The Possibility of Words

A vague memory will surface from time to time of when I was about four or five years old, and my mother was teaching me how to read. I can recall the annoyance and frustration my four-year-old self felt of being "forced" to do such tedious work as stringing the sounds of letters together to make words. Now, of course, I feel nothing but gratitude for her dodged patience and persistence, because I find that I have fallen in love with the written word. I love the possibility that exists within them. I love feeling that a blank page is like a canvas, and that the words I put on it create a painting. I love the thrill of opening a new book and not knowing where the words will take me, and the thrill of opening an old book and being able to take the journey again.

Words can create and destroy. They can soothe and rile. They can pull forth the entire range of human emotion, and paint vistas that are beautiful or ugly, and every possibility in between. Words can take the reader to far off and exotic places - whether they exist in reality or not. They can bring the past to life, or illuminate a future. Combined skillfully, words can walk the reader down the corridor of a medieval castle, or the mud strewn ruts of a peasant village. They can send you soaring into the sky on the backs of dragons and plunge you into the abyss of the ocean. Words can be beautiful, mundane, startling, bold, evasive, dangerous...everything is a possibility.

This, perhaps, is why I love writing so much. I dabbled in it as a child, creating poems and ballads, but not until I graduated from university did I begin to devote time to it in earnest, and it has quickly become a passion.

Because that is what I love - I love to create things.

To weave pictures and paint words.

The Blitz: Part 4 - Reaching for the Finish Line

after over 900 cookies, 150 (or so) muffins, 30 loaves of sweet breads (meaning banana, strawberries, etc...), vats of spaghetti sauce, broccoli cheese soup, ground beef with onions, sliced pork, 8 whole chickens, and various odds and ends (i.e squares, more chicken, another slew of ground beef), the finish line is in sight for "The Blitz." Good thing, too, since school for me starts in about three weeks.

The freezers? (we have two) - bursting. Thankfully, we were able to vacuum-seal everything except the bread, which should do fine in the amount of layers we wrapped them in.

Have I accomplished everything I said I wanted to this summer? Well, no, not quite, perhaps. But, mind you, I did add more to the list, including all those pieces of art that I've done (and four more I hope to do/ finish). I also completed my second writing course, culminating in a 200 or so page manuscript. Not the first manuscript I've completed, but the longest so far.

My goal was originally to finish two or three more outfits, which was made moot by the fact that my sewing machine pedal decided to give out about a month ago. I had almost completed another long swishy-skirt, too, the kind that ripples and flows when the wearer walks, but with the imminent return to school, it seemed pointless to spend money fixing the machine until I had more time to use it.

I also wanted to complete a second YA manuscript, finish editing a middle-grade one, and get started on a few more. I did manage to finish editing the middle-grade one, but the rest will have to wait a bit. After all, summer only comes once a year, so I've taken more time to relax with books, watch movies, and spend time with my human beloved and our canine babies.

Ah, Summer,  Why dost thou flee so quickly?