ONE DAY I WENT RAMBLING is on the way
I'm thrilled to holler out: My new picture book , ONE DAY I WENT RAMBLING, is on the way! It's coming to bookstores on April Fool's Day!
Illustrated by the creative goddess, Terri Murphy, with whom I partnered to create DANCE, Y'ALL, DANCE (also published by Bright Sky Press) ONE DAY I WENT RAMBLING stars Zane, a boy who finds fun and adventure within found objects.
Chances Are the Chances Are Awfully Good
What Inspires: 2nd Chances! It’s the New Moon and the beginning of the Chinese New Year 4709: Year of the Black Water Dragon!’s Celebration! A 2nd chance to make a fresh start of 2012; a 2nd chance to commit to change. Chinese tradition on New Years’ houses are swept clean. Old thoughts, deeds, misdeeds are brushed out the door. Out with the old; in with the new. New Resolve! New Ideas! New Slate!
Gong Xi Fa Cai! Happy Chinese New Year!
The first day of the 2012 Chinese New Year is today—January 23, 2012 in China's time zone. This day is a new moon day, and is the first day of the first Chinese lunar month in the Chinese Lunar Calendar system. But, according to all my Internet research, the first day of the Chinese New Year is Feb. 4th.
The Year of the Water Dragon comes only once every 60 years. 2012 is the year of the Male Water Dragon.
Are you are Dragon? Know a Dragon? Want to be prepared for the Dragon year? Here’s more about the Dragon:
“The Dragon is a legendary creature. It can survive on the ground, in the water, and in the sky. Dragon is mystic, misty, blurred, unreachable and unpredictable animal. When Dragon has attraction relationship with the other animals, Dragon is quite likely to hide its Earth characteristic. When Dragon meets Rat, Dragon will show more Water characteristics. When Dragon meets Rabbit, Dragon will fully support Wood characteristic in the Rabbit. When Dragon meets Chicken, Dragon will turn itself into Metal identity. Dragon is a stranger to Dog. When Dog meets Dragon, Dog will bark and prepare for fighting. Dragon is kind of lonely. It's hard for other animals to build love or romantic relationship with Dragon.” Chinese Forecast website
What does the Year of the Black Dragon mean?
“Dragon contains Earth, Water and Wood. If your Lucky Element is Water, then you will have pretty good luck in 2012. If your Lucky Element is Earth, then you will gain some degree of good luck in 2012. The Dragon is the last year of Wooden Cycle, which is from 2010 to 2012. If your Lucky Element is Wood and you do well in the 2011 Rabbit year, then your luck will continue.”
It’s really all about knowing your “Lucky Element.” But first, you must find your Lucky Element. After finding your Lucky Element, you can click over to see a graph of the rise and fall of your life.
Luck if you've ever been a lady to begin with, Luck be a lady. . . Happy New Year, Take 2!
What's the Use Of Listing?
What Inspires: Lists Last night, on a whim—and desire not to waste a National holiday off—we flew to Bali and checked into Kayana Villas. It was past midnight and raining when we arrived. It's the rainy season, so we weren't surprised by the rain; we brought books, computers, cards, etc. but we were hoping for sunshine. Several times during the night and this morning I woke to the sound of rushing water. Believing it was still raining—pouring—I rolled over and buried my head.
Curtis finally managed to coax me to breakfast. Surprise! Surprise! The big floodlight in the sky was shining full beam. The rushing water/rain sound was the waterfall flowing into our private pool. Hurrah! Over breakfast (huevos rancheros ala Kayana are indescribably “enak” delicious!) we formulated a plan for the day. First item: Pool Time!
A trip or two back, Lexi, my extremely organized daughter, had shared her Trip Packing List with me. She keeps it on her phone, viewable at a touch. Would that I had used it when I was pulling things together for this trip…
I’m a heavy packer. My motto is: if you might need it, bring it! But this trip… this trip we are under serious weight restrictions: only 15 kg each. No exceptions. No paying extra for more. From Bali we’re flying to Moyo, a tiny island off the coast— in a seaplane! Anything over our weight allowance would have to be abandoned at the gate. So I packed predently; changed suitcases to flimsy light-weight duffles; took out all but one pair of shoes, two suits, one book, two bottles of sparkles. In the end, even with the restrictions I managed to bring almost everything I needed. Almost…
See this glorious picture of the pool, the trickling waterfall hidden behind the curtain of green, those inviting, empty lounge chairs?
Me!
Ask yourself: What are the most important items to bring on a tropical island holiday?
Yes, I brought sunscreen-3 kinds!
But, I forgot the most, absolutely most important 3 items: my hat, my sunglasses and my lipstick. Anyone who knows me knows, I do not sit in the sun without my hat, my sunglasses and especially my lipstick (Like Queen E, I am never, never, never am without my lipstick). FYI: Shops in Jakarta Airport Domestic Terminal do not sell lipstick, chapstick, gloss or Crisco.
