A moment in time

December 23, 2010 | Words

You know how someone says something that’s simply perfect? Linda Lowen just did that in her post about Elizabeth Edwards, Saying Goodbye to Elizabeth Edwards and Remembering Dana.

Let me just say that some things were simply meant to just … be.

A summer day spent on a beach with two close female friends may be special in and of itself. But we’re unable to retain a sense of the magic of that individual day when we see it as just one of many in a long line of bright, beautiful, shining days ahead of us, the days hanging like pearls on a strand, the years dangling like multiple strands on a necklace. It’s only when we take that one pearl out of context and suspend it on its own chain that we see how rare, how lustrous, and how small a thing it is.

Beautiful. Thank you, Linda.

Words to live by

October 6, 2010 | Friends,Words

Refuse to excuse bad behavior.

Love

March 1, 2010 | Words

Sometimes it takes someone else’s words to express how you feel.

I don’t want to be loved just because I am a sister, a mother, an old friend, or a known quantity. I want to be loved because I’m worthy – because I give it back with an open heart – because whether we are together or at a distance, we both feel drawn to care for, support, and love each other with the best of everything that is within us, knowing that mediocrity is the antithesis of interest.

Love me because I’m worthy. If you believe I am not, then you really shouldn’t love me at all.

Thank you, Jane, at Finding My America for sharing so much with your words.

Happy

February 24, 2010 | Blogland games,Stuff,Words

Magpie Musing makes me think. She also makes me happy. She’s inspired me (again), this time to think about what makes me happy. Here’s a list.

• Books
  

  “Nothing is more human than a book.” ~ Marilynne Robinson, The Paris Review, Issue 186, Fall 2008.

• Laughter
• Hugs your body fits right into
• Lists — making them, crossing them off
• Brilliant summer greens
• Blooming azaleas
• Angel-food cake
• Making a good meal then sitting down to eat it with people I love (and some wine, of course)
• Coffee
• The orange sky that makes my kids say, “Mommy, that’s such a beautiful sunset! I bet you wish you had your camera.” (Yep.)
  
• Music, music, music ~ How can you listen to any of these songs and not at least smile? Say Hey (I Love You), Michael Franti; Love Serenade, The Waifs; Sweet Potato Pie, James Taylor; How I do math: Una mas cervesa + Billy Bacon & the Forbidden Pigs + the Zoo Bar = One Mighty Tasty Tex-Mex Bluesbilly Taco

Abba dabba dabba dabba dabba dabba dabba, said the monkey to the chimp

December 6, 2008 | Words

Sayings that make me giggle.

“It’s always in the last place you look.”

Well, actually, it’s usually in the second-to-last place I look. Because after I’ve found it? I like to keep looking.

Picking nits: Psst! Don’t use ‘fanny’ in a headline!

May 25, 2008 | Picking nits,Words

Unless you want all the folks who speak British English to spit their coffee because, umm, fanny doesn’t mean buttocks to them. It means :::whisper::: female genitalia.

Ahem.

So imagine non-American-English speakers reading this headline on the front page of The Wall Street Journal the other day.

Modest Proposal: A Vermont Town Bucks Nakedness, Skinny-Dipping Spurs An Outbreak of Nudity; The Fanny-Pack Man

A man with a fanny-pack, no less.

Fanny issues might not be discussed much in, oh, The Economist, but they are discussed elsewhere.

But, hey. I bet one of the new bosses (you know, the ones from Australia?) might have an idea why using fanny in any context while trying to be serious might have the Brits laughing their arses off at the daft wanks, er, Yanks, who thought it was a good idea at the time.

Just sayin’.

Writing From The Heart – Guest Post by Rebecca Laffar-Smith

December 27, 2007 | Guest blogger,Guest post,Words

Wow! It sure is a trip to be connecting with readers across the web in realms I tread with caution. I’m Rebecca Laffar-Smith from over at The Writer’s Round-About and when Becky asked if I’d help out by writing a guest post I thought it was a great idea. She’s off exploring the world and all her readers have an opportunity to hear from so many different voices while she’s away.

You should read the email she left us all with. A lengthy list of topics we could wander into along with free reign to do whatever we wanted instead. Becky, you’re a very brave person. I’m not particularly brave so I’m going to stick with a topic I know well.

You don’t have to be a professional writer to experience the joy and wonder of written expression. Writing often feels like an enforced part of our daily lives. We rarely make time to write for ourselves. Do you keep a journal? Write about your dreams? List your ideas? Or is your writing limited to shopping lists, work reports and financial statements?

Taking up a pen and notebook is a simple way to create inspiration in your life. Write down what you are thankful for or what you’ve accomplished today. Reignite your life by exploring who you really are. By committing your thoughts to paper you create a record you can reflect on in years to come.

One advantage of writing only for yourself is that you don’t have to write well. The most important key to developing writing skills is to dig deep into your heart. We all begin with the basic understanding of sentence structure and composition. Developing the skills of a professional writer is not something those who write for themselves have to do. So long as you can read your own writing you can write in any way you like, about anything you like. Explore the topics that interest you and weave yourself with the language and words that fire your emotions.

You do not have to fear censorship or ridicule. What you write in your personal journal is for your eyes only. There is an amazing freedom when we permit ourselves to commit the significance of our thoughts to paper and the privacy to hold these words close to our hearts.

Explore your mind and emotions. Discover your inner being and the wealth of your subconscious intelligence. All it takes is a few minutes a day to open yourself to new ideas and a form of relaxation that gives your creative voice the freedom to sing its own song.

Write from your heart today and visit The Writer’s Round-About if you’d like to read more about writing.

Sometimes I’m just a jerk*

December 15, 2007 | 2008 campaign,Words

So I read this.

MONTICELLO, IA.– As the sun was rising over the snow covered Iowa farmland, dotted with rolled bales of hay or straw (Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times kindly briefed me on the difference), the bus carrying reporters covering presidential candidate Barack Obama was headed towards Friday’s first campaign stop.

Oh, right. They don’t have hay and straw (or Wikipedia, for that matter) in Chicago. Or, gee, anywhere else in the state. And isn’t it amusing that someone at The New York Times is not from New York City?!? [guffaw, slap knees] Besides, it wouldn’t have the same ring to it to drop Freddy Farmer’s name from the Podunk County Weekly News. Now would it?

*asshole

I can’t help it … schwing!

December 14, 2007 | Weird things,Words

I can’t see this:

Without thinking about this.

Word of the day: Celebritards

September 17, 2007 | Stephen King,Words

I found a new word, courtesy of Stephen King, who used it in his The Pop of King column on the back page of the Sept. 21, 2007, issue of Entertainment Weekly. He talks about liking the silence of Australia, where he spent a month riding a motorcycle and sleeping under the stars, sans celebritards on the television. He didn’t coin the word (it’s listed in the Urban Dictionary), but his column is the first place I’ve seen it used.