I’ve been gone most of the summer, first to Brussels, then to Maui where vacation each year.
As the opening of the new school year approaches I am amazed at how it seems that just yesterday I was bidding a enjoyable and safe travels to fellow parents and their daughters and sons who attend the same school as my children.
Now nearly 2 and half months later I have received the first in a line of requests from the service that provides lunches at the school our youngest child attends the choices of entrées our child desires.
Unlike in past years this initial request covers lunch offerings for 6 weeks as opposed to the usual 4 per month—a welcome change.
Having learned my lesson from last year—that I don’t always know the shifting desires of my child’s palate—I immediately upon the receiving the form in my e-mail engaged our, now middle-schooler, to make the choices.
Another change.
A second impetus for this alteration in my behavior results from the various personality changes our youngest is undergoing as a pre-teen.
Having seen two previous children, now adults, through this stage it is quite interesting to contemplate the final journey of guiding a child through this process of coming of age.
It is also bittersweet.
Story narrative and evolution follows a similar pattern and structure of plot.
Challenges and conflict present and amplify in 3 stages—introduction, manifestation and transformation.
Even symbols, talismans that accompany and reflect the protagonist’s journey of change present in similar fashion.
Like the daily round of life, stories mirror the seasons of growth, the stages of human development and attaching purpose and meaning life and living.
The instinct to create and share stories is as old as the human race.
Our intrinsic need and desire to formalize our experiences and the internal emotions stirred and evoked by our circumstances.
Anjuelle,
Your name does have a lyric quality to it. What is its origin? It’s lovely.
I am enjoying your Blogs. This one, in particular, rings true for me. I have two adult daughters and am guiding the last, 15, into her final years in high school. Every year changes. She grows in ways so unique to her sisters. So utterly delightful are the discoveries. As I mentioned in my essay, she, like her sisters are writers. The first writes with flowery language and loves poetry. The middle, writing begrudgingly at first, uses humor and swear words and already has been published in Peterson’s Four Wheel and Offroad magazine. You can imagine the topic. The third writes simply and precisely, fully aware of the language of Austen & Bronte but unsure as yet of her style. We four feel the need to formalize our experiences and express our internal emotions, as you describe. We make up words, use our own kind of language, read the others’ thoughts, finish each other’s sentences. Yet we are different, and we recognize this fact and celebrate it.
You and your family sounds so much like me and mine.
All of us are writers and each of us has our own style, lovely distinct and each with out own strengths and places of growth.
I am so glad you are enjoying my blogs. Writing blog posts, sharing my thoughts on the three most important areas of my creativity, crafting fiction (mainly novels), my life as a writer/wife/mother and marriage help me organize my thoughts in a way that propels my fiction.
I helps when readers resonate with my thoughts.
Thanks so much for visiting and taking the time to share your thoughts.
I’m also excited about featuring you on my blog @SheWrites,
Why I Write and What Is My Process.
http://www.shewrites.com/group/whydoyouwriteandwhatsyourprocess
You’ll be on the 4th week so let you friends and family know.
Again, thanks so much.