Little Elbows That Go Bump In The Night

Literally months have passed (yet again) since I last managed to write. 2012 seems determined to keep me on a delinguistification diet, leaving me aching with nerdy hunger for words, sentences, commas and question marks. I've gone so far as hunting for a torch to take with me to bed so I could sneak in a few seductive pages from my much-thumbed, underlined thesaurus under my duvet. Like a teenage boy with his first, um... magazine, I suppose.
There've been many moments when I try and reschedule my life around writing and creating in my studio, but which always seem to come to a very frustrated naught. Option 1: Stay up after the Wild Little Night Owl has gone to bed and write the night away? Has it happened even once? 'Nope,' she admits, sheepishly and slightly a-blush. And why not, Lisa? 'Because I'm so exhausted that I fall asleep 5 - 8 sentences into Layla's bedtime story so that she elbows me awake with a bossiness as sharp as her elbows, 'Now tell the story, Mommy. Now!'
My Write More Plan's second option has also proved exquisitely unattainable: 'Get up at 5am to write before Layla wakes up.' But.................... 99% of words elude me at 5am, you see. Except the following words:
1. coffee
2. warm
3. coffee
4. snuggle
5. coffee.
Oh yes ---- and, there is a semi-sentence I am capable of thinking/uttering at 5am: 'kill gun shoot &*%^%$# hadedas!!!!!!'

And so, I have resorted to abusing Pixar as the ultimate in babysitting. Thanks to 'Madagascar', 'Megamind' and 'Monsters Inc' I am now able to steal back little pockets of time to fill with luxurious Belgian chocolate cookie-words... Let's see if tomorrow will yield another pocket to fill. (*wink*)
PS. The pic is of my sister, Julie, and I at an amazingly inspiring fundraising event we attended a few weeks ago which I will be writing about um, ... tomorrow?

Trumpets & Snowballs

{ Blogging on the run.} Cafe: 'The Vineyard Deli' in Kenridge just a stone's throw from Layla's lovely little playschool. Blackest, luxuriously bitter Lavazza, and a new novel: 'The Enchantress of Florence' by Salman Rushdie. (I'm ashamed to admit this, but I'm a Rushdie-virgin... And reading is SUCH a rare treat for me, so I may as well read something rich in poetry and makes-one-think beauty.) However, getting time to write is just as rare a jewel, so I've split my little hour of solitude into 2 half-hour pockets. Reading? Tick. Writing? In progress.

This morning, I hurried off to Tygerberg Hospital's Dental Clinic --- in particular, the paediatric ward. With a boot full of toys and books Layla's outgrown, I felt elationjoygratitudewonder. And perhaps a small pat on my back from myself. It's unavoidable, I suppose, that giving to others will make one feel good about oneself. But still, feeling good about it made me feel a twinge of embarrassment. The Bible's instructions surrounding giving to others says we should keep it from others. That no trumpets be blown. (Guess I've gone and blown that commandment *no pun intended*!!) But still, I feel that just SOMETIMES, hearing about how the compassionate service and generous giving of others changes the lives of the broken, helpless and hopeless, is important. In fact, I'll go so far as to say it is critically important. Loving goodness is humanity's core function. Society only BENEFITS from loving goodness --- that is: courage, joy, pursuing peace, compassion, active kindness, empathy, humility and honesty. Gratitude for what one has, and lovingly generous 'giving' to others generates more gratitude and more generosity. A reverse snow-ball effect, if you will. (The flip-side of this is that dishonesty, greed and self-pity generates snowballs too...) But still, for what it's worth: when you see or hear about the love of others in action, jump in and get giving! Phone that person or organisation to see how you can get involved, be it money (R10 or zillions, time: an hour a month or more if you can, recycling clothes/toys/books...) Perhaps we can't save the world all on our ownsome, but we can change just one life -- if only for a moment. (*wink* Whatcha waitin' for?)
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