Saturday, October 17, 2015

Wine, Women and Writers

Wine, Women and Writers
Below is a post that I meant to put up on September 25th and here it is October 18th already.  I have been busy writing and creating and that has kept me busy but I do want to get back to writing this blog more regularly.

I've been thinking about what someone said to me because it has bothered me and I have to go deep to understand why.  He said "you are living in the past."  I guess it bothered me because it is partly true. I have vivid memories of the past which I hold close so I don't forget them because I want to write about them and hope that maybe someday, my experiences will resonate with others and help them in some way to be better or to have a better life or feel better about themselves. Also, I hope my children and grandchildren will read my words and see me as a person and not just Mom or Meme (what my grandchildren call me) because although I AM those things and love being Mom/Meme but I want them to someday see a more complete picture of a woman living, loving, laughing, hurting, crying, sad, the full gamut of emotions and experiences.  When they read my words, it is THE PAST and I will be living there because the past holds pieces of us.

I also live in the FUTURE because I have dreams and goals and places I want to go and see and people I want to visit and all of them are in the future and some may not happen but a lot of them will.  I do believe that if I "put it out there" (dream it) it will happen, in some way.  Not always as I foresee but I get what I want when I am clear about it.  I think this is healthy and a good way to positive self-project.

I also live in the RIGHT NOW.  I am aware of all of my senses as I write this blog.  I can smell the oil I put on when I got out of my shower a few minutes ago.  I can hear a bird singing outside my open window.  I can see this screen and the words forming as I write and they are transferred from my thoughts into something more concrete.  I can feel the keys as I type.  I can (almost) taste the eggs and grits I'm going to make for breakfast when I finish this post.

I think what bothered me the most about his statement was that I let what he thought create insecurity in me. I LET his words be a truth, for a moment.  However, I KNOW there is so much more to me and it makes me a little sad that he doesn't see it but that's his stuff and not mine.  So, I've thought about and I have come to the conclusion that he is right but he is also so very WRONG.  I am a 3-dimensional person and I live in the past, the present and the future and that's a very GOOD thing, don't you think?

Anyhow, that's it for this morning.  It is a GREAT day to be alive in America.  The sun is shining, the temperature is perfect and after breakfast, I am going to have some fun doing those things that I need and want to do and completely enjoying, on all levels, this gift of a day.  I expect a miracle! And so it is.

September 25, 2015 – “Wine, Women and Writers”

On a rainy Thursday night at 6:30pm, September 24, 2015, our newly formed writer’s group, which we are calling Wine, Women and Writing, held it’s first meeting at Sabe’s Place in Historic Downtown Buford, Georgia. 

First, we discussed the organization and schedule of our little group which consisted of Lynn and 2 Sabra’s.  Yes, 2 Sabra’s.  Sabra B. and Sabra R.  Mallorie will be at the next meeting but she wasn’t feeling well last night and maybe another writer named, Judy.  My friend, Tracy, will probably be a drop in from to time.  Among the three of us attending last night, we agreed that we want to keep the group small and intimate.

Lynn and I drank Champagne while the other Sabra drank water.  She’s more of a writer than a wine drinker but me, I can go either way! If we are going to call our group, “Wine, Women and Writer’s” we have to drink some wine, don’t we?

It was my idea to form a Writer’s Group and something I’ve wanted to do for a couple of years.  Part of the reason I wanted to have a Writer’s Group is to help me become more focused on my writing and if I can help other people along the way then a good thing has happened, as far as I am concerned.  I researched “Starting a Writer’s Group” online and found a wealth of information.  I have been in several writing groups over the years and I had an idea of how I wanted the Writer’s Group I formed to be and now I have manifested exactly what I wanted.  It is a great little group and I know we will learn from and help each other and grow from this experience.

We each shared something we had written.  Sabra B. and Sabra R. shared poetry while Lynn shared a “slice of life” piece she had written.  Through our writing we learned a little more about each other and I look forward to exploring with these women in the months and maybe years ahead.  I think we have great potential and we have enough similarities to enjoy each other’s company and enough differences to challenge each other and help each other grow.

I shared the extent of my journals and they were suitably impressed.  I didn’t share the content but the volume.  I have written journals for years and I do it, in part, for posterity so that someday, my grandchildren and great-grandchildren will be able to read my journals and to know me and know how life was during the time I am alive because the rate of change is happening so much faster than it did between my time and my Grandmother’s time.  I can only imagine the world of my great-grandchildren but I have no doubt it will be significantly different in some ways but exactly the same in others.   I also write for my children because I am the keeper of the “stories” of their lives, whether they know it now or not.  I am sure it will be more meaningful to them when I have transitioned.


We concluded the evening with cheese, crackers, dips and fruit.  Around 9:30pm, Sabra B. and Lynn each left with their hand outs (and “homework”) to help prepare for our next meeting in two weeks.  It was a fun, productive evening of “Wine, Women and Writing!”

Sunday, October 4, 2015

Ovid's "Metamorphoses: XV" - Speaking of Death and Time

Time is something we never seem to have enough of and death is something that awaits us all.  Both have been on my mind this morning.  It is Sunday and my weekend is almost over and then it is back to work tomorrow and there was so much more I wanted to accomplish in my "two days off" but here it is, Sunday afternoon, and I'm just getting around to doing some of what should have already been done.  I need more time!

Death is something I've had coming  up in almost every single month of this year.  Friends are passing on.  Family and people I've admired are passing on.  It makes me sit up and take note of my own mortality and wonder how much time I have to accomplish those things I feel I must?  I need more time!

So, I grabbed a book from my library this morning, looking for some inspiration and noticed a page I'd bookmarked on another day that I can't remember.  Wouldn't you know it is about time and death?  (Expect a miracle and don't discount it!)  I opened to Ovid's poem Metamorphoses: XV where he is talking of the teachings of Pythagoras:

"O mortals,
Dumb in cold fear of death, why do you tremble
At Stygian rivers, shadows, empty name,
The lying stock of poets, and the terrors
Of a false world? I tell you that your bodies
Can never suffer evil, whether fire
Consumes them, or the waste of time.  Our souls
Are deathless; always, when they leave our bodies."

 He goes on to say:

"All things are always changing,
But nothing dies. The spirit comes and goes,
...but always it keeps on living."

"Full sail, I voyage
Over the boundless ocean, and I tell you
Nothing is permanent in all the world.
All things are fluent; every image forms,
Wandering through change. Time is itself a river
In constant movement, and the hours flow by
Like water, wave on wave, pursued, pursuing
Forever fugitive, forever new.
That which has been, is not; that which was not,
Begins to be; motion and moment always
In process of renewal."

Did I mention this was written in 6 BC?  It is an amazing poem and the book I picked up was "The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces"  and I have had it since my college days and have referred to it now and again over the years. (English Literature class at San Diego City College)

So, the soul lives on and time is an illusion.  Nothing new under the sun is there?

We had a nice storm blow through last night and today, my landscaper came and we did some cleaning up and everything looks good again.  All the trees shook off their dead limbs and no one was hurt so it's all good!  I sat in my car for a while this morning after taking a ride down Buford Dam Road which is really pretty ride through lots of green trees and I felt refreshed and rejuvenated when I got back so I just sat there, watching the trees dance as the wind blew through them. 

Sunday, the beginning of a new.  The end of the old.  Time flows on and today, I expected a miracle and I was not disappointed.  Today was awesome and the best is yet to come.  And so it is!

Expect a miracle, my friends.  You won't be disappointed.