Inspiration

Writer's Block

I have vented my frustration with writer's block here before, but this time I want to talk about a fiction writer's block.  As I have before mentioned, I am a writing enthusiast and most of the time writing comes easily to me... to easily in fact!  It was too many ideas that brought me one of my biggest writer's blocks of all time!

 In school I was asked to write a short story after studying the structure and flow needed for such a story.  How hard could it be?  All you need is a character, one big event and a bit of good grammar.  But I sat at the computer, blank page before me, and realized I had absolutely NOTHING to write.  The white page glared back at me wondering what was taking my fingers, usually so agile on the keyboard, so long to write an opening sentence!

Too many ideas were flooding my mind.  I thought maybe I could write some little back story from one of my novels in progress, but those ideas got too big and complicated until they also were novels.  Then I thought I would experiment with something historical like I had intended to do this school year, that also became a lot of work and turned into a plot long enough to fill 900 pages!  So what was I to do?  No genre worked, no idea worked, no character worked.  Everything was too big and complicated!

Then it dawned on me...

LIGHT BULB MOMENT!!!

The Small Inspiration

My inspiration came in a small, seemingly insignificant way.  I had so many big plans of fantastical stories that I had overlooked the simple ones all around me.  My fingers began to move on the keyboard and there sprouted up a wonderful little story right out of real life!!  The story took on some creative license when a beloved rooster took the role of the main character and narrator, but it was a story!  The story of my first rooster's appearance on our family farm turned out to be an entertaining one to write.  Even my younger siblings (a very hard-to-please gang) were all delighted with the story I came up with and asked for more.

My Inspirational Rooster!

Sitting back to consider my work of writing, I saw how wonderful the little stories of day to day life are!  Not only do they make decent blog material, but my siblings found them interesting as a story!  I have said before that day to day life is good, but day to day life is also inspirational!  I will be on the lookout from now on for the little stories of my day that will transfer into a bit of fiction writing.  This outlook on my day will certainly make me see the good, the true, the beautiful and, of course, the humorous!

My inspiration for a 1700 word story was from a rooster!  A rooster of all things!  What more can I find, walking, crawling, bounding throughout my day?  Just imagine one event of YOUR life as a humorous, dramatic or philosophical writing!  (I prefer the humorous!)  I'm sure it will make you think for a bit about your day!

So I firmly hope you have an excellent day!

The Goodness of Middlemarch

A Bittersweet Feeling

Just recently I finished reading the classic 'Middlemarch' by George Eliot.  It was a very touching story, investing me deeply in the characters of the remarkable book.  I will admit this, it was not always a very easy read.  Some parts of the story were very dry and a bit too political for me, but perseverance brought me through and I can now say I have read the book and enjoyed it thoroughly.  In fact, I enjoyed it so much I want to write about it briefly here.  I know I could write a critical essay on this story, but I won't do that here.

A great work of Victorian literature

BUT! Before I launch into my discussion about the merits of this story I wanted to relate how the final page makes me feel.  You must know that feeling of happiness at the endings, and yet there is a pang with the knowledge that such a good story is over.  I felt that bittersweetness as I closed the book, having read in bold text 'THE END'.  It is this emotion that brought me to writing my blog about Middlemarch.  Such a mixed feeling seems worth sharing to me!  So now, let me tell you why I believe Middlemarch was such a good story! 

What makes Middlmarch a good story?

I will have to limit myself to three key points that resonated with me.  What a task that is!  If I am to keep this post from becoming an essay (thus losing half of the readers!) I will have to be very brief on my three points.  There are many, many other aspects to this story which made it good, but the most important to me were these:

The character of Dorothea and her effect on those around her.

The Gift of Love.

Dreams and Schemes.

These points brought out for me important lessons which still apply to people today.  So let us now look at these aspects together!

