Learning at Skidmore

I've heard it over and over from workshop leaders, in books and from authors-read what you write. Find books that settle inside you for their style and content. Read them. Copy paragraphs that grab at you. Write them out. Feel them. Taste them. Then take what you learn and go from there putting your own self into it. Let your mind flow. Use what you learn. See what you look at. Listen to what you hear. Taste what you eat and feel what you touch. Re-live it.

Passing Away Too Soon

Seeing on my PC that Farrah Fawcett passed away followed next by Michael Jackson, tweaked my mind. Both from illnesses though different in nature. But I wonder if they completed all they set out to accomplish while on earth in this lifetime. Lives seemingly cut short make me think about that. I don't really believe their lives were cut short even though they are both younger than me. I think their ending on earth came at exactly the moment designated at birth, but I'm not so sure they did do all they wanted to do in this lifetime.

Now that I'm beyond the sixty year mark I'm fully aware that I have less time ahead of me than behind me. I have at least four books in mind that need writing, two that are well along in being completed. When I think of the literary important Jane Austen, ‘passing over’ leaving Sanditon unfinished, I shudder.

Procrastination, get thee behind me!