Tag: Discover Prompts

Day 10: Orchestrate

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Orchestrate: 1. To compose or arrange (music) for performance by an orchestra; 2. To arrange or manipulate, especially by means of clever or thorough planning or maneuvering: to orchestrate a profitable trade agreement.

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I can’t really say that I’ve orchestrated much of anything during the last few weeks. Every day is simply a new attempt to stave off insanity, and I’m not sure I’m really succeeding in that. I’ve gotten a fair amount accomplished since I’ve been home, but I think I’m still well on my way toward Crazy Town. But in the meantime, and in no particular order…

Day 9: Pair

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I have two pairs of kids. The first pair will soon be doing required distance learning. Navigating all of that is going to be…interesting. The second pair will soon be doing optional distance learning, which I suspect is going to be even more interesting. Between internet issues and computer availability issues, I suspect I’ll be ready to pull my hair out by the end of the month, which is when everyone is hoping they’ll be able to return to school.

I know we’re all in this together and that everyone is dealing with the same inconveniences, but I’m worried. I was not meant to be a teacher. How is this gonna work?

(c) 2020. All rights reserved.

Day 8: Curve

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I’ve been working on our annual family photo book the past couple of days. We had a couple rough days last March, and it reminded me of this rough day that Bubbles had about seven years back:

See, we’d been painting, and Bubbles inadvertently spilled the paint, resulting in this lovely curving line on my beautiful hardwood floor. Luckily, it cleaned up pretty easy.

I miss that house, though. It was beautiful.

(c) 2020. All rights reserved.

Day 7: Below

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Last March, I traveled to St. Louis to present a paper on John Milton. It was a lot of fun. But one of my favorite memories from the trip is the day my friend/co-pilot and I went sightseeing. Our hotel was a couple of blocks from the Gateway Arch, which I’d never seen in person, so we walked over to check it out.

Sadly, we did not get to go up inside it because all the tours were full.

But we did see the outside of it. We took a bunch of silly pictures, like you do when you get together with your oldest friends. And then, in the midst of our silliness, we changed our perspective. We lay down in the grass and looked up at the Arch.

It’s amazing how a simple change in perspective can change the way you see a thing. Whether it’s an iconic landmark, like the Gateway to the West, or just the unearthed roots of a tree that’s preparing to fall, changing one’s perspective, one’s relationship to the thing being viewed, can make a world of difference. The old is new again; the ordinary becomes something magical.

Kinda makes you think, doesn’t it?

(c) 2020. All rights reserved.

Day 6: Hands

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My hands are not adept at drawing or painting, although I wish they were. My hands are fairly adept at writing, though, or at least they were. I find that lately, I’ve been doing less writing. I don’t mean to imply that I haven’t been writing poems and stories (although I haven’t actually been writing much fiction), because I have, but I’ve been doing a lot more typing than normal lately and a lot less actual picking-up-a-pencil-and-writing-something-down.

I take a lot of pride in my handwriting. It’s small and neat, and my cursive is pretty. I get a lot of complaints from my husband that it’s too small to read, but that’s a matter of opinion. 😉😄

I have the time for writing at the moment, though, so I really should be doing more of it. But there are so many other projects that need attention…If I could afford to retire tomorrow, I would definitely not be bored. I have more than enough projects and story ideas to keep me busy for a very long time. But retirement is a dream, and a far, far away one at that (especially with the market in the shape that it’s in – I just got my quarterly IRA statement and I’ve put off opening it for a week because I don’t think I can handle that much negativity).

Besides, right now my hands are needed for cooking and playing games with the kids and so many other things. Writing will still be there when they’re all grown. Writing will always be there.

(c) 2020. All rights reserved.

Day 5: Dish

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I find myself returning to comfort food lately. So far, I’ve fixed French onion soup, chicken and rice, and tuna casserole, and chili and cornbread. Seymour fixed goulash a while back, as well as his favorite dish of chicken, noodles, and potatoes. Friday’s menu will involve tuna apple salad, because it’s Friday and also because the boys have been asking for it a lot lately (and it has been a while since I’ve made it).

