You are currently browsing the monthly archive for February 2011.
This time of year often swallows us up with busy, and 2011 is certainly setting a new bench-mark. Last weekend we traveled for an indoor soccer tournament with Sandra’s team. Adjusted back from that just in time to throw ourselves into dance for Festival of the Arts, Sandra’s birthday, and 3 hours of soccer workshops tonight and tomorrow. And family is visiting this weekend, so we need to put some final touches on birthday gifts for other birthdays. So, I’ll be offline for a little bit longer, probably, but I do have a little knitting to show you soon.
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Snacks. Sometimes just adding choice makes it feel like a party for one.
You know you’re living in the moment and practicing mindfulness when a plate of snacks inspires you to take photos.
Right now, the textures of these earthy tones are really satisfying my creative urges. Deep tones are folding over and playing with each other and the knitting is soft.
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Pattern: Multnomah
Yarn: Malabrigo Sock, Arbol
Pattern: Shur’tugal
Yarn: Stroll Tonal, Kindling
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Rip the Page:Adventures in Creative Writing by Karen Benke arrived just before we left for our 4 week trip to the west coast. I had been contacted by Shambhala Press to see if I’d be interested in doing a book review. Sure! I said, I like writing and I love books. Send it along!
When we arrived home from the trip, there was so much to do: adjusting back, homeschooling, Christmas gift making. Rip the Page moved from spot to spot in the house, each time engendering a feeling of responsibility tinged with failure. It became something that had. to. be. done. Yuck.
Imagine my delight, however, when I pulled it out – with a bit of sigh it must be admitted – and discovered a zesty, playful book that made me itch to get back at writing. Words, I love words! I thought. How could I have forgotten for so many months?
The subtitle splashed across the front cover should have keyed me in: includes wordplay, encouragement from writers and poets, and enough blank pages to let your words roam…
Karen Benke has created a book that is more like a treasure chest than a book – you can simply paw through until you find the something shiny that ignites your inspiration. Writing is playful and personal here, and there’s no wrong way to do it. It’s the protection of an umbrella with the passion of a flare. And as a word person, I truly love the little collections of words found in the book.
The exercises, and I hesitate to call them exercises because then it feels like maybe we should be doing them because they’re (ick) good for us, fall into a few categories, not that you’ll notice that while the playful possibilities are flipping past you:
Try This – nudges to get you thinking, writing, creating (8 wishes, acrostics, the imagination’s world record, i.e. brainstorming the deepest thing, the flattest thing, the kindest thing…)
Definition Decoders – writing concepts explained in ways that make you want to play with them (think personification, haiku, cliche)
A Note From – the things writers wanted to tell you, little nuggets from writers such as Carol Edgarian, Avi, Karen Cushman, Lemony Snicket
Word List – my favourite is the list of small words (pg 29), but there are word lists for far distances, what fits in your fist, and more
Suddenly a Story – prompts to get your pen moving across the page
Rip the Page – places to really rip the pages out and follow the prompts for more playfulness
With it’s playful style and passion, it’s a winner. It’s easy to dive into, too, since it isn’t full of that pompous front matter that just puts roadblocks between the reader and creativity. Yes, some of you other writing books, I’m looking at you. I’d put this in the hands of anyone 12 and up, and eager beavers younger than that. Definitely for the budding novelist or faithful diarist you know, but also for the recalcitrant writer – there’s so much zip and zest that it can’t fail to carry them away.
Homeschoolers, you’ll find a lot to love in here. Whether you want to use it to ‘salt’ the home with a resource your unschoolers can encounter, or whether you want to use it to be the mom who assigns the coolest writing assignments ever, you’ll find this fits. I’m thinking it should always be given with a snazzy journal, but maybe that’s just my word-nerd meeting up with my inner paper-fiend.
Flip through a sampling of the pages here.
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“Ability is what you’re capable of doing.
Motivation determines what you do.
Attitude determines how well you do it.”
Lou Holtz
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How do you connect with motivation? How do you facilitate the connection between your children and their motivation?
