How is your getting together going?

 All to soon, we will look back and remember on these reunion-ing times by the narrative we'll use to describe them and leave it at that: 

"Sweet. Overwhelming. Quenching. Confusing. Amazing. Like it's 1999. Underwhelming. Exhausting....etc etc."

But how is it going right now? On the inside, intimate experience of this unprecedented time? What are the details for you? The teeny tiny details? Are you still crossing the street on your walks? Are you judging?  What did it feel like to unmask at Target? Go to your friend's house again? Gather with others? Has hugging changed? What is it really like for you? What are your post lockdown getting together stories?

For history, for human evolution, for you and your people, all people, you'll want to remember. You'll want to be the voice that's there for you when you forget and you get lost and swept up and feel a little disconnected from the dominating vernacular and narrative written and spoken in hindsight. 

Write your truth, here, now, for you. For the record. 

You might disagree with it, all those years later. You might be grateful. But there it will stand, in writing, a map from where you've come. 

LockDOWNstairs day 22

 Remodeling always takes longer than planned. Longer than they say. Longer than the promise our  confidence grants in the rosy beginning, all eyes on the finish line. I ought know this by now, all the nights I've spent sleeping on the floor for whatever reason, whether by necessity, choice, or in the Bardo, waiting and remembering, of two worlds, but not quite this one.

The good news is that it has yielded some great prompts about sleeping on the floor... so many places across the ages: the barn loft at Camp Bar 717, the plush wine-pink carpeted floor at CC's—my French nextdoor neighbor growing up—in my Smokey the Bear sleeping bag, at the foot of my brother's bed when Ma was out too late, beneath stars, beneath rain, wide awake, through an earthquake, beneath the unfamiliar ceilings of friends and lovers all only writing can help me remember. 

The best news and happy ending (or unexpected twist if we're talking writing) is that it dawns on me just now, at day 23, how comfortable I've become sleeping on the floor. How easy it is to get up and down. How quickly I fall asleep and how ready I am to rise. Like so many things in the every day details, another reminder that so much life is to be found where and when you least expect it.

So try writing about all the places/times you've slept on the floor. Or sleep on the floor and write about it. Or both. The point is, do both.

WWRW—Be also proud of what language you didn't learn and other Pandemica* you planned to do but didn't

 *Spare-time accomplishments during the Pandemic

One of the great prompts to come out of Wednesday Writers today was "Things I meant to do during the pandemic, but didn't."  We ran out of time to write it, though I can't wait to write it and see what happens!

I might just discover it's ok that I didn't:

Learn German

Start Learning German

Call everyone I know to check in

Write everyone I know to check in (but does this count?)

Follow through on teaching my son to juggle 

Paint a mural in the group room

(Yet) Clear my table in the group room

Watch Spanish soap operas in Spanish

Blog everyday 

Write back

Call back

That damn closet upstairs

Finish painting the upstairs walls

Give up sugar

Make hand-made cards

Submit writing

Start another writing group

Memorize the Hanuman Chalisa 

Om every day

Learn valuable new skills by choice (not by necessity)

Attempt fixing the upstairs burner on the stove

Caulk (man, why does that very word incite so much ire?)

Develop a webinar

Write more lists like this

you might

want to write

about this

Movie review of your life

 Hello Writers!

It has been fun to remember some favorite writing prompts I did in high school, many of which keep on giving to this day. One of them, offered by my awesome journalism teacher, Montsy,  was to "write a movie review of your life." Who would play you (Jo from Facts of Life)? Where would it take place (LA; at the beach, mostly)? What would the main conflict be (hmmm....who am I?)  Who was the antagonist (er.... my brother?)? What was the soundtrack (Led Zeppelin, of course)?  Supporting characters? How do you most change? What does it take to change? On and on... you could play and play with this one. 

What makes it especially cool is how much you'll discover by taking liberties with direction, scenes, sunset shots, long shots, cut scenes, director's cuts, close-ups, and of course good for dialogue, main scenes, music,  lighting, tone, costumes, "bad scenes," 'famous scenes," praise and critical analysis, etc. You could compare it to other reviewers, who would say it much differently, and other movies for that matter. Be fair and give praise! A very generous prompt.

I loved it then and I've been wanting to do it again ever since. A great way to get inside and outside yourself to remember or expand upon a particular time and situation. You could try writing one of your entire life, your childhood, or just for a day or an afternoon. It's just a wild prism of cool and creative in every which way. So have fun with it! Be into it. Because if you're not, who's really writing your words? Who's telling your story? Who's in charge?