Where to Begin?

I can't tell every wonderful thing that has happened today; I hear the voice of one of my writing mentors, Marilyn Yocum whose beginner's class I took in two different years at Write! Canada because I loved it and her so much. She is telling me, "No home movies."  So just two fun snippets!

The conference has workshops and a selection of continuing classes over two and a half days. The continuing class I am taking is: Finding Your Way Deeper into Writing; taught by Bill Fledderus, Adjunct Lecturer in English at Redeemer University College. I am loving it.

This bit of writing comes from a writing exercise in his class this afternoon when he was teaching us about creative non-fiction:

My 41 year old daughter Brenda, has been packing up to move into a new house and came upstairs from her apartment, holding a small doll, saying, “Look what I found Mom." 

The doll came without movable joints, and it squeaked when she squeezed it. I remember looking for a baby doll about 35 years ago and this one was the best I could find at the time. 

But it wasn't the doll that was so important to her, it was the clothes, made by my Dutch Oma for a doll of mine when I was a child; a crocheted lilac jacket closed with the tiniest mother-of-pearl buttons, and a white dress, also crocheted, the yarn of the garments matted through much washing. 

And she held a two piece cotton outfit made out of fabric cut from a childhood dress of mine. The short sleeved top closed with a snap of silver domes, hanging loosely from thread now, the neck trimmed with a band of deep pink. The skirt had box pleats, all stitched lovingly by those hands I remember being always busy with some task.  

The fabric, crisp cotton with bright pink roses, and green leaves on a white background, brought back more memories. The dress it was from, I treasured. I was about ten years old when I got it. In a world of plain school uniforms and hand-me-downs; a rare new garment, so pretty at that, made me feel like a princess! Shortly after I got mine, the girl next door got one almost the same; my first ever experience of imitation being the most sincere form of flattery.

It was just a fun memory to capture in a few minutes writing!

The other joy to share from this day, was during the celebration time at the end of the evening, when all the writers who had published something they were proud of this year, got to line up and go up on stage to share with the crowd.

The first wave of enthusiastic writers shared their accomplishments and then Denise, the managing director of The Word Guild said, "There have to be more!" and that prompted a second wave of the more introverted writers to line up. 

I waited a few moments, struggling with the urge to share, but held back by innate shyness. Then I thought that not to share would dishonour not just God's blessing on my writing, but also my co-author Dave, so I joined the line and shared my privilege of having written with Dave Hingsburger, and published in The Direct Support Professional's Newsletter; the article, "Faith, Fealty and Freedom.

Dave, if you are reading this, we were well applauded, and I felt proud and grateful for both of us!