HAVE YOU EVER BEEN JOURNEY PROUD?

Could I be "journey proud" tonight? That is an old saying I heard all my life meaning I am excited about my journey tomorrow. I am going back to the mountains where I lived the past thirty years. I will read my poetry tomorrow night at the fabulous John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC. That is in the far westernmost part of North Carolina. 

NCWN-West, our writing group in nine counties of western NC and adjoining counties in Georgia, hold a monthly meeting at the folk school where a writer and a poet share their original work with the community and with students at the folk school. Lorraine Bennett, a novelist and outstanding writer, will also read tomorrow night. 

I remember the first time I read my poetry at the folk school decades ago. I was scared to death. I had not ever enjoyed speaking before a group of adults. I had taught fourth grade children and kindergarten, and that was no problem for me. I loved teaching kids. But I, like many people, was terrified to speak to an audience of adults.

At my first reading, I wrote down every word I planned to say. Not just the poems I would read, but the patter between poems. I was please when later I was told no one knew I was reading every word I spoke that night. But the kind folks who were there made me feel welcome and seemed to enjoy what I said and my poems. It was a huge step for me.

Now all these years later, I have no problem talking to an audience and reading my stories and poems.

I don't know how I changed, but over the years as I read my writing at our monthly meetings for critique and as my poetry became published, I found I could stand before a group and talk easily. 

The book Estelle Rice and I wrote together, Paws, Claws, Hooves, Feathers and Fins, is in a third printing now. I will share some work from that book, and poems from Now Might as Well Be Then, published by Finishing Line Press in 2009. 

While there, I will see my dear friend, Estelle, now 100 years old, and other friends who are writers and poets. I am excited to go and I could not go if my sweet sister, Gay, could not go with me. It was difficult for her to find time out of her busy life to travel and spend three days away from home. She is practicing for a dance competition soon. She also sings in the choir at Alpharetta Presbyterian Church. She and her husband are loyal members and never miss rehearsal or Sunday service unless they are traveling. 

My sister, Gay

I am so fortunate to live in the same house with them, although I have my own apartment downstairs. Gay and I were almost like twins as we grew up together, sleeping in the same bedroom, going to college together and being roommates one year. We are best friends and share our joys, hurts, our sorrows, and our good times. We are the youngest of seven children, and all of our siblings are gone now. But we are blessed with caring nieces and nephews. 

We will enjoy spending the next three days together in the mountains even though we will be having a cool spell, even a frost one night, while there. 

I am not blogging as often as I did, but life gets busy and I take more naps now. I find a nap is healing and helps me get more done when I awake.

I look forward to being with friends, away from the chaos of the news, and happenings I can do nothing about. 

When I return home, I look forward to planting flowers, feeding the birds, writing stories, and teaching students what I know about memoir writing. I have an online class in April sponsored by the Institute of Continuing Learning in Young Harris, Georgia. I can teach from my home and my students can learn from their homes or wherever they use their computer. Life is good and I am grateful.

Take care my friends. Make your life an example for others and let me hear from you, OK?