An Offer Of A Thousand Pardons and Tea



Photo Credit: Free Tea Party

You may wonder why it has been so long since I have last written.   

I can easily blame the holiday break. All it takes is one day off, or in my case, the whole month of December for my writing time to fall away. In the interval, I have indulged my fascination of all things English - books, film and yes, tea. It has idled away many hours and done nothing more to my writing than to affect the tone of this post...a thousand pardons.

The choice was entirely mine although now, I recognize how foolish I was to think I could escape my necessity for words. Writing may at times be difficult, but NOT WRITING so easily morphs into something much worse. A reminder that teeters about, always on the brink of one's attention. Such cruelty I know you alone would understand. We have commiserated well enough on the topic before so as not to feel lost in our thoughts and to rally one another foward. While I have always delighted in your company in this regard, I ask that we share no such words today.  

Talk breeds trouble for writers such as ourselves. When writers get to be talkers, our words fall into a hollow, doing little more than bounce about as echoes, speaking to no one.

"Writers must write what they wish to say, not speak" as our dear friend, Mr. Ernest Hemingway once said and so I write to you now to acknowledge our time apart these last few weeks and to bid my idle hours adieu. I return to writing where I am certain you will agree, my thoughts and words will find better uses there. 

Till then, I remain sincerely yours,

Calendar Gal

Lucky 7, Lucky You!

So I've been tagged by Jenn from Much to My Delight to share my Top 7 Posts.  I haven't been blogging much these days but this game of tag was the perfect opportunity to jump back into the mix. I have to admit, it was fun to take a look back again.

What is this about: To unite bloggers (from all sectors) in a joint endeavor to share lessons learned and create a bank of long but not forgotten blog posts that deserve to see the light of day again.

Rules:

1) Blogger is nominated to take part

2) Blogger publishes his/her 7 links on his/her blog – 1 link for each category.

So without further adieu, here we go for a walk down memory lane...

My Most Beautiful Post is a tie between SNAPSHOT and PILLOW TALK. To me, the "picture" is worth a thousand words.

My Most Popular Post is HEMINGWAY's GREAT WHITE BULL. The homage and tag to Hemingway brings readers in, the funky paper art gets them looking around and coming back.

I don't really have a controversial side but if I had to pick My Most Controversial Post it would be my first post, OVER THE RIVER AND THROUGH THE WOODS WRITING I WILL GO. It's my longest post and in some respects, the most revealing about myself. Sharing my "lost year" might have seemed a bit much for my first foray into blogging but I don't regret the choice at all. There was something very liberating in writing it.

My Most Helpful Post would be during the month of April when I spotlighted National Poetry Month. It was a fun endeavor to explore the many sides of poetry in words, music and photographs. It also started a lot of dialogue and gave me an introducation with other bloggers who wanted to share their favorite poems too.

The Post Whose Success Surprised Me The Most would have to be KTCHEN CONFESSIONAL. I began this post with the intention of sharing some recipes but wound up discovering a little something more about how I fill my kitchen space. Personally, this was a fun post to discover but it's also been nice to see how much it resonated with readers.

The Post Who Didn't Get The Attention It Deserved would have to be the GIRL MEETS WORLD series. These posts totally amuse me...you, maybe not so much.

The Post I Am Most Proud Of is YOU ARE HERE PT 1 and PT2. Again, this was one of those writing experiences where you begin in one place, admittedly lost and discover a happy surprise in the end...it took a bit of writing but well worth the effort!

3) Blogger nominates up to 5 more bloggers to take part.

4) These bloggers publish their 7 links and nominate another 5 more bloggers

5) And so it goes on!

6) The site Trip Base be sharing the best posts from participating bloggers on their blog and everyday on Facebook and Twitter at #My7Links

Now to pass along the baton I nominate the following bloggers...

Maryanne at A Writer's Notepad

Barb at Written Not With Ink

Melissa at Inspiration and Rough Drafts

Keep this train chuggin!

This Week's Inspiration...




Ernest Hemingway's typewriter

 

"Do not worry, you've always written before and you will

write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence.

Write the truest sentence you know."
- Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway's Great White Bull



It is the challenge of every writer to confront the page,to meet Hemingway's "great white bull". What do you see or hear when you begin to write?  Is your page as menacing as Hemingway's white bull? Or perhaps a bit like mine, just an uptight bore.

   



Once Upon A Page

A pen wrote feverishly,

scribbles and strokes,

dots of “i”s like land mines.

"Stop!” cried the page,

“You can’t write that! STOP!”

Its lines cried once more

staggering the pen

mid-sentence, mid-word, mid-letter.

“What is it that you object to -

the sentence, the simile, the syntax?”

“The word,” hissed the page.

“The word?”  The pen looked back. “Which word?”

“Any word,” scowled the page, “would suffice to offend.”

Offend? That’s good, thought the pen mischievously

and it continued to write again.

“Stop! Stop!” screamed the page once more.

"Have you no conscience?”

“On the contrary,” sighed the pen, “I have you."

                                        By Nancy Sima



Photo Credit: http://www.moneyorigamis.com/amazing-origami/19-amazing-origami/