Dorothea

Young, Passionate and Trusting Dorothea

Dorothea is naive, passionate and trusting.  Through these aspects of her character she is able to touch many lives around her in the story.  Though some consider her too naive to understand the ways of the world, this attribute of her character helps her to be more firm in her gentle trusting of people around her.  Twice in the story, Dorothea is met by vicious rumors about two men in her life.  Many people pressure her to believe the worst, yet Dorothea holds onto her trust of the men, certain that there must be some mistake.  Both times, Dorothea is right in her belief of the men's innocence and her faith brings the men back to hope for their futures.  All it takes is her quiet way of speaking to them, assuring them of her trust, and the men go about their lives with a new outlook.

There is deep complexity to Dorothea's character, but what I want most to show in this short study is the way Dorothea changed lives.  She never did anything spectacular in the story and yet she changed the lives of other characters.  I like this kind of character because I believe that a small, hidden life is one that I am going to lead.  To see Dorothea find happiness and bless others through her living life well encourages me not to discount my little life as insignificant.

The Gift of Love

The second point is concerning two of the central characters and their marriages.  In one of the cases, the man asks to marry the woman because she is beautiful, clever and well educated.  This marriage encounters many struggles when the man discovers that his wife does not have a well grounded love for him and has married him with unrealistic notions of romance.  This marriage is able to limp along, but the way in which it is portrayed at the end of the book is not inspirational.

Rosamond and Dr. Lydgate, a suffering marriage

   

The other couple shows an inspirational love where the woman gives all of her love to the man to help him grow.  At the beginning of the book, the young man, Fred, is a frivolous spender of money and has no prospect for his life besides doing whatever he wants.  It is the love and faith of the woman who he loves that teaches him to amend his life to be a worthy receiver of her love. 

Fred and Mary, a couple with true love

Of course, this leads me to the contemplation of what true love is.  Beauty and charm are attractive, but the true love is the love shown between Fred and Mary where they strive to give of themselves fof the good of the other.

Dreams and Schemes

Finally there is the dreaming and scheming part of the story.  Two central characters, Dorothea and Lydgate, both begin the story with big, sweeping schemes to make the world better through their heroic deeds.  I hate to spoil it, but neither of these characters achieve their dreams.  Dorothea's dream of doing great things to better the lives of the poor is never fulfilled in her way.  Lydgate doesn't make a big name for himself among the people of his town.  Though they do not achieve their big plans, these characters change their plans and live them in simpler, quieter ways.  Lydgate is able to become a good doctor and help many people through his skills, though he never gains a big name.  And Dorothea forfeits her wealth, which could have helped the poor in a large way, and lives a quiet life, simply giving of herself in whatever ways she can.

This is a lesson for me as well.  I may have big dreams, but they may change.  I must simply live my life and do what I can in the present time and place.

And that's it.  I would say to read Middlemarch if you ever have a spare six weeks or so.  But really, any literature that has endured for so long will probably have some wonderful bits of truth to it, so read whatever literature you can!

I wish you well as you go about your own little day, touching the people in your own little life!

Another Ordinary Day

A Little Day

Well, I can't always come to the computer with a number of stories that have made me smile.  Today I have that writer's block.  Nothing to say.  So now I think I can talk about my day in general.  This won't be the most shining, beautiful post of all times, but it is a real life story of one girl's life from morning until evening.

I've mentioned before how I look for the moments of joy to share, but the whole day is good.  Some parts are harder (waking up, as I have said) but routine is good for a person, so everyday routine is good.  It may appear a little boring, but if you read this, the rest of my posts that will follow will fall into context.  If I mention a certain part of my day you might have a light bulb moment, saying to yourself, "Ah! I remember that part of her day!  This must have happened near lunch time!" That will make everything so much more understandable!

The Story of my Day

I wake up around 6 a.m. and struggle out of bed.  The room is usually pretty cool in the mornings, so the first challenge of the day is to make it out from under the covers into the cold. A quick breakfast is usually waiting for me on the stove as soon as I'm up.  Yes, it's oatmeal porridge.

