Joy

The writing course I am doing is progressing really well. I am really enjoying the daily practice of writing and am starting to realise how much can be achieved with just a little every day. The course focuses on opening up and just "... getting it out there, baby!" focussing on laying out the detail and emotion


This is a piece I wrote as an exercise. Remember, it is written as a first draft and is all about just getting it on the page. But it came out of nowhere and I quite liked it.



"He watched her high-heels dance up the stairs to her brownstone. The Autumn shower was drenching him, but he was oblivious. The bliss of that woman, that first kiss in the rain, , had lifted his feet off the ground, beyond care for the drops running over their faces and lips and the weather. He stood there drinking her in until she turned, blew a kiss to him and disappeared through the door into the light and warmth. His smile cracked open his face and he whooped and ran through the puddles, trousers drenched and shoes squelching. He lifted his face to the sky, drips falling into his eyes and mouth, blinking and spluttering, he sang the old song, a modern day Gene Kelly, kicking through red and yellow leaves and overflowing with love. An old man in a high-collared overcoat and an umbrella pulled down hard over his head, eyed him and grumbled "Lunatic!" Giggling, David slowed to a walking skip, stopping to shelter under a florist's awning, watching the drops dance as they hit the street. With his hands shoved deep in to his coat pockets and a glow in his cheeks, 'Glorious evening!' he said to no-one in particular, "Truly glorious!" "

15

15 years

2 states

3 children

18 weeks of morning sickness

5 hospital stays and 4 operations for the kids 

11 years of business

Over 40 instruments

One 2 month adventure to France

9 jobs

1 mortgage

Bills, debts, mistakes and successes 

a motorbike

and a dog.

We are still friends, still in love, still planning our future and sharing our dreams. 

After 15 years of marriage, we sure do have a lot to celebrate.

Happy anniversary to us! 

Flasher

As you can see I have been on blog hiatus. I just haven't had anything much to say. Not in a bad way. Just in a bit of a blank brain kinda way.

Life has trucked on in a jolly, Smithy, summery way. Climate change is certainly working for us on the island, I can't remember such a long summer.

Today I started a writing a course. Its a scary step. From spending the money, to committing the time and doing the work just scares the shit out of me and it is the sort of thing I have previously found very easy to duck out of. I want it bad, but there are so, so many other things to do, priorities, etcetera, etcetera. This time the luthier looked at me and said quietly and firmly, as only the luthier can, "You should do this."  So even though my knees do knock and my collies wobble, I am supported and not ducking out. 

Do you find that? That its far easier to do jobs and commit to everyone else, than it is to commit to yourself? Doing things for the kids, or the luthier, or school, or whatever, certainly sits more easily in my chest than time and effort that is 'just for me'. Madness. I know that is madness, but it is true.  And in an effort to break the habit and move forward a little, I have started a writing course. 

"If you love it, do it", thats the sage advice I freely hand out, often unsolicited, to my kids and my friends. The time has come to take my own advice. 

Writing for me is vulnerability, an exposure. While the act is always preceded by excitement, high expectations and lusty anticipation, often the reality, in my eyes, has a rather disappointing, withered result - much like a flasher in a raincoat under a lamppost in the park.

My first post to the course forum just went up for feedback. Let's hope they are gentle with me.