Blog Manifesto

Blog Manifesto


This blog is dedicated, as the title would suggest, to the qualities of being young. We are young writers. We are playful and sensitive, fluid and changing. We are unashamed with our art. We wonder at the world, puzzle over the meanings of things and twirl in delight at images and ideas that float by, grabbing at them as they pass. We are curious and constantly inquiring and prying concepts open and taking assumptions apart. We are on the ground, close to the earth. We have bare feet and wiggle our toes into nature. We carry our blankies still and wrap up cozy and comfy with each other and tell ghost stories and shiver at creepy things. We laugh and we cry and we take a lot of naps, drained from our outings and exertions.

We write as gifts to each other, tying them up in ribbon and leaving them around for each other to find, hiding and waiting for the person to wake up and read. Surprise! We weave our stories together to create a bond. One writes, then the other. then another again. We have a shared reality that we have crafted, bit by piece by patch, by string. We write simple, honest authentic things, with our unique voices. You can tell each one of us from the other, without knowing who wrote what. Our voices are clear and gentle and original. We whisper and our personalities roar! Like children, our feelings are strong, our passion for what we write shakes us. We are moved and sometimes left breathless, by our own words or the words of each other. We cannonball into each others spaces. We fall backward into each others writing, like into a pile of leaves or a soft bed. We gobble and grin and ask for more. (footnote kudos to JC)

Then we go to bed, wake up to a new day and do it all over again!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

hair today, gone tomorrow...


It was Christmas Eve 1992.
After the Christmas Mass, the gathering is at our house.
It is a small group which consisted of our three daughters, one son-in-law, my husband and me. That makes a total of six + baby on the way.

Our oldest daughter and her husband are expecting their first child in about one week. This will be our first grandchild. So exciting! I wanted to be a young grandma and I was. I was just passed the 40 mark!
My daughter and her husband just purchased a video camera...
Camera, action, roll em (lester)! This is neat! Capturing that special moment and sounds. Faces-voices-and years of “baby” growing up. Baptism, birthdays, first steps, first words, endless and priceless!!!

I was always burning votive candles. I loved the wintery scents in a closed up home. Pine and spruce were my favorites. They reminded me so much of the woodsy outdoors.

We ate a small meal and then rushed to the living room to open gifts. The excitement is always there…a little sneak of a name tag while walking past the tree. Hmmm I wonder what’s in that package. It has my name on it. Is it something I had been hinting for?

My hair is lengthy and curled past my shoulders. A candle is burning in a corner on a wood shelf. I hold my hair away from my face as I bend over to blow out the candle. As I swiftly turn my body to be seated again, my daughter bellows out “mom’s hair is on fire”. All attention is now on me! Hands slapping the flames... Dead hair floating in the air… Oh the stenchy smell of burning hair. Everyone is concerned about putting the flames out.
Video camera still in pregnant daughters hand.
Video shots….of the floor…only words…words are heard.


Warning: Do not use aerosol hair spray when bending over to blow out flickery flames or you may go POOF…hair today, gone tomorrow.

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1 comment:

  1. RosieMarch 15, 2012 at 8:50 AM

    Hey Reese,

    I never knew anyone who set their hair on fire before.

    I bet your family still talks about the time you almost went crispy critters at Christmas.


    Glad you weren't hurt, You fiery Redhead you.
    :D


    Rosie

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