Art, Coffee, and Words

 I love that I am surrounded by art every day. I walk around at work and all of Tori's paintings are hanging in our gallery. Each one of them whispering a story into my ear. I sit back there and eat my lunch surrounded by scenes that could be right out of the novel I am working on. I know at least one of them is going to HAVE to go home with me. I am pretty sure it will be Du Bran. They could all line the walls in my house, friends from our time at the coffee shop. They have become pieces, woven into my own story.

Just like my freezing fog story. I walked by that painting so many times. I knew this story. I had already decided to bring it to life in the black print of my notebook and on my computer screen. I had watched all of it play out before me. I bought that painting too. It now hangs on my ConStellation wall. This is a piece of one of my own worlds. 

Images and words woven together as I sit and sip my coffee.

I am going to need a bigger house if I keep finding art that I love!

Be Brave!

 Wow, I have a bunch of crazy things coming up in April. I don't even know where to start explaining all of these acts of bravery that will be coming up in April.

So lets start with maybe the most surprising one. I wrote a song? Yes, I think I did. I had actually been planning on writing a story to submit to a writing contest. This story would have been a third version of a tale that some of the characters in the novel I am writing told. Even this statement is confusing. Several of the characters in my novel are bards, or storytellers. Two of these characters had told a tale of this bard who had been cursed. And I wanted to write the master tale, the tale that both of these tellings had come from. The problem was that I did not think I would be able to get that story written before I had to submit a story for this writing contest. I was going to set it aside and write something different. But my mind wouldn't let it go. As I was in the shower, a melody kept playing in my head. I had to quickly grab my phone and hum it to myself, so I wouldn't forget it. I knew this was one of the melodies for my bard tale. Then before work, I sat down and got the whole first section written. Over the next couple of days, I finished all of the words and the second melody part. I printed out blank music staff and sat down at the piano so I could actually figure what notes were in my melodies.  I not only finished the tale before the deadline, I have written the music to go along with it. I wrote a song! Now I am trying to convince my family to play at being bards at our next Ren Faire and perform my song. Well, probably not, that would be truly brave. 

Brave thing #2:

Ella and I signed up to lead two panels at our local Con. Yes, you read that. We don't try to ease into this and do one panel. Just go ahead and sign up for two panels. This is also something that we have never done. Depending on the day, I am excited about this or terrified. It will be fun. Yes, we will be brave and have fun.

Brave thing #3:

I am leading a bookclub? What? I have never even been a part of a book club. I am pretty sure being a teacher and reading with my students doesn't really count. Adults, strangers? Okay, so maybe new friends. Please come and be my friend. We like reading books and coffee is nice.

I have been putting so many things on my work calendar. I keep thinking of Field of Dreams. If I build it they will come. All things I like to do, surely other people like to do the things I like to do. And then the opening day is on Monday. So many unknowns. Unknowns are difficult for those of us who like to have very clear plans. But this is the most exciting thing that has happened to me in a very long time. I know it will be good. Probably it will be even better in June, once there are fewer new things crammed into one month. Of course, by June, none of those things will be new anymore.

Now, I need to see if I can get my characters to finish telling me their story, so I can finish writing this novel. So many words to write, the pages of books to fill!

A Pillar of Fire by Night

 So this morning as I was driving to work, there was an interesting sight in the sky. I very much wanted to stop the car and get out and take a picture. But I knew that my phone would never do this sight justice. Plus it was -2 degrees and I did not WANT to get out of my car. Who am I kidding, I did not want to get out of my bed where I was warm. So I just continued to look at the sky in front of me as I drove.

It can only be described as a Pillar of Fire, just like the Pillar of Fire that God led his people with by night. I stared at this light in the sky just north of the road and the rising sun, and I wondered what I could actually be seeing. Could it be something like a fragment of a rainbow? The sunlight shining and color coming from frozen crystals in the sky? (Because -2, I knew it wasn't raining.)

Eventually, I decided it was like half of a rainbow, the red-orange-yellow half of the rainbow. The reddish part closest to the sun.

Partway through my drive I realized how true this was. There was a second pillar of fire on the other side of the sun. This pillar also with the reddish portion closest to the sun.

It was an amazing thing to see this morning. It was as if I was driving into some sort of gateway, some special place, a once in a lifetime thing.

When I got to work, I did take a picture of the one side of the Pillar of Fire. It was a terrible picture, but I wanted at least something to help me remember this morning with.

I have been thinking a lot about this Pillar of Fire. It has been a very interesting couple of years. I have looked many places for Neon Flashing Signs. I wanted to know which way to go. I wanted to know what I was supposed to do. 

I have now been given a Pillar of Fire. I know what it is I am supposed to be doing. I did not need a neon flashing sign. I guess I did need to have the entire sky shout out to me letting me know I never needed to worry. 

When I got home I found on Facebook that someone else had seen what I had this morning and taken a much better picture than I had. I wish I had not lost who had posted it. So this is not my picture, but this is what I saw this morning.

Picture by Beth Wood