Rhena Writes

Category: Weekly Wrap Up

  • No. I do not remember my favorite childhood book.

    Daily writing prompt
    Do you remember your favorite book from childhood?
    View all responses

    I do remember reading books. And I do remember specific books. I do remember the smooth crisp pages of, for example, Goodnight Moon. I remember sitting on the edge of the bathtub within a hand’s reach of a roll of toilet paper as I cried through certain pages of Where the Red Fern Grows (if you know, you know). And it was at a rental beach house where I similarly cried over Bridge to Terabethia. I can remember the school librarian’s particular way of turning the pages on picture books and the resonance in my dad’s chest as he read to me on the green chair in the living room. I know that it was The Trumpet of the Swan that one of my grade school teachers was reading to us when we got to go outside to listen to the story on one of the first suitable days of spring. But, for the love of me, I cannot remember the plot of the book at all. I know that I pictured the bathroom in the house I grew up in next to in the part of Stuart Little when Stuart retrieves his mother’s wedding ring.

    I’m fairly certain that it was reading Stuart Little that set me off on reading The Rescuers and The Borrowers. There’s just something about tiny creatures repurposing small household items for their own purposes. I’m sure it was that particular appeal of tiny objects that made The Toy Shop Mystery and The Doll House Mystery also enchanting.

    Apparently, EB White was quite popular because I definitely remember reading Charlotte’s Web. Although I think that I really only remember the details of the plot now because I’ve read it aloud to my children as an adult.

    But I don’t remember one in particular book as my favorite. It’s all just as well. It’s the way I truly do not have a favorite child.

    As is made apparent in yesterday’s blog post, (which was in response to the prompt to name three books which had an impact on me) I’m more widely read now that I’m an adult.

    Over the past week, I also wrote about jobs that I’ve had (Would a job by any other name smell just as sweet?) and how I unplug (from said jobs or from the internet?).

    The other three posts from this past week are quite short, but writing them spurred some breakthroughs for me about myself, life, mental health, and how to think about certain struggles.

    The first makes the case for centering myself, loving myself, and being my own best friend.

    The second is about the joy that arises when I trust my future self.

    Lastly, I thought about fear which, as an anxious person, is quite a feat in and of itself. But in the writing, I discovered a personal hack for cutting fear off at the knees in Starve Fear, Feed Joy.

    A one minute audio blog of a native English speaker, spontaneous, unplanned, and bare bones.

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    If you enjoyed what you’ve read here, please check out other posts. Likes, shares, and reposts help get my writing out to where it needs to be. I’m also grateful for financial support. Even though I post daily, I only send out a once a week summary email like this one to subscribers. Thank you!

  • The religion of practice.

    Daily writing prompt
    Do you practice religion?
    View all responses
    Two minutes of unplanned, semi conversational monologuing. (Monobloging.) In spoken English.

    I practice guitar pretty much every day. Sometimes I work for ten or fifteen minutes on just two or four measures of the song I’m currently working on. My progress is slow, but it’s there. Sometimes I’ve recorded my playing each day, then there’s a record of my progress. I can hear it.

    I practice writing every day too. At the very least, in my journal and, as of late, here in this blog. I can feel this getting easier too. The more and more I practice, the fewer blocks I face. And the more rewards there are. When I’m facing a particularly sticky problem, I know that I can go to my journal and write through it. Even if I don’t always arrive at a solution exactly, I often get a new perspective or a new way of thinking about the situation.

    At the very least, these practices (along with a few others including reading, walking, learning something new) give me something to return to when things feel difficult. When I’ve had to wait on a response from a doctor or for a test result this past year, I’ve been able to turn to these practices as a way to calm my mind.

    With both writing and guitar playing, they’ve become things that I look forward to each day. And my brain has needed that after this past year. My calendar and days have been full of appointments, treatments, procedures, medications. All of those are things that I had to do, but I dreaded all of them. I dreaded their aftermath. And I think that my brain has been stuck in that mode of dread. Practicing writing and playing guitar has kind of gently nudged my brain out of that one-track thinking and feeling.

    Having grown up in a Buddhist and Catholic household, I’m comfortable with practicing religion. But as an adult now living in this modern world with its difficulties and distractions, I don’t so much practice religion as much as I have made my religion practice.

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    And as it’s Wednesday, here’s a weekly round up of posts.

    My most prized possession? My body, mind, and soul.

    What do I collect? On spoons and hurts, words and truths. (A prose poem sort of a thing.)

    Who would I like to talk to soon? Myself. (Spoiler alert: I had the chance to meet myself in a lucid dream. This isn’t so much a “how to lucid dream” as much as it is this is how lucid dreaming happened to me.)

    “Having it all means” being present to myself.

    Practice, Practice, Practice. Clearly this is something that’s been on my mind a lot lately.

    Of course I remember life before the internet!

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    If you enjoyed what you’ve read here, please check out other posts. Likes, shares, and reposts help get my writing out to where it needs to be. I’m also grateful for financial support. Even though I post about daily, I only send out a once a week summary email (like this one!) to subscribers. Thank you!