This Mama Writes | Adventures in Life & Motherhood

Rebecca Wednesday 23 June 2010 No responses

Morning Pages: An Update

I'm halfway through my 3-week goal of writing Morning Pages 5 days a week, and I wanted to share my progress. I've done it! I've done my 10 minutes of "brain drain" writing 8 days. It hasn't always been in the morning, and I'm okay with that. Doing morning pages sometime during the day is a habit/practice that reminds me that I'm a writer. It's especially important on the days when that's the only writing I do, and my little guy is clinging to my leg all day.I'm a fan of achievable goals, and 5 days a week for 3 weeks feels very achievable. There's room for flexibility there, for a day when I just don't get to it or I forget or it gets overshadowed. Achievable goals help keep the perfectionist in me from getting too obsessive over something. Deciding I will do something everyday never works for me; I end up falling off the wagon and then feeling too bad about myself to get back on in a timely manner.I'm curious to see, at the end of this short experiment, if I feel like it's benefitted ... more

Rebecca - Tuesday 15 June 2010 - 4 responses

a goal

Yesterday I spent a lot of time thinking and writing about what kinds of habits or practices I could put in place that will support my vision of myself as a writer. Immediately I thought of Morning Pages, a classic tool for artists of all stripes from Julia Cameron of The Artist's Way. I last did Morning Pages regularly many years ago, when I was living in San Francisco and trying to decide if I wanted to go to a M.F.A. program for creative writing. As soon as ... more

Rebecca - Monday 14 June 2010 - One response

emerging

"The deepest secret is that life is not a process of discovery,but a process of creation. You are not discovering yourself but creating yourself anew. Seek, therefore, not to find out who you are,seek to determine what you want to be”– Neale Donald WalschI'm thinking a lot lately about the idea that I am creating my own life everyday, with every choice I make. This way of looking at things doesn't come that naturally to me. I feel like so much of my life since becoming a mother is ... more

Rebecca - Thursday 13 May 2010 - No responses

Milestones

A long-overdue update...* I made it to the second trimester! I am now in my 17th week, which seems kind of amazing. A few weeks ago, the nausea improved about 10%, and now I think I've made another 10% jump. It's definitely not where I hoped I'd be by this time, but it is nice to feel some improvement. * With a corresponding slight improvement in my energy, I suddenly notice how disorganized and chaotic my life and house are. However, I'm still pretty worn-out, recovering from various colds and ... more

Rebecca - Tuesday 23 February 2010 - No responses

Year Of Courage

On my birthday, a few days after the New Year, we went out for dinner with my parents, sister, and brother-in-law. Everyone at the table made a toast at some point in the evening. Mine was To a year of Courage. Courage: mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear or difficulty (Merriam-Webster). Courage means being in action in the face of fear. If you experience no fear, you summon no courage. I think it's interesting that a word we associate with physicality (the image of a knight, ... more

Rebecca - Thursday 10 December 2009 - No responses

A Beautiful Post

I swear that this blog is not becoming all-miscarriage-all-the-time. That would be way too depressing for me and for you. But I really wanted to share a post I found on one of the blogs I read regularly. She has an essay out in The Sun about her experience. I've only read the teaser they give you on The Sun's website, but I will be buying the magazine to read the rest.And no, referencing this blog post doesn't mean that Mikhail and I are deciding that Elan is our one ... more

Rebecca - Tuesday 8 December 2009 - One response

After Yet Another Rejection Letter

Sometimes I ask myself why I write. Writing is the work I do during my precious hours not being 100% Mama, sandwiched between getting some exercise and doing tasks that cannot possibly be done with an energetic 3-year-old in tow, like visiting the dentist. Paying for twelve hours of childcare a week so that I can write (and do other sanity-preserving activities) is a huge investment for a family with very little extra money in the budget. Sometimes it feels like such an extravagance. I should use this time for ... more

Rebecca - Wednesday 2 December 2009 - 4 responses

In December

It is December now, and I notice that for the past several months I have maintained silence here on my blog about how I have continued to deal with the miscarriage that rocked my world this year. Why is that? Shortly after the miscarriage, I wrote a series of emotionally raw and revealing posts. I did that consciously, because for me, writing is a form of therapy. Writing helps me to process my emotions, to understand my reactions, and to move through difficult or stuck places. I could have written ... more

Rebecca - Tuesday 28 July 2009 - One response

From The Thick Of It

What, you think a writer's blog should include WORDS? Picky, picky.I haven't been writing publicly much because what to say? The question I've mostly had from friends and family members is How are you doing? And the answer is it's complicated.Elan has a book that I love reading him called My Many-Colored Days. It's all about moods, very appropriate for a toddler. Some days we feel "happy pink. It's great to jump and just not think." But then there are the brown days, the purple days, and, of course, the ... more

Rebecca - Thursday 19 March 2009 - No responses

Grounding

I wish I was one of those people who was built like a sturdy old oak tree, emotionally speaking. The one who weathers every storm upright, whose branches barely even move in the strongest of winds. But I'm built more like a bamboo stalk. The slightest breeze rustles my leaves, and in a storm, I bend and shake and shiver and generally make a big ruckus. This is to say that I am a pretty emotional person, and probably have become even more so since becoming a mother. Call it ... more

Rebecca - Tuesday 3 March 2009 - No responses

Anniversary

At this time of year, I always buy white ranunculus in memory of my niece. It's hard to believe it's been five years.It has snowed in Georgia over the last few days, which makes all of us feel her presence even more: Stella Snow-Clare Mann.To read a piece I wrote about Stella published on Literary Mama, click here.To see my sister's website with photos of the southern snow, click here.

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