Reflections on the Teche

Slice of Life #24: Thankful Thursday

March 24, 2022 by margaretsmn

Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.

Enough is a feast.
Buddhist Proverb

I’ve almost made this a habit, Thankful Thursday. It works for me, helps me gather what the week has given so far. Gratitude helps me live into my One Little Word: Enough.

This baby rose cutting was left on my front porch. I haven’t found the person to thank yet. I’ve tried a few suspects with not luck. It’s a mystery. The plant looks like a Peggy Martin rose. I bought one last spring, and I know I talked a lot about wanting one. That’s because my SCBWI colleagues and friends Carol Stubbs and Nancy Rust wrote a picture book about this rose, The Rose Without a Name. It’s the story of the Katrina Rose and how it survived the flood of Hurricane Katrina. I’m excited to have this cutting and will find a good place to plant it, but if you are reading this and you gave it to me, please let me know.

2. Every once in a while I treat myself to a Starbucks coffee drink. Yesterday I had bonus points for a free drink. I’m thankful for the cute barista who made this cold brew with sweet cream foam just right.

3. Yesterday the temperatures were in the 60’s and breezy. I took my coffee drink out to the deck and just listened to the wind chimes. I’m thankful to live in such a beautiful place, Bayou Teche. I don’t do this enough and it really fed my soul to just sit and listen.

What are you thankful for this week? Tell me in the comments.

Posted in Slice of Life, Writing | Tagged enough, One Little Word, Thankful Thursday | 9 Comments »

This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Bloodwort

March 23, 2022 by margaretsmn

Laura Shovan is an author-poet-friend who lives in Maryland. She posted this photo on Facebook with the following message:

Bloodwort is one of my favorite #secretgarden plants. They only bloom for a few days in early spring. The dogs (or I) stepped on this flower — rescued and happily in an espresso cup!
Laura Shovan, 3/22/22

I love the idea of a secret garden. I love the book The Secret Garden. When I first moved to the house I live in now, every season I would discover new-to-me plants and flowers.

I also love that Laura rescued this little blossom and placed it on a table in an espresso cup. Something so ceremonial and sacred about that.

Bloodwort is also known as bloodroot because the roots are red. Join me in musing on this photo today. Leave your small poem in the comments and encourage other writers with your responses.

Prayer
Grace
from her secret garden
fell
at her feet.
She knelt in the still cold earth
to notice
and return its kindness,
placing the small flower
in a small cup,
like a prayer.
Margaret Simon, draft

Posted in Photography, Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing | Tagged #poemsofpresence, #smallpoem, bloodwort, Laura Shovan, secret garden | 32 Comments »

Slice of Life #22: Hope Haiku

March 22, 2022 by margaretsmn

Quote-of-the-day from Matthew, age 11, in 365 Days of Wonder:

This precept gave me the opportunity to teach about simile. Avalyn understood immediately and created her own simile. When the syllable count emerged as 5, then 7, I saw a haiku in the making. Avalyn completed it with a dazzling 5-syllable line.

Hope is the rainbow
sparkling in the sunshine rain
dazzling air with Joy!
Avalyn, 2nd grade

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Teaching, Writing | Tagged haiku, inspirational quotes, Mr. Brown's precepts, simile | 7 Comments »

Slice of Life: I Choose People

March 21, 2022 by margaretsmn

I have a to-do list. Don’t we all? And usually Sunday is set aside for the list. I want to start off Monday with a clean slate, at the very least with clean laundry. But yesterday that didn’t happen. And I need to be OK with it.

I chose people instead. After church I was invited to have lunch with a dear-to-my-family family. I accepted even though the list was waiting. The lunch was delightful and fun.

Home long enough to dash off a Slice of Life post, my daughter sent out a Help! message. Her toddler son’s ears were hurting. He was crying, and the baby woke up from her nap. I remember well the feeling of overwhelm as a mother of three, so off I went to help. The list could wait.

Now it’s early Monday morning. I scrambled out some lesson plans. I’ve got a rough draft of an article due today, and there are a few things left to do, but I’m going to take a walk, and start this week knowing that people (family) are more important than a list.

Posted in Slice of Life | Tagged being mamére, family | 12 Comments »

Slice of Life #20: Tired Dancing Feet

March 20, 2022 by margaretsmn

“I’m tired,” said Deborah. “We’ve been here all day. And John wants to stay to hear Cory, but I want to see Bonsoir Catin. If I do, though, I lose my dance partner.”

Oh, the woes of a music festival.

For two years, bands that normally play weekly have been banned. So what is a dancer to do?

It is a joyful problem to have. Who will we hear next? What stage is this band playing or do we want to take a food break? Look at art?

The Festivals Acadiens et Creoles has it all. Usually a festival that happens in the heat of October, this day in March was the absolute perfect weather. Sunny and 65. Doesn’t get better than that.

I was tired. My feet hurt. Post-pandemic wearies. All in the service to joyful dancing. Let the dust fly!

Posted in Slice of Life, Writing | Tagged dancing, Festival Acadiens | 7 Comments »

Slice of Life: Symbols

March 19, 2022 by margaretsmn

I wasn’t going to write today. My tired body and weary mind said, “Nope. You are all out of gas.” Then I took a walk. While walking I listened to sweet Ada Limón on her poetry podcast The Slowdown. More than the poem she read, I was inspired by her introductory words. She said, “There are symbols everywhere.” I took that line and mused on it. This is what I dictated into my Notes app (with some revision).

