Friday, March 1, 2019

SOL19 - Slice #1 Here I go again, in a new way



I am participating in the
 Slice of Life Story Challenge (SOL19)
All participants are writing about one moment, one part of their day, every day for the month of March 2019.

A big thank you to Two Writing Teachers for providing this unique opportunity
for teacher-writers to share and reflect.


Happy SOLSC!!

I have participated in Two Writing Teachers' fabulous Slice of Life Story Challenge for the past seven years, but this year feels very new for two reasons:

ONE:

I am using a different blog than I have used for SOLSC before.
Every other year I participated in SOLSC,
I used my blog about teaching preschool, and
I tried to focus on my classroom, my students, and my lessons.
A couple years ago, I created this new blog - "Writing Beside Me,"
to share my voice in new and different ways,
to write about other things besides teaching preschool,
and, honestly, 
I'm not really sure where I am headed, 
what I intend...
it's just an itch...
a writing itch,
an itch that I've had for several years, and
I've responded to in the most tentative, fragile of scratches.
There are not many posts associated with this blog!

Truly, at this point, I'm not even sure this IS a blog, I have written in it so rarely.

I wonder,
if I write 31 posts for this blog during this month of March,
will this blog become more real, defined, purposeful?

This is my hope, and
this is the blessing of SOLSC!


TWO:

I wonder,
if I throw myself into writing for SOLSC once again,
will I jumpstart myself out of the writing desert that I have been in?

You see, I haven't written a blogpost on either of my blogs since October 2018. 

I don't know why and I do know why. 

I feel as if I am bursting with words
and yet
stopped up,
with a writer's version of one of those giant rubber bathtub plugs jammed into my very being.

I don't know why and I do know why.

You see, my mother died in October.
In simple facts, this news is not surprising -
she was 89 years old and had suffered dementia for many years.
Yet, I continue to feel
off-kilter.

My lack of blog writing is definitely tied up in this.

I don't know why and I do know why.



Enter - SOLSC 2019!

Here goes - I'm writing!!
I'm speaking up!
I'm going to stick my neck out,
share a little of my soul,
take a risk,
dare to write.

This is my hope, and
this is the blessing of SOLSC!

Thanks, Two Writing Teachers for helping me with this new adventure.

4 comments:

  1. I have missed your voice, Maureen. I have missed your students. I have worried about you, someone I’ve never met yet whose story I feel invested in, so I am glad you are here and writing.

    My stepmother died of dementia a couple years ago. I don’t know that being ready for someone’s death is really possible. How do we prepare for absence in someone’s presence?

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  2. Thank you for these kind words, Glenda. I have missed your voice, too! What a poignant question - "How do we prepare for absence in someone's presence?" The response is worthy of a post!!

    I am glad to be back. Looking forward to reading your insight and wisdom this month!!

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  3. The challenge popped up somewhere a few weeks ago, and I dismissed it. But then I looked for a piece of writing in my blog, and the challenge beckoned to me. It reminded me how much the writing process helps me to sort things out. I too am trying to get back into writing. Family circumstances have taken me away from my passions.

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  4. Yes, "the writing process helps me to sort things out." So true! Thank you for commenting. I will look for your SOLSC writing this month...imagine - SOLSC as therapy for writer's block!

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