So I've decided that Thursdays are my blog day. I like the idea of a weekly deadline, and have for the last month or so been finding that it gets me to sit down and write - which is, after all, an integral part of the writing process. If you don't sit down and write, big surprise: nothing gets written!
And, I've been finding that once I imposed this "limit" on myself, the ideas just started flowing! All the time now I'll think: yeah, that would make a great blog post! And so would that! And that! It's almost like, now that I know I only have to create something once a week - instead of feeling like I have to do it every day, or every few days, which was an unrealistic expectation, as I never actually met it - I actually want to create. Imposing a limit actually gives you freedom. Weird how that works.
So anyway. How has the week been going? It's been going well. The weather is moving towards Fall and cooler temperatures, and although I'm a big fan of summer, I have to admit that I love this yearly transition to Autumn. I love: the earlier sunsets and that 9'0'clock is darkness again, the cravings for fuzzy blankets and loose, comfy jeans, sweaters and textures and tweeds. I love bare feet on the grass, a little bit of exposure still, even though the nights are cooler and the frost is starting to threaten.
I love: meadows full of goldenrod and joe pie weed, the muted and the bright side-by-side. Leggy plants with unruly, colored flower-heads, and everything from the wild to the gardens growing, overgrowing, filling up space with tendrils and leaves and big stalks and fruits. I love making way for apples - bushels of apples. (Doesn't that phrase just TASTE good?)
My job is shifting too. All summer I coordinated and managed eight young interns, all between the ages of 18 and 23. It was busy - like having eight kids, or so I imagine. (Likely having eight children is a tonne more work - for one thing, you don't leave it at the end of the day. For another, you certainly don't get paid for it. And for one more - I didn't have to deal with vomit, diapers, poop or crying.) In any case, whether or not there is any parallel between my job and octo-motherhood, I was constantly shifting my attention from one to another. As well I was communicating with them over distances, as they were all in CAP Sites around the county. One was a two-and-a-half-hour drive away. Two others were an hour's drive. It took a lot more time and energy than I had thought, just to do that!
Four of the interns have already left, and the remaining four finish tomorrow. Then I'm on my own for three more weeks, wrapping up the summer's projects and preparing for the Fall and Winter projects. I'll miss the interns, for sure. Even if it was busy, and even tiresome at times, at least it was always exciting. It's strange now to actually answer all the emails in my inbox, for one thing, and then to spend a few seconds gazing at its clean, neat non-clutteredness, and then - have it stay that way for an hour! Or two!
Anyway. The work was good. I learned a lot. I'll miss it, but better things are coming down the pike. I can just feel it.
In the book, "poemcrazy: freeing your life with words," by Susan G. Wooldridge, the author talks about collecting words and creating a wordpool.
The great thing about collecting words is they're free; you can borrow them, trade them in or toss them out... Words are lightweight, unbreakable, portable, and they're everywhere. You can even make them up. Frebent, bezoncular, zurber. Someone made up the word padiddle... I take words from everywhere. I might steal steel, spelled both ways. Unscrupulous, I'll toss in iron, metal and magnolias. Whatever flies into my mind. Haystack, surge, sidewinder. A sound, splash. A color, magenta. Here's a chair. Velvet. Plush.I'm kind of in love with this idea. Ever since I read this back in the spring, I do this - sometimes I write them down, make long "wordpool" word lists. Sometimes I just say them out loud - float free from one word to another.
So if summer's word list could be: hot, sweat, lazy, sarong, beach-sand, ice-cream, then Fall could start with... cool, rustle, frost, opaque tights, cast-iron pans, pumpkin.
Oh and - I bought the September issue of Vogue. It's got me all wound up now - and here come some more words. Ideas, fashion, colors, texture. Gloss - escapism - photographs - culture - New York City - design - skyscraper - suit - angle - lip.
What are your Fall words?
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