My Breakfast

After I'm dressed and have eaten my breakfast it's out to the cow pen for the milking.  It doesn't take too long and I have come to enjoy it.  Milking has become a drama of sorts, some mornings giving us up to five gallons of milk, other mornings we discover that the calf has gotten to the milk before us and left us with hardly a cup.  One never does know how the morning milking is going to turn out.

morning milking

With milking behind me for the day, I launch into the morning period of studies.  This period changes as the seasons change.  During fall, winter and early spring this period is only the beginning of my school day.  During summer this period is given to labor outside or in the kitchen.  Either way, this is a period for work while the day is young.

Lunch comes anywhere from 11 a.m. to noon.  This is a quick meal to be had to break up the work day.  What you eat at this meal is usually up to the individual, but I always tend towards avocado, banana, apple and yogurt bowl.

The afternoon has got to be one of my favorite times.  It is in this period that I take my lovely walks through the forests and to a small lake where ducks are numerous.  This walk is a chance for my mind to relax a bit from the work of the day and muse over events or story ideas.  This walk obviously changes with the seasons, requiring snowshoes in the winter, rubber boots in the spring and hiking boots during the summer.  There are many, many glories to this walk, but to write about them all would take up multiple blog posts.  I'm sure I will write about my walk more in later posts, but for today I will simply finish the story of my day.

my favorite part of the day: my walk!

Another bit of work might be done in the late afternoon, ending off with the evening chores for the chickens and cows.

Dinner doesn't have a very set schedule, but we get fed.  After this final meal for the day there is nothing left on the schedule but recreation.  In summer there is a sunset to watch over the valley.  Often this wind down time is when I will write a bit in my story.  By 9:30 p.m. it is bed time.  A bit more reading or writing might be done before turning in for the night.  A good night's rest and the whole story starts all over again.

That's the story of my life!

Spring At Last!

New Life

I have mentioned spring in previous posts concerning the seasons and their circle, now I think it's appropriate to focus on this one particular season we are in right now: SPRING!

SPRING!

I have always had a special love for springtime.  It's not too hot, not freeze-your-face-off cold and the whole world is waking up from the winter sleep.  Part of the joy is Easter, bringing the world back from the death of sin to life with God.  Now the world is coming back to life around me and I can see the change, day by day.  Easter remains with me as I contemplate new life, but what I have to share with you today is the new life of nature.  Everyone is looking for life.  That's part of our human nature.  The new life of spring reminds us that there is still life to be found after the snow melts.

There is one comment on new life I want to make before I talk about the glories of spring.  It has to do with one of my all time favorite subjects: literature.

You see, in story, every story, there is a process that the hero goes through before the end.  If he doesn't go through this process he's not a memorable hero at all.  The hero will learn some lessons, fight with inner problems and eventually have to face off with the biggest bad guy of all at the end.  It's rather simplistic, but this type of story has been around for ages.  The most uplifting part of every story is the Resurrection when the hero gets to die and rise again to new life.  Unfortunately this isn't my writing blog, so I won't get into that subject.  The fact I wanted to show with the story example is that death and new life are part of us and are hard wired into our stories for a reason.  New life is what we are made for.  So now, let me share with you the new life that I've been experiencing through nature.

Green

What strikes me most about spring is the green.  It gets to be so boring to the eye during summer, but in spring nothing spells FRESH better than the greenery of the world around you.  So it has been the green growth that brings me a smile every day.

As I take my daily walk I keep an eye on the aspen trees.  I have been watching for the slightest sign of budding, but nothing ever happens.  The slim white branches remain the same, pointing upwards with skeleton fingers.  The grass began to grow, giving the rolling hills a new hue, and yet nothing grew on the branches.  I walk under the empty branches every day and wait for the dappling light the leaves will give.

Nothing grew...

