A list- stories untold or needing to be told again- a home for those words I'll write someday.
Writing Territories List 2015
Being home
Being home with Sophie and Clark
Homeschooling
Balance- working mom vs working mom at home
Parents moving- aging
PhD the final chapterMoving- the 10th time?
Routine and Ritual
Italy
Barbie Pillow Cases
Hooks and Trampolines
Grammie’s Cards
Movies with Dad
Rummy with Mom
Birth stories
Meeting Clark
Gerdybird Goes Underground
Women
Retreating
I'm not one to keep New Year's resolutions. For years I wrote them down, only to find them the following year, unseen or remembered. With great determination for the new year to be different, I'd again write down the same promises to myself, because if I did or changed x, y, z... this year, I believed, would be my best... The journal would close... rinse, repeat.
A couple years ago I replaced resolutions with a single word; a guiding word to lead me through my year. I'd have to dig through one of my many journals to find my word for 2014 or any of the words that have "guided" me for that matter. They, like my New Year's list, didn't guide me any farther than February.
Still, I love the idea of a new page, a beginning again of sorts. I want one without the pressure of holding myself to unrealistic promises though. I want a resource, tool for my tool belt I can add to throughout the year, pick and choose, keep what works and leave what doesn't for later or never.
When I was teaching, each year we'd start by creating a Writing Territories List. Like my wishes for the new year, this list helped my writers guide themselves from project to project. They were suggestions and ideas they gifted to themselves.
Part of the gift in making a list like this is sitting and dreaming about all the someday stories, people who have traveled in and out of our moments, being still with what has happened and may be.
The light is returning, the gifts and challenges of holiday joy are winding down, and this year, instead of gifting myself a list of challenges, I'll sit a while with the stories that flit in and out of my head (usually when I don't have a pen nearby), and let them live together on a new page, a page for today or someday.
KGS
I, too, love the idea of a new page, a beginning again of sorts, but have too much familiarity with the new beginning betrayed. As I drove us west to South Dakota, I thought of a list of my own, but can only remember one element of it now. Still, the thirst for new beginnings, fresh starts, a chance to do better, is a strong and strengthening drive, one I believe can only bring us to better practices of writing and living. Thanks for this uplifting post. MKP
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