Every year, I try to do something new at my blog. Last year, my goal was to blog every day. You saw how well that went. (Yes, you are indeed smelling sarcasm here.) And this year, I am setting off yet again to “touch” my blog in some way each day and by adjusting my mission ever so slightly, I brush away the weight off of my shoulders that comes with a year-long sentence that I must blog every day. The pressure to be observant, witty, creative or insightful enough to find something to say all 365 days is enormous so instead I will simply promise to use my blog in some way every day and in turn offer up something to you. I will try to make my blog a multi-purpose site. So instead of just blogs and the occasional movie review during my insipid Oscar Run nomination treks (which you know I will embark on again because I’m nutty like that)… I am instead going to use this blog for everything. When I want to tell you about some cool site I found, if I have a book or show or film to recommend, if I need to vent-emote-get philosophical, if I want to thank-promote-call out some people but always from a professional perspective (because we are not blue meanies at this website) — this will now be the place I do it.
Oh and occasionally, you might hear about poetry, book writing or dreaming up book ideas (whenever that should happen again), book or author events and other areas that I think may be of particular interest to those who follow me and love to read, write or maybe are aspiring writers themselves.
My blogs in 2019 might be 20 paragraphs long or they might be 20 lines long. Heck, they could even be 20 words long. No rules here. The idea is that I “touch” the site every day. My only self-imposed criterion is that I have to feel that what I’m sharing merits SOME value to SOMEone out there, otherwise I am not going to waste your time.
You will start to see some new weekly blog features that I’m brewing up and one of them starts today — on Thursdays. (Oooh, how cool…) Another you’ll “meet” on Mondays. And as promised, I am continuing over on one of my other platforms, my Instagram page, my commitment to art-inspired #dailypics as part of my #2019photochallenge. These also post on Twitter and Facebook if you happen to be on one of those sites instead and not currently following me.(Follow me here on Twitter and follow me over here to connect on Facebook.)
So Thursday, Thursday, Thursday. Such a thoughtful day. We start to reflect on the workweek coming to a close, we contemplate our plans for the weekend ahead, and I find that it’s the first time in a busy week where I feel like I catch my breath. Maybe it’s the silent mid-point that weighs down Wednesday in my week. I feel once I’m past Wednesday, the opportunity for smooth sailing is upon me — based on how I manage that Thursday.
In honor of Thoughtful Thursday, I’m going to use my blog as a helpful resource for (a) those who write for a living; (b) those who write for pleasure or self-expression; (c) those who long to start writing for either purpose or both but are not quite sure where to start; and (d) people who just love reading and the beauty of words. Today, I’m going to introduce you to a great website and e-newsletter ideal for writers and avid readers, especially women.
Behold…the Literary Ladies Guide or as it is subtitled — Inspiration for Writers and Readers from Classic Women Authors
We can learn so much about our words, our craft, ourselves — via the wisdom of the writers who came before us. For example, this week’s e-newsletter acknowledges the revival of interest in P.L. Travers due to the success of MARY POPPINS RETURNS at movie theaters but also celebrates the wisdom of writers like Eudora Welty, May Sarton and Zora Neale Hurston. Haven’t heard of all of these women writers? If you are a writer, maybe you should educate yourself, and if you’re a woman writer, take the maybe out of that sentence.
You can learn more about the Literary Ladies Guide by clicking here and sign up to receive their weekly e-newsletter. I’m telling you that you will be so glad you did. I will admit that I don’t always read each newsletter that crosses my inbox but I do read this one. Every time I finish, I am either so pumped up that I want to pick up a book to get lost in a story or grab one of my stark naked blank journals and begin dreaming up new universes.
To leave you with one of their inspiring inclusions in this week’s newsletter, I will share with you the beautiful poem they feature by May Sarton, “Now I Become Myself.” I hope that as you venture into the new year that you too find great avenues and channels to explore and discover and become more of yourself, too. As always, thanks for reading. x ~ Chris K.
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Now I become myself. It’s taken
Time, many years and places;
I have been dissolved and shaken,
Worn other people’s faces,
Run madly, as if Time were there,
Terribly old, crying a warning,
“Hurry, you will be dead before—”
(What? Before you reach the morning?
Or the end of the poem is clear?
Or love safe in the walled city?)
Now to stand still, to be here,
Feel my own weight and density!
The black shadow on the paper
Is my hand; the shadow of a word
As thought shapes the shaper
Falls heavy on the page, is heard.
All fuses now, falls into place
From wish to action, word to silence,
My work, my love, my time, my face
Gathered into one intense
Gesture of growing like a plant.
As slowly as the ripening fruit
Fertile, detached, and always spent,
Falls but does not exhaust the root,
So all the poem is, can give,
Grows in me to become the song,
Made so and rooted by love.
Now there is time and Time is young.
O, in this single hour I live
All of myself and do not move.
I, the pursued, who madly ran,
Stand still, stand still, and stop the sun!
— from Collected Poems 1930 – 1993 by May Sarton © W.W. Norton, 1993
Read more at https://www.literaryladiesguide.com/classic-women-authors-poetry/now-become-poem-may-sarton/#ZHU3cYj3ys2xCtbL.99
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