My Safe Harbor

Ooookaaayyy..  so I haven’t been a very good blogger so far.  (I feel like I just called in sick to a new job.  Sheessh!)  But truly *eyelash flitter* my sweet significant had an appendicitis attack and on the quite excellent advice of moi, he called the advice nurse.  Which lead to a trip to urgent care to be checked out.  He said it was probably nothing so I stayed home with our new puppy. 

Anyhoo..  he called a while later and said they were keeping him overnight so I was to be at the hospital at 7 in the morning.  Yikes right?  No worries, he had excellent care and was home the same day as the surgery.  So I have been taking care of him since then and now I think we are on each other’s nerves.  He’s a terrible patient.  *Smile*

Soooo, back to me!  I am the person that just dives right into an idea and goes for it, and then tends to not follow through to completion.  My daughter likens it to the dog in the movie Up that distractedly yells “Squirrel”.  Hmmmm,  me thinks no bueno, but if I am being honest, I think it has to do with fear.  Plain and simple.

With that said, My post today is titled Safe Harbor because writing is what I have wanted to do since I was a little girl, so I am taking it slow as I will be a writer one day!  I have been taking writing classes, I also bought a few workbooks to help me out with getting my voice back.  It has been much harder than I thought it was going to be because what kind of person loses their voice?  Sadly, I found that I did and didn't know it. 

Getting it back has begun an adventure that I am both excited about and scared to death.  I have been forced to look at the people in my life, thoughts in my head, my surroundings and a few memories that I had once lived by and now turns out they were actually wrong.  I found a great workbook “The Freelance Writer’s Bible” written by David Trottier and one of the first exercises was to set the writer within me free by writing about an imaginary place that is completely serene where I would like to be. 

Freewriting….  It was so fun and amazing!  I wrote, wrote, wrote and felt free as I imagined this place. I heard the water, felt the breeze, smelled the flowers and let the atmosphere envelop me.  

huh?  Oh yaaaa..  (she says with glazed eyes)

So fearfully, I have decided to throw my safe harbor out to you all.  Remember this was a freewrite exercise and it’s not edited.  Please enjoy and if you make it to the end, leave a stylist a comment….

   ****************************************************************************

My Safe Harbor~

The house is yellow with white shutters and a wrap around porch I call a veranda.  It sits on five acres of green grass loaded with green foliage, palm trees large and small. Oleanders surround the outer perimeter for privacy where a community of birds hang out and sing their songs of longing, love and freedom.  Planted yellow and white daisies, purple iris, multi colored impatiens sit in their chosen flowerbeds accentuating my mood whenever I walk outside.  The soft white sandy beach sits just twenty feet from my oversized front door and when I wake to the sound of the birds, the next sound I hear is the water rushing to flood the beach for as far as it can travel, then back into the deep blue as it should be.  Standing on the slatted wooden walkway that divides the wet grass from the pebbled sand and leads directly to the beach, I can turn in all directions and see beauty from every side for miles.  Forward I look at my house and see the teal painted Adirondack chairs cracking from wear and age that I love and the small beverage table separating them sitting under the living rooms plate glass window.  On the other side of the stairs that divide the porch are my terracotta, ceramic and wooden planters holding winding ivy, palm plants blowing in the breeze planted with love and the old oak rocker found at the flea market in town.  My outdoor dining table otherwise known as a picnic table sits on the green grass that engulfs the fruit trees and wraps around the house just past the three large palm trees born to this land before residing became a notion.  This is where I sit and write when not hosting friends for food, cocktails or a late night bottle of wine as we sit wrapped in summer blankets and laugh while reliving old memories told over and over.  I turn to my left and right to see the tall line of palm and thatch trees surrounded and entwined by unnamed living plant growth giving the most beautiful view for miles, I then turn completely around and look out onto the clear most beautiful blue green water which continuously takes my breath away.  I stand at the end of the walkway and lift my face to the warming sun and heavens letting the breeze caress my face and whip around strips of hair that have escaped my haphazard pony tail.  I turn back around to walk up to the house and my dogs excitedly run to greet me with happy devotion in their eyes.  This is where I am safe, where I work and where I love~