Ah, summer. You have finally deigned to grace us with your presence, and those of us here in the midwest are appropriately grateful. I am showing my gratitude this Independence Day weekend by exercising my freedom to sit on the deck, read, ride my bike, read, go for a ride in our classic sports car, read, eat lunch at a favorite outdoor cafe, read...well, you get the picture.
Reading Life: Though it seems as if I’m doing a lot of reading, my reading life has still been a little lackluster. This week I finished two books, one I didn’t expect to enjoy as much as I did, the other I expected to enjoy more than I did. Go figure. Right now I’m unequivocally enjoying The Reluctant Midwife, by Patricia Harman. It’s the second in a series, set in a small West Virginia mining town during the Depression. Times are hard, but midwife Patience Hensen, now joined by her friend Nurse Becky Myers, are helping folks bring new life into Hope River. It’s a well written series, very evocative of time and place, with characters I’m learning to love.
Writing Life: I’m working steadily on a new writing project, and have set some parameters that are helping me feel successful. I like to line up sources of inspiration for writing, and most often that’s other writers. Lately, my go-to source has been The 10 Letters Project. I keep it on my desk and pick it up at random, catching one of the (many!) underlined sentences that spoke to me on first reading. Today, it was this: “There is a certain point in one’s artistic life when you say, ‘Okay, I have this crazy dream and I’ll allow myself to go for it.” It’s the idea of “green lighting yourself”; being convinced that your artistic endeavors are worth committing time and effort toward. I have to remind myself of this on a daily basis -to give myself permission to take time away from my other obligations, to pursue these creative ideas.
Home Life: The flowers around my house are making me happy this week. The warmer days and nights have “greenlighted” them, and they are bursting into bloom. When I leave my desk this morning, I’ll embark upon the rather laborious effort of watering and feeding all of them. It’s time consuming, but also a good way of slowing myself down and helping me enjoy the day.
Life In General: We’ve been enjoying an active social life this week, and were out and about for two evenings with some new friends. One of those evenings was to attend a Detroit Tigers baseball game at Comerica Park, a first for both of us. The “Boys” played a pretty lackluster game (even to this untrained eye), but it was fun to sit in the stadium on a gorgeous summer night, the city skyline rising proudly over right field. I can definitely see the charm in this Great American Sport, and I’m glad of the opportunity to participate.
Wishing you a warm and wonderful week to come...