Reverb10 – The Third Prompt – Moment

Greetings!

December 3 – Moment. Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail (texture, smells, voices, noises, colors). (Author: Ali Edwards) #reverb10

Hmmm… not alive. It’s been too long as I write here in a New Year a year gone. (01-11-12)

But a Moment.

A Moment that, in hindsight, proved memorable, as so many Moments do.

It was December, the time we are writing about, in fact, in a bizarre turn of Fate’s Wheel.

Borders was not doing well.

And it showed.

Far from being a happy Christmas season, it was being full of stress & rumors that the store would be closing.

December is not an easy month for me anyway. Beyond the normal stresses & reminders of those in the United States, I have the additional moment of my mother passing on Christmas Day, 2005.

So, it was a time within a time. Things were hard. Things felt hard. The one became the other and it seemed like there was nothing much to be done about either.

And then, in the midst of it all, I received a gift.

Well, actually, I received this gift later, but it has to do with Christmas and a moment I had in December.

One day, in the midst of all this hard, I had occasion to call my husband at work.

I was put on hold, as happened.

And I stayed on hold.

But it was okay.

Because I was given the gift of music.

As many do, I love the Peanuts Christmas special, and that was the music that was playing.

I stayed and listened for several songs, until at last the music changed and I hung up and called back.

But I felt better.

And then, later, when the world, my world, fell in once again, and the box was opened to find a cat no longer there, Mike brought me home a gift that left me with tears of joy amongst the tears of change.

He brought me home that CD.

Not just a copy of that CD, mind, but that exact physical one, the one that I’d listened to those months before.

A small thing, but huge at the same time.

It reassured me that everything would be all right, that we would make it, that our world would reform in an even better way.

And it’s still some fine music! :-)

Let’s hear it for the joys of music and it’s ability to bring you safely home from here to there.

Chirp, Chirp!
-Birdy :>

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Reverb10 – The Second Prompt – The Dragon of Censorship, The Monsters of Fear, & the Swamp of Solitude

the tools of the writing trade - photo by Jane M Sawyer

the tools of the writing trade - photo by Jane M Sawyer

Greetings!

December 2 – Writing. What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it? (Author: Leo Babauta) #reverb10

At first, this prompt took me back a bit – what on earth could I say?

Yes, I have things that keep me from my writing, but many of them are not things that I ‘should’ do a whole lot about. Things like the Day Job. Things like laundry, dishes, housecleaning, things that while they can be considered escapes & procrastination tools are also valid, necessary self-care things.

Although, if you look at these things from that infamous ‘other point of view’ they don’t really count.

If you’ve ever had the dishes pile up, everything you own in the laundry basket, and the house in such a wreck that YOU can’t stand to look at it, never MIND anybody else, you know as well as I do that these mundane tasks are still vitally necessary to your writing peace of mind.

An orderly environment frees you to look at things from the unhinged (in the good way! :-D ) point of view that really lets your fingers fly.

And whether you write longhand or on the computer, money is still required. Pens, pencils, your computing medium of choice, Internet access, they all cost money (or at least time) to acquire. Not to mention little things like food, clothing, shelter, etc.

Day Job’s gotta stay. (At least for now. Later… that’s another show. :-D )

So, no, those things need to stay in there.

Then what?

I thought for a few, and did indeed come up with some things that do NOT need to remain in my writing repertoire, nor my writing day.

  • The Dragon of Censorship
  • The Monsters of Fear
  • The Swamp of Slimy Solitude

The Dragon of Censorship

Oh, what a fearsome beast this is! Blowing flame over your pages, burning away all that might cause contention, failing to understand that he is also burning away all that is uniquely you.

That saying “Try to please everybody & you end up pleasing nobody?”

So true.

This isn’t about shock-jock writing.

  • This is about saying the things that you have to say.
  • This is about opening your heart and letting what’s in there flow freely out onto the page.
  • This is about being brave and being you.

This is about telling the Dragon that he isn’t welcome here anymore.

