October 15: Writing Prompt #288-Childlike

Explain your biggest regret — as though to a small child.

Me: You know what I wish? 

Child: What?

Me: I wish I had gone down that big slide when I was your age.

Child: The big slide?

Me: Yes. Do you know what else I wish?

Child: What?

Me: I wish I had jumped off the highest diving board at the water park.

Child: You do? 

Me: Yes, but I was too scared. Do you know what else I wish?

Child: What?

Me: I wish I had joined the soccer team when I was at the big school.

Child: Soccer?

Me: Yes. I was going to join, but I was unsure, so I didn’t.

Child: Oh.

Me: What do you wish you could do right now? 

For me, my biggest regret was not coming out of my shell a little earlier in life.  So many children are fearless-not afraid to try anything-and that’s part of the beauty and danger of being a child, but I would rather have been a little more fearless and a little less shy.  What about you? 

October 14: Writing Prompt #287-Imitation / Flattery

Write a post in the style of (or simply inspired by) a favorite author.

During my first years on Kwajalein, I was taking literature classes to complete my Bachelor’s degree in English.  One of the classes required me to write a response poem to a poem that could be found in our course anthology book.  I chose the poem “Making the Jam Without You” by Maxine Kumin. Since my poem is a response poem, it is in exactly the same style as the author’s, only the perspective written from is quite different. Maxine wrote the poem to her daughter, and I responded as a daughter (but thinking of my own mother and our distance from each other at the time).  Here’s the poem I wrote for that class in response to Ms. Kumin’s poem….all the way from the late 1990’s!

One daughter’s response poem to “Making the Jam Without You”

For Mom

Wise mother, best friend,

arriving home from a long day at a necessary job,

in the small Alabama town you’ve known all your life,

where thousands of memories haunt and delight you.

I received your heart’s thoughts, they are the same as mine.

Listen! Here the lawnmowers are manicuring the green grasses,

while the leaves fall where you are.

Palm frawns wave in the hot breeze,

while you pick up pine cones in the cool, crisp air.

Now, I am fixing lunch for my new husband,

while you prepare dinner for an old friend.

I am reminded of long breakfasts on free mornings,

talking over our cold coffee and half eaten English muffins for hours,

things I talk to you about and cannot discuss with any other.

We are not only mother and daughter, but kindred spirits and restless souls.

I, ready to discover what my future holds, children and career.

You, wondering where God will move you to begin making new memories,

after the marriage and children, memories in which life has made you

an independent woman, able to carry out any and all of your dreams,

for you have been set free from you past. 

As much as I’d love to be your little girl forever,

I must prepare to be a mother to my future children,

and I must let you go to live your life.

You have raised your children and raised them well, I might add.

But there are plans for you still and

my plans have taken me miles and oceans away, for now.

In my dream for you,

I see you on the white, sandy beaches on which you’ve always wished to be,

combing the shore for shells,

and at peace with new memories of sunsets,

love, and joy surrounding you, and

I lift the flap of your dream to step out and give you a call,

for I’ll never stop calling while you listen for hours,

and I’ll never let our memories together stop being made

even though we will sometimes make our jam

in two different kitchens.

October 13: Writing Prompt #286-Michelangelo’s YOU

Your personal sculptor is carving a person, thing, or event from the last month of your life into the glistening marble of immortality. What’s the statue and what makes it so significant?

I would say there’s not anything from the last month of my life that I would want carved into a glistening marble of immortality; however, I would LOVE to have a sculptor sculpt my immediate family (me, kids, husband, and dog) as we were back in August 2015 up on Crystal Mountain.  This moment is time is significant to me because my boys are in the stage where they are changing so much each year. My oldest is now taller than me, and my youngest is catching up fast.  Plus, now that I am in my 40’s, I am changing faster too.  Life, and especially my children, will not stay this way forever, so I would like to immortalize the fun times I had with my handsome family against the backdrop of the beautiful mountains of the Northwest before we all grow up and lose those moments in our fragile memories forever. 

October 12: Writing Prompt #285-Blogger in a Strange Land

What’s the strangest place from which you’ve posted to your blog? When was the last time you were out and about, and suddenly thought, “I need to write about this!”?

I don’t think I’ve ever posted from a place I would consider strange, although I have posted from some unique locations overs the years, including Vancouver, Canada and the San Juan Islands, WA.  Of course, for the first 4 years, it was mostly from the Marshall Islands, occasionally from the wi-fi on Emon Beach or in back of the Namo Weto Youth Center or from inside the Snack Bar in “downtown” Kwaj….basically from wherever I could find a wi-fi connection. 

My “I need to write about this” moments usually come in the form of children’s books. Things my children or other children say or do always inspire me. I have multiple “drafts” of children’s books written already as well as multiple titles of ones I have not taken the time to sit down and write out yet, but the idea is there.  Often my ideas come in the form of titles first. Most recently, I decided I need to sit down and record the many stories my husband tells.  He’s a really good storyteller, and he has a wide range of interesting experiences under the sea and out in nature to share.  He should probably be the writer in our family because he has the flare for storytelling, the keen observation skills, and the memory for detail.  Since he doesn’t really enjoy writing like I do, I figure one of these days, I will record his stories, and then use my skills to organize and edit them into a book, for which, of course, I already have the title in mind. J  

October 11: Writing Prompt #284-Mid-Season Replacement

For many of us the seasons are changing, bouncing unpredictably between cold and warm. Are you glad to be moving into a new season, or wishing for one more week of the old?

I’m good with the bouncing, for the most part.  Being that I am currently the opening shift at my workplace, it can be challenging to know what to put on each morning because I am sure to be cold for the first 4 hours (when it’s in the 50’s outside), and then hot on the way home (when it’s up to the high 60’s or low 70’s).  But hey, that’s what layering is for, right? I don’t think I ever understood that fully until I moved to the NW where the swings in temp can be 30 degrees from morning to afternoon and then overnight again.  Even in the summer, it may be 90 by 4 pm, but it started out at 60.  Good thing for me is that fall is still fall here, just as it is in Alabama where I grew up.  I LOVE fall, the changing colors of the leaves, the crisp, cool air, the coming slew of holidays which include pumpkin pie, my children’s birthdays, time with family, and the birth of Jesus.  I love it all.  So, yes, I am glad for the changing of the seasons, and I do NOT wish for one more week of the old. Change is good.  Moving ahead and not living in the past is important, even if it is sometimes painful, and fall, to me is a symbol of all that….letting go of the old and welcoming in the new, the New Year and new experiences.  Some years are tougher than others, and this has not been the easiest one for our families, so I welcome letting go of the old and bringing in the new.  How about you?