The First Snow 2007

I love the first snow fall! It is full of anticipation....it is something new and different that hasn't been part of my life since the previous spring when spring was teasing my senses. As a kid the first snowfall meant the hope of school being cancelled due to snow. It meant hours upon hours each night sliding down a hill in the back yard and coming inside to hot chocolate before crawling into a warm bed. It meant approaching holidays. As I grow older the first snow fall holds so many of the same anticipations. As the wet, big flakes mixed with rain eventually covering the grassy areas; I found myself looking forward to more and more accumulation leading to wonderful hours cross country skiing in the nearby woods. I continued to push away to dread of driving through snowy, slippery conditions and instead pictures trees blanketed with snow along the branches. While this snow melted away in hours, the anticipation lingers. It will snow again.

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to pause and reflect about what is good in life. Thanksgiving this year included the traditional food, friends, family, football and shopping. But beyond these routine events is the opportunity to reflect on the things in life that one is thankful for. Sometimes this is more difficult than at other times. When life is good I often find myself being more thankful more often. However, when life is challenging and difficult I find I have to be even more conscious of being thankful. This year I'm in the later space. After three wonderful days spend with friends, laughing at life, remensing about our adventures, and plan for future ones; it is easier to say that I'm thankful for the special people with whom I share my life.

Whose Written Word Anyway

Recently a friend and I exchanged pieces of written work. I read her poem and she read my editorial on leadership. This is where I "struggle" as a writer, so is my writing for me? for others? If for me how can or should it be critiqued by others? If it is for others shouldn't I want their critique? To share it or not to share it????

Words are so personal - there is so much more there behind what the words say. For example, there is so much of me as a person reflected in those words. But words are "labels" and don't work for me because I'm not just a singular idea or concept. Isn't that true of the words too? Isn't there so much more behind the word? I can write the words and then there is so much more behind them for me and also there is so much more behind them for the readers.....so where is meaning? whose meaning? the RIGHT meaning? is there such a thing as the RIGHT meaning?

I felt this so deeply in college. In one class I had to "interpret" poems. I would write up my analysis only to be told how wrong it was. But wasn't it my interpretation? Can an interpretation be wrong? Wasn't it my prior knowledge and experience that enlightened my meaning reflected in my analysis?

So why share your writing with others? Doesn't your writing have a life of its own once it is shared? But what is that is not the life you wanted your work to have?