So, instead of basking in the sun I’m sitting in the shade typing and thinking I need to add 2 New 2012 Resolutions:
#1 MAKE AND MAINTAIN LISTS
# 2 USE THY LISTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ENOUGH TO HAVE A LIST; YOU HAVE TO USE IT!
BAWWWWK!
What Inspires: Chicken Scratch I walked away from a post-holidays “debate” with my sis-in-law, Joanne, with chicken scratch on my mind.
Joanne, a Special-Ed teacher, maintains that learning cursive isn’t important anymore, and furthermore, that future generations may not write at all. Not to say they won't comunicate. They may well communicate faster, more easily, and on more advanced levels. Instead of writing, they'll dictate and a machine will respond accordingly and/or transcribe if needed; non-verbal folks will type and the machine will speak. Wha-Lah: Communication!
This might well be the way of the future. But…but…but… BAWWWWWWK!
Recent arguments about how practicing and learning writing is as important t0 brain development as going through the “crawling stage” and learning to skip aside, I can’t stop thinking about what will be lost if people stop writing?
I keep a box of cards and letters; my mother has one; my grandfather did, too. (I type, “did” because my grandmother burned my grandfather's, along with his family photos, shortly after his funeral (will we ever know why???)
When my grandmother died, I found hers, too. I didn’t burn it; I was embarrassed by it, though, and delighted and saddened and mortified to discover "brilliant" Mini-me thought “Boston” was spelled “Boaston” and my teacher, Mr. Tweet, may well have had legitimate cause for giving me a C- in 5th grade penmanship (which crushed me and kept me from making the Honor Roll)
I was touched and thrilled to discover my grandmother kept those cards and letters--if for no other reason that that I get to read them, touch them, smell them. . . . An exchange of molecules takes place during the process of “penning a note” which adds a different twist to the term “give something of yourself.” During the process of writing the note we transfer piece of ourselves to the paper. Unlike carbon dating, human residue on hand-written card, notes, letter—recipes—don’t lessen by halves, it becomes more precious. (Any historic, cultural, kitsch value of the card is another discussion entirely.)
This holiday season, just as I have other holidays, I pulled out my raggedy recipe accordion folder and riffled through recipes. One Christmas eons ago (when my mother had more time and imagination than funding) she created a recipe file for my grandmother and herself. She typed “favorite” recipes on index cards and decorated them with doodles and comments. I relish those recipe cards. They whisk me back to when Mom was younger, energetic, and willing to spend the time on handmade gifts. As cheesy as many of them are, I love looking at them. They always make me smile and remember, as does “Aunt Margie’s Sheet Cake,” Grandma Lee’s “Noodle Koogle” and my grandmother’s “Never-fail Pie Crust.” (And dang if those pre low-fat, low-butter, low-calorie, low-sugar, high-nutrition recipes aren't dang tasty!)
This holiday season, I received a piddly pile of cards—which I saved to savor after the rush and beyond as they will be duly read, then stored in my memory box. The bulk of my holiday greetings and post-holiday thank you notes arrived via email. And though I read and enjoyed them, I didn’t—even when I could have—print them out to save. I may save an e-mail note or card in Outlook, I rarely print one with the purpose of saving it. Those I do print rest in a wicker basket which bears a striking resemblance to the recycle basket. Even in my wildest imaginings, I can not make myself believe a time will come when scent, skin, bone, tears, smudges, molecules can travel through the Internet, to the satellite and fiber optic cable, squish out the printer. (At least old-fashioned "dittos" smelled good--Oooh! Ooohh! I'll run off the copies for you, Mrs. Hsang...can I? Please, oh pretty please?????)
In a lecture on non-fiction at Vermont College of Fine Art last year, Diane Stanley shared how she researched her books.c She shared that judging from the volume, frequency, and immediacy of correspondence, communication in London during Charles Dickens time was almost as fast as today. As a result, volumes of his thoughts, ideas, musings, menus, gripes—in his own words—are read, enjoyed, studied, perused, evaluated, analyzed, synthesized, idolized, etc. etc. by scholars today. With e-mail notes, sms, cards, tweets, etc. stand the same test?
AAMOF, 404!
Scribble on…BAWWWWWWK!
Welcome 2012!
What Inspires: A Clean SlateHappy 2012 to us all.
Our new calendars are open and flipped to bright, new, blank pages. Along with all those other resolutions, let's save space for creative moments, deep jolly belly rolls, and personal fulfillment!
For my part, I'll keep seeking tidbits that inspire me and promise to share them here in hopes they'll inspire you, too.
As the song goes: "It's a new dawn/It's a new day..." add to that It's a new year!
