I have another blog out there called InnerActions and ... I paid for it ... and ... nobody reads it but the few friends who find it and then they read it that first time and said they loved it but...they never really go back to it...it's complicated to get to to post, though i do love it.
but my cousin has a blogspot blog and so i'm going to try again. so this is a new and different beginning. a different purpose. first i have to apologize to anyone who reads this and hates lower case stuff... just can't cap it. so i nod to e.e.cummings and continue to write in all lowercase...except for that first bit--i'll leave that for now since i did bother to cap...
so this blog is going to be a thousand words of joy. my idea is to celebrate images, stories, thoughts, things that bring me (or folks i know) joy throughout the day, hoping to inspire you to reflect on all the many things in your day that give you joy. i've already committed to writing a thousand words a day, and while i take exceedingly seriously the few commitments i have, i confess this is a commitment i don't keep regularly :o( but i will try again and again and hopefully continue to write.
i also want to write what is interesting to read even if it is a bit rambly. because a thousand words are just going to ramble. that's all there is to it.
so this first thousand words of joy (and gratitude) will contain my gratitude that it is summer time! i love teaching and i also love freedom brought by summer---mostly focused on writing! so that is a joy---that i have a job i love and that i have a few weeks of time to write and play on a different schedule. here's a side note for those of you who don't teach. it's not really a "wow you get summers off!" kind of proposition---we are contracted employees. and we are hired to work approximately ten months out of the year. we don't have vacations---those days that kids don't go to school so we don't are UNPAID vacations---just so you know. so the summer, while some of us benefit from getting our salaries spread out over the 12 month period, there are two and a half months where we are not earning an income. so it's more like we get laid off every spring for a couple of months. it's seasonal work.
today what did not bring me joy is that on tuesdays the mowers are all over the neighborhood across the way from my back patio and not even earplugs can keep the noise off my nerves. so today i packed up and headed to Osceola Cafe downtown Stuart and was there from about 8:45 until about 1:45. WHAT JOY! i got a lot of work accomplished on the novel i'm working on, my friend and cousin joined me and we had a great time catching up on stuff, and even a brief thunderstorm rumbled through just east of us but with no rain (i LOVE thunder).... a train engine blew through---and by "blew" i mean they wailed on their horns as they passed rather quickly through town... a couple hours later it came back through town with ten or twelve cars attached. i just love trains.
and don't you love it when something you lost is found??? it's even more fantastic when the loss is so outside your control and depends on the kindness of others to restore. a friend who lives in my neighborhood and with whom i walk the neighborhoods stopped by the other morning. my mama was visiting from out of town so i didn't walk but she came onto the back patio and had coffee with us. she suddenly realized she didn't have her key... the key to her brand new vehicle. we searched...together and separately walked stretches where she had walked--retracing her steps...her husband took a turn as well...i mentioned the loss to neighbors who walk. the key was on a key ring of an organization that she is highly committed to and a very strong advocate for. the key was lost two days ago.
today when i got back from Osceola's there was an email from her. a walker in the neighborhood had found the key and called the organization whose logo was on the strap. that office sent out an email to all the folks in that organization so this friend was able to be put in touch with the kind stranger who took the time to pick up the key and who wisely tracked it through the organization. yes, that is definitely and simply how the world should work---with kindness and consideration and the sense of understanding how one would like to be treated in a similar situation.
Isn't that really all it takes to live well and in community? to understand how powerfully good it is to do the right thing? how do you know what is the right thing to do? consider if it is something you would like to happen to you, then do that.
just so you know, this is not going to be a preachy blog---i almost went there but now, in consideration of my own advice, i know i HATE to be preached at so i'm not doin' it. BUT i will say i was overjoyed to get that email filling me in on having the key restored to her!
another source of joy at the moment is anticipating meeting with my bookclub this week. i LOVE those people! and we are meeting to discuss what titles we want to read next year. they are turning me into a better reader and that is not an easy mission. i love books and stories but don't like to read. slow reader. astigmatism complicates the process and enjoyment... and i think growing up i thought if i had time to read i had time to write and i'd rather write. and honestly? if i had time to read, i had time to watch a good MOVIE!
the greatest joy these days is choosing to commit to chipping away at the novel i'm writing. i love the story but sticking with a project is not easy...but writing is such a joy.
now how do i figure out if this is a thousand words? hopefully i will write more tomorrow...or at least very soon...
oh wait---also enjoying the Queen's 60th Jubilee celebration this week! And tonight 20/20 is broadcasting the concert at Buckingham Palace!
