Life and Loss...

I'm never sure about life. I guess that's a naive statement. It implies I should be, well sometimes I think we feel that curveballs are to be expected but we do assume we'll be prepared enough to have a glove or bat handy. Unfortunately we aren't often even standing at the plate.

My community lost someone yesterday. A tragic loss that leaves another family member in critical condition, fighting for her life. It was an accident, water + tires + 0 traction and life becomes a blur snapped away all too quickly. 

He was a man who played Santa Claus for young children, a man I've known my whole life, whose children are like extended siblings and in the past year a man who's soulmate moved on to streets of gold and heavenly views. I had wondered how long he would be here - their connection so beautiful that for it to be here while another is in heaven seemed destined to be short...however short is a relative term and this small minute in time between losing one an now the other felt cruel when first learning of his passing.

Today with fresh eyes and aching heart, I realize how he must be smiling down with her. Sending his love, his guidance, his wishes for speedy recovery of a daughter in law he loves. I ache for his children, who in recent months had come to see a father coping, smiling again, enjoying grandchildren and activities again. It is a beautiful sentiment that they were able to see him smile again...to see the beauty in life after loss. 

He remains a shining person in my mind. A man of a generation where love is sacred and shown with a careful hand. He made so many people smile, he fathered fabulous children and he loved a woman - one who saw the good in him, saw the power in his presence and loved him until the very end of her life. What a mark to make...

I'm writing today. My characters have sarcasm and wit, they are experiencing confusion, shock and fear...yet in their darkest moments I hope my fingers are able to show their brightest light...their capacity to care, to love. It is what I want in life, a life where death is merely a memory and life is the moment we exist and yet simultaneously cease to exist. It is in that fragment of time that we have left our imprint. we live beyond the physicality if science, existing in memories, photographs, stories, the curve of a nose, the light in the color of someone's hair....Because though we are destined to leave this earth our imprint here remains - make it bright, make someone smile, make every second count, even in death we treasure that it is a beautiful life...

My character lost her car keys and ate her pants...

Good Afternoon Blogging World of Writers, Readers and Lovers of Words!

I am writing this entry via the keyboard on my new personal computer. It is not a tablet. It is not an iPad. Nor is it a gargantuan desktop. It is a laptop that I am in love with. The keyboard makes me grin, the feel of the buttons under my fingers makes typing a breeze (keyboards are what sell me on computers - there is a certain feel to the board that I have to acquire in order to purchase one). My old computer(s) (a netbook and a laptop) had become entirely outdated and well to be honest...heavy. The keyboard will get me out the door with my purchase but the weight will move me faster. I like that technology is able to provide us with these amazing machines that can be so lightweight and built for processing my quick mess-ups and happy days.

This particular computer had me at hello. Yet, I did my research. I have computer gurus who are friends/family, I read the blogs, websites and reviews of technological companies. The competition is fierce in our ever expanding techno enhanced world that going in blind would either be silly or extremely adventurous & trusting.

So today I am playing. Learning the latest version of Windows and discovering that I don't hate it. In fact, thanks to my Apple/iPhone for years of apps & my nieces for having Windows based phones; navigating the app style start menu is a breeze and quite frankly...fun! It is a touch screen laptop - no real idea why this is necessary since it does not separate from the keyboard - but I do like freezing the track pad and using my finger to maneuver through some of my favorite apps. Who knew?

Ah well, I promise a more writing centric post soon. I felt the fundamental of my writing process begins with the keys so why not share my excitement of once again loving the feel of them beneath my fingers...and not wanting to throw an electronic device out the window because the keys on the old ones jumped around all willy nilly...yeah my characters occasionally found themselves in 'sorrible hituations' and 'crabbing old of the sindow sill'. no joke. So the novel will hopefully survive and keep on trucking and the characters will quit fussing at me when all I did was hit cntrl and somehow she lost her car keys and ate her pants....true story.

Have a lovely weekend....