Outdoor Poems

Nothing inspires quite like nature. Admittedly, I’m usually inspired to slather on sunscreen and run from the bugs, but on those rare occasions when I can wander a cultivated garden it is pure bliss.

The Botanical Gardens nearest my home are a wonderful sample of what Paradise could be. Within a few minutes among the roses, hostas, and iris, the tension subsides, making room for creativity to flow. I may not be much good as an outdoors-woman, but I’m excellent at appreciating its beauty!

Here is a haiku triplet I wrote on one such visit:

A water’s whisper

bids me stay, and learn how

to still the rushing.

 

The path that winds back

upon itself lets each one meet

again, but newly.

 

Raindrops make ripples;

softened pebbles from the sky,

their presence soon forgot.

 

How are you inspired by nature?

O is for Opportunity

The April Blogging from A to Z Challenge continues!

O (Photo credit: chrisinplymouth)

Opportunity is supposed to knock but once, except in my case, where I chase it down the street, grab on to its coattails and cling to its leg while being dragged along.  I’m not really the kind to wait around for opportunity to find me.  I moved too much as a kid.  If Reader’s Digest couldn’t find us after six months, how was opportunity going to catch up?

I believe we create our own opportunities in life.  Need a job?  Make one.  Want to sell something?  Make an offer.  These passive newspaper ads and craigslist begging hats have become invisible to society, so it is up to us to make our dreams happen.

Me?  I’m on a personal mission at the moment.  I’ve been knocking on a lot of doors and trying to get a “yes”, and you know what I discovered? 

I AM OPPORTUNITY. 

I am a chance for you to build something great, to learn something new, to grow in directions that aren’t on any map.  I thought our roles were reversed, and I was sitting around waiting for something to happen.  But that’s not the case.  I am the one who’s coming for you.  I’m knocking on your door, so you might want to answer it.

Leave a comment for me, if you please.  Writing is a lonely business.

Also, visit some of the other few thousand bloggers participating in the A to Z challenge by clicking below:

A is for AUTHOR

The April Blogging from A to Z Challenge continues!

Being a writer is tough.  Anyone who is self-employed knows how hard it is to make yourself get up every morning and stick to a schedule of   your own design.  When the work is there waiting for you – the broken pipe, the dirty house, the waiting client – you have some kind of accountability, some motivation to move forward.  With writing, you create your own work (and it isn’t always inspiring or even profitable).

My recent gig as Technical Editor over at Flash Fiction Chronicles has helped re-motivate me in the world of fiction and writing in general.  After a lot of years in education and writing curriculum, it’s nice to be around some dreamy folks who support my Doctor Who obsession and don’t ask for evidence that I’ve met the Common Core standards.

The hardest fight in the writer world (for me) is dealing with the bait-and-switch feeling people get when I explain what kind of writer I am.  When people hear you are a writer, they immediately think you are J.K. Rowling, Stephen King, or Agatha Christie.  (You’ve never seen a crestfallen face, until you see a book-lover realize you haven’t published a fiction novel.) And if you aren’t on their local Barnes & Noble bookshelf, then you must be only playing at writing.  Few people consider the writer of their child’s lesson plans as a “real” writer.  Enjoy that hilarious Superbowl commercial?  Writer.  Appreciate the succinct explanation of nutritional benefits on your box of CoCo Puffs?  Writer.

Writing is all around us, and in our celebrity-mad culture, we’ve come to equate authors with the job requirements of fame, fortune, and film.  After all, a book that hasn’t been made into a movie isn’t worth reading, right?  Writing is hard, but rewarding – and not for the reasons people think.

The rewards come in seeing others enjoy, learn from, or utilize what you’ve created.  In seeing something come to life on the page.  In knowing that your efforts will live on – even if your name isn’t attached to it.  Writing is like teaching, or raising kids.  You don’t see the benefits for years to come, and sometimes you wonder why you even bother.  But when it’s all said and done, there really isn’t anything else you’d rather do.

Leave a comment for me, if you please.  Writing is a lonely business.

Also, visit some of the other few thousand bloggers participating in the A to Z challenge by clicking below: