by Heather Plett | Feb 11, 2010 | Fumbling for Words Writers' Club
Okay… so… I’m writing a book! It’s true, I am. I’m not going to give you many details yet, but for now I’ll say that it’s part memoir and part “travel companion”.
As every good athlete/actor/performer/dancer/etc. knows, hitting the mark on the final performance means you have to practice, practice, PRACTICE! In the case of writing, you have to write a whole lot of “shitty first drafts”, and sometimes it’s good to write something completely different from your focus material, just to stretch your muscles.
So here’s the thing – I could use your company in this writing journey! I’m creating a “writers’ club” here on this ol’ blog to help motivate me to practice. On a weekly (or so – I’m not very good at consistency) basis, I’m going to throw out a writing prompt for anyone who wants to practice along with me. What you do with it is totally optional – post it on your blog, keep it in your private journal, leave it in the comments, tweet it in 140 characters – your choice. I’m going to post my response on this blog, and if you post yours in a public place, leave a comment and let us all know where we can find it so we can encourage each other.
There aren’t really any rules, but here are some guidelines:
- This is about practice not perfection. Write whatever comes to mind in response to the prompt. Don’t spend a lot of time editing – just try to let the thoughts flow and see what happens when you play with words.
- I’ll try to give a time frame (eg. write for 5 minutes without stopping), or approximate length (eg. 2 paragraphs). This isn’t about long essays or dreary writing assignments, but rather about playing with ideas, senses, descriptions, etc.
- Since this is a “club”, let’s try to visit the other members to offer them encouragement and let them know they’re not alone in this writing journey.
- This is mostly about practicing, so we won’t do a lot of critiquing, but if you want to offer editing advice/critiques (along with encouragement), be sure to do it in a gentle and respectful way. (Note: it may be best to do that via email rather than in public comments, especially if it’s someone you don’t know very well.)
If you’re joining (even if you’ll only be writing once in awhile), I’d be thrilled if you’d grab a button, put it on your blog, and link it to this URL: http://fumblingforwords.com/writing/fumbling-for-words-writers-club/
Without further ado, let’s get on with it…
Fumbling For Words Writers’ Club – Writing Prompt #1
Let’s start with a memory. Think about some kind of food you enjoyed eating as a child. Who prepared it for you? What did it taste like? What was it like to anticipate it while the person was preparing it? Think about the senses involved – taste, touch, smell, sight, sound. Start with “I remember…” Any time you get stumped, just start the next sentence with “I remember…” and keep going. Try to remember the old adage – “show, don’t tell”.
Write for 5 minutes. Go! Write!
And here’s mine… (with no editing, just writing “off the top of my head”)
I remember coming home to the sweet yeasty smell when Mom was baking buns. I remember the big aluminum bowl – black with white speckles – overflowing with bun dough. I remember the edges of the dough sagging like an old woman’s boobs over the edge of the bowl. I remember pinching just a little piece off the nipple, thinking Mom wouldn’t notice the theft. I remember the gooey not-quite-good-but-almost-perfect taste of the dough.
I remember the old checkered cloth and tattered sheet of plastic she covered the dough with while it rose. I remember the way she always pulled the hair away from her face with the blue paint-spattered scarf. I remember her strong hands plunging into the dough, pounding, kneading, pounding, kneading. I remember the expert movement of her hands as each ball of dough squeezed out between her fingers into a perfect symmetrical sphere. I remember every surface in the kitchen covered in baking sheets full of uniform, rising buns. I remember the first pan of golden brown buns emerging from the oven.
I remember plunging a knife into a steaming hot bun, slathering on the butter and sticky strawberry freezer jam. I remember the melting butter dripping down my fingers. I remember the cool fruity sweetness on the warm soft flesh.
I remember the feeling of contentment and “a little too full” after just one more fresh bun.
p.s. Today’s writing prompt was adapted from Old Friend from Far Away by Natalie Goldberg.
by Heather Plett | Feb 9, 2010 | Beauty, Uncategorized
Sometimes you’re looking for magic
and then when it comes
you’re too busy to notice.
Sometimes when the clouds have moved away from the sun
and the light is just right
you’re distracted and looking the other way.
Sometimes you forget that miracles aren’t just the big life-changing moments
but the small life-pausing moments.
And then sometimes
you’re standing still
at the right place at the right time
with your eyes wide open.
And suddenly
you remember what awe feels like.
by Heather Plett | Feb 9, 2010 | journey, Leadership
Navigating the roads in India - always a tricky proposition
Sometimes you think you’ve been through a journey already and it will be old hat the next time you hit the same road. You know where the curves in the road are, you know when to slow down for the intersections, you know the sections of road that will be smooth sailing and you can drift along with your radio on and your cruise control set.
And then you get out on the road, and they’ve changed the landscape. There’s construction on the road that you didn’t expect. There’s a new mega-highway that’s moving faster than you’ve driven before. There are potholes (and rickshaws, to go along with the image above) that weren’t there before and somebody straightened your favourite curve.
I’ve been in management for thirteen years now. You’d think I’d know this journey inside out. You’d think I’d know when to anticipate the curves and bumps and rickshaws.
But they keep changing the road map. The speed picks up when you don’t expect it. There are new curves in the road. And the passengers in the car? Well, they’re never the same and the universal truth about people is that they’re all so very unique and different. Each one adds a new dimension to the journey. Some of them get a little ornery and want to ride on top of the bus for a better view of the scenery!
I’ve got more passengers (or co-pilots?) in the car then I’ve ever had before. (Not quite as many as the photo would suggest, but sometimes it feels like it.) I’ve got a bigger budget to manage than ever. I’ve got a faster moving car and a tighter timeframe to reach my destination. The demands are great and the expectations are greater. Some days I feel just like that bus driver must feel – dodging rickshaws and trying not to lose any of the passengers on the top.
Lately I’ve had a few new positions added to the team, and each of those positions has carved off a piece of the work that I normally do. That means I get to delegate more, but it also means I have to let go of some of the fun stuff I like to do. It also means that I’ll be held accountable for more people’s mistakes if I don’t give them clear direction and ample support.
I’ve come to a new intersection and sometimes I wonder if I’ve got everything I need to drive through it. The right road map? Enough gas in my tank? A clear destination? The right skills to navigate new territory?
It’s not hard to get caught up in daydreaming about just getting off the road. Or going back to the familiar, slower-moving roads that don’t stretch my capacity quite as much.
But that’s not in the game plan – at least not for now.
And… here’s the place where I try to wrap this post up in a neat little bow. If this were an expert blog, the next several paragraphs would be full of valuable advice about how to anticipate the curves and how to keep the people from falling off your bus (complete with bolded headings and ten easy steps). But it’s not an expert blog. It’s a blog written by a fumbler who’s trying to navigate the leadership journey without running over any poor rickshaw drivers along the way.
Just sharin’ my story in case you’ve been on a similar journey.
So… what’s changing in your landscape?
by Heather Plett | Feb 7, 2010 | art, Creativity, Uncategorized
Probably at least once a week, I remind my staff that we take a “wholistic approach” in our work. Some of them are fundraisers and others are educators (and some of us bridge the gap), and yet when we approach the people who support our organization, we invite them to give, to advocate, to see justice, to volunteer, to pray, and to consider how their lifestyles contribute to global hunger. We invite them through any or all doorways they are prepared to enter because the needs are complex, the reasons for hunger are complex, and people around the world are complex. Just one of those actions alone will not end hunger without some balance of the other actions. True transformation comes from wholistic commitment.
It’s ironic then, that I so often forget to take a wholistic approach in my own life. I focus solely on one area of my life or another, and then I wonder why I feel out of balance or I don’t accomplish what I feel I should be able to.
Sometimes I read a lot of books and feed my intellectual side. Sometimes I focus on exercise and/or rest and look after the physical side. Sometimes I spend time in a spiritual practice (prayer, yoga, meditation, etc.) and my spiritual side gets fed. Sometimes I seek out community and look after the part of me that needs connection and relationships. And sometimes? Well, let’s face it – sometimes I ignore everything and just indulge in all of the things that I know are unhealthy because I just can’t seem to get myself out of a rut.
At rare times, I make sure I seek balance in all of the areas of my life that need to be fed. I’m a slow learner. Or – more accurately – I forget easily and have to re-learn so many things.
Today I was totally out of whack – cranky, tired, over-stimulated, and downright miserable to be around. And forget about accomplishing anything meaningful – it just wasn’t happening. I could blame it on my hormones, but I knew there was something deeper going on. I was out of balance. I haven’t looked after myself well lately – not my physical side and not my spiritual side. I’ve let both exercise and spiritual practice slip from my day-to-day routines, I’ve been eating poorly and not making any real effort to connect with the God of my understanding. I haven’t really even worked on the relationships that help me find balance in my life.
