Hey, do you remember in elementary school when there would be paper drives? You’d go around to your neighbors’ houses, maybe with your little brother’s red wagon, to collect all the newspapers they had.
Well, I was thinking we’d have a comment drive. To collect all the comments that must be floating around out there, piling up in the rooms of your mind, in the basements and closets. Let’s clear them out and get a conversation going… about all the books we’re reading and lives we’re living and the writing we want to do and the way we have to light a candle before we can get any real work done…
–Great idea!
–I didn’t like that book.
–Hey!
–Wonder if I can find a red wagon.
–Anybody out there agree with me that she’s wrong about that?
–Just taking a look.
You can use only your first name. You can make up a name. You can use all your names, like me. You can think of it as a place to practice your tweets!
I also remember that the class that had the most papers won a prize. Was it an ice cream party? Maybe we should have a prize. Or more than one prize. Or a prize on the first of each month.
For the most comments for the month. And commenting on older posts will count too. Cool.
And the prize…. How about a subscription to my favorite literary journal—One Story. We’ll be supporting literary journals. Win, win, win.
So thanks for stopping in and let’s start clearing out our brains and collecting those comments.
So that’s why I never get anything done: I’ve been forgetting to light my candle. Will start immediately. Expect great results. I’ll need that red wagon for all my accomplishments.
Hey, Blanche-
Thanks for commenting. Let us know how the candle works for you!
–cynthia
What IS with the candle, anyway?
It is SO true!
Now that we have more daylight here in the PNW, I’m not lighting the candles on my desk anymore–direct correlation with not much new on the page. The candles are definitely coming back!
Yay! Since the candles are getting so much press, my favorite ones are the tins made in your backyard–at the Big Dipper Wax Works in Seattle. Check them out at http://www.bigdipperwaxworks.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=58. I especially love Enlightenment and Clarity–for the obvious reasons.
I don’t need a candle but I really have no idea how Toni Morrison did it with a toddler around. Some weekends I can’t even find time to shower.
Well, thanks for taking the time to read the blog and make a post.
BTW, I remember putting the toddler with me in the shower!
Oh, a candle! Is that my problem?
Hey Katherine-
Well, it won’t hurt to try one! I highly recommend the Big Dipper Wax Works right there in Seattle. (http://www.bigdipperwaxworks.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=58.) You can get a set of 9 tins: enlightenment, clarity, meditation, rejuvenation, sensuality, harmony, rapture, vitality, and radiance! Something to get you going in whatever direction you want to go….