Indulge Your Shelf

Today, I took the word of the week, Carpe Diem, to heart. I didn't have to go into work, and had gotten pretty quickly through my to-do list, so, even though no one ever wants to go with me, I went to the pool to swim laps. By myself. It's always difficult for me to get myself over to the pool -- but once there, I enjoy it so much. It's great exercise and I'm getting quite good (and fast) since I've been swimming so faithfully this year. Once I get out of the pool, I feel like an Olympian (move over, Michael.) Yeah, it feels that good. Moving from California to Colorado has made us great believers in this day-seizing. With weather so often unfit for human endurance, we've learned to get outside when the getting's good. That means today, after our week of snow, freezing rain, and hard frost, with the sun out and temperatures back up to where we should be in September, we need to get out and enjoy it. We took the dogs out to run wild in the forest. Mag...

Fragment. A small part broken off or detached. An incomplete or isolated portion; a bit. I love fragments. I love the stories they tell by what is missing from them. I am delighted when I find a kindred spirit -- someone who is as enchanted with the bits and pieces as I am, and who celebrates them! Fragments lovingly stitched together... To create a piece that is more than a bit -- a bit more whole... But, even still incomplete. A fragment. Still beautiful. A small part broken off or detached. An incomplete or isolated portion; a bit. No one except me would consider this (above) beautiful. But, to me, this piece of me and my son -- his leftover umbilical cord, that fell off about five days after his birth -- is not only beautiful, it's one of my most priceless possessions. It's proof; a remembrance of the time we spent together, just before we each became a fragment of the other. 

This week's Word of the Week hostess is Nathalie !

I was born in the Fall, and so I feel the year begins not on a snowy January day, but on an orange-green September morning. As a child, the new beginning was marked by the smell of new shoe leather and the pain of the blisters that scraped my heels on the walk to school. It was in the smell of new wooden pencils and the feel of chalky pink erasers, and the itch of new school clothes against my skin. It was in the getting used to the status of our new grade, our new teacher, and each other ...and noticing how we'd all grown and changed over the summer, and who was missing, and who was new. In high school, my walk every day was more than a mile long, and the streets were planted with eucalyptus trees. Their fragrant leaves dropped early and crunched under my feet. Even today when I smell eucalyptus, I am transported back to being a teenager. It's early morning, cool and crisp, and I'm on my way to school. I'm crunching eucalyptus under my ...

As you may have guessed, I've been doing some work for my old employer again this week; it only amounted to about 15 hours, but that, and the Monday holiday, really impacted my schedule. Now that school is really underway, there are all kinds of activities, things to volunteer for, etc. I'm not lazy, but I'm also not the type to over commit myself. I've learned that lesson well! Still, the few extra things I've taken on make me feel rather harried so I'm looking for ways to scale back, sleep less, or find a miracle energy boost! This working thing is really cutting in on my leisure time to read all your blogs. Funny how that works. And, it just might be permanent, or semi-permanent anyway, as I'm looking for some writing or editing gigs, too. Time to put that degree to work! I have had little time for crafting lately, but am working on a Halloween-y little journal to sell (this is not like me! But I just got inspired!) I also made some more of those...

by Tracy Helgeson If you would like to participate by writing about and/or illustrating "begin" on your blog this Friday, September 11, please comment on this post. I will link to all participating blogs on Friday!