Tagged: puttingwordstogether

09
Aug
2009

CREATIVITY IS THE POWER TO CONNECT THE SEEMINGLY UNCONNECTED*

How often should you post, when you blog? Should you post every day? Every couple of days, every week, once a month? I know that when some of my favorite writers are posting daily it feels like Christmas every day to me. But, sometimes it seems that if I post too often people don’t have time to read it all or that they miss things, and only see the latest. How much is too much? Does it even really matter? I suppose it is the writing urge that should steer and not the desire for validation or comments. I don’t...

05
Aug
2009

CREEP IN OUR EARS; SOFT STILLNESS, AND THE NIGHT*

Words jump like Mexican beans around the inside of my head all day; most of them dry up and lie twitching long before I have any chance to let them out, let them live, set them free. I would think that my brain must be full of the desiccated husks of thoughts that never became words, words that were never used, ideas that sprouted but alas, died on the vine. Each morning seems, however, to start fresh, a fertile ground for new, tiny germs of big ideas, polysyllabic words, sounds, fragments of song; a veritable plethora of images imprinted on...

29
Jul
2009

EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE

Are you all the time noticing things, seeing things that others maybe don’t see? There are things to notice all around you, all the time. If you keep your eyes open and just watch where you’re going, you won’t believe the things you see, sometimes. Mostly it’s little things, the little things that seem to be beneath people’s notice: the way the feathered grasses grow in wavey patterns when there’s a whole field full of them. The way the flowers burst out again when the weather has been cool for a week. The funny face that little kid you passed...

04
Jun
2009

ALL OVER THE MAP

Christina and Rée and Erin are making magic with words. They do it all the time and o! it makes me wild with envy and it makes me stutter with wonder and each word they choose is so right that I find myself holding my breath as I read all the way to the end where the explosive whoosh as my breath releases all at once in a cloud of joy. Some of my blog friends have stopped up their mouths with silence. Did you ever read Harlan Ellison’s I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream? That is what...

19
May
2009

WHEN IDEAS FAIL, WORDS COME IN VERY HANDY*

Maybe I have a hole in my head where all the words have leaked out. I looked down around my feet to see if they were there, but all I see is bright green new grass. Sometimes pavement. Sometimes shoes. Where have the words gone? Have they traded in their D’s for M’s and gone inching off, into the grass, greening themselves with protective coloring? Camo-worms. I know that technically I shouldn’t have used apostrophes there with D & M, but I seem to remember that sometimes apostrophes are necessary when the lack of them would cause confusion. You wouldn’t...

03
May
2009

DON’T COUNT EVERY HOUR IN THE DAY, MAKE EVERY HOUR IN THE DAY COUNT

It’s the evening of the 3rd day of the 5th month of the year. It feels as though it was simultaneously just Christmas a moment ago and as if it is just around the corner. If the year continues at this speed, it IS just around the corner. Time boggles me, often. It’s so …heedless. It takes no heed. Had to stop and go look up the etymology of heed. It’s word that seems to get used a lot without people ever stopping, ironically, to take heed as to what it really means: it means “to pay attention, to give...

28
Apr
2009

IT DOESN’T MEAN I KNOW YOU’LL NEVER GO, ONLY THAT I WISH YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO

I’m missing people today. I’m missing places and the way we used to be. I’m missing old songs and old friends and old clothes. The beauty of spring is always pierced with sorrow: I so fiercely love and cherish every second of its too-ephemeral newness. I miss my family and my mom and god, my dad. Damn it, dad. I shouldn’t be missing you; you should STILL BE HERE. People move in and out of our lives, they flower and sprout in our hearts where the uprooting will hurt the most, and often we let them wither and fade away...

10
Feb
2009

THE KEY TO IMMORTALITY*

Is there anything better for the soul than affirmation? It makes you feel all bubbly and weird; a champagne flutter of silly goodness. Hard to keep your feet on the ground when your mind is percolating and fizzing with good feeling. Affirmation is best when it’s made up of little things: a spontaneous embrace from a usually non-romantic loved one; a genuine glad-to-see-you smile from a child; a positive and unexpected comment from your boss on the work you’ve been doing; an exclamation of wonder over something you’ve created. My good friend Debbie was here last week during my family-free...

18
Jan
2009

THE MORE WE WRITE THE LESS WE DIE*

I read Post Secret via my RSS feed every Sunday. Sometimes I can’t relate to some of the secrets that are posted, but most of the time I am touched, moved, amused or saddened by the things that people confess to. This one, posted today, struck me cold and silent for a moment. Isn’t this SO TRUE? I can’t grasp it either. I can’t fathom the fact that I won’t live forever. Can you? We talked about it a bit at book group on Thursday night, though the central focus was, of course, on books, and the central anguish in...

02
Jan
2009

NOT FISHING, JUST PONDERING

Liz: *grimacing at Martin* YOU! Get in bed! *stands up and zombie chases him into his bedroom* Martin: *laughs all the way* Liz: BED! NOW! Martin: I’m not scared of you! I’ve got a…*looks wildly around, grabs the first thing at hand* …a BOOK! Liz: *stops short, puts hands on hips, mocks* oooo…knowledge is scary! Liz & Martin: *giggle madly* I’ve been thinking about trying to write a post a day for, I don’t know…a week? A month? The whole year? I don’t think it will happen, though, and I’ve actually come to the conclusion that I get more comments...