SOL21 Slice 31: Caffeinated musings

 

I am participating in the

 Slice of Life Story Challenge (SOL21).  

All participants are sharing stories about moments in their lives, writing 

 every day for the month of March 2021.

Thank you, Two Writing Teachers, for nurturing teacher-writers!

At the time, it seemed like a good idea to pilfer a few, several, and then a handful more, of my daughter-in-law's chocolate espresso beans; yes, it felt fanciful and decadent, a real indulgence, as the children were napping. She is always so welcoming of us partaking of any and all foods while babysitting; I no longer drink coffee, but continue to love the flavor, and a special exception this one time would not be so bad for the old blood pressure, right? Oh my, those espresso beans look very different when the bedside clock flashes !! 3:17 A.M. !! In the recesses of my head there is a chorus of little tiny hyper energized chocolate espresso bean voices jumping shrugging and cackling: how do you like me now? 

Do you hear them, too?

These wild, winding paths of thoughts . . . let me try to summarize this month of blogging. Woohoo! 31 days of blogging in March! Once again, I am amazed at how much I observe during this month of writing, how each day I am more present and attuned, gathering ideas for a post. 

Writing seems to take on a life of its own, as if fueled by espresso.

Of course, there are always so many extra things that never make it into the posts at all. 

What are some of those random thoughts that never went anywhere, yet still echo in my brain? Let me share them now, simply for the fun of it. Who knows, maybe one of these will be a kernel of some future writing . . .

• the growing list of all our phrases that just flow from her lips now, always catching us off-guard, a two year old mimic of all the adults in her life - "in my humble opinion," "keep the faith!" "cutey-batootie," "hit the road, jack," "keep your eyes peeled," "whoomp, there it is!," "well, that was unexpected." 

• the beautiful great blue heron that we see regularly down at the creek, how Tony and I were thrilled to see it in a lovely cove, up close and personal - we crept so softly towards it, so as not to disturb the heron sheltered by a tree, only to discover it was not the heron but simply a clever contortion of a plastic bag adorning a branch. Yes, plastics: the new nature.

• my daily angel cards, how one very busy day with so many things that I had to get done, I thought beforehand: what I really need to pick is the word "efficiency," and then I did, in fact, coincidentally, truly, choose the word "efficiency" and I thought - wow - I had the power to bring the future into the present, and this is how I used it? to choose a random card from a pile?

• she is always so tightly wound, and full of anxiety, the one who dominates our group conversations; listening to her detailed angry story this time, I was aware how much like an alarm her voice is, with every second syllable heavily accented - and THEN he SAID he WON'T, da Da, da Da, da DA. I am also aware that she has worn me down, the alarm is that of a distant car for which I am not responsible. How to keep friends with friends who don't fix their stuff? What do our very voices tell us about our emotional state?

• the reawakening experience of riding down a slide that was imperceptibly wet, with my two-year-old granddaughter on my lap - I had not anticipated the sensation of wet, and I felt so sopping cold "inside" my clothes, as the moisture instantaneously soaked through to my thighs, my underwear, my tush; not a sensation I have experienced in years and years, or ever hope to have again. I spent the morning with a wet and muddy tush, feeling so guilty about the many times I - as teacher - resisted taking a little tyke in from the playground, after they had slid down a wet slide, because I 'knew' it was no big deal. Oh my, I was wrong. 

Yes, those are some of the random places my writing brain has gone this month!

Thank you Two Writing Teachers!! Writing with the Two Writing Teachers community this March 2021 has been both a blessing and a delight! 

"don't write out of what I know; I write out of what I wonder."

- Lucille Clifton