Imagine the Possibilities

I am participating in the March Slice of Life Story Challenge. Thanks to the co-authors of              Two Writing Teachers for creating this  supportive community.

Yesterday morning I walked out to feed the birds, and as I looked out over the landscape of snow and ice, I couldn’t help but feel a little bit sad. I thought about the daffodils who, fooled into thinking it was spring, nodded their heads in a good-morning salute just a few days ago. Now they were buried. Frozen. Gone.  I thought about the tulips, too. Their buds were just beginning to surface. Would they make it? It’s no wonder I was anxious to get to my volunteer post at Longwood Gardens. There I would be in the presence of pink orchids and blue poppies and red roses – a rainbow of colors and a bouquet of scents!

I wrote about cultivating curiosity in my role as a children’s garden volunteer at Longwood in a previous post. Yesterday afternoon, there were very few children visiting the garden. The adults who visit without children usually just pass through and smile, perhaps commenting on the wonderful space for children. Today, for some reason, they were curious. But instead of, “Can I show you something?” or “What’s that?” the questions were a bit different.

“Does it get hot back here?”

“You know those orchids that are hanging from the ceiling in the silver room? Can I       grow them at home?”

“What’s that blue flower in the conservatory? Not the blue poppy, but the other one.”

     “You mean this one?” I grab my phone and show a picture I had just taken before my shift started of the hybrid blue cineraria that is grown from seed at Longwood. The intense blue is a shade that is hard to explain. I don’t think I have ever seen anything quite like it in the natural world.

The questions may have been a little different, but the result was the same. The garden displays had piqued the curiosity of the visitors who were hungry to learn more. And isn’t that what makes life interesting!

I am participating in the March Slice of Life Story Challenge. Thanks to the co-authors of              Two Writing Teachers for creating this  supportive community.

One of my favorite exercises from 59 Reasons to Write by Kate Messner is the “junk drawer memory” suggested by Jo Knowles. We all have those messy drawers, and the idea is to root around in one until you find an object that speaks to you in some way. Yesterday I just happened to put my fingers on my wick trimmer when I was looking for something else and I remembered…

Like me, my daughter-in-law loves candles. A few Christmases ago, while shopping for gifts, I saw wick trimmers in the candle store and picked up one for her (and one for me). I slipped it into a gift bag with a candle I thought she would like and it eventually found its way under the tree. On Christmas Eve, shortly after Brian and Jane arrived and the glow from the setting sun started to wane, I began lighting the candles in the kitchen. But first, I used my new handy-dandy wick trimmer to make sure all those wicks were just the right height!

Look, Brian, your mom has a wick trimmer! See, it’s not a crazy idea! It’s so easy to get down into the candle with a wick trimmer!

Apparently they had recently been in a candle store and Jane was interested in buying a wick trimmer. Brian felt it was a waste of money, that you could do the same thing with a scissors! But for anyone into candles, you know that’s just not true. Even though it wasn’t quite Christmas yet, I had to give her the gift right then!

I have bought many gifts for Jane – dangly earrings, soft warm sweaters, paperback books, even a snazzy modern umbrella, but I don’t think I will ever top the wick trimmer. It comes up in conversation every Christmas – part of our family lore.

I am participating in the March Slice of Life Story Challenge. Thanks to the co-authors of              Two Writing Teachers for creating this  supportive community.

     At the beginning of the month I wrote about an unexpected trip to the emergency room because I was experiencing a rapid, uncontrolled heart rate. Although I don’t expect that there will be any serious findings, it is something that had to be looked into since it has happened before. As a result of that, two studies were suggested. I used the scaffold from Fortunately by Remy Charlip to tell you about my experience with the first of those studies – the sleep study.

Fortunately…my cardiologist was able to follow up with me quickly.

Unfortunately…something he wants to rule out is sleep apnea, so I will be participating in a sleep study. What? You mean I have to go to a sleep center? No…

Fortunately…the sleep study can be done at home!

Unfortunately…it requires a bit of equipment and a meeting with a nurse to learn how to use it properly. And please sign here and here – that just says you promise to return everything.

Fortunately…learning about the study and the equipment served to expand my vocabulary – effort belt, nasal cannula, pulse ox sensor, sleep view monitor.

