Inconvenience.
43 - the number of minutes spent on the phone with roadside assistance
247 - the number of minutes spent waiting for a tow truck
4 - the number of times I was told the tow truck would be arriving in 15 minutes
2 - the number of people in the car reminding me that laughter and friendship can make a seemingly rotten situation a whole lot better
5 - the number of caring people who recognized our distress and offered assistance
55 - the number of miles my wonderful mother drove to pick us up
12:47 am - the time I finally arrived home and collapsed into bed
Oh, and....
64 - the number of miles AFTER my warranty expired when the engine in my car also expired (yes...my warranty expired one hour before I broke down)
And so this morning I sit, drinking an unusally large cup of coffee, reflecting on last night's inconvenience. But that is all it was, for now it is time to rise and shine.
Friday, January 3, 2014
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Rise and Shine
For weeks now, since January first to be exact, I have been trying to decide how to start this blog. First time blogger anxiety. It is the first piece of my Happiness Project, and something I have wanted to do for myself for a long time.
I have written and rewritten this piece countless times, but it was never quite right. And then I happened upon a book by Verlyn Klinkenborg, who said in regards to writing:
"When students are free to write anything they want,
What they write first are pieces they hope look
like something they saw published somewhere
About subjects they believe are pre-authorized
Because someone has already written about them
In pieces they hoped looked like something
they saw published somewhere.
A first piece of that kind is a tacit way of taking
shelter under the authority of someone
else's perceptions."
I'm pretty sure he was talking to me. What I wanted most from this first post was for it to be memorable...eloquent...now I just want it to be finished.
Verlyn, who has become a dear friend in my mind, suggested that a first step in becoming a writer is to become a noticer. He said that the act of noticing "is about letting yourself out into the world, rather than siphoning the world into you in order to transmute it into words."
I'm definitely sure he was talking to me. And so I am "letting myself out into the world" to notice...life.
I'm not sure where it will lead, but I do know that it is time for me to rise and shine.
I have written and rewritten this piece countless times, but it was never quite right. And then I happened upon a book by Verlyn Klinkenborg, who said in regards to writing:
"When students are free to write anything they want,
What they write first are pieces they hope look
like something they saw published somewhere
About subjects they believe are pre-authorized
Because someone has already written about them
In pieces they hoped looked like something
they saw published somewhere.
A first piece of that kind is a tacit way of taking
shelter under the authority of someone
else's perceptions."
I'm pretty sure he was talking to me. What I wanted most from this first post was for it to be memorable...eloquent...now I just want it to be finished.
Verlyn, who has become a dear friend in my mind, suggested that a first step in becoming a writer is to become a noticer. He said that the act of noticing "is about letting yourself out into the world, rather than siphoning the world into you in order to transmute it into words."
I'm definitely sure he was talking to me. And so I am "letting myself out into the world" to notice...life.
I'm not sure where it will lead, but I do know that it is time for me to rise and shine.
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