“Oh, I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain. I’ve seen sunny days that I thought would never end. I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend, but I always thought that I’d see you again.”
I keep thinking I’m starting to feel better, but then I change my mind.
I haven’t been feeling all that well for a while now, for a long while now, and so when you add that to a week like the one I just had, it’s left me feeling a bit off.
This time of year is a difficult one, for family, for those I love, for several reasons.
On a week such as this, I suppose that’s when I need the 10 Things of Thankful most of all.
Because, even as I thought all this, I realized I was still able to come up with a list of ten things to be grateful for..
For the unpredictability of the waves.
We enjoyed a late afternoon visit to Lake Erie. The water was rougher than we were expecting. I was upset about this at first, but it’s like life.
Sure, at first it leaves you feeling nervous and the motion of the waves can cause you to feel off balance.
But you can make an effort to make the best of that. I did. We did. Sometimes, you don’t really have any other choice.
I let each wave knock me around as it might. I tried to anticipate which wave would be the biggest, by the sound it made, but it often ended up being the loud ones that produced the least amount of force when they physically washed over me.
It was the silent one that snuck up on me, the one that seemed least intimidating, and that’s the one that forcefully slammed into me, knocking me sideways and off my feet.
That my nephew had so much fun playing in them.
He was smart enough to realize he had his mother and grandmother right there with him, for safety, but that he could still enjoy himself.
He was nervous at first, but once he saw how much fun the waves could be, he didn’t allow a bit of water to spoil things.
His pure shrieks of bliss made me realize the importance of relaxing and letting loose so I could enjoy the experience too.
For a peaceful moment on the beach.
Once I’d started to dry off by the gradually setting sun, the other three went back in once more, but I chose to stay on shore.
I sat and listened to the waves, to my nephew’s laughter, the sounds of other families, the cries of the seagulls.
Being by the lake, by Lake Erie, is a highly tranquil and peaceful feeling, and I know I’m not the only one to feel that way.
For the fun I had with the other members of my writing group.
We told stories about the crazy things our pets do. We talked about summer and about the weather. We made tea, without the group leader who usually does it. We even managed to find everything, even with the absence of her direction.
It was another one of those days when I dreaded going, as it was the hottest day of the month so far and I was already slow and sluggish from the humidity, but once I was there I was glad I hadn’t chosen to stay at home.
For the short story I came up with at said group this week.
It was a case of already having a setting and basic character outlines picked out. Someone had put both ideas in my head. I came up with the details, the dialogue, and filled in the blanks from there.
I took this week’s mystery object, a knitted and stuffed panda and knitted panda hat to go along with it, and I incorporated both those things into the story.
The basic idea is my first person narrator, who likes to go grocery shopping in the middle of the night, but not for lack of interesting characters to share a store with while doing it.
I think it might be one of the short stories I read out loud on a future podcast episode.
Being in this writing group has really helped me with writing fiction, which is the area I’d most wanted to work on. I get ideas and inspirations from things we talk about and from listening to the creativity of the other members in the group. It’s the best thing I’ve done for my writing in a long long time.
That amongst all the violence that happened this week, like any other around the world, my family were all safe.
I was nearly rendered speechless and definitely feeling heartsick by it all, like the terrorist attacks in Turkey, Bangladesh, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia in the weeks before last.
It just keeps on happening, but I am lucky I don’t need to be in constant fear for my loved ones. I know many aren’t so lucky.
For kissing.
This week, every July 6th, it’s International Kissing Day.
For chocolate and days set aside to celebrate it.
First came kissing. Next comes chocolate.
🙂
This week was also World Chocolate Day.
Enough said. I never need a day to get me to eat chocolate.
For persistence, which I know is a family trait for many in mine.
We hit a last minute snag on releasing the podcast, which I am sure people are growing tired of hearing me talk about, as it should have been up by now.
Well, snag nearly overcome. I attribute my brother’s persistence as being the reason you can expect the first episode of Ketchup On Pancakes to be out by the next TToT. But don’t take my word for it. I wouldn’t blame you if you were growing tired of my word.
😉
I tend to give up on things, especially things involving computers and technology, which is why I am glad my brother keeps working on something, in most cases, until he figures it out.
I know that sort of strong will is a quality a lot of my family members possess, more so than me.
For brilliant Canadian female writing.
Happy Birthday to Alice Munro!!!
She won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature. She is from this province of Ontario. Her home is next to another one of the Great Lakes, Lake Huron. She has had a long career as a short story writer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYXG9rG0Jf0
link The complexity of things – the things within things – just seems to be endless. I mean nothing is easy, nothing is simple.
—Alice Munro
Her Headache 