If you’re like me the first time I heard of this dish, you’re probably making a skeptical face. That or you’re actively saying, “Eww, gross!” And believe me, I get it. It sounds like it should taste horrible.

But it doesn’t.

If you’re looking to try something new, then keep reading!

Day 4: Street

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Come September, this picture will be three years old:

We have a different driveway now, and the kids no longer ride the bus together. Two kids now go to school in one district and two kids go to school in another district, or at least they did up until last month. But we still have two black cats, and one is rather fluffy, so there’s that.

I wonder what things will be like come September. Will the kids be back in school? What will school look like for them? What will the world look like?

(c) 2020. All rights reserved.

Day 3: Song

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I’ve lost count of the number of emails I’ve had from my church today regarding Palm Sunday and Holy Week. When you’re stuck at home, regardless of why, the days tend to run into each other like paint, the colors bleeding and swirling together till you can’t tell one from another and it’s all a big mess. I had forgotten that Palm Sunday was this weekend till I received an email from my church about deliveries of blessed palms.

One of the things that I love most about the Easter season (and the Christmas season, of course) is the music. So as I sat here pondering today’s prompt and the flood of emails that arrived in my inbox this morning, I couldn’t help thinking about some of the hymns we sang in church growing up. Lenten music isn’t exactly upbeat, nor should it be. Lent is a time of penance and self-denial in preparation for the celebration of Easter. But Easter music is triumphant, and there is no better word to describe the songs that popped into my head today as I considered this prompt.

“I Serve a Risen Savior” has a lovely, bouncy rhythm that just makes you feel good as you listen. It’s a song of hope, and I feel like hope is something we all desperately need right now. The other song I thought of was “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today,” which is equally triumphant. If you’ve ever heard the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing this particular hymn, you’ll know what I mean. It’s big, it’s bold, it’s regal…it’s a fanfare fit for a king. In a similar vein, I also found myself humming “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee” because no one tugs at emotions in quite the same way as Beethoven. Whether he wanted his listeners to feel soaring joy or abject sorrow, he was a master at using music to evoke those feelings.

And now that I’ve thumbed through half a hymnal, I think I’ll dust off my trusty flute and play a few tunes. What are some of your favorite songs and why?

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Day 2: Open

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They say that love is an open door, but it’s not right now. Right now, love is a closed door. Right now, love means having to say you’re sorry, but you’ll have to cancel that birthday party, that game night, that concert. Fish fries, first communion, Easter, confirmation, prom, graduation. All the things that people so look forward to in the springtime—gone.

Right now, love is an open heart. An open mind. Right now, love means doing your best to stay healthy when so many others are ill. But right now, sometimes, health is hard to come by.

When I had Bubbles, I wanted nothing more than…

Day 1: Joke

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I like bad jokes and I cannot lie. But for some reason, I’m having trouble coming up with any jokes to share today, good, bad, or otherwise. Maybe it’s because I had the stomach flu yesterday and am still not quite myself yet. Maybe it’s because I’ve spent the better part of the last 36-ish hours trying to make up for all the sleep I didn’t get Monday night because I was too busy trying to talk my stomach into a better mood. Or maybe it’s because life right now feels like the worst possible kind of joke.

I think I’m gonna go with that last one.

While it is nice to be able to spend more time at home with my kids, I still miss getting out of the house. I’m fortunate to live in a rural area, so if I want to go for a walk, I have plenty of space in which to do so without having to worry about running into anyone else. I’m fortunate that no one in my family has been afflicted with COVID-19. I’m fortunate for a lot of reasons.

I am not, however, fortunate enough to be a good teacher, and that bothers me now more than ever. Trying to work from home and keep my kids up-to-date with schoolwork is a Herculean task, and schoolwork has largely fallen by the wayside. I worry that when school eventually resumes, they’ll be behind on things.

All I can really do is hope that when we all come out on the other side of this, that we won’t be much worse for wear. And in the meantime, at least I have plenty of poems to write (it’s NaPoWriMo!) and we have plenty of Star Trek to watch.

How are you staying sane during this period of isolation?

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