Léna is also a Regional Manager for Writopia Lab whose mission is to foster joy, literacy, and critical thinking in kids and teens from all backgrounds through creative writing.

"Well, the question is, what do you want to believe? Do you want to live in a world where things are possible, or in one where they aren't?" Cin, Edges.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Always Review Directions


Tomorrow is April first. April Fool's Day. It's also my wedding anniversary. This post may wander between my Girls Write Now commitment and my marital commitment for the sake of my commitment to blog about writing, but I promise to make a useful analogy.

While on vacation I had completely forgotten about writing a piece that is due tomorrow for the Girls Write Now (GWN) annual Anthology. . . until prompted by an email from my fabulous mentee Meg, (who has been sick at home with a terrible fever during her vacation. Feel better Meg!) She must turn in her own 800-word piece and she wrote me that she has 1800 words to whittle down. By 5PM tomorrow! For months I thought that mine needed to be 800 words as well, so tonight I frantically culled a piece I wrote during the GWN memoir workshop, and tried to make it longer. I had gotten up to 670 words when I thought it might behoove me to check the GWN website. And guess what? I only needed to turn in a "gem", a mere 300 words! April Fool's Eve! That changed the whole thing. Lesson learned: always review directions!

But April first has a much deeper meaning for me. It is the anniversary of my wedding date, eleven years ago. We like to say we are fools for love. It is a reminder not to take each other for granted.

Look at the tarot card above. The Fool is the first card in the tarot deck - he is looking up blissfully as he steps off the cliff. Now, there was a time in my adolescence when I consulted tarot cards for everything, and they did helped me start my own spiritual peregrinations, but I don't play with them any more. I miss them, a little. The Fool as an archetype can sum up the life of the writer - or at least this writer. Every time I write, and each time I blog I feel as if I am jumping off a cliff into the unknown, but with a flower in my hand and a pack on my back.

I love this image, representing innocence, joy and risk-taking. For our marriage, my husband and I wanted to always have some of that with us as we grew, and grew up together. Certain commitments, risks, and values need to be constantly remade and revisited when you build a life with someone, or with your work. A wedding anniversary, or any return to the blank page, is a reminder to always review directions!
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5 comments:

  1. Have you read Charles Williams' novel The Greater Trumps? It's a really imaginative, beautiful (at times) spiritual romance (for lack of a better genre-term); the plot revolves around a pack of tarot cards. It's my favorite of his, and I've been thinking about rereading it lately, so your post theme is happily coincident. I'm not sure what your preferred type of read is, but it's really an interesting and fun book. About tarots and love. See? It fits with your post here.

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  2. Sounds like fun - thanks for the tip, and for mentioning the coincidence! (I love them, coincidences, or maybe it's not?)

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