Thursday, or Thereabouts - November 5, 2015

The In-Between Time

The gardens have been put to bed, the lawnmower and weed whacker silenced, the deck furniture tucked away.

Fall Fairs have paid homage to giant pumpkins and shiny farm tractors.

We have celebrated and given thanks for all the blessings of life.

A deep, thick carpet of brown and yellow has been laid down on the forest paths.

The air outside my house pulses with Autumn's incense as smoke rises from a crackling cauldron of fallen leaves. And our woodstove has hosted the first fire of the heating season.

I love this In-Between time - that gracious respite after the September start ups and October gatherings, and before the Christmas machine roars to life. It is a time of tender reflection, a time to look behind me and around me, both where I've been and where I now am.

It's a bit like a meander through a fine old book shop...

My fingertips brush across the bindings of the stories of my life as I stroll the along the years. A few tales linger on my heart, a few bring a tear, a few tease out a giggle or three, and there are a couple of life's myths ripe for debunking.

All the stories are important.
Life is beautiful.

©2015 April Hoeller

Monday Moanings - November 10, 2014

NO!

The first syllable of the month says it all, but British humourist and poet Thomas Hood (1799 - 1945)
really nailed it.

        No sun—no moon!
        No morn—no noon—
No dawn—
        No sky—no earthly view—
        No distance looking blue—
No road—no street—no “t’other side the way”—
        No end to any Row—
        No indications where the Crescents go—
        No top to any steeple—
No recognitions of familiar people—
        No courtesies for showing ‘em—
        No knowing ‘em!
No traveling at all—no locomotion,
No inkling of the way—no notion—
        “No go”—by land or ocean—
        No mail—no post—
        No news from any foreign coast—
No park—no ring—no afternoon gentility—
        No company—no nobility—
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
   No comfortable feel in any member—
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds,
        November!

A little too much "no" perhaps? Well maybe, but I have to admit that grey sunless skies, leafless /lifeless trees and a damp chill that goes through to my bones, do little more than summon up dismal groans.

To escape the dead weight of such melancholy I trolled the vast expanse of the internet to have a look at how others have wrapped words around this second to last month of the year. Here's some of what I found:

 "Yet one smile more, departing, distant sun!
One mellow smile through the soft vapory air,
Ere, o'er the frozen earth, the loud winds run,
Or snows are sifted o'er the meadows bare.
One smile on the brown hills and naked trees,
And the dark rocks whose summer wreaths are cast,
And the blue gentian-flower, that, in the breeze,
Nods lonely, of her beauteous race the last.
Yet a few sunny days, in which the bee
Shall murmur by the hedge that skirts the way,
The cricket chirp upon the russet lea,
And man delight to linger in thy ray.
Yet one rich smile, and we will try to bear
The piercing winter frost, and winds, and darkened air."
-   William Cullen Bryant

"The wild November come at last
 Beneath a veil of rain;
 The night winds blows its folds aside,
 Her face is full of pain.
 The latest of her race, she takes
 The Autumn's vacant throne:
 She has but one short moon to live,
 And she must live alone."
-  Richard Henry Stoddard

 "November comes
 And November goes,
 With the last red berries
 And the first white snows.
 With night coming early,
 And dawn coming late,
 And ice in the bucket
 And frost by the gate.
 The fires burn
 And the kettles sing,
 And earth sinks to rest
 Until next spring."
  - Elizabeth Coatsworth

Take heart, beneath it all, under the frost and brown, behind the damp and grey, Spring is plotting resurrection. And "No" will melt into "Yes."

 ©2014 April Hoeller (except poetry excerpts)

Monday Moanings, November 4, 2013

NaNoWriMo - My Lite Version

It all began on Friday...

Image courtesy of
National Novel Writing Month

NaNoWriMo, a whole 30 days of intensive writing, a kind of writer's marathon (check out this link for details on the official scoop). Now I'm not a registered participant because firstly I'm not writing a novel and secondly, I'm not that driven, and so I'm doing a 'Lite' version. My approach is a little more relaxed because I've learned, finally, that it's okay to give myself permission to have fun, to accept the better offer when it comes along without obligingly picking up a side order of guilt, and it's okay to attend to my own well being.

So on Friday, Day 1 of NaNoWriMo, I spent a good chunk of the day with my sisters instead of writing. We had a great day together revisiting some of the wonderful stories of our childhood. We laughed a lot, learned a story or two one or more of us didn't know and simply revelled in time together. With a bit of a stretch I could claim that this was valuable research for the memoir I'm writing, but in truth no actual writing occurred, not a single word.

Day 2 - Saturday I was snookered by a TMJ/migraine tag team that effectively blocked all incentive to write, and replaced it with fatigue and an aura of unremitting gloom, coincidentally matching the weather. Again no writing, not a single word, unless I can count a grocery list.

Day 3 - Behold! A day of glorious redemption! A full day, crisp, bright and AWAY at Writing from the Centre. Many thanks to my friends Elaine and Janis for the time, space and great food. Sunday, I put words on paper, the ink flowed from a fully charged fountain pen, (which I had to refill half way through the day!), my brain actually formed sentences and put them together into meaningful paragraphs and the coherent (relatively - as is typical of first draft) pages stacked up. I estimate the word count to be just shy of 2000, but it matters more to me that I wrote, that I knocked off an episode or two of the book and that feels good, really good!

Day 4 - Well of course it's Monday and there is no sense in moaning about it. I'm off to the gym then the afternoon is clear for another luxurious stretch of writing. I'm thinking a modest goal of 1500 words a day is doable and if I manage that on 5 days out of 7, I'll reach 30,000 by month's end, which is just about what I need to flesh out the middle section of the memoir.

So here's my goal for NaNoWriMo Lite: Complete the first draft of Section B, currently titled "As Time Goes By" by November 30.

Cover me! I'm going in...

©2013 April Hoeller