I'm sure you can tell by the facial hair on these three people that there aren't children in this picture. I hope you can see from the bubbles that Mel and Rich and I were having fun like children when Lissa took the shot. I'm here to remind you, once again, to take time to have fun and play no matter your age or circumstances. Laughter relieves stress. I particularly love laughing at myself, but today I'd love to laugh along with you.
Let me give you some examples:
When I was about three or four years old my cousins came to see me. Their mother was there, too, but I mostly played with my cousins. They were boys. I had a little fire engine with pedals. In an effort to impress my cousins, I jumped into my fire engine and pedaled hard down the sidewalk, mouth open wide as I screamed the siren song. Unfortunately, I choked on a fly.
When I was four we lived in a duplex on a busy street in Ventura, California. It was a long time ago, back when people didn't lock their doors as often as they do now. I overheard my parents talking about a poor little baby who lived next door. My imagination took over, even that long ago, and I decided that little baby needed to be rescued from his mean parents, and I was going to be the rescuer. So I waited outside on the front porch and peered through their screen door until I saw the baby crawling alone on the floor. I pulled open the screen door, raced into our neighbor's front room, grabbed the baby, turned back to run with the baby, and fell on him. He wasn't hurt, but can you imagine how my parents must have felt when I explained to the neighbors why I did what I did?
When I was in fourth grade I was still impulsive, and there were times when that impulsivity earned me public humiliation. I liked a guy in my class named Willy. I wasn't madly in love with him or anything, I just liked him. I was walking past his desk one day when, for no reason I could afterwards fathom, I leaned over, patted him on the cheek, asked how he was doing, and kissed him on the cheek. Willy turned red and ducked. The whole class, including the teacher, burst into laughter.
How about you? Have you ever done anything that your friends will never let you live down? Did you ever do anything so crazy and impulsive that you wonder if some UFO took over your mind for a few minutes one day? What's your most embarrassing moment? Think about your childhood today, and even if you don't come up with anything wildly memorable, I bet you'll have some fun reliving times from the past.
Labels: blowing bubbles, Childhood memories, girls having fun, Playing, relaxing
Ah, the memories! I probably shared with you last year the experience of taking part in a class reunion pajama party (just us girls) only two or three days after my shoulder surgery. And despite my pain and slowness, we still had fun. I hope this wasn't the picture I showed you, because I wanted this one to be different. We're planning our next annual weekend, which is always so much fun, but fills me with frustration.
You see, our class was unusually close, and when some of us get together all our wrinkles and lumps and age marks fall away and we're just the girls again. We catch up and share our lives. What amazes me is that each of us has lived several novels' worth of experiences, and every time we share, my mental block gets to me; each of my friends could be the main character in a novel of such depth and clarity and beauty...and I cannot write those novels myself. I lose something as I'm writing. I've been able to utilize the personalities and quirks of each of my friends in this picture--plus many others from our class--into composite characters, but something fails in the translation.
For instance, I used Doris's personality in a character in one of my books--I even used her name--but had the character doing things the real Doris would never do--such as ruining a perfectly good steak, or stealing old school files. I used Deb's name in a recent novel that really freaked her out. She was thinking of changing her name until she read to the end. I've wanted for years to write a book about us, how we really are and the agonies and triumphs of our lives, but I cannot capture it in a story. Nothing can come close to the depth of spirit and soul of my longtime friends and schoolmates.
But I'll keep trying. We always struggle to improve our craft. Someday, maybe, I'll be able to capture a better word picture of my friends. Until now, I'll just enjoy them.
Have you found this problem to be true in your artistic endeavors, whether it be writing or knitting, photography or painting? Have you been frustrated by the inability to capture the true picture that looms in your mind when you see something of beauty and worth?
Labels: girls having fun, long-time friends, Writing dreams
I'm sure you can tell by the facial hair on these three people that there aren't children in this picture. I hope you can see from the bubbles that Mel and Rich and I were having fun like children when Lissa took the shot. I'm here to remind you, once again, to take time to have fun and play no matter your age or circumstances. Laughter relieves stress. I particularly love laughing at myself, but today I'd love to laugh along with you. 
Delicious
Ah, the memories! I probably shared with you last year the experience of taking part in a class reunion pajama party (just us girls) only two or three days after my shoulder surgery. And despite my pain and slowness, we still had fun. I hope this wasn't the picture I showed you, because I wanted this one to be different. We're planning our next annual weekend, which is always so much fun, but fills me with frustration.