Unfortunately… I had my doubts about how, or if, this would work. Who can sleep with all of that stuff on them anyway?

Fortunately…I was able to get everything hooked up and taped to my hand and face. No, I did not take a picture!

Unfortunately…putting hard plastic tubes into my nostrils was a bit (no, a lot) uncomfortable, and I worried about even getting to sleep much less studying it!

Fortunately…I did manage to get some sleep (I think), despite the tapping hail on my window through the night and the effort belt strapped across my chest.

And fortunately, the green lights on the monitor in the morning indicated that the recording was successful so I don’t have to repeat it!

I am participating in the March Slice of Life Story Challenge. Thanks to the co-authors of              Two Writing Teachers for creating this  supportive community.

This is not the post I intended to write today, but I’ve been thinking a lot about Amy Krause Rosenthal since learning of her death yesterday. Back in 2008 I learned of a woman who posted a video listing 17 things she had made (Google “17 things I made” and you’ll find it). She then invited anyone and everyone to meet her at the Bean sculpture in Chicago on 8-8-08 at 8:08 to create an 18^th thing together. Hundreds of people showed up. What a beautiful way to celebrate creativity and beauty in the world, I thought! The woman was Amy Krause Rosenthal, but I didn’t know much about her then. It was only later, when I was introduced to her books that her name began to stick in my head. And it was only a few days ago that I made the connection and realized the woman whose video mesmerized me so many years ago was the author I came to know through her books.

Amy celebrated creativity and urged others to remember that we all have a hand, large or small, in making this world what it is. She helped us honor our talents and our worth in ways we may not have considered. And since my OLW for 2017 is “create,” I sat down to list some things I have created in my lifetime. I chose to list 13, yesterday’s date, in honor of Amy. So here they are, in no particular order:

13 Things I Made

My wedding gown

A home

My talented and creative son, Brian

My wonderful daughter, Ann, who through her work helps students realize their worth and potential

Three professional books (with Lynne Dorfman) – Mentor Texts, Nonfiction Mentor Texts, Poetry Mentor Texts

The Keystone to Reading Elementary lists of books (with other committee members) to help teachers create a love of literature with their students

Someone laugh

A friendship of over 50 years with my childhood friend, Ginny

A legacy of love with Allan (we will celebrate our 40^th anniversary in May)

The chili cooking away in the crockpot on this snowy day

The blueberry pie that will go into the oven later to celebrate Pi Day

A garden of peony bushes in my backyard

A welcome environment for bluebirds

I am participating in the March Slice of Life Story Challenge. Thanks to the co-authors of              Two Writing Teachers for creating this  supportive community.

     One of the rewards of participating in this challenge is the opportunity to learn from other slicers – to gather ideas, formats, craft. Sometimes an idea bounces off in a random way generating other ideas and thoughts, and that’s how I found my slice for today. Way back in the beginning of the month Sally Donnelly used an exercise from Kate Messner’s 59 Reasons to Write for her post She used the randomly generated word “edge” to inspire her writing. Sally ended the piece with this question: What do you like best – edges or interiors? Someone commented that the question made her think of brownies – some people like the edges, others the interiors, and that made me think of “Rachel’s Brownies.”

Back in the ‘70’s  local resident Rachel Slater and her husband, Jeff, started a bakery in my home town of Malvern, PA. Rachel started selling the brownies out of her home, but the business quickly grew and they moved into a store front in a shopping center not far from my house. People would line up to buy them or bring their kids to watch the production line. The brownies were the best, to this day, that I have ever tasted. They were mainly sold locally in specialty stores, and I recall that they were also sold to a few airlines (back when the airlines provided a meal). There may have been other flavors, but the ones I remember most were Chocolate Walnut and Butterscotch (my favorite). I fondly remember that when my daughter was born, my husband brought me a Rachel’s Butterscotch Brownie in the hospital.

Each brownie was individually wrapped for sale, but if you went to the bakery you could buy a bag of “edges” for a dollar or two. These were the best – mostly because my kids preferred the middles, not the edges, so they were all mine. The edges had just enough of the soft middle combined with the crunchy outside to create a texture and taste explosion when you bit into them.

Thanks, Sally, for the inspiration and the memory. And thanks, Rachel and Jeff, for your wonderful brownies.