Day 4 of my 365 days of blogging, is all about living in an area shared with many different types of wildlife. Saunter over and check it out. While you are there, click the follow button to join me on this upcoming year of blogging.
Click the link then click follow once you get there.
I would love to have some company along the way.
From Cave Walls – My 365 Day Journey Home
My blog is up on my 365 Day Challenge.
Today I wrote about the search for my roots.
If you want to follow along on this year-long journey, follow the link below and follow my new blog (FROM CAVE WALLS) there.
I am only going to post the referral link to the new blog for a few more days. I hope to see you following the new blog. I am not sure where the journey will take me, but I would love to have you with me.
FROM CAVE WALLS – MY 365 DAY JOURNEY HOME
Enjoy!
Maggie
Well, friends. I made it to Day Two on my 365 Day Blog Challenge.
Take a peek, click below and use the follow button on the new blog to follow me on this new journey.
Yes, friends, this is what I signed up for. My daughter said, “Mom, that’s great but this is so much more than your 30 days of NaNoWriMo!!!!” She is so right but I feel an unfamiliar dedication to this project.
NaNoWriMo is an annual event in which writers from all over the world set out to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. It takes place every November and every year I join. I do not always finish. Honestly, I do not always get halfway. So what makes me think I will blog every day for 365 days?
First of all, my creative mind often gets sidetracked from everyday stresses and obligations. Writing a blog allows me to write about those events and clear them out of my way. Secondly, NaNoWriMo is very volume and deadline driven. Having that kind of pressure does not always work for me.
I also like to write about little miracles and little beautiful occurrences throughout the day. Like today, for example, I saw the most beautiful butterfly. It was blue and its wings glistened in the sunlight. I had just watered the plants and the butterfly swooped down to the little puddle of water I created on the sidewalk. It was just a tiny moment in my day but it has stayed with me all day.
Since I decided to do this project with my friend, Maitri, I seem to have a motivation I have been lacking. I know I need to be careful not to set too many expectations for myself, but I am anxious to work on things I have set aside for far too long. I think I have needed the push.
I have decided to create yet another WordPress blog for this 365 day adventure. I have a website I considered putting it on, but it is under construction and I did not want to bog down my blog with the design work I need to finish. I also decided not to blog here because this blog to me has a different purpose and so much family history. It just means something different to me.
So, if you care to follow along on this 365 day journey, I would welcome the company and the encouragement. I’ll be blogging on a new WordPress blog: From Cave Walls. I’ll be there for the next year starting September 24th!
Hope to see you there! Happy Blogging!
I could feel my heartbeat quickening. Just my luck it would start to pour as I pulled into the grocery store. Luckily, I was in my sweats and crocs so getting wet was really not a big deal. As I reached down to turn off the engine, I saw this image. Suddenly this world of dreary rain was transformed into a raindrop mosaic. I just sat there for a few minutes taking it all in.
Yes, I got wet. I couldn’t ‘run’ into the store – crocs are very slippery when wet and as a 64 year old woman, I don’t take those types of chances. Although a bit scraggly looking, I managed to get my shopping done and head back to the car.
My drive home is only about 15 minutes. The rain had stopped, but the show had just begun. The rain mixed with the heat of the day caused steam to rise out of the mountains. It was as if there were fire-breathing dragons nestled between the ridges of the mountains. I was flooded with memories of this same steam when I was a child. I am always a little surprised when childhood memories – locked away for years – decide to surface. We think we have forgotten these little slices of our life, but they are there. Carefully guarded little snippets of every place we have been, tucked away until we call upon them again.
As I turned into my driveway, the steam rising off the asphalt was almost like fog. It was magical. I did not engage my logical brain to try and analyze what what caused the steam, I just took it all in. Yes, magical indeed.
What started as a quick trip to the store under less than perfect conditions turned into what I like to call a ‘breathable moment’.
Breathable moments may be God’s way of telling us to slow down and relax. I need more of those in my life. The funny thing is they are around us all the time. We just get too harried and too busy to take note. My goal is to move a little slower, a little more deliberately.
As I undertake writing a blog every day for 365 days, I will be taking advantage of all the breathable moments I can get. I want to rest my analytical brain and activate my creative and playful brain.
Last night was a good start.
Today I have been strolling through time. I have been in my head a lot and trying to make some sense of where I am emotionally. For the last few years I feel I have been straddling the fence between living and dying. So much loss in my life has brought me to the realization that I am stuck. I need to move on and today I realized for the first time in a long time, that I am ready to do so.
I recently signed up to take what I thought was going to be a rather innocuous online writing class. I’m not sure why I signed up to begin with other than I knew of the teacher, Maitri Libellule, from an online community. She always had my respect so I decided to go for it. I had no idea what to expect and I immediately began to question whether I should do this. I mean, after all, I’m not ‘really’ a writer. I have a history of starting and stopping projects and honestly, l half expected this to turn out the same.
Boy was I wrong. Maitri has created a safe space where a group of very diverse women from across the globe look forward to gathering. Once a week, for two hours, we are guided through some very sacred work. I didn’t expect it. It can make you feel vulnerable and exposed but even so, we all seem to flourish there.
Through my own writing, I have examined people and places I did not necessarily want to visit. I have found a deeper place I had kept hidden – buried almost – because that seemed safer somehow.
What I am realizing is when you bury events, or pain, or even happiness from seeing the light, the darkness seeps into you soul. You don’t realize it. You may not even know it’s happening until something happens to release it all.
Now, don’t get me wrong. This is not a therapy session, although the writing can be very therapeutic. This class is designed to remove those things that block us from being everything we can be – everything we were meant to be. I was stuck. I know that. I knew it years ago, but I refused to acknowledge it.
In all the dust, I have found cobwebs which I am now spinning into ladders. I am climbing out. I am finding myself and my voice. My voice has been sad and dark for a long time and I am tired of feeling that way. I have JOY in my life and I want to see it in the full light of day.
So, how do I accomplish such a huge goal? For one, I remain faithful to the commitment to attend The Sunday Night Writing Group For Women that Maitri so generously hosts every week. Secondly, I have committed to join her and blog every day for 365 days. Wow. That sounds overwhelming. What will I talk about? Maybe just my every day life. Maybe my dreams. Maybe my projects. Maybe I will even blog about some of the sadness in my life, but I know I will not make that the prevailing theme of what I write. I do not want to feel stuck any more.
It is a first step. Now I need to decide where to blog – here or on a totally new blog. I have a week or so to decide so I will post here and let everyone know what I plan to do.
I am anxious to explore this time, these feelings, this newfound joy. I am moving into a place of greater joy and that makes me happy. I am so thankful for this class and for the revelations it has uncovered for me. I am moving and movement feels glorious when you have been stagnant as long as I have been.
If you are curious about this class, click the link above and read about it. Currently, registrations are closed, but I urge anyone that earnestly wants to dive deep into their lives through writing to at least check it out. You will not be sorry.
“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.”
Rumi
A Life Worth Living 