Your Smile for Today ~

The firefly's flame
Is something for which science has no name.
I can think of nothing eerier
Than flying around with an unidentified glow on a person's posteerier.

~Ogden Nash, Amer. poet, 1902 - 1971.

(Anyone who knew the first owner of The Neat Little Bookshop, may make the comparison of Ogden Nash's light poetry to Herb Martindale's whimsical limericks. Herb always had a comical verse for his visitors, usually scribbled on a homemade notepad ~ scrap paper stapled together. One had the feeling that the visitor's response determined whether the verse would see publication.

Tomorrow: Excerpts from: Our Horses Get to Vote at All Our Meetings, Herb Martindale, 1992. )

Winter in Canada

Can you say, "Snow?"
"Snow?"

Eccentric Maybe ~ Definitely Clever

When a person lives with someone for a long time, little idiosyncrasies inevitably surface ~ although, collecting walnuts in quart jars outdoors during the winter months did seem to push the limit a little.

There they were, neatly lined-up on a wooden bench, six glass jars each systematically being filled with nuts. Watching this domestic process, I wondered if the walnut tree could randomly fill jars. It didn't make any sense. Ice and snow came and went ~ drifting over the bench. The strange outdoor pantry was soon forgotten.

With the reappearance of the canned nuts in the spring,it became apparent that the humans were not losing their minds (the discussion had to take place at some point). One by one, the precious morsels vanished.

This winter I cannot help but wonder if our furry little friends are okay or if we could have perhaps made their lives a little easier by not recycling their mason jars.

World Travel and Retirement Activities

Thursday Literary Hour this week will be of particular interest to anyone planning to travel or spend their leisure time productively

Pam Thomas, exciting personality (Can you hear her laughing?), will be our guest. Many of you know her from the Cypres Active Living Centre. Pam is seldom idle; if she is ~ certainly only long enough to tell a good story.

Be entertained, share ideas, learn. Come by The Neat Little Bookshop on Thursday, January 14. Have a cup of tea. Pam will be here around 1:30 p.m. to talk about her time spent in China and her most recent trip to the Dominican Republic. Everyone welcome.

Wild and Unbridled

Aspiring writers are dreaming of and in many cases actually producing their first novel ~ all made possible by self-publishing. Pay up-front and hope to sell enough copies to cover costs.

New writers, fresh ideas and stories ~ But are they? The disappointing outcome unfortunately can be an abundance of proper and boring text.

Natalie Goldberg calls it, "wild and unbridled." Get your first thoughts down; don't worry about punctuation, grammar or spelling. That can come later. Commit yourself to a time limit. Don't stop writing. Don't pause to reread. "That's stalling," according to Goldberg, "and trying to get control of what you're saying."

She teaches, "Go for the jugular. If something comes up in your writing that is scary or naked, dive right into it. It probably has lots of energy."

AND writers, may we add ~ get a good editor!

Reference: Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg, Shambhala. Natalie has a website.

First Thoughts ~ Fresh Thoughts

As I try to describe my Grandmother's candy dish today, the best I can do is to say that it is a silver-plated, pedestal dish about four inches high. Try as I do, I cannot capture in words ~ not even in thought ~ at this point in time, my first stunned reaction when my brother held it up as we were emptying my mother's cupboards. After how many years, I knew that dish was Grandma's.

I can try to describe my astonishment, my delight at the discovery but looking at the tarnished item now, those initial, fresh thoughts are gone. If I had penetrated my thoughts at the time, perhaps I could have remembered the connection of that dish with my Grandmother. Did she reach down to me and offer me colourful, tinsel-wrapped candies? Did I envy it sitting out-of-reach?

Natalie Goldberg, American writer, talks about first thoughts having "tremendous energy. It is the way the mind first flashes on something," she writes. "The internal censor usually squelches them so we live in the realm of second and third thoughts, thoughts on thought, twice and three times removed from the direct connection of the first fresh flash."

Today, it is an old dish ~ not particularly attractive ~ that holds intrigue for me but fails to excite.

Tomorrow: Writing from First Th0ughts

Cayuga Street This Afternoon