Because losing Mari has been the hardest thing I've ever been through but with time my wounded heart has slowly begun to heal. When someone said that losing a child is the hardest thing anyone would have to deal with, that couldn't be more of an understatement. Mari died four and a half years ago and sometimes it still feels like yesterday. The pain can be so raw that I sob. The tears pour from my eyes. Even though four and a half years may seem like a while, it really isn't. I know that … [Read more...]
Archives for April 2013
Day 64: Writing Is Not Pretty
Are you a little confused by today's title? To be honest, so was I. So I got to thinking. When we are writing a book, or a play, or a blog post, or whatever type of writing that needs to be done. Our first drafts are anything but pretty. There are grammar mistakes galore (even though in our head it was perfect :( ) we have all the spelling errors that either our auto-correct didn't change our word automatically or we really messed up the spelling (gotta love spell check, a writer's best friend). … [Read more...]
G is for giving
As you can't help giving your heart to Mari as she enters it for good. It never seemed to amaze me how captivating our daughter was. Here laughter could draw in almost anyone. It was infectious. I loved when she was sitting in her high chair eating and out of the blue she would start to giggle. You looked at where you thought she was but there wasn't anything there. She sort of had this far off look. She had escaped into Mari's world. I can imagine what her world was like as she was … [Read more...]
Day 63: Feast or Famine: Part 2
Have you ever sat down to your computer or your binder paper and suddenly you have nothing to write. In fact, this goes on for several days. Nothing is coming to you. This is what we writers hate to have happen: Writer's Block. Or the famine. For whatever reason, all of our ideas have dried up like a lake that goes through a severe drought and dries all up. We want to write. We've scheduled our time out and yet here we sit. This has happened with Mari's website for me. If you take a look … [Read more...]
F is for Faith
Mari's cousin Faith was always the one to take care of Mari even though Faith was four years younger than her. Faith came into this world as a sweet beautiful little girl who grew into Mari's surrogate big sister even though she was younger. When we would come to visit Keith's mom and dad, Faith would bring Mari into her room and try her very best to force Mari to play with her. Here's the thing. No one could force Mari to do anything she didn't want to without Mari fighting you tooth and … [Read more...]
Day 62: Feast or Famine: Part 1
This is a two-day posting. For today's topic it's about the "feast" in writing. Have you ever sat down to write something and story after is sitting there ready to write. In fact, you have so many of them you're overwhelmed with were to start. This is like the feast. As writers we have to discern what we need to write about. A great place to start would be to pray asking for God's help in knowing what should be written about first. So discernment is the key. We need to listen closely what our … [Read more...]
E is for Energy
You shake your head at all the energy one little girl exuded. Mari's infallible energy never ceased to amaze any of us. She could run through the house dancing, singing, both at the same time. She wasn't picky. Mari truly didn't care what other people thought of her. She'd run around at school, church, the store or any place that had a floor. So basically everywhere. I remember one day after the church service watching Mari in her normal exuberant self run all around making her Mari … [Read more...]
Day 61: Writing Hours
Everyone's writing time is individualized to that person and what works best for them. One person may only have an hour at lunch time to devote to the craft whereas someone else may have the entire day. We all lead different lives. Some are married while others are single. Some have children others don't. Some have a job outside the home and some may have no job at all. We can't judge someone else's output by what they do. Personally, I am now a stay home mom who homeschools her niece. I work … [Read more...]
D is for Dare-Devil
Because Mari's inner dare-devil loved to dance on roofs or go dancing in the street. Mari had one of the most carefree attitudes of anyone I knew. She had no fear, or understanding, of trying something she shouldn't. When Keith was stationed at the DeKalb recruiting station, we lived in a four bedroom townhouse. At the time I had my office desk in our living room. It faced the window. One day I was sitting at it doing my business and all of a sudden I saw a foot appear on the roof from … [Read more...]
Day 60: Showing Up
I think this has been my exact problem these past several months. To be reliable to my own writing muse. Ever since last July when Mari's 4 year mark came and went, I've had a hard time trying to motivate myself to do any kind of writing. Whether it was writing something for Mari's website, writing something for her book, or just writing for my fiction book, I just couldn't find the motivation. I kept being told by others that even if I only write a sentence a day I needed to write something. … [Read more...]
