Resolve to treasure every moment
December brought trauma to many people in our lives: a 57-year-old member of Fred's aquarium crew died; two church members lost parents right around Christmas; our director's husband had open heart surgery and nearly died from complications; the daughter of another choir member slipped on the ice and broke her ankle in three places; another singer slipped and fell flat on her face, getting two black eyes, a sore nose and broken glasses; my Great-Aunt Edna's sister Virginia fell on some steps and broke her neck. All are healing, but you never know what will happen next. Yesterday, a woman left church in an ambulance, suffering a suspected stroke.
That's just people I know. As I write this, we still have two more days of December left.
I'm not trying to bum you out. Stuff happens. As my 86-year-old father says, everything can change in a second. So the moral is to live every moment as if that's all we have.
Another church friend, Catherine, has pancreatic cancer. She is one of the busiest people I know. Although she has her times of sickness and weariness, she says she is determined to do at least one special thing every day. She dances, she sings, she plays the organ, and she socializes a lot. She's not about to waste time feeling sorry for herself. She's too busy taking hula lessons.
Aunt Edna turned 100 on Dec. 28. Although her mind shifts in and out and she can barely walk, she was delighted to be the center of attention at a big party in her honor. Things were iffy for a while, but she made it, the first centenarian in our family.
In yoga, we are taught to be present in the moment, to let regrets from the past and worries about the future drift through our minds without holding onto them. We note them and let them go. We observe our breathing, hear our heartbeats, feel the ground beneath us and the air around us. We become quiet and fully alive.
As we greet this new year, try to live in the moment. We don't all have to take yoga to do that. Yes, we have health problems, grieve over lost loved ones, worry about the economy and our jobs, fear the changes coming with global warming, and fear even more for those fighting wars in Iraq and elsewhere. We need to do the best we can with these things, but don't let them cause you to miss the simple pleasures happening right now. Stop and look at the sky. I see patches of blue and sun behind the clouds. It's beautiful. Even the rain and snow are amazing, although inconvenient. Taste each bite of your food. Savor the touch of a loved one. Enjoy the work that you do. Be here now. You have nowhere else to be. Deal with what comes when it comes.
I wish everyone a healthy and peaceful new year and thank you for reading my newsletter as we go into our sixth year.
The Adventures of Chico and Annie
We were watching a movie on TV one night and realized the dogs had been unusually quiet. Sleeping, we assumed. We decided to let them in to snuggle a while. But they weren't in their room. They came from outside, and they were covered with mud. In fact, our blonde dog was nearly brunette. I went out back and discovered Annie had pulled a three-foot section of lattice off the bottom of the deck and slithered underneath. If I didn't fix it right away, she would go back under. So there I was in my bathrobe pounding nails at 10 o'clock at night. I had no choice. This is the dog that can carry huge rounds of wood in her teeth and apparently can pull out screws that took an electric screwdriver to insert.
We recently requested a visit from Sue Giles Green, the local Supernanny of dog trainers. The dogs were jumping on the counters, on the table, and on us incessantly, leaving mud smears everywhere. I even caught Chico on top of the table a couple times. It was driving us crazy. In 20 minutes, Sue solved the problem with the aluminum can trick. You put 10 pennies in a soft drink can, seal it with duct tape, and when they're jumping, you shake it hard and yell "Off!" The first time she shook the can, she scared Chico so bad he skidded underneath the table that holds the toaster oven. Both dogs stopped what they were doing, and they still do whenever we rattle a can. The idea is to have cans everywhere and teach our guests to use them so they will not jump. Eventually we can just touch the can and they'll stop. Later we shouldn't need the cans at all. To our amazement, it's working.
When the dog trainer came, the dogs were both at the sliding glass door. They started jumping straight up in the air, as if they were on a trampoline. Chico went up at least six feet and Annie almost as high. We weren't supposed to be laughing but couldn't help ourselves.
"You want that to stop?" Sue asked. We gazed at the mud-smeared glass. Yes, please. So she shook a can. The jumping stopped and has never resumed. Wow.
And then the snow came. Unlike Portland, we got away with just four days of snow sticking on the ground, turning to ice every night. The dogs loved it. They liked the way it crunched and enjoyed sliding around. They ran and romped and churned up the snow till it looked like cream whipped with a beater. Barefoot in 25-degree weather, they didn't mind. Me, I shoveled ice and was glad to see the grass reappear.
Now they're sleeping together in front of the pellet stove, a tangle of long legs and noses. They don't look as if they would hurt a thing, but the trainer said It's going to be at least another year before Chico and Annie stop chewing everything up. Lord have mercy. At least I'm learning not to be too terribly attached to material things. Here's the damage tally for December:
2 chair cushions
1 blanket
1 Styrofoam faucet protector
1 thermometer
3 cloth napkins
More towels than I can count
Recipes for Shepherd's pie and
impossible bacon pie
2 heavy-duty red dog collars
Plus something yellow that I can't
identify
Work?
Looking back at 2008, I have spent most of my time and made most of my money selling books and giving workshops related to those books. At Christmas dinner, a woman behind me introduced me to her friends as "the author." That feels good. But of course, one must keep producing, so I'm determined to finish that book about childlessness this year.
Meanwhile, you can find Freelancing for Newspapers at your local bookstores, along with A Cup of Comfort for Families Touched by Alzheimer's and Humor for a Boomer's Heart, which include essays of mine. You can buy Azorean Dreams and Stories Grandma Never Told at bookstores or contact me directly. I'm almost out of copies of "Grandma", which means I'll be initiating another printing this month. Meanwhile, I have a "scratch and dent" sale going on. A few copies have flaws in their binding. I'm offering those for $10, including shipping. The usual total price is $20.95, so that's quite a deal. E-mail me if you're interested.