The days got warmer, and hope rose.  I missed one day of walking, occupied with some gardening instead.  The next time I went for a walk my eyes were at long last met by the tender green leaves sprouting over the aspen branches.  The trees no longer look so forlorn anymore!  The gentle, dappled light filtering down to the forest floor below, falling on my smiling face and assuring me that spring had truly sprung.

The leaves dappled the warm sunlight

The green still continues to spread day by day.  The grass grows longer and flowers begin to bloom.  The frost was pretty heavy this morning, but it melted away and left the world still robed in green.  That means I can enjoy the beauty of green growth during the day and the frosted blades of grass in the mornings.  Yes, spring is lovely!  It has come and renewed the earth for a new year of growth, and I'm ready to enjoy it!

I hope you are also enjoying the springtime now! (unless you life way down south...) Just take a moment and look up at the trees and savor the beauty of fresh, new leaves.  Bask in the beauty of new life and let it sink into your heart today and all through your life!

Your joyful friend,
Maggie Rosario

Just A Little Story

Sharing the Little Things

I keep coming back to one theme here, one that really strikes into my heart.  The little things are what brighten my day, and so I keep coming back to them.  The birds and seashells I have talked about in previous posts are all little things that give me a great deal of happiness.  Today I want to share a story.  This story is one through which I hope to give my joyful experience to others.  Before I write it, I first wanted to say a bit about one of my personality quirks which play into my story very much.

Ever since I have first discovered a love for writing I have found also a love for storytelling.  The best part of storytelling to family or friends is getting them to feel strongly the emotions I aim for.  When I tell a sad story, I hope to see deep feeling in my listeners.  That's just how storytelling works!!! This ability to share emotions and thoughts is a remarkable gift, connecting people and drawing them closer to one another.  Granted, some of my stories sound rather ridiculous when I tell them with such animation, but it brings a good laugh and that's something I like to aim for.

There is a gift to storytelling!

Now, without further ado, I would like to share one such story with you and see if I can't get you to laugh too!  I'll never know whether it worked or not, but you will benefit from a bit of a smile today!

My True Chicken Story

Last spring, in May I believe, my dear flock of chickens was relocated to a better, more secure chicken run.  It held them very well during all of last summer, no breaches occurring.  However, this spring, when the snow was yet lingering about, I discovered a rouge band of four hens who had decided they would prefer to be outside the fence better than inside.  This isn't a good thing for gardens when the hens have a taste for pea seeds.  So I did my best to patch up any places that may have been escape routes.

It did no good.

Two weeks passed and still I could not find a lead as to the hens' means of escape.  The gardens needed to be planted and the chickens waited eagerly for any signs of seeds.  I was then struck with a plan. The very next morning, yesterday morning, I set out to accomplish my plan.

The gardens awaited planting

Every morning I let the hens out of their coop.  This certain morning I let them out and sat in a corner to observe, dark hood pulled up over my head so as to blend better with the shadows.  The four rouges exited the building, walking nonchalantly towards the fence.  One of the hens, the leader known for her Houdini like skills, observed me, knowing far too well that I was ready to end their escapes forever, and decided to put of her escape.  Her friend was not so wise.  Jumping immediately onto the fence, the black hen showed me their secret exit torn through the wire.  Without losing another moment, I dashed forward, scattering the other hens waiting their turn to escape.  The hole was quickly patched to the dismay of many hens.  The one escapee was captured and returned home, leaving the gardens in peace.

The chickens were at last contained!

Today, their first day of complete confinement, the hens paced sadly back and forth.  They found no means of escape and decided they had been outsmarted.  Now we may finally get the peas and beans planted!

The End

A Last Word

Now my story has been told.  I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed telling it!  You see, that wasn't a big event, and yet I made it into a story.  Make your little events of daily life into a story, bringing humor into it as you desire, and I'm sure you will find a brighter day is yours.

Thank you again for your time!
Maggie Rosario