what i imagine it looks like inside of our heads –
along with
the scientific explanation for how this all works.
—
“it usually helps me write by reading – somehow the reading gear in your head turns the writing gear.”
-steven wright
—
image credit: milton bradley game company
“drawing on my fine command of the English language, i said nothing.”
-robert benchley
—
book source credit: Disaster Inc. by Caimh McDonnell
“Thank you for being so passionate and proactive about your community!” the response letter states. “When you’re old enough, you should consider working for the city to continue making it a great place to live. Sincerely, City Sidewalk Repair Program.”
Dahlia, the daughter of Kelly and Matt, said in her note to the ‘Sidewalk People” last week that she was devastated when she saw the slab was marked for replacement.
“You see, the heart is not just a heart,” she wrote. “Ever since I was little, I said hi to the heart. Don’t you see how much it means to me? Every time I pass the heart, I say hi and it brings me joy.”
Anyone else who wants to say hi to the heart now can find it along the east side of Seventh Street across from Waterworks Park between Murray Court and Washington Street.
—
“kind words do not cost much, yet they accomplish much.”
-blaise pascal
—
source credit: ryan stanton, mlive, ann arbor news
“Dear Sidewalk People.”
That’s how 9-year-old Dahlia started her handwritten note placed under a rock along a city sidewalk hoping to get the attention of Ann Arbor’s crews slated to replace the slab she holds dear due to a distinctive feature.
This sidewalk has a heart.
“There is a heart in this block, and as me and my mom were walking home from school, we saw that there was an ‘R’ on the block that the heart is on,” reads the girl’s note, placed next to where she made a heart-shaped chalk outline around a small cavity in the slab the city has marked with an R to replace.
“You see, the heart is not just a heart,” wrote Dahlia, “Ever since I was little, I said hi to the heart. Don’t you see how much it means to me? Every time I pass the heart, I say hi and it brings me joy.”
Her father confirmed his daughter indeed says “hi, heart” every time she passes it. When she heard the city was going to replace the slab with the heart, Dahlia said she was devastated and cried.
“So can you please leave it or at least cut around the heart, for me to pick up on my way to school,” she wrote, ending her note by thanking the city’s repair crews for their work to keep sidewalks safe and encouraging them to give her note an extra read so it makes sense.
A spokesperson for the city’s public services unit did not have an immediate response on whether the sidewalk slab could be saved or whether the heart-shaped part could be salvaged for Dahlia to take.
While Dahlia really wanted to keep the heart sidewalk, her father said the family understands the need to fix it so people don’t trip and has talked with her about it.
“We compared it to the Halloween pumpkin she really loved and wanted to keep,” he said. “We told her we could keep it, but we could watch how when a pumpkin dies it helps nature by becoming part of something new.”
In that case, they put the pumpkin in their garden and Dahlia visited it every day and watched it decay, and in the spring she watched as flowers sprung up. She got to see her pumpkin again in the form of flowers.
As for her well-crafted sidewalk note, her father said while only 9, Dahlia is an amazing writer and gives him and his wife daily gems of wisdom worthy of the wisest, aged writers.
“sometimes the people who walk softly make the deepest impressions…”
-nitya prakash
—
source credit: ryan stanton, mlive, ann arbor
“this says – i love my whole family.”
—
“writing isn’t letters on paper. it’s communication. it’s memory.”
-isaac marion
“i love handwritten letters. the way the words get jumbled up when the writer’s excited.
the way the words get neat when the writer is trying not to make a mistake.
the way the words get pretty because the writer’s in love.
i love handwritten letters.”
-word porn
—
January 17th is National Send a Handwritten Letter Day.
The idea is to save the dying art of letter writing and help the ailing Post Office
by sending a letter(s) to someone you care about.
Who will you surprise with a letter? Saving the world one letter at a time.
just a subtle reminder that
olive the cat not the martini garnish/editor at large/bon vivant
is always watching
ready to offer ‘worldly suggestions’ to improve my writing.
—
“you can observe a lot just by watching.”
-yogi berra
what a wonderful 90 minutes
spent (online) with one of my all-time favorite authors
*fredrik backman.
public libraries in 37 states hosted this live chat with fredrik
as he continued on a worldwide book tour
for his latest work, ‘the winners.’
he spoke openly about his struggles with anxiety
being on the autism spectrum
the pressures of a success which he never expected
his wife as his partner and support in all things
her important roles
organizing his promotional side of being an author
helping him to stay grounded
encouraging him taking as many breaks as needed.
i first became acquainted with his writing with the arrival of his book (and later, film),
‘a man called ove’
and there was no going back.
when he was asked about his writing process in today’s chat,
i found that we have a somewhat similar process.
his reply:
“my process is just chaos. all of these ideas are just in my head, like horses in a burning barn, trying to get out. my brain is always working, hearing a bit of conversation, crossing paths with a stranger, a place i happen into, anything is fair game, and i think, i would love to include those words or that person in my writing. i am always observing, listening, taking it all in, my brain never stops. i have to write an idea down on whatever i can find, an envelope, a scrap of paper, a receipt….then 3 weeks later i’ll make my family insane by asking, “where is that envelope i wrote my idea on a few weeks ago?” i have to scour our whole apartment looking for it and make everyone crazy. i suppose that is my process.”
amazing.
“words are not small things.”
-fredrik backman, beartown
—
*Fredrik Backman is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, Britt-Marie Was Here, Beartown, Us Against You, and Anxious People, as well as two novellas and one work of nonfiction. His books are published in more than forty countries. He lives in Stockholm, Sweden, with his wife and two children. Connect with him on Facebook and Twitter @BackmanLand or on Instagram @BackmanSK.
with my tiny home
loaded up
with bushels of nuts and piles of books
ready for the coming season
you’ll often find me sitting
in the quiet of the early morning
with a steaming cup of coffee
tapping away at my blog
telling the day’s story
reading others’ stories
smiling by the light of the screen.
—
“i blog because i’m not a good rapper.”
-gerry l’crow
memoirists, novelists, songwriters, television writers, screenwriters, comedy writers, social media writers, cookbook authors, newspaper writers, bloggers, it writers, comicstrip writers, standup comedians, human interest writers, 92 year old and 17 year old writers, actors, playwrights, short story writers, cartoonists…
so much creative energy all in one place
learning, listening, talking, writing, improv, playing, crying, laughing my face off with stomach hurting fun.
not your usual conference
not your usual hotel drawer reading material
—
“you can’t deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants.”
-stephen king
I didn't have my glasses on.... 