Before the game today, I first wanted to give you a couple of previews. Next week, I'm going to be doing something a little different. I'll be writing on location, and you all can try to find where I am. A spooky little story jumped into my head about a month ago, and I'm going to have the perfect opportunity to explore it.
Secondly, look for an announcement soon for the next Clarity of Night short fiction contest. This one will be a bit different and promises to be B.I.G. It will open in the vicinity of mid-July.
Now, for the matter at hand. Let's talk about warm and memorable moments in your life. Times really stamped on your memory. Times of great pleasure with the course of your life.
Let's share three. Here are the first ones that come to me:
1. Going in person to Philadelphia City Hall to find out that I passed the bar exam (after I swore I would wait for the mail and not go in person). Walking down the hall and feeling elated at having passed, I thought about how 19 years of schooling had just ended. I wouldn't have to sit through classes and exams again.
2. Anytime we anchor our boat out in the water and just lounge and drift off to sleep. Somehow there is nothing like getting yourself onto a big piece of water on your own power to make you feel competent and the master of your own destiny.
3. Recently taking my 10-year-old to the driving range with her first golf clubs. For the first time I felt more comraderie in the relationship than parenting. I think the next couple of years are going to be really good.
Your turn in comments!
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20 comments:
When my stepbrother would come over every other weekend. Those memories in general are very good-I remember we finally had to get rid of the french fry maker, and he ALWAYS watched TV, and I'd be so upset when he had to go. Yeah, those are my memories. :)
3. there must be 3... surely? hmmmmmmm, nope, braindead..
i too, have troubles recalling three events, but here's one: the first time my son made a pancake all by himself, along from the beginning (get eight eggs and about four cups of of milk ...)
have an inspiring journey, i hope details will be spared somehow ;)
1. Watching a thunderstorm from the french doors of our den when I was about six. I felt so safe and cozy inside.
2. Twenty years of Christmas Eves all run together because each one was the same. My grandparents arrived about mid-afternoon, Candlelight Service at the church, home for dinner. West Indies Salad, standing rib roast, twice baked potatoes, and crusty rolls were followed by the first round of gifts and a cup of hot cider (spiked when we were older). There was always a book in that round of gifts so we went to bed with full bellies and a new book.
3. Smoking hand rolled cigars with my new husband on our honeymoon in Costa Rica. We went in the rainy season so we sat on a covered terrace and watched the torrential rain come down while we sipped Cafe Rica (their version of Kahlua) and puffed.
Too many...One is the sight of a small girl in red shorts running with a red kite aloft.
Sadly, this time I can't enter your wonderful contest.
Hmm.
Thanksgiving dinner at my Grandparent's house. Any year before my Grandma died.
That moment just after the kids have gone to bed and my wife and I just sit on the couch together and sigh.
The moment when I first get home from work and the 1 year old and 4 year old run over and greet me like I'm the champion of the world.
Yay! Bernita's out this round! My odds just went up!
Just had to chime in. After all, I'm all about warm and cozy. ;)
1. Laying on my mom's lap when I was a child and falling asleep while hearing her voice as it sounds when filtered through her chest. It was the safest, warmest feeling ever.
2. The first time I fell asleep in your (Jason's) arms. We were in my dorm room, leaning back against that big green pillow. It was the moment that cemented my certainty with our relationship, because it felt the same as #1. :)
3. I'll always remember the first moment I felt like a real, competent, bona fide therapist. Throughout my first year of practice I felt like a "new grad" most of the time. Still bumbling my way through therapy sessions and scrambling through my textbooks each night. So, I'll always remember that day I was walking down the hall in a nursing home in my lab coat, and the thought struck me: "I know what I'm doing. And I'm rather good at it!" Which was followed by one of those urges to leap and click my heels together and the thought, "if my friends could see me now..."
I feel like I'm on a roll and could write about 20 more. So I'll restrain myself and just add 1 more.
4. Feeling the soft cheek of each of our babies against my cheek. I remember how I melted inside.
1. Running along the beach at sunset in Oceanside, CA in bikini bottoms and a t-shirt when I was 20 years old. I felt like I could run forever, and maybe even take that golden path across the water to the glowing orb on the horizon. I distinctly remember thinking, "this is the most alive I have ever felt."
2. Once when I was overwhelmed and depressed and I sat down in the shower and started crying. My husband, fully clothed, climbed in with me and held me until I calmed down. I loved him so much in that moment. I felt so special and adored.
3. Being awarded fourth place in a writing contest the first time I ever dared venture share my writing with anyone else. Pure validation, and a turning point in my life and my own self-perception.
Just had to stop in! Have been so busy but something I was reading made me think of very short stories and then contests lol
1. Warm and memorable...so many. Have to sort of second you on your first one with the time I walked out of a faculty conference room, after defending my very controversial master's thesis, and knowing I kicked butt, big time. And I didn't even care what kind of grade I got or what they thought of me because I knew what I was talking about in those 186 pages lol (I got an A--which I didn't find out for a few days--yipee!). I cried. I was exhausted.
