Ten-Finger Exercises

resolve: to make time to write

Here it is, nearly 8:30 on a Sunday evening, and we've just gotten home from a Hawaiian party to say good-bye to our priest and his wife. Bill wants to be together, and the tv is on with a show I like. So how can I possibly sit and write?

Just read Special Kay 's blog, and it brought up several topics I'll put on my list to explore at quieter times, which I resolve to make happen soon.

I've been thinking about one of the topics a little already. Read a poem by a woman whose name I'll look up and have for you tomorrow. Nearly all the poems in her book were character sketches, and one in particular spoke to me. It was about an old woman who sat in the senior center doing jigsaw puzzles. The staff thought she probably enjoyed all the beautiful pictures of faraway places and wished she were there. Instead, she was thinking about the pieces of her life, how they made up the whole, and how she realized that, to see the picture and help her understanding, she needed to start with the edges.

I've been pondering what the edges of our lives are. It's an interesting notion, and it's at the top of my bloglist.

Another thing I want to do is make up a character, or several, who operate out of their need for autonomy first and foremost, and see how they interact, what that need in one brings out in the others.

Back to today, church went well and so did the party. I made a big couscous salad, a recipe which I hadn't tried before, and people liked it. We have a staff goodbye lunch for Steve tomorrow. There's a hospice field trip planned at the same time, but we've had six inches of snow today with ice on top. I think I'd like to go to the lunch instead. I've missed out on so many staff meetings and relationship building because of my job, and then I feel bad about it. So, tomorrow, I'll go be a part of the staff that I don't feel very connected or important to. I'll do it for me, and because I am fond of the man, even though...even though....