The full list of books I considered at the Nicholas Hoare book shop the other day:
Paris, 1919; Margaret McMillan
Josephine B. trilogy; Sandra Gulland
The White Queen; Phillipa Gregory
The Fry Chronicles; Stephen Fry
Samuel Johnson; Peter Martin
Passionate Minds; David Bodanis
Extraordinary Canadians Series, Penguin; esp. Riel and Dumont by Boyden
John A; Richard Gwyn
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China; Jung Chang
Travels with Herodotus; Ryszard Kapuscinski (all of his books actually)
Champlain’s Dream; Hackett Fischer
Don’t Let’s Go to The Dogs Tonight; Alexandra Fuller
When a Crocodile Eats the Sun; Peter Godwin
I’m having a hard week, so perhaps it shouldn’t surprise me that the sight of these darling, colourful, little birds nearly made me run mad this morning: Chubby Chirps. I left the window to the main photo open all day. That bold little flock melted my heart every time I saw it.
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3 months of wear
end of sock
renewed commitment to my policy of making socks only from wool/nylon blends, which was broken for the beauty of these blues but revived and hardened by disappointment
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“Ordinarily he was insane, but he had lucid moments when he was merely stupid.”
Heinrich Heine
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What makes you laugh?
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Rainer and I went on a short vacation to Toronto. The Ontario Library Association was having their conference and Rainer invited me to go along for the second year in a row. A little vacation from the perils of late winter: stifling sameness, cold, burnout, darkness.
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We would take the GO train downtown each day and I hung out while Rainer made himself a better librarian. A little knitting in the convention centre, a little reading, a little tea, a little wandering. Between sessions it was more of the same but with Rainer: wandering, shopping for a suit jacket, eating Tom Yum soup, visiting Bakka Phoenix for books for the kids.
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The best day was Saturday. I had 3 hours on my own in the morning and I let plans fall away and went with what I discovered and made me happy.
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I walked the aisles of the St. Lawrence Market and marveled at the cuts of meat, the hunks of cheese, and the fresh pasta. I sampled mustard and settled on Hot Russian. I found smoked paprika. And then I ate a knish. Something I’d never seen before, although I’m pretty sure I’ve heard references to it on TV, usually with a New York accent. Mushrooms and potatoes wrapped in dough. Perfect.
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A stop at the Nicholas Hoare book shop was nearly heaven on earth. Usually when I go into a store I brush off the “Can I help you?” inquiry. This time I said that I’d be interested in help, particularly finding history and biography. The woman walked me excitedly to the shelves – where the books are all faced! – and gave one mini-book review after another. We each had large stacks of books to carry by the time she was done. She settled the books onto a footstool and bade me settle likewise into the overstuffed armchair beside the fireplace. I happily complied and spend 90 minutes sampling all of them.
It was not easy but I finally cut them down to two books to purchase, but wrote every book down so that I can track them down later. I chose “Passionate Minds” – a biography/history/science book about Emilie du Chatelet and Voltaire. “Once Emilie du Châtelet settled with Voltaire, the two of them rebuilt an isolated chateau to create an extraordinary research center. It became like a berthed spacecraft from the future, and it was there that she began her greatest scientific work.” I also chose “Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China”, a history of the lives of a woman, her mother, and her grandmother as their lives stretched through tumultuous changes in China.
And after that, there was still a whole list of magnificent experiences: the Gala luncheon to end the conference, complete with flash mob choral performance and a speech by Jian Gomeshi, host of Q. A trip to the AGO and chances to marvel at the treasures of the Maharajah and the Group of Seven. A sampling of curries in a little restaurant near the GO train station in Mississauga with my aunt and uncle.
I’m rested. I’ve got yarn, books, spices. I’ve had new experiences and encountered new ideas. I’m a better version of myself and have that much more to give.
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“It does not pay to leave a dragon out of your calculations if you live near him.”
Tolkien
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What is your dragon? What could use a little reflection and planning?
