Chick lives in the car, and when we put baby boy in the pram, Chick comes with us too.
God help us if baby boy doesn’t get a good grasp of Mr Chick. So many times in the car he’s accidentally pushed the toy out of reach, and let me tell you, he lets us know about it!
Today I had to grab some things from the shops. I put CCD near him, and look at his above grasp. Just look at that love. ❤🤣
He loves his little Chicky toy, and I thank God for this toy that keeps him happy and gives him something to do (chew on). 🤣
🙏
By the way, baby girl gave him the creative name, apparently all on her own.
In life we gather stories that inspire us, amuse us and help us to work out the world around us.
I read Bird by Bird, the how-to writing/biography book by Anne Lamott, many, many years ago now, and was super inspired by the story she shared which the book is named after.
The story goes that there was a boy who had to do a school project about birds. He jgnored the task ’til the last minute, so that on the day before it was due, the boy was panicked at the kitchen table, looking at all the books on birds strewn in front of him.
The boy, overwhelmed at the task and unsure where to begin, didn’t know what to do. The boy’s father said “Bird by bird, son. Just take it bird by bird.”
I’ve come to love this story, with Hubbie and i frequently applying it to our own life.
You can’t achieve great, insurmountable things all at once… but if you take it bit by bit, step by step, or as is the boy’s example, bird by bird, you CAN get there.
And so I find myself thinking this very sentiment tonight. Nights are killing me at the moment. Sleep deprivation is a form of torture, and I have had far more bad nights than good, for 2 months now.
But, hope. In the form of a sleep consultant who I’m booked in with in a few weeks time.
Surely she can help me with baby boy’s sleep. She has to.
But, I need to get there first. It’s 18 days away.
18 nights.
And so I’m grateful to this little tale of birds, for reminding me that step by step I can get there, just as step by step I have gotten here.
I think because this doesn’t happen that much any more.
Or, it hasn’t for a while, until now.
Me, alone.
Day off.
Weather, acceptable.
Feeling good.
FRIDAY!
It was a mild morning as I set off after school drop-off to get me some coffee in my writerly keep mug. As I started walking, I realised just how relaxed, and happy, and peaceful I felt.
Why?
It wasn’t just that coffee is back in my life. No, it’s something else that makes me happy, and it’s the journey.
The process.
The anticipation of coffee, and the walk to getting the coffee, there’s just something about it, I don’t know…
Is it self-indulgent? Is it because it’s me time? Taking time out? Enjoying life?
It is the smallest of things, and yet it feels like everything. This morning, it was everything.
It’s a good thing I think, when little things can be everything. Let’s inject more little things like this that make us happy, into our lives.
Another day, another successful session at the KidLitVic conference.
In one way, although I wasn’t asked to submit my manuscript, with the only option being to send a query letter, I felt more rejuvenated about today than yesterday when I was asked (after much ‘constructive’ criticism!) to submit some chapters of my manuscript.
It’s what happens when you find someone who thinks like you.
Who likes things the way you do.
Who may have the same background as you, or reads the same things you also did as a child.
When they start to speak out loud the things you’ve always wondered, quashing all of those doubts, you go “WOAH! Where have you been all my life?”
I walked away inspired, buzzing, and so invigorated. I was absolutely popping at my desk as I wrote up a query letter immediately, pouring my entire heart and soul out onto the screen.
Stuff professionalism… to some extent. I gave it my all. You only have one chance to make a first impression. I said everything, was probably quite pathetic and daggy at times, but I don’t care. I expressed my truth, spoke from my soul, shared my passion, and then I hit send.
Today was the first time ever that I pitched my book to a publisher!
I was so unbelievably nervous… no matter how many times I sipped water and applied lip balm beforehand, by the time I was finishing reading an excerpt of my manuscript, my mouth was dry and my lips were sticking together. 😬😬
But I got through. I came away with valuable takeaways, as well as an incredibly clear picture of what I should have said, instead of thatwhich I did say. Why does it take us doing something wrong, to work out what we should do right?
Well, one more takeaway, one more right…
I was asked to submit the first 3 chapters of my novel to one publisher.
This is huge! This is epic! And yet that well-known alter-ego of mine, the one suffering from massive self-doubt and imposter syndrome, is convinced it was a pity request..
But still, even if pity, I will take it!
If a starving man was given food out of pity, do you think they would decline the offer?
NO!
Just as I too took it, happily said thank you, and then shut down the Zoom session to fall onto a heap on baby girl’s bed and be thankful the nerves, for now, were all over.
Whatever happens, I am grateful for this opportunity, to take another step forward. I have already learnt so much. 🙏
I felt flat, and really quite down. What made me feel somewhat better was learning that so many people around me also felt the same… was it the colder weather? The clocks changing? The dark, overhanging skies?
ALL OF THE ABOVE?
Just knowing I wasn’t the only one feeling it today, helped. But then I did a number of things to try and lift my mood this evening/night.
I put on an album, Queen 2. And just as it too matched my mood in its solemness and slow heavy music, it turned upbeat in the last two songs so much so that I pumped up the music and was singing “Funny How Love Is…!”
