Approaching the end of the 2014 SOLC, as it is Day 30 of 31. So happy to have been a part of this wonderful community hosted by twowritingteachers.wordpress.com.
I'm writing late tonight, as I have been in New York City for the weekend, and I've been struggling with the second-to-last-day syndrome. This has been a wonderful month of paying close attention to my life, and making decisions about what to share with the wider slicing world.
While I made daily decisions about these shares, I have not shared my daily decisions with many of the people I see. My daughter, Larkin, has been writing for the month, and she and I share posts, but the rest of my family hasn't paid close attention--if I tell them about a post, then they go find it and read it, but mostly, it's been Mom's and Larkin's crazy writing thing. Most of my professional colleagues have been swamped enough with other issues and school priorities that they have not asked much about the March challenge when I've mentioned it, and I just haven't talked about it with friends.
Because I spent the entire two days with three women I love and writing has been so important to me all month, I found myself sharing about the experience and because we weren't working or paying attention to our children or multi-tasking--we were actually spending time sitting and paying attention to each other--they asked me questions about the March SOLC.
What I shared, and what I realized as a reflection of sharing, is how much more I notice when I am writing and reading other posts every day. Reading other posts has inspired me to think about daily experiences in different ways. I have found myself composing strings of words inside of my head, looking for signs of spring, studying people and wondering about them, even imagining the thoughts and lives of the animals around me. I collected more keepsakes, took more pictures, and listened more closely to the lives and stories within and around my world. Over the last thirty days, I have savored more, and then savored it again as I wrote, and then savored yet again as people commented.
My friends were impressed with the commitment and discipline that we have all had to our writing throughout the month. Thank you to all of you for the inspiration, encouragement, and writing friendship during my second challenge!
Until tomorrow!
I loved reading your post. Daily writing does change us, doesn't it? You know, I didn't even post every day---sometimes instead of a proper slice I worked on my novel-in-progress only. One of the lesons I learned through this process is that all writing is good writing for me. It all grows me. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts echo your words…
ReplyDeleteYeah...I'm pretty impressed with our commitment, too. It was not easy, but we helped each other along the way, and this is what made it all so worthwhile:
ReplyDelete"Over the last thirty days, I have savored more, and then savored it again as I wrote, and then savored yet again as people commented."
We get to savor our lives as we slice and read slices - how marvelous is that?!
PS. Glad your weekend away was fun - and congratulations on the Wolverine in your midst. Watch out Ann Arbor, someone special your way comes!
I just posted my slice, and saw your link.... very similar thoughts! It's been an amazing month of learning and writing and connecting!
ReplyDeleteSo eloquent about your learning this month. You've said it perfectly for me.
ReplyDeleteI think we may have discovered how to "live the writerly life," as they say. Thank you for your slice, as I too find that I live life differently, not always looking for the deep, in-depth pieces, but noticing that writing seeds are occurring constantly, all over the place, abd sometimes as a result of the tiniest thing... Now the challenge is how to carry it on throughout the year...
ReplyDeleteLovely to hear your thoughts, too, Melanie, & how fun it must have been to be with friends on the weekend. Glad you had that, too!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful reflection, Melanie.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful reflection, Melanie.
ReplyDeleteOops! It went through twice!
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