half way point

wednesday, i like you because you represent the half way point.

+++ got some fun mail (thanks jill!) today including a book that i am excited to dive into. especially love the page that jill bookmarked for me that is called "a love letter". it reads "it's the energy of mindfulness in us that allows us to write a real love letter and reconcile with another person. a real love letter is made of insight, understanding, and compassion. otherwise it's not a love letter. a true love letter can produce a transformation in the other person, and therefore in the world. but before it produces a transformation in the other person, it has to produce a transformation within us. some letters may take the whole of our lifetime to write."

+++ really, really liked this blog about "the lasts" with kids. you know how i feel about those. i thought about this article tonight on two specific occasions. one when malena and i were playing a match game in our living room and she asked if she could sit in my lap. one when malena and i were heading upstairs and she stopped walking, held up her arms, and said "mommy, will you just carry me up" and as i did, she gave me a hug and rested her head on my shoulder. oh, how i hope that i embrace the last time that she asks me to pick her up or to sit in my lap.

+++ i liked reading this article as i too am usually the one trying to capture the pictures, i need to be better about getting myself on the other side of the camera. good motivation.

+++ you never know when you will need to help a friend or family member in an unexpected way. perhaps one of the most unexpected ways would be to help point them to a resource they could use if they had been diagnosed with cancer while they were pregnant. so that you can be a resource to them, you should read this blog from shannon and learn about "hope for two: pregnant with cancer". i know how it feels to not have many resources to go to for support, there were no melanoma support groups that i could reach out to. i think that it is so great that "hope for two" exists. now you know too, maybe someday someone will thank you for helping them make a connection that they would not have otherwise been able to make on their own.

+++ i am getting six free copies of the recent version of mamalode - woohoo!!! i will be sharing them with some mamas i know. woohoo!!!

+++ i read an article by jim shepard which was focused on writers taking about their fears, insights, etc. one part of the article i thought was relevant to more than just writing and i really related to it. "if that's true, and we don't know what we're doing at first, then at least for a little while when we're trying to compose something, we need to remember to cut ourselves some slack. there'll be plenty of time for brutality later, when revising the mess we made. but we need to be allowed to make that mess in the first place. when we shut ourselves down prematurely, it's as if we came across a child happily playing in the sandbox and asked what she was making, and when she said she didn't know, we told her "then get out of the sandbox. if you don't know what your making, you have no business in there." or if she answered, "i'm making a castle," we responded, "oh, a castle. that's original. no one's ever made a castle before." that girl in the sandbox has every right to respond, "i don't know if it's original. i won't know until i've made it."

friday, i have my eyes set on you.