Thursday September 5, 2024
I do not remember who said this but someone made the observation that there is more of a feeling of new beginning in September rather than that raw cold date of January First. School begins again, we come out of that mindset that the season of pause is over, it is time for all of us to take up the serious business of getting on and getting busy again. There is a promise that changes can be made and new endeavours taken up.
This summer I spent my time in the garden. I love the garden and will ever be a work in progress. I have been accused every year of stealth expansion, hiding that expansion under the guise of edging the beds. That is another discussion. I especially enjoy the hours of the early morning before the rest of the world is still sleeping. It is a practical choice to do physical work in the cool hours of the day and leave the work that is not so physically demanding for the long hot afternoons. I have not done as much art work or writing as I planned. I never do.
While I work in those quiet hours I think. I have slowly let go of the idea that I will storm the publishing world with my short stories, poetry and essays. A browse of the shelves of remaindered books and the vast inventories of used book stores and thrift shops has persuaded me conventional publishing is a waste of time and precious trees. I still want to write. Maybe foolishly, I believe that I can write well, that I write some things that other people might be glad to read. Writing and art produced in a vacuum is something that I cannot reconcile. Creative endeavours shoved into a drawer or leaned up against a wall in the attic, molder away.
To save my work from that fate I created this blog, I am embarrassed to admit far too long ago, as a way to put my work out there. On this lovely September day, with the sun shining and the colour of the garden in riot I have promised myself that I will begin.
Today I am posting a short story that I wrote this summer. The seed of it appeared in an column by a local history group that examines news paper articles and occurrences from our town’s past. There was a photo of the two women who are the main characters of this story reprinted from the newspaper article that appeared in October of 1967.
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