Each Wednesday I’ve been recording a Curiosity Journal to recap the previous week. Tag words were: reading, playing, learning, reacting and writing. This week I’m abbreviating, simplifying, and amending the journal. Like so much of life, it’s an experiment.
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Reading
As part of the experiment of trimming down the Curiosity Journal, I finished the book Staying Put and published my final response on Monday. Not sure what I’ll launch next.
Playing
I made three chocolate cakes in the last week, searching for one that earned the right to be described as “decadent.”
I think I found it, and it’s neither of the cakes pictured above (though they were lovely).I’ll post about my CakePlay for Food on Fridays, but I’d like you to know that it was a lot of fun. What family doesn’t love hearing their mom announce, “I’m making another chocolate cake for us to taste test tonight!”
Learning
On Facebook a friend posted a link to an opinion article from The New York Times called “The Art of Listening.” This stood out to me:
Two old African men were sitting on that bench, but there was room for me, too. In Africa people share more than just water in a brotherly or sisterly fashion. Even when it comes to shade, people are generous.I heard the two men talking about a third old man who had recently died. One of them said, “I was visiting him at his home. He started to tell me an amazing story about something that had happened to him when he was young. But it was a long story. Night came, and we decided that I should come back the next day to hear the rest. But when I arrived, he was dead.”The man fell silent. I decided not to leave that bench until I heard how the other man would respond to what he’d heard. I had an instinctive feeling that it would prove to be important.Finally he, too, spoke.“That’s not a good way to die — before you’ve told the end of your story.”
May we tell our stories…all the way to the end.
Reacting
For her 14th birthday, we bought my third daughter, the most voracious reader in the family, a Kindle Touch.Today, her first day to explore its potential, she began downloading free books, mostly classics, calling out the titles one after another: “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes! … 20,000 Leagues under the Sea! … Treasure Island!” At one point she paused from the downloading frenzy and looked up at me with eyes wild from raking in the riches of literary treasure. Hands and voice shaking from excitement as if she’d discovered bucketfuls of gold medallions free for the taking, she exclaimed, “I…love….this!“
Writing
Yesterday I wrote about the family Bible my dad received. I had to finish in a rush before heading out the door to pick up my sister-in-law from the bus stop. I wondered later about the ending. I think if I had taken more time, I’d have tweaked that.
That experience reminded me of conversations Charity and I have had about the nature of blogs versus other writing outlets. If I were working on a chapter of a book, I might revise it several times and spend days tweaking a section; whereas, a personal blog post may be thought up, drafted, edited and published all within a couple of hours. Are blog posts being publishing too fast? Should I slow down and take longer to revise and tweak? Or does the strength of blogging lie in quickly capturing and sharing the spontaneity of life without worrying too much what could have been improved?
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Credits:Photos: Images by Ann Kroeker. All rights reserved.
I love that story from Africa.
I do obsess over my posts and endlessly revise. It’s a disability. Perhaps I need more chocolate cake in my life.
I loved the slow-down nature of the scene, and then the second man’s observation.
And I think I should probably take a tiny bit more time with my posts. I do go back and tweak sometimes even after publishing.
I think both. It depends what the post is about. Life is too short to agonize over every word every time, though some posts take more effort than others. I tend to “write” a lot in my head before I sit down at the keyboard. And I’ve certainly gone back to edit posts later: to clarify my thoughts or fix an error. I figure people respect that I am a busy mom and don’t expect highly polished pieces, though I do care about what I say and how I say it. Sometimes it means I don’t write as often, or that I don’t go forward with an idea that I don’t have time to properly develop. Oh well! That’s life! Sometimes I need to remind myself that living the life is more vital than writing about it. On the other hand, telling our stories help us reflect so we can live more purposefully in the future. Thanks for telling yours.
Virginia, you make a good point–that it depends on the post’s topic. If it is a tricky subject that needs to be told carefully and clearly, I may need to take more time and pay more attention. If it’s just a silly scene of my kids building a fort out of clothespins and sheets, it probably needs less nitpicking.
If I let it sit too long, I might never get my stories told…and, as the African man observed, it’s not good to wait so long that I can’t finish my stories!
Ann,
Three chocolate cakes? Clapping for you!
You have me thinking about what you said regarding blogging, and do we hit that publish button too fast? Sometimes, yes, but most of the time, if I spent the time I do on blogging as I do in other areas of writing (edit, revise, give it a day or two to revisit…) I would be spending waaaay too much time on blogging, and not have time for offline writing.
But then again, I know I am not putting my best out there on my blog. Hmmmm.
Thanks for your words, Ann. I always enjoy your space.Have a wonderful Christmas.
Thanks, Amy, for giving me a glimpse of your own process.
When someone tells me about their wayward children – – to encourage them, I usually say,”The end of the story is not yet so don’t give up hope, keep praying.”
Thanks for the peek at your chocolate cake – – can’t wait to see the one that won the blue ribbon !!
I’m guessing the cake that won the blue ribbon didn’t last long enough to be photographed. 🙂
I wonder if the wise man on the bench doesn’t point us in the right direction when it comes to these posts of ours. Maybe we should just be asking, “Did I tell the end of that story?” I don’t know if it has to be perfect. But it has to be told…
Oh, I cherish the African story. Living in Africa for 8 years taught me to listen carefully to Africans. They taught me so much.
And “Amen!” to your statement, “May we tell our stories…all the way to the end.” Yes, all the way to the end!
Thanks for the blessings you share with us today.
Linda
Oooooh, I too love that story from Africa. So thought-provoking. As are your words here. I am always wishing I could be a more spontaneous writer, that way I could publish more often on the blog. But the truth is, I’m slow. I want to keep turning these stories around in my head for a while. Even savor a little. In truth, I feel a little sad each time I publish a new post, because it means letting go of the last one. 🙂 Weird, huh? I guess, because my story is still unfolding, I have a hard time with endings.
I like the new, shorter curiosity journal but I’m finding I miss some of the quirkiness of the longer posts. There’s just no pleasing some people. Unless you feed them chocolate cake.