Something’s got to change. I’m setting my alarm for a little earlier tomorrow. A little yoga, some time in prayer & meditation, and a healthy breakfast – maybe if I start my day off right, things will begin to shift.
If only we could figure these things out once and for all and we wouldn’t have to go back over the same territory time and time again. But day after day, we keep on fumbling and hoping that perhaps one day we’ll be a little bit closer to transformation.
__________
As a side note, tonight my spiritual practice consisted of an hour or two in the studio, making another attempt at a self portrait. The first experience was so meaningful that I decided to try again. This time, I went from a photo because I wanted to attempt a picture with a smile on my face. Like I said to my friend Stephanie when she interviewed me last week, “art has become one of the most meaningful ways that I connect with God.” It doesn’t even matter if it’s bad art, because it’s in the doing, not in the result.
Updated to add: I did it! I made it out of bed for yoga, prayer, and a healthy breakfast! Taking it one day at a time and celebrating small steps. 🙂
by Heather Plett | Feb 4, 2010 | journey, Uncategorized
The wonderful response to my last post reminded me of two really important things about human nature:
- We all want to find our tribes – those people who understand us and don’t turn us away for being different.
- We all (at least I think it’s safe to make a generalization) feel like mis-fits now and then. NONE of us fit cleanly into the categories, boxes, labels, etc. that the experts say we should.
Isn’t that the great thing about the internet, though? We get to find people who understand us. We get to put out tentative little feelers and have people connect to them. (Yes, I believe that they are real connections.) We get to form tribes that might not naturally happen in the circles where we find our real live bodies. (‘Course, some of my favourite readers are my flesh and blood tribe – lucky me – so I get the best of both worlds here.)
Judging from the response, many of the readers of this blog feel like they’re the same kind of mis-fit as I am. Which makes me wonder – are bloggers disproportionately scanners and/or creators, or is it just that we tend to attract like-minded people and that’s what drew you to my blog in the first place (or me to yours – whichever happened first)?
I’ve been thinking about this quite a lot in the last few days. First of all, when I re-launched my blog on its own URL last week I found myself thinking “What is this blog’s reason for being? What makes it unique or of any value? Is it just a place for me to sound-off about my life or is there a deeper reason for why I’m putting this stuff out there?”
Then yesterday I was interviewed by my friend Stephanie for an article on women in leadership and she asked me some fairly pointed questions about why I put my life out there into cyber-world in the way that I do. What do I get out of it as a woman in leadership?
With all this contemplation and the fun interaction on the last post, I came to the conclusion that I am here because this blog has helped me find my tribe. I have found people to connect with. People who understand my idiosyncrasies and connect with me because they have idiosyncrasies of their own. People who value my stories and support me through the tough spots. People who will be kind to me and share their own vulnerability when I talk about personal stuff like breast reduction surgery. People who will cheer me on when I try new things. People who will offer different perspectives when I develop a bad case of tunnel vision. And (perhaps most importantly) people who don’t mind hanging around and watching me fumble through new art forms, writing, parenting, etc.
And in the middle of all that thinking, I had an epiphany.
I have found a tribe of fumblers.
It’s true, isn’t it? We are all fumbling for words, fumbling for truth, fumbling for beauty, fumbling for wisdom, fumbling for art, fumbling for friendship, fumbling for peace, fumbling for significance, fumbling for faith, fumbling for connection, fumbling for meaning, fumbling for justice, fumbling for hope.
I have always been a fumbler. I like to try new things, explore new ways of doing things, take pictures, paint things, write stuff, go on adventures, offer friendship, teach people stuff… but most of the time, I’m just fumbling my way through. I’m not an expert on anything, and even when I get recognition for things people think I know, I feel like saying “hey – I’m just a fumbler like you! I don’t really know what I’m doing, but you can come and fumble with me!”
This is not an expert blog where you’ll find advice on how to live your best life, how to maximize your assets, how to find true happiness, how to move past the blocks in your life, or how to make a pile of money the easy way. You won’t find ten easy steps toward ANYTHING around here (unless it’s tongue-in-cheek).
But if you’re a fumbler, you’re more than welcome to join my tribe!
There’s a great line in a Bruce Cockburn song that says “come all you stumblers who believe love rules, stand up and let it shine”. Hopefully Bruce won’t mind if I tweak it a little for selfish purposes and say “come all you fumblers who believe love rules, stand up and let it shine!”
If you’re a member of my fumbling tribe, stand up and let it shine in the comment box! You are all welcome here!
