Friendly Haters

This morning, I was busy pouring concrete to make a slab when a couple in their seventies, driving in a tiny car resembling a golf cart, stopped in front of the construction site. They waved, and I waved back; then I went back to mixing water with cement. I heard the woman yelling something over the sound of the mixer. I looked up. She was looking at me and, even though I wasn't wearing my glasses, I could tell her lips were moving. I turned off the mixer and walked a few feet closer to the road. I didn't want to get too close to them because I wasn't wearing a mask and neither were they. From a distance, I shouted, “Excuse me. I couldn't hear you. How can I help you?” She smiled and pointed at my work in progress, “The new cabin is coming along nicely.” I nodded, “The progress is slow, but I'll get there... eventually.”

Thinking about the concrete in the bucket that was getting harder by the second, I wanted to get back to work, but I didn't want to be rude, so I stood there and waited for them to leave. Only they didn't. The woman said, “We saw you working on it last summer. We're just visiting. We have a place down the road. We're wondering whether we should move here permanently and sell our other place in the city.” I smiled, “Well... it's quiet here, so that might be a good idea given the pandemic.” The woman seemed to like that, “Yeah, at our other place, we have a lot of minorities around us, you know, and they're all on welfare. These minorities bring us all kinds of diseases. It's terrible. And they don't wanna work because they get more money from welfare than they would make working. We don't even wanna go back to our other house. The good thing about here is there are no minorities.” By then, I'd heard enough, more than enough for a Monday morning, so I smiled, “Enjoy your day. I have to get back to work.” The woman started to say something else, but the man, who was in the driver's seat and had been quiet until that moment, interrupted her, “We were just being friendly.” Then they drove away.

An Opportunity

Dear Writers,

I have been hiding out in my cave for the last few weeks. During this time, I did some reading, some writing, some editing, some construction work, and...

I met Chris Palmore, a friend of a friend of mine, who has been working on inspiring others for years,  interviewing people, making videos and podcasts, and writing about gratitude. Now, Chris is working on making an anthology. His anthology is theme specific: It's all essays and letters about gratitude.

As you know, anthologies provide excellent opportunities for readers and writers to connect. I asked Chris if I could share his link with my friends in the #WritingCommunity. I thought it would help anyone who would like to contribute and get published and/or anyone who would be interested in being a part of this wonderful project. He agreed and said he'd be grateful.

Chris's goal is to collect essays / letters of gratitude in these eight categories:

1. a lesson learned and the person who taught you the lesson

2. a thing/object you're grateful for and the story behind it

3. something that was a struggle before and that you are grateful for now thanks to how you reacted to the struggle based on your perception, perspective, and choice

4. letter to a person who has died

5. things that others take for granted that you now have and are grateful for

6. things that you've been taking for granted that you've now become grateful for

7. pets you're grateful for

8. someone from your past you're grateful for and haven't expressed gratitude to

If you would like to participate, please know that...

- the deadline for submission is September 15, 2020

- you can use a pen name instead of your name

- a letter and/or essay must be between 100 words and 1,000 words.

- you can submit as many essays and letters as you want

- you can submit essays or letters in as many categories as you want

- it's free - you don't pay, and you won't be paid if/when your letter(s) and/or essay(s) get published

- you will be notified whether or not your letter and/or essay was selected by October 15, 2020

- your submission must be original and unpublished

- you will give your permission for your essay and/or letter to be published

Click on the link below, provide the contact information, and submit your work.
https://www.gratitudespace.com/anthology/

Book Review

In The Girl in the Scrapbook, by Carolyn Ruffles, a tragic accident in Emily's life and the unexpected reappearance of her childhood imaginary friend put her on a quest to trace her genealogy and discover her true identity. This engaging story is that of three women – Emily, Jennifer, and Norah – whose lives are mysteriously entangled. 

The well-developed characters, the themes of mystery, romance, and death, the emotional journey, the beautiful prose, and the skillful story-telling made this novel a delightful read. Although the story was pleasant from the beginning, it really picked up later to the point that I couldn't put it down. I truly enjoyed The Girl in the Scrapbook and highly recommend it.