2. Meeting someone halfway between his country and mine, in Paris, and the week spent there. Long time ago, and things eventually didn't work out between us (even ended badly), but that was one helluva week ;)
3. When I played my guitar for the first time (and sang! *gulp*) at an open mike in college, and everyone clapped! First they clapped like crazy when I announced the song, and then clapped like mad when I was done--wow. That was like 200 people. At the very least, they were being nice. And that was plenty! :)
Fun to think on this stuff :)
Oddyoddyo13, awkward, then connecting, then not wanting to go your separate ways. I hear you.
Shadow, they must be in there. ;)
Szelsofa, that's a cool milestone when kids get the cooking bug.
Laurel, wow, that Christmas Eve sounds familiar. I really liked reading your moments.
Bernita, that's a bright image. And I know you'll be in the contest in spirit.
Strugglingwriter, that champion reception is cool. :)
Laurel, true.
Aine, yours are all so cool. I loved reading them. Very sweet. :) (And thanks!!!)
Hoodie, more than one of those went straight to the heart. I thank you.
Leah, that's so weird, I was just thinking about how I haven't seen you for a while! So cool for you to stop by. Thanks for playing along!
Looking forward to those posts.
Two of my memorable moments are:-
Going from college to visit my husband at his work place only to find he had got me a kitten. She was sitting on his desk, a ball of fluff, drinking milk from a saucer.
The day he sent me a rolo through the post from Germany (at the time there was an ad for the sweets asking 'who do you love enough to give them your last rolo'. Melted and just a brown stain on the envelope when I got it, it was still so romantic.
I love Phila City Hall: the world's largest, free-standing masonry building. No girders, just stone on stone...I believe it is also the largest example of French Renaissance too. Country people claimed that you could ride a wagon around Wm Penn's brim! Now he isn't the tallest as he was when I was a kid....been to LEVIS' for a hot dog lately?
Aloha from Hawaii
Comfort Spiral
LOL Jason! I must have picked up your brain waves. Plus it happened again today--just yesterday I mentioned someone I haven't seen in almost two years--and very unlikely to ever see him again--and I ran into him this afternoon lol
Must be that eclipse :)
Pancake breakfasts every Sunday morning. Kissing my sleeping children and getting to say I love you to a man you loves me back. These are the things my life is made of.
Moments within that have stamped on my memory was getting my first acceptance letter for a piece or writing. Stepping off the boat onto the sands of the Maldives. And holding each of my children after they were born. All amazing moments. there are plenty more.
I didn't realize you had a daughter. Golf sounds like great fun :)
Many of these remind me of my own moments... running on a beach, winning 5th place in my first short-story competition... but let's see if I can find 3 new ones:
-My friends singing Happy Birthday to me as I skied (sort of!) down the nursery slope at a resort in France.
-Meeting my friend at the airport on the other side of the world after 8 years of almost believing I would never get to see her again.
-A rare moment of true peace, sitting on the rocks at a pebble beach in Cyprus. I felt a calm I don't think I'd felt before and haven't encountered since.
This was fun.
I'm late to this party...
1) the first time my now-hubby ever hugged me. We weren't even dating yet...I was upset and flustered, and he enveloped me in a quiet, calm hug. I'm not a huggy person by nature so it was especially noteworthy that I felt completely comfortable in that moment.
2) holding my son in my arms seconds after he was born. With my husband by my side, the world was absolutely perfect right then.
3) completing my doctoral exams. The written exams were grueling and were capped off by oral exams. I was a nervous wreck. At the conclusion of the orals, the faculty committee tells you whether you passed...I couldn't believe my ears when they said I passed with flying colors.
Wow this was so much fun...
Darn! I had to be late to put pen to paper in this one...Anyhow, here are my 3:
1. I remember distinctly when me my twin sis, we used to walk up the way to school when we were kids with our dad carrying our bag-packs.The entire neighborhood (literally!) used to nail their eyes to their windowpanes and used to call out to each other "Hey! there they go again". They used to pity our dad I guess! But on the whole used to enjoy our parade. :-D
Oh! I so miss those days...*sigh*
2. When I got my first job in my hand. "Yayyyy!!! Now I'll show them." was the feeling and I had absolutely no one in my mind who the "them" were...
3. When all my friends landed on my doorstep at 12 in the night on my bday this year. All my roomies were involved in this plan and I had no clue that this was coming my way... Some of them stayed at each other's place for the night just to celebrate my bday...Others came directly form their office (at 12 in the night!)... They are all so lovely....
Absolutely overwhelming and touched something deep inside...
Cheers,
MD
To Everyone, I just wanted to let you know that I've been reading and very much enjoying your moments!
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