In Search of the Very
Just searching for the good stuff .
Paradise Glacier
I’ve been listening to Stephen King’s book On Writing. I have been listening as much as I can to memoirs but this is the first of this particular genre. I’m not a fiction writer. Or am I ? Maybe all of us who aspire to write memoirs are actually fiction writers in bad disguise. Memory is what it is. That “spaghetti incident” as a child has never been retold the same way by any of my siblings. If it makes it into my story and no one but me recalls it that way, is it truth or fiction ?
A few of King’s suggestions have resonated and I will probably take them enough to heart to make them my own. I jot notes in small notebooks, my journal and into my phone. I’m really always writing. Is it weird that most of what I write, that is actually meaningful, is done on a device designed for other things ? Weirder yet, from the tub ? Does it matter ?
To be a better writer I must be a better reader. It has to be something I make time for, not that I squeeze in. It has to be important. I read books and listen to books in the car. I read reviews of books, recommendations of books, essays (my favorite) and I follow a handful of really good bloggers.
The news has begun to unsettle me more often than it comforts me. There is evil lurking and it cannot be ignored. To think that our progress in the last decade could be erased in a mere matter of months is jarring. Our democracy is not safe, our future, not secure. I read to remember. And I read to forget …
Coronavirus has changed our lives at the very core. Mine had always seemed to pivot from connection. Without community and fellowship and togetherness we are, quite delibetately and necessarily, changing what matters in our lives. There is a new pivot and I find myself dreading a world without faces and touch. What is at the core if not our authentic selves ?
Living in a social media-driven world is a lot like living in a Wikipedia world. Blend that with the narrative coming out of the white house about “fake news” and suddenly everything becomes a question or a challenge. I like it better when I can look someone in the face. When that happens, the only way I don’t trust what occurs in that that moment, is if I don’t trust myself. THAT I can deal with. Trusting myself is joyful life-work. Nothing fake about it.
Covid is changing so many things and while I am frustrated by many, I find hope in a few. My friend, and a favorite writer, has begun a new thread on her blog about taking on a new role in these new times: Kickass Grandparenting in the Time of Covid. I’m going to encourage you to check out her blog. She is an amazing storyteller and whether she is writing about this new adventure or our beautiful Pacific Northwest, you won’t be disappointed. You can find her blog here.
Covid has changed all of us. There are new roles and new rules. I spent yesterday, quite literally, in Paradise. I have not yet been called to serve, and so I continue to do what I can to bring joy into the world, both yours and my own. I may not know what lies ahead but I can tell you that a mountain or a meadow or a river runs through it …*
Thanks, as always, for reading. I’d love to know how your lives have changed and how you’re managing. Mostly though, I really love the connection. Thanks for being here.
I’ve been trying to write this most of this late morning. These two are never far. Yoda always with his eyes on me and Gus, well, he has to be touching . A creature after my own heart ♡
Enjoy my day at Mount Rainier on the Paradise Glacier trail and beyond. Any day that begins like this one did is always going to be great. Glad you could come along.
12 Comments on “Paradise Glacier”
Leave a Reply to JudeCancel reply
Where I’ve Been
❤️
My sentiment exactly. ❤
Your moon photos are stunning! I took a four mile walk the other night so I could be sure to be out walking while the moon rose. It was important to me to see her rise in all her glorious light.
And your writing, as always, makes me glad to know you, even if just virtually. I just read two books in the last two days by the same author: Augusten Burroughs. I read his memoir, “Lust & Wonder” and his non-self-help book, “This Is How: Surviving What You Think You Can’t”. Both were so good! I recommend both!
Thanks Jennie 🥰 I’ll check those books out. Part of the joy in my adventures these days is a good list of audiobooks for my long drives ! Glad to know you here too. Someday I’ll make it down your way !
You are indeed a gift to us all with your photos and your words. Thank you very much. Jennie in San Francisco
Thank you so much, Jennie. 🥰 I’m so glad to know you are following the search !
You mentioned reading, and “a river runs through it”. If you haven’t already read, “A River Runs Through It”, by Norman Maclean, I think you may enjoy it. It has been quite a long time since I read it but I still think about it now and then. Thanks for the good thoughts and good photos.
Thanks for the suggestion. Sounds pretty perfect for my early drive. Also glad to have the company on my adventures here. Thanks for writing 🥰
When I read your posts and take in your photos, I feel a sense of deep connection to you and to this beautiful place. You are able to catch the essence and share it with people like me who have never met you in person or visited this paradise. One of the things that Covid keeps showing me, over and over again, is that open hearts and minds are what create connection, whether we are at arm’s length or thousands of miles away. Thanks for sharing your adventures with us. Be well.
Jude, I love that ! I’m going to lean into your version of connection since mine seems so far away. I sure hope you get here next year. I look so forward to exploring with another adventurer ! Thanks for writing.
Memoir is “the truth told slant.” So is fiction, right? And your story is as you remember it, not as someone else remembers it. I have never read a Stephen King novel, or seen a movie made from one of them, but his book on writing is one of my favorites. Thanks for the blog share! And the gorgeous photos. And Gus and Yoda.
“The truth told slant” I love that. Thanks for sharing. Yes, our stories are our own, to be sure. I’m enjoying the book. The Stand was the first book that I absolutely could not put down.
I applaud the new challenge you’ve accepted and I can’t wait to read your words. The hike was just gorgeous ! I love knowing that out of millions of people in the world that no one had the day I had.