History & Life Lessons

We traveled a lot when I was a kid. My dad loved to see new places. We lived in France, and on weekends, we would visit different cities in Europe. We would stand in front of some monument, and he would start telling me the story of how that monument came to be. Only I think he forgot that I was just a kid. He would use words I didn't quite understand and his stories had too many characters. My eight-year-old brain couldn't process all the information, and none of it made sense to me. All he really accomplished with his history lessons was make me feel history was complicated and alien. I grew up detesting history and everything related to it.

For the longest time, history was my least favorite subject in school, and I avoided history books – and anything that involved history in any way – at all cost. Then I went to university when I was in my late teens and studied French literature. You can't really study literature without knowing some history, so I forced myself to read the history books I despised and even managed to get good grades, but I still secretly disliked history.

About a decade ago, I found the complete set of The Story of Civilization by Will Durant at a library bookstore where used books are sold at affordable prices. I decided to get the books and give them a try. I ended up reading all of them. If you're not familiar with the series, it's over ten thousand pages.

Since I joined the writing community in March 2019, I've met people who write different genres. I noticed I was still staying away from history, and not just nonfiction. Even historical fiction was one of my least favorite genres. As I interacted with various writers, I met Marian L Thorpe, someone whose tweets I enjoy reading and who writes historical fiction, a genre I would normally avoid. However, a short while ago, because I admire her, I read a sample of one of her books, Oraiáphon, and found myself hooked. My interest in historical fiction surprised me. I'd always stayed away from such books.

Around the same time, I was reading a book by Eckhart Tolle, and I decided to trace back one of his references to its origin. I looked up the book and tried to find it in the library catalog, hoping to borrow it. The only resource my search got me was a DVD titled Life Lessons from the Great Books. When I picked it up at the library (I'm taking the opportunity here to thank the librarians who tirelessly work behind the scenes to provide this huge service even though the libraries are officially closed and only “curbside pickup” is available.), I noticed it's a collection of six DVDs, each containing six lectures by the late Professor J. Rufus Fears from University of Oklahoma. If you don't know him, google him. You'll find he has lots of talks on YouTube. He's a historian and an excellent storyteller. I watched all thirty-six of his lectures and then watched them all again, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Sometimes our beliefs and opinions are based on how things were initially presented to us. It doesn't hurt us to keep an open mind and give ourselves the opportunity to look at things again and maybe re-evaluate them from a different perspective. I know for a fact that if I had stayed stubborn in my opinion of history and hadn't kept an open mind, I would have never read The Story of Civilization or the sample of that historical fiction and I would have turned that DVD off as soon as I realized it would be lectures on history. I'm glad I got over my initial beliefs. In the end, I'm the one who benefits from knowing everything I gave myself permission to learn.

#WritingCommunity

I haven't been active on Twitter since May 10. The last five weeks have gone by very quickly as I've spent them mostly proofreading, doing construction, reading, writing, and rewriting. 

The first round of editing of Reflections has just been completed. I'm not sure how many more rewrites it will need, but I do know it still needs a lot of work. It's starting to look like a book, though, and that keeps me motivated.

I have a couple of side WIPs going on as well. My progress is slow, but I keep telling myself every word I write is still progress. 

Many books have taken me to various parts of the world over the last few months even though I never left my cabin except to buy groceries, which I still do with my mask on. Many of the books I've been reading were written by my friends in the #WritingCommunity. I've enjoyed reading them and I plan to write reviews for them; I just haven't had time to do it yet.

I miss all of my writer friends.

The New Studio Project

I know I haven't posted any book reviews lately. I've read a few books and will post reviews soon. I'm a little behind because I've been busy working on the new cabin / studio the last few weeks.

https://newstudioproject.blogspot.com/?m=1

Keep Going

It's finally the last day of April. At the end of last month, I was feeling very sick. I couldn't breathe, my throat was sore, I had chills, my chest hurt, my muscles were sore, and I felt exhausted every moment. I didn't know if I had the flu, bronchitis, pneumonia, or Covid-19. I just knew I didn't feel like doing anything. Before I got sick, I had plans for the next few months; I had goals, and I had set deadlines for myself to reach those goals. I wanted to edit that first draft I had written. I wanted to move forward with my construction project. I was too tired to do anything, though. I had no energy, and I had no hope for the future, so my brain kept telling me there was no point.

