Solace & Connection {6}

      

Welcome to this week's nature-inspired invitation to write and connect. Each week, I will post a round-up, and you just need to write your blog post and link up at the bottom of my post. I leave a little inspiration each week, but you are free to write about nature:  prose, poetry, images, or anything else you would like to share. 

This week's inspiration comes from a Ruth Ayres lead in the Choice Literacy Big Fresh weekly newsletter. She writes about times when she and her children "name the sky." It is a lovely piece, and I hope you will take some to read it.

I hope you take some time to observe the sky and write about how you would name it.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

As the new day dawns

I reach into my wounded heart,

searching for

the unspoken words of

forgiveness.

My team at school has been going through a difficult time. One day last week, I snapped this picture from our school parking lot and thought about Ruth's writing. With the sun trying to appear from the breaks in the clouds, I knew this sky was named "Forgiveness." 

I hope you will join me in naming your sky or writing about the world around you.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Annotated Playlist

Each month I participate in a writing challenge with my Teach Write writing group. This month we were challenged to write an annotated playlist. 

For me, songs take me back to certain places and time spent with special people. I chose three songs for this challenge although I could have chosen so many more.

My Annotated Playlist

Achy Breaky Heart by Billy Ray Cyrus—Dancing in the kitchen with 6-month old Megan in my arms, my heart was anything but achy or breaky. It was filled with motherhood joy.

Remember When by Alan Jackson—June 12, 2010, I sat in the church with tears streaming down my cheeks as this song played. Aunt Pam’s “remember whens” were cut short at the age of 52. 

You Raise Me Up by Josh Groban—This song marks one of my most significant life decisions. Could I do this at the age of 40? While contemplating the decision, this song came on the radio several times. I knew it was a sign to say yes. Yes, to returning to school to become a teacher.

Marilyn Miner, who is in our group, made a comment about how music can not only take us back but also move us forward. There is so much truth in this statement. Music has such power.

 After participating in the Slice of Life March Challenge by Two Writing Teachers, I am continuing to write my stories with other teacher-writers as we share a slice of life on Tuesdays.

Rumors

Have you ever read something set in a time period that makes you wonder, "Has time really passed?"

I just finished Under the Broken Sky by Mariko Nagai, a novel in verse about two Japanese girls escaping the Soviet Army during World War II. One poem was titled "Rumors." This poem is about how the civilians would hear different stories, or rumors, such as Americans wiped out Japan--no one is alive. The Emperor has been killed, or Japan is now part of America. People were confused and didn't know what was really happening with this war, and they didn't know how long ago the "rumors" they heard had actually happened. They didn't know who to trust.

Here are the last three stanzas in the poem:

"I don't trust anything

anyone says.

It's like on that day

I found out about 

Japan's surrender.

All the things I thought

were true were lies,

and only lies matter

in this world now."

This scene took place in 1945 and all I could think about as I read this poem was how this could describe our world still today. A world bombarded with mistrust and lies.

The only difference is today we get the lies within seconds.

 After participating in the Slice of Life March Challenge by Two Writing Teachers, I am continuing to write my stories with other teacher-writers as we share a slice of life on Tuesdays.