Every year at about this same time I look ahead to March and realize it’s coming. During the month of March for at least 10 years, I’ve written a daily post alongside many others for the Two Writing Teachers daily Slice of Life Challenge. I approach March with a sense of dread and excitement. Writing a daily post, looking at a blank page and filling it with something worthwhile, is daunting; however, after so many years of experience, I know that writing in a community of other writers drives me.
This month I’ve been writing with a Facebook community for Laura Shovan’s 13th annual February Challenge. I feel it’s an impossible task until I get it done and look at my collection of poems. Most of them are drifty drafts, but it pleases me to have written them.
The most common denominator I have seen among writers who commit to daily writing is the fear of writing for an audience, and the best feeling is having written for an audience. My students experience the same fear. They don’t know it yet, but I’ve signed them up for the classroom Slice of Life Challenge. Writing out loud for an audience makes us vulnerable, yes, but it also makes us strong and brave.
If you are planning to do the SOL Challenge, let me know in the comments. We can support each other.
Here’s a small brave poem I put on my Instagram yesterday. I was visiting Mississippi where my brother and my mother live. We met yesterday with a very sweet Hospice nurse, and for the first time, I left my mother feeling hopeful. There is a gift in small moments of hope. I’ll take it.
Morning walk encounter with hope
rising from the lake
like our heroic Hospice nurse
who speaks in loving lift,
healing hearts.
Reflections on the Teche 
Yes I will be writing and will watch for you. I love this little poem and a great photo. Always nice to have a good community when hospice is needed. Blessing!
I was just discussing my trepidation of writing all 31 days next month with my husband this morning. I have Day One and Day 31 figured out. The other days? That’s where it gets interesting.
Yes, you are reading my mind! How beautiful! I am experiencing said trepidation, but determined to try again this year (as last time, I was less than successful)! You paired this admonishment with the perfect, poignant poetry. Thank you so much for sharing – you have lifted my spirits, indeed!
~Dr. Carla Michelle Brown
Trepidation is definitely what I’m feeling! I really hesitated this year before signing up, but I feel like I need the community more than ever. So glad you’ll be along for the ride!
Margaret,
Yes, I’ll be writing and providing tech support next month. Our friend Kim Johnson has a unique plan I agreed to get on board with, and it has me nervous in ways I don’t typically experience. I also have an April 1 deadline for some other writing, but at least there will be a week w/ no school to ease the pressure. You’re a pro and will slay!
Glenda, my break is the first week of March so that will either help or not because it’s Mardi Gras time. What is Kim’s plan?
Kim divided the day into 31 time slots beginning at 5:00 am and ending at 9:00-9:30 pm to give an account of what is happening at a given time throughout the day so there is each of the four main time zones represented for each time slot. I’m MST. If you want to do this, too, Kim or I can email you the breakdown. Let me know.
That’s too much organization for me. I’m a pantser not a planner.
LOL! That’s why I’m panicking. I write the evening before the next day so I can link up at 10:00 MST (12:00 EST).
Margaret, YES!! I’ll be writing. Feeling very nervous about keeping it going. But I’m just going to take it one day at a time. And happy to know YOU can be one of the blogs I read each day and leave a comment! See you in March!!
Margaret, I love that hopeful poem you have written. What a beautiful thing to be able to have hope about hospice. What a gift to have this nurse, who “who speaks in loving lift,
healing hearts.” Wow! And I will be writing in March, as well. I’m glad that you and your students can write together in March.
I haven’t been writing much for a long while. I’ve done the March challenge for so many years, and also wrote, hardly ever missing a Tuesday, for many years. The past few years, I would think, I am not writing every day in March… but then I sign up and make it through. I will try it this year, too. I think. I do want to rebuild the habit of daily writing… I want to follow through on trying to submit some writing. I have my second knee replacement surgery coming up at the end of March, so who knows just how it will turn out… think I better have some writing ready for the last few days of March ahead of time! Which will be a challenge for me, a pantser for sure!!
I look forward to writing alongside you. Good luck with the surgery. I hear knees are painful.
This is beautiful. I will be writing, but I’m feeling especially nervous about getting it done …. But I will do it!
Margaret, I never added my slice as I planned to do. Thank you for your slice of life with a calming poem. Hope and healing hearts rise like a prayer of gratitude. I send wishes to your mother.
Everything you write is worthwhile, Margaret -everything. How wonderful that your students will be taking up the classroom challenge – I am tying to picture their faces when they find out!
[…] wrote about her feelings leading up to the March Slice of Life Story Challenge in her post “Slice of Life: March is Around the Bend.” Her words really resonate as she […]
You are one of the authors I always read for inspiration. I’m glad you are feeling hopeful for your mom. I’m praying for my own hope for my mom. And…LOVE your photo!