I lit candles. Like, a lot. I lit three as the rooms got darker much earlier than what we have become accustomed to with our summery days, and then I went a step further and lit some incense, taking the musky smelling stick from room to room.
We need to change the atmosphere when things feel dark and dim, so introducing light, scent, even sound to our environment can profoundly make an impact.
I set in motion plans. There is nothing like taking charge of that which you can control, and by making future plans for something that you will look forward to, immediately puts you in a better mood, even if the event is weeks away… you can see it. You know it’s coming.
Lastly, I took charge in another way, and did something wild. I booked something, WILD. And when I say wild, I don’t mean Las Vegas wild, I mean SmikG Writer wild.
And if you still don’t know, well that’s because I’m frankly terrified right now, but let’s just say it’s right up my alley… or right up my bookend… something like that. 😏🤔✍️📖
And those are my little itsy-bitsy things that turned my grey day into something much nicer after all. 💖💖
I want to share with you a story. It’s a story about life and its opposite, and though its set at the beach, I assure you this story is vitally important.
Stay with me.
I was tired and a bit cranky when we went to our local beach yet again today. We went later since Hubbie had worked half the day, then we had to do a grocery shop, and so we got there to a muggy and overcast scene about 4pm.
There weren’t many people around. It seemed the long weekenders had missed this part of the coastline, or at the very least left to go home already. I was feeling rushed, like I had to do everything, chase everyone, get it all done, and so I proclaimed to Hubbie once I had hastily put sunscreen on baby girl, that I was just going to SIT THERE on the beach chair for about 10 minutes.
Not doing anything.
They headed off into the water, and I was so happy to be at peace. I took a few breaths, took out my phone, and took some snaps.
Then I clicked on facebook out of habit.
What I saw staring back at me was shocking. A tribute to a lady, a woman who I followed. It was posted from her social media page which was a self-publishing business for authors, and here her husband was telling me, us,the world, that she had suddenly passed in front of his eyes yesterday.
Shocked isn’t even a word to begin to describe my feelings. Shock, sadness, extreme disbelief. It was a shaking to the core. I felt numb. I read his tribute, staring at the growing hundreds of shocked and sad comments and condolences coming through, and looked up, blinking to the scenery in front of me.
When Hubbie came back moments later, my sunnies hid my emotions. But as I spoke my voice began to waver, and I couldn’t help it… I started to cry.
I had only met her once, so I can’t say I knew her personally. But she had come to town to host a writing workshop, it was about the various avenues of publishing available to authors… and I had followed her self-publishing business since way back then. She was a prominent force on facebook, her posts about writing and all it encompassed frequent, and I enjoyed reading the nuggets of gold she dispersed on the writing-editing-publishing process.
I had even recently been wondering if any of their services would be of use to me in my own editing process, and so to have had them, her, so often in my mind, to then hear of this…
Hazy, shocked, and so, so sad for this person I barely knew, I questioned, what was so upsetting about this passing? People sadly pass all the time, and there have been other prominent figures who have recently passed in the public eye… I was sad to hear of it, but I had nowhere near the reaction I had when I heard of her.
I walked about to the shallow water with my family. My eyes going over everything anew. The beach. The coastline.
Hubbie suggested we walk all the way down the beach, and it immediately agreed with my soul. We started to walk, and tears fell down my cheeks so easily, they could have easily passed for sea spray from baby girl’s splashing about.
Was it the shock? Yes, it was a SHOCK. A huge one. She had been there, posting on social media about writing one day, and then the next… her husband was posting about her.
It had happened so suddenly. She was living her dream. Writing, self-publishing, she had created this company that could help grow and develop writers and turn their author dreams to reality.
And there it was. Not just the shock, but that there. She was living the dream.
I hadn’t even started.
Still, her life was cut so short. She probably had so many stories left to tell. And yet so quickly, before anyone knew what was happening…
I nearly sobbed. I said to Hubbie that suddenly, I didn’t want for anything. I was deeply, deeply grateful for everything in my life – my health, my family, where I was, what I did… everything. And never would I ask for a thing ever again.
I cried.
Then, with the sadness washing through me, I took some photos.
Of life, really. My family. My love. My happy place. I take these to remember the beautiful parts of our life, the moments that are cherished and that matter. I take these to remember, even when I am no longer around. I take these for others to remember, and to feel too.
As we walked back, I now had another thought.
No… I will ask for things. AND be grateful at the same time. I will be so deeply grateful, more so than anything, and I will count my lucky stars each and every day.
But life is not guaranteed to anybody, and so I want to squeeze the most out of it that I’ve been given. I will be thankful and appreciative, but I will always keep trying, will always keep doing, will always try to live my passions… because living your life to the fullest and living the life of your dreams, THAT is most important.
Now that school is back one of our most tried and treasured routines are back.
Our brunch stop, and then a quick beach walk. 💞💖
Today was lovely in that we walked a little further down Mothers Beach, and found an extra patch of sandy alcove that we don’t usually go down… and then we found a path.
What was at the end of the path? Well you’ll need to find me on @smikgwriter on Instagram and see the vid on my stories then won’t you?
A hint… it’s one of the main reasons why we moved. 🌊🏖️
carcrashgratitude 