The Monsters of Fear

But Dragons, no matter how fearsome they may be are usually too lazy to roam about the countryside looking for trouble.

No, they must be Called.

And who is foolish (or desperate) enough to do such a thing?

Your Monsters are.

Specifically the Monsters of Fear.

You know who they are, or at least some of them:

  • They Might Laugh!
  • You’re Not Good Enough!
  • Who Do You Think You Are?
  • What Will They Think?

They are emphatic about keeping you safe – as they see it.

Which, unfortunately for you, means shouting at you very loudly their messages of Doom, Gloom, and Don’t Do It!, and when that doesn’t work, calling in the Dragon.

Now Monsters of Fear need to be handled more delicately than the Dragon.

Monsters, by definition, are already afraid. So scaring them worse is SO not going to help! In fact, it frequently only encourages them to entrench deeper & shout louder.

Gentle, firm, loving touches are what is needed here.

(For more information on Monster Whispering, I suggest that you check out Havi’s blog, Willie & Alexia’s site, and my posts on Monsters on An Encouraging Bird.)

The Swamp of Slimy Solitude

Notice I say ‘slimy’ solitude here. Solitude can be a wondrous place to recoup, reconnoiter, and generally relax.

It can also be a suffocating pit of despair.

I’ve been known to wander into both from time to time, and I can tell you that I FAR prefer the former to the latter.

So I’m being very careful of where I walk these days. If my Savannah of Solitude turns into a Slimy Swamp, I do something to break away: I go to the ‘net, I turn on the television, I get out and walk the dog. Whatever it takes to reconnect with the world around me.

Turns out I did have a few things to ditch from my writing day.

What about you?

Happy Muse-ings!
Birdy Diamond,Wordsmith

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Reverb10 – The First Prompt – One Word, One World :>

firework burst - photo by Matthew Hull

EXPANSION - firework burst - photo by Matthew Hull

Greetings!

December 1 – One Word. Encapsulate the year 2010 in one word. Explain why you’re choosing that word. Now, imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2011 for you? (Author: Gwen Bell) #reverb10

You have asked me for one word to sum up 2010.

That is not an easy task, tho’ at first it might seem as if it should be so.

We haven’t gone much of anywhere, or, as seen from the outside, done much of anything.

But that would not be true, if you could see on the inside of things.

On the inside of things, we have been growing and changing and expanding, oh my!

We have been plunging headlong into a new way of life, Web 2.0, the Third Tribe, and going forth!

So, if pressed to choose just one word to describe the year just past, I would say:

Expansion.

We have expanded so many things:

  • our notions of what is possible
  • our understanding of the current tech
  • our understanding of how to run a Third-Tribe-based business
  • our worldview
  • our hopes, Dreams, and aspirations
  • our confidence
  • our belief
  • our network
  • our possibilities
  • our world

We are humbled & blessed by all the ways the Universe has chosen to help us out as we step into our larger mission: that of helping people fly beyond their fear, whether it is of putting pixels on the page, of spreading one’s wings to fly, of the unknown lying beyond the everyday.

So with that, I would say that our word for 2011 would be:

welcome sign - photo by Mary R. Vogt

WELCOME - photo by Mary R. Vogt

Welcome

I wasn’t sure, until I was setting down our ‘Love Letters to our Wrong & Right Peeps’ so that I could post here tonight.

As I chose the pics for our Right Peeps, I realized that, yes, ‘Welcome’ is our word.

Some things we want to be welcoming in next year:

  • prosperity
  • a new & happy home
  • a stable of wondrous, help-full products
  • our Tribe of wonderful friends, clients, customers
  • an easy & stress-free move
  • our new packmembers for Bailey (our Basset Hound) and Mage (our tuxie cat)
  • the Avian Empire in all its kooky glory :>
  • that or better! :-D

The world is a wondrous place, and truly one’s oyster.

Pluck forth the pearl of a great life & fly free, friends! :-D

Happy Muse-ings!
Birdy Diamond,
Wordsmith

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