My other publications?
It was the holidays, folks. I've had no new publications lately, but some exciting news is coming up. Meanwhile, I put together a poetry chapbook called "The Dog Ate It" which I entered into Robert Lee Brewer's Poetic Asides chapbook competition after completing the Poem a Day challenge in November.
In addition to working on my book, writing poetry and making lots of journal entries, I have kept up my three blogs, Freelancing for Newspapers, Childless by Marriage and Unleashed in Oregon. I'm having a lot of fun with "Unleashed." Recent topics include: Christmas at Georgie's, The Heart of South Beach, Snow's Not So Bad If You Think Like a Kid, Singing to the Salami, and Hot Yoga. Click on the "Unleashed Blog" button at left above to read these postings.
Upcoming
I'm getting ready to teach at the Catholic Writers Conference Online. You don't have to be Catholic to participate in this great conference, which is free. That's right, free, although donations are appreciated. I'll be teaching "Everything But Writing," all those things a writer needs to know that aren't just putting words together.
Oregon Coast writers' events
The coast chapter of Willamette Writers offers not one but two events in January. Local writing phenom Matt Love will lead a workshop on Jan. 6 to produce 200-word stories for the Oregon 150 Stories collection. Matt, writer, teacher, publisher, recently published Citadel of the Spirit, an anthology for Oregon's Sesquicentennial (150th anniversary of statehood). He writes a wonderful blog on MySpace.
We'll honor the birthday of Oregon poet William Stafford on Jan. 20 with our second annual Stafford reading. Bring your favorite Stafford poem to share. Both meetings take place at the Newport Public Library. The doors open at 6:30 p.m., with the program starting at 7 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, e-mail Dorothy Mack at dmack@centurytel.net or me at suelick@charter.net.
Meanwhile, Writers on the Edge starts the 2009 Nye Beach Writers Series with poets Carlos Reyes and Travis Champ on Jan. 16 at 7 p.m. at the Newport Visual Arts Center. Admission is $5.
Book Report
The Last Page by Bob Fenster, Perseverance Press, 1989. Ah, a mind-relaxing who-done-it. In this case, somebody's killing book editors, leaving each with a rejection slip that says, "Your life does not meet our current needs." Rogue cop Brian Skiles hooks up with editor Anne Baker, who is the most likely next victim. Fenster gives us numerous possible killers who are determined to get their awful books published. Meanwhile, Skiles has a crazy ex-wife, and he's on the outs with his boss, and of course romantic tension develops between him and Anne. I can hear Fenster chuckling as he writes in so many of the old clichés, including what happens on the last page. Fun stuff.
Get Known Before the Book Deal by Christina Katz, Writer's Digest Books, 2008. These days if you want an agent or book publisher to buy your book, you've got to have a platform. What's that? It's an established presence in the world that makes people know who you are and creates a readymade audience for your book. Katz, self-promoter extraordinaire, tells us step by step how to create our own platforms. Chapters include Internet promotion, public speaking, giving classes, publishing articles, and lots more. She includes exercises and links, with the assurance that if we follow the steps in the book, we will have a platform on which to build our writing careers. This book offers much useful information, presented in a friendly, optimistic style.
What, No Baby? Why Women are losing the freedom to mother and how they can get it back by Leslie Cannold, Curtain University Books, 2005. Australian author Cannold looks at the issue of "circumstantial childlessness" in Australia and the United States, focusing on societal causes, the family-work conflict, and the difficulty in finding men who are willing to father. This is a good book. Although perhaps the author repeats herself a bit too much, she has thoroughly researched her topic and writes in an easy-reading style, despite the many footnotes. Her main thesis is that the way our societies currently operate makes it difficult for both men and women to consider parenting during the years when a woman is most fertile. Women who are childless by circumstance are NOT childless by choice, she emphasizes. Changes need to be made in order for motherhood to be as available and respected a choice as choosing not to mother. This book takes a while to read, but it's worth it. It opens up a whole new perspective and makes the reader think hard about why we want to be mothers, or why we don't.
Training Secrets for Bully Breeds—This is a magazine-type publication that contains so much information about the different types of bulldogs. You'll find articles by experts on everything from basic training to competitive sports that Bully breeds love. It's a real eye-opener for me. Our beloved Chico and Annie are half lab, but they're also half Staffordshire Bull Terrier. They are not Pit Bulls, but they have some common traits. It's important to note that they are not naturally mean; people train them to be that way. They are, however, agile and energetic, and as we have seen, they sure can chew things up. So if you have any kind of Bulldog or Bull Terrier, go get this publication from your pet store. It's worth the $9.99. And if my dogs forget that they're not supposed to jump and leap at you, know that they're not out to kill; they just want to give you a big long-tongued kiss.
***
That's it for now. Our prayers and love to all those who are having a hard time. The hours of daylight are getting longer. Enjoy them, and after the sun sets, enjoy the stars.
Hugs,
Sue
All contents copyright 2008, Sue Fagalde Lick, except mug shot courtesy Teresa Grady
If you would like me to send you a link to this newsletter every month, e-mail me at suelick@charter.net. Feel free to forward the newsletter to friends who might be interested. Also contact me if you want me to stop sending the link.
Newsletter archives
Note: I have taken the 2003-2005 newsletters offline, but if you see something interesting in the list, I will provide free PDF copies on request.