There are Symbols Everywhere

No one noticed
I wore my grandmother’s bracelet–
charms with each grandchild’s name
engraved, missing Beth, the youngest
born too late to make it onto the chain
before Nene’s death. I wonder
if she wore the tinkling charms
placing me in the center of her circle
a symbol of her love for us,
or a symbol of God,
family, humanity?
It is a symbol
nevertheless
to me, to me.

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing | Tagged charm bracelet, grandmother, The Slowdown | 7 Comments »

Poetry Friday: Spring Triolet

March 18, 2022 by margaretsmn

My drive to my schools changes with the seasons. In fall, the sugarcane is tall and takes my attention. In spring, these fields are fallow, and some become meadows of golden wildflowers. Horses roam. I wish I had taken a picture, but I’m usually on a strict time schedule.

Last week my student Chloe and I played with the triolet form, inspired by this Irene Latham poem, Triolet for Planting Day. It was a more challenging form than I thought it would be.

Triolet for Field and Breeze
When Field awakens to glimmering gold,
Breeze gallops upon green waves.
An ember mare nuzzles her foal
when Field awakens to glimmering gold,
and readies itself for a front of cold,
with frolics over winter’s graves.
When field awakens to glimmering gold,
Breeze gallops upon green waves.
Margaret Simon, draft

Spring Triolet
Spring colors over winter’s greed.
The rain fills all the holes.
Marshy areas buy blankets of reed.
And spring colors over winter’s greed.
Birds come home, now flight freed.
Out comes the little moles.
When spring covers winter’s greed,
The rain fills all the holes.
Chloe, 6th grade

The Progressive Poem Schedule is Complete. Click here to grab the schedule.

Posted in Poetry Friday, Slice of Life, Writing | Tagged Irene Latham, student poetry, triolet | 10 Comments »

Slice of Life #17: Thankful Thursday

March 17, 2022 by margaretsmn

Three Things I’m Thankful for This Thursday:

We have a wood duck house near the bayou in our backyard. This is the third year we have watched this amazing process. On the roof of the nesting box my husband built, he placed a Ring doorbell camera. It is activated by motion. He cleaned out the house and prepared for a new season in late January. It didn’t take long for a wood duck couple to find it and start laying eggs. Counting the number in this clutch (close to 20), it seems there may have been two hens laying the eggs. The hen started sitting on the eggs on March 1st. Every day I get multiple alerts “There is motion at your wood duck house.” She leaves twice a day to feed. She preens her feathers incessantly and turns the eggs. We are hopeful the recent freeze did not affect this clutch. They are due to hatch around March 28, so stay tuned.

One of my favorite things, a close second to seeing a rainbow, is a bright sun burst through a cloud. And with the bare branches of winter trees, this image fills me with hope.

Last night I attended church with a soup supper and good discussion. We prayed for Ukraine which feels like so little in such a horrible situation. When we were leaving, the full moon was high. I am grateful for my church family, for good food, and for peace in my community.

Posted in Gratitude, Slice of Life, Writing | Tagged full moon, wood duck house | 8 Comments »

This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Reflection

March 16, 2022 by margaretsmn

Is it always the right time for reflection? The newness of the year has passed. In my spiritual life, it’s Lent which is a time of reflection. And the season is changing. But really, reflection should be an ongoing practice. Taking a look at what was in order to prepare for what is to come.

Reflection in a photograph is different. In a way this sort of reflection shows what is in a different light, new position. Molly Hogan is a writing partner, teacher, blogger who takes amazing photographs and offers them freely to this writing community. Take a minute to reflect and muse on this photo by Molly. Write whatever comes in the comments and leave encouraging comments for others.

You criss.
I cross,
and together,
we bridge.
Margaret Simon, draft

Posted in Photography, Poetry, Slice of Life | Tagged #poemsofpresence, #smallpoems, Molly Hogan, This Photo Wants to be a Poem | 16 Comments »

Slice of Life: Grey is the New Blonde

March 15, 2022 by margaretsmn

I don’t remember who introduced me to Suleika Jaouad’s Isolation Journals email. Each week a prompt from a well-known writer is featured. This week the prompt comes from Elizabeth Benedict:

Hair is elemental. It can define us, confine us, refine us, and when we’re faced with losing it, through age or illness, it can undo us.
Write about your relationship to your hair: how it shapes your own self-image. How others see you. Or how, when you lost your hair or changed it, you learned something—about yourself or someone else.
Elizabeth Benedict, Isolation Journal #186

I started letting my hair go grey a few years ago. I had gotten to a point where I could color my hair and within just a few short weeks, the white strands around my temple reappeared. All my life I have told myself I wanted white hair like my grandmother. But when it came time to stop fighting the change, I wasn’t sure how. I decided to go cold turkey and totally stop coloring my hair.

My hair is pretty much all grey and white now, but I don’t see it that way. To me, it still looks blonde in the mirror. I am shocked by photos of me that show such stark white.

People in general compliment my hair color. Who knew that so many like grey hair? Google grey hair and you get an article from Glamour titled “Oyster-Gray Hair is the Coolest New Color Trend.”

My stylist recommended a purple shampoo to use once a week. At Christmas a friend “complimented” the lavender in my hair. As if it was purple on purpose. Yikes! So I cut back on the purple shampoo.

I think most women have a love/hate relationship with their hair. I grow it out then cut it short. Go all one length, then layers. But most of all I am grateful for my hair. I finally look like my dear grandma, Nene.

What is your relationship with your hair?