What I’d like to say: Sock knitting. Van modding. Writing.
What’s actually been happening: very little.
So today starts a quest. Okay, understanding of a need for a quest started about two weeks ago, but I set the official kickoff to June so I could have some time to plan and prime the pump, so to speak.
Grow, baby inspiration. Grow.
I could whine about the pandemic. About losing friends. About regrets. About menopause. About a culture where it’s all but assumed that I’m Gen X and over.
But I’m not here for that. I’m here for action out of the mire I’ve let my life become since 2020.
I’m not sure about the details of the plan, but my goal is to write something here every day for the month of June. It can be about anything. Maybe I’ll write about my crafting or the van we’re turning into a camper.
Maybe I’ll post my responses to exercises from my writing prompts book.
The month has just seemed to fly by. I’ve changed roles at the day job, which I think has contributed to the feeling that time is just disappearing between heartbeats. I’m not nearly as far along on my reading as I’d hoped to be this month.
The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe – Jeffrey Cranor and Joseph Fink – Finished
The Great Movies – Robert Ebert – In Progress
H is for Hawk – Helen MacDonald – Finished
The Ardent Swarm – Yamen Manai – Not started
The 12 Week Year – Brian P. Moran, Michael Lennington – (added) Finished
The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe is a script book of previous episodes of Welcome to Night Vale and includes introductory information about the inspiration and writing of each episode. I enjoyed reading both the notes about each episode. Since I’d listened to all of these episodes previously, reading through each episode felt relaxing and familiar. As far as vacations to dystopian wastelands go, this one was ideal.
H is for Hawk wasn’t the trip I expected. I thought I was going on a trip through the English countryside with a falconer training a goshawk. Instead, I went on a trip through the author’s grief at the sudden loss of her father. My father passed away on March 1st nine years ago. In touring the author’s grief in H is for Hawk, I toured the shadows of my own grief, a dull ache that still informs the background of my life, but no longer overwhelms my daily experience. I found the book a satisfying read and even read the afterward, which I have to admit to skipping more often than I read them.
Somehow, I thought I could squeeze in one more book this month. The 12 Week Year was recommended by the A Beautiful Mess Podcast as the book they most credit with their successful working habits. I thought calling “work to fiscal quarterly results, not year-end results” a “12 Week Year” was a little cheesy, but the ideas in it seem actionable and sound.
I’m still working my way through The Great Movies. I feel like there’s a watch list here that I should devote a full month to exploring. Maybe I’ll put that on the calendar for September of this year since the topic of the month is “Learn.”
I’m not likely to start, let alone finish, The Ardent Swarm before the end of the month since I’m still working my way through The Great Movies and it’s only a week until the month is over.
April’s theme is supposed to be Money, but I think I’m going to do something completely different and make it Writing instead. April is Camp-Nanowrimo and I’d like to challenge myself to write and bring back the 2021 theme of “Creativity” back to the front of my mind.