I was getting more and more depressed. I was constantly worrying about my dogs, wondering what would happen to them if I died. My dogs have never been separated from each other since they were born a decade ago, and I didn't know anyone who would want to take three dogs, no matter how cute, loving, or obedient they are. I thought about the dogs so much I couldn't think about anything else, and I couldn't function at all.

Someone had tweeted something about April NaNoWriMo on the last day of March, and I thought it would be a good idea for me to get on the site, register, set a goal, and force myself to reach that goal. So I did just that. I decided I would write fifty thousand words by the end of April; that would mean finishing the rewriting of my memoir, or so I thought at the time. I actually thought by the end of this month, I would have completed my second draft. So on April 1^st, I started writing, and every day, I tried to rewrite my work in progress, “tried” being the key word. Reaching the daily word count, my daily goal, was a challenge because I couldn't focus on my memoir. I ended up writing about everything else: how I felt, the dogs, lies people told, how people reacted to social distancing, life in the woods, abuse, my parents, corruption, my former students, my problems, my disease. I wrote about anything that would fill the page and make me reach my daily goal of written words.

On April 28^th, I reached my big goal with two days to spare. I looked back at my writing and realized this April NaNoWriMo didn't help me with the rewriting of my memoir. However, it gave me something to focus on other than the dogs' future as I imagined it, it started two other potential books, it kept me going. Today, on April 30^th, I still don't feel well and I still don't have a solution for my dogs, but I didn't waste the whole month worrying; I stayed active, I forced myself to function.

Today, I mowed the lawn, I arranged to have the plumbing of the new cabin completed, and I ordered blocks to start working on the walls. I don't know how far I'll get, but I'll keep moving forward.

End of the Tunnel

The last time I posted an update on my unknown respiratory problem was eight days ago. My chest was burning from inside as if I had swallowed fire. That lasted three days. I started feeling a little better after that, but I wasn't sure if my improved condition would last, so I didn't post anything. I'd felt better for a couple of days in the past, but things had gotten worse again. I haven't had any chest pain for six days. I do experience a little tightness from time to time when I try to take a deep breath, but it doesn't feel nearly as scary as it did the first couple weeks. I still have a sore throat and I do feel a little congestion, but that's all.

During the last three weeks, I never had any fever, never lost my sense of smell or taste, and never had blue lips. I had all the other symptoms of Covid-19, but it wasn't the symptoms that scared me; it was my inability to breathe, to inhale. Thankfully, that's over. When I feel a little tightness in my chest or shortness of breath now, all I have to do is step outside, and it goes away after a few seconds.

I never got tested, so I don't know what I had, or have. I never saw a doctor. I never took any medicine, except for low-dose aspirin, which I have been regularly taking the last few years.

I only followed, religiously, the fifteen home remedies for bronchitis, which I found online:

1. lemon (eat fresh with its skin)

2. ginger and garlic (add to food & ginger tea)

3. eucalyptus oil (steam/inhale)

4. mustard

5. chicken soup (I had lentil soup instead)

6. raw honey

7. salt water (gargle)

8. steam diffusing

9. menthol rub

10. garlic concoction (hot water, raw garlic, ginger, honey, chili pepper)

11. rest

12. warm bath (I took hot showers instead)

13. analgesics (menthol rub & low-dose aspirin)

14. water

15. sun

I'm not back to normal, whatever normal was. I still cough and sometimes even wheeze, and my throat still hurts. However, I am, and have been for the last few days, able to function, and I believe being out in the sun, which has sadly disappeared since yesterday, helped me a great deal.

I feel I'm getting better. If that changes, I'll post an update.

Take care and stay safe.