October 20, 2020
Gleanings
I am so happy today as I read through the blogs on my Blog Reader. So many people who’ve taken my course this year have updated their blogs this week. Some of my faves (Elizabeth!) updated theirs twice. Such a pleasure to see all the good people out there in the world making good work and sharing their ideas. And this reader sure appreciates it.
- Sure enough, the more I thought about birds, the more they began appearing in everything I read.
- However if, like me, you don’t think/respond well when put on the spot, or if you’re a people-pleaser and your go-to response is agreement, consider adopting a personal pause.
- When you start prioritizing your writing time, the people around you might not like it very much. (They won’t like it at all.)
- Words are like seeds and when healthy ones are sown, those seeds grow into something greater.
- And then the word Heal comes to me and everything settled. That’s what this time is. Calm. Quiet. Light, is what I imagine for the winter.
- Reading: Pachinko and Persuasion.
- I’m always torn between, hey look everyone it’s me over here, and also trying to fade into the woodwork.
- I am not very good at being nocturnal. While I love the moon, and the stars, and the uncanny call of the owl behind my house, I must admit that my mood often sinks with the sun.
- When it’s light out, the trees brilliant gold and deep orange, the house finches busy at the work of opening maple seeds, I am ready for anything. But when the weight settles, I pick up my quilt and stitch free-hand spirals into the sashing between the log-cabin blocks.
- We’d always end up among the trees, in their shade, in their splendour.
- The first thing I don’t like about this book is that she (Gertrude Elizabeth Blood), calls herself Lady Colin Campbell
- Fortunately, not all best laid plans automatically go awry, either. We didn’t get to meet as we’d anticipated, but we did get to meet in ways we’ve come to expect and enjoy…
- The perfect time to eat it simply never came. Note to self: It never will.
- I unfold each scrap of paper before I throw it in the recycle bin, just in case I find a note. Because even in our era of emails and texts, Doug wrote me notes. I haven’t found one in his winter clothing yet, but I might, and I’ll savour it and save it.
- October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and, for me, it is doubly so.
- I used to think that the ache would disappear, that the hurt would fade but seventeen years later I’ve learned that grief is a journey without a real destination.
- Rioux makes the case that the book is important to all readers as a story that explores female identity in ways that still continue to matter.
- WE USED TO HAVE A ROOF OVER OUR HEADS, moan the butter sticks. WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR ROOF. The shelf is fine, I tell them. You’re safe on the shelf. NOOOOO they whine oh butter. Have you considered meditation?
- And so this sign in all its simplistic splendour really spoke to me as something that was, if not completely attainable at the time, at least something to strive toward. Simplify, it said. OK! I said. Let’s give it a shot.
Thank you for including me in this really interesting range of writings. I haven’t read every single one yet, but I’m working my way through. So appreciate these.
Oh, and although I was real early on in ordering the new book, my bookstore sometimes is lower on the totem pole in receiving new releases — likely because we’re just a little village and not located in a city. But I can hardly wait!