John Muir home in
Since I had the children with me (we were on our road trip, remember) I wanted to schedule moving-and-learning activities when I met friends rather than “lets sit in a Starbucks and chat” sort of moments. The John Muir home was the perfect place and we had a blast laughing and talking and photographing… we fell right into a delicious groove. She felt a little weird at first (surreal is probably a better word) but I was so close to heaven by that point, it was no big deal.
The night before, after all, I had met one of my friends from 43things.com. She had been a beloved for a long time and when I pulled into her driveway (again, with all three children) she was jumping up and down with glee. During that same day I had been to the college my Granny attended nearly eighty years ago and now, I was in the town where I first lived, as a baby, which just happened to be the town she lives in now.
I was on an emotional high that didn’t go away.
My children thought this was such fun, meeting these people who adored their Mommy and knew way too much about them… hey, I am a writer and they are some of my favorite subjects so naturally these “strangers to them” knew oodles about their lives. *Giggle*
It was two days later we arrived at a park for lunch where we met another friend from my writing life. Jan had prepared an outdoor lunch for us to munch on alongside her favorite river (she knew I am a river rat here in
Jan was a gracious host in her favorite park and once again, photos were brought out and pictures were taken, giggles were shared like little girls.
My daughter Katherine recalls those early days of our roadtrip with delight. “I loved meeting your friends and seeing how you responded to each other. You were all like little girls!”
A very high compliment, indeed.
Today, from Gwen Bell's Best09 Blog Challenge:
December 26 Insight or aha! moment. What was your epiphany of the year?
It happened as I was in the midst of a Middle-of-the-Night texting session with my friend, Julia. I was pacing in front of the home of our couch surfing host, Cornell, in
In the texting with Julia, as I paced and frowned and wondered, I wrote, “I feel like this year, 2009, is about completion for me. So much of my life has been about unfinished stuff – so close but so far – like stillbirth. I feel like this unfinished dream is the culmination of that and this year, 2009, is the end of that cycle.”
2009 continued with a different weight for me and has continued to be a bit of a roller coaster but more of a mindful roller coaster. I have never been so calm about whatever happens, happening, and when I say things like “It isn’t good or bad, it just is” I actually mean it.
They aren’t just words anymore.
Now I get to create all over again... woo hoo....
After a week of quasi-resting... yes yes yes....
