Self Care

 By Maryanna Gabriel

Some people find release with how they are feeling with others, but right now it is just me and the begonia. As the late Thich Nhat Hanh said, without the mud you do not get the lotus. So much mud! Self care has been coming up repeatedly. I am not sure why I think falling apart is helping anyone and so I am practicing self care in a steady-as-she-goes kind of a way. Ukraine leader Zelensky's courage makes me cry. "If you don't help us, war will come knocking at your door," he just said. How does he sleep at night? I am guessing not so much. Then there is someone who was close to me who is dying right now. And my injured back... falling off a ladder is never recommended. I have to figure out how I can get a new mattress to Salt Spring Island when I can barely lift a pine cone. Sleep, oi. 

1) Sleep (oh please!) 
2) Nutrition (got that one covered)
3) Drinking lots of water (keep forgetting)
4) Cookies with morning coffee (not sure if this counts)
5) Exercise (okay, we are in an atmospheric river, but I can still practice yoga in the living room)
6) Journaling (helps solve what is on my mind)
7) Doing something creative (knitting is so calming)
8) Poetry (am reading one Mary Oliver poem a day and now I am dreaming about her)
9) Meditation (am really sorry this is so low on the list as it should be first - I think I am afraid)
10) Prayer (never fails)

"Maybe it's myself I miss."

- Mary Oliver

Rats!

 By Maryanna Gabriel

The start of my book is about a pernicious varmint who invades my kitchen. It seems to be causing controversy. I am not sure why because my book is not all sugar and spice but then neither is life. This rat made a beeline right for me when unbeknownst to me, I had cut off her exit. I feel the rat sets a tone, a metaphor, for the darker forces that follow. Of course how our heroine overcomes these forces is what makes the story interesting. 

A friend who read the book tells me she was not sure about the rat at the beginning of the book but recently a rat took up residence in her car. Her granddaughter opened the glove compartment to find the shock of her life when a whiskery face was huddled there. My friend cleared the car but on a recent trip to town she opened the glove compartment and what was lurking? I would have hurled the rat out right then and there. She tells me they had a polite conversation on car ownership and who was paying for the gas. She could still be dealing with it for all I know. I'll have to ask her what happened next. Rats to my experience require a heavy handed approach. 

Rats are not generally the subject of polite conversation but they are certainly a reality of Salt Spring Island life. Thank goodness the weather is warming up. And by the way, when she picked up the book she could not put it down and insisted on reading the rest. It was the answer I needed and doubts about the beginning were cast aside. Something I'm doing must be working right

 

Abigail's Boutique Hotel

 By Maryanna Gabriel

"Sometimes we are surprised by the steal and turn of beauty..."
- David Whyte

Did I want breakfast in bed? You bet I did. 

I was crossing off another entry on my bucket list. Abigail's is in the heart of downtown Victoria and is a heritage building in the Tudor Revival style, with latticed casement windows, dormers and tall chimneys. I stayed there on Valentine's Day. It was fabulous. The building was originally commissioned in 1930, created as the very latest in luxury suites, with dens and fireplaces. Fortunately for a lover of history such as myself, the unique architecture has been preserved. 

I slept like a lamb, and I am sorry I forgot to photograph the breakfast. It was superb. Thank you myself for such a wonderful time. Who says Valentine's alone can't be fun?

When Just Words Won't Do

 By Maryanna Gabriel 

It all started when the red dye on the cover of my journal rubbed off and I had to clean the couch. The next thing I knew, I was madly tearing up paper in a rather artistic way. 

Gee, I get to cut, and glue, and play with scissors. I love it. Sometimes a busy brain needs to rest and doing creative journaling is doing the job. So far I have invested in wavy scissors, stickers and washi tape. Washi tape? I know - I'd only heard of it vaguely too and now I am gonzoed on the stuff. As if this investment was not enough, I hanker for more. Punches. Stamps. Ribbons. There is no end in sight.

I want to play! Maybe this is what happens after 73,000 carefully curated words. 

Ganges Tootle

 By Maryanna Gabriel

Well I suppose if a publisher says one's work is "compelling" when they reject you, it makes it better. This week I've gotten out eight submissions so I am not sure if this means I am ahead or behind. 

It is not often I can say that I am tootling about with the Salt Spring Island writer-in-residence, but it turns out she was was someone I was a teaching assistant for at Simon Fraser's, The Writer's Studio. She is a city girl so island life is an adjustment . When I told her I food-shopped for a month at a time, her job dropped (it's often more but I didn't want to seem farfetched). She says she shops by the day in Vancouver. Imagine that. I think we might have her graduated to a week's worth of supplies at a time while she is here. 

Yesterday we had a nice tootle through the galleries in Ganges - tons of fun. It's inspiring to see the sun shining after so many days of fog, and the island seems busy with visitor's this weekend, perhaps due to Valentine's. Julie Burtinshaw is the author of seven books, and is giving an artist's talk on Salt Spring Island on February 15, 2022, which is here. Wonderful to get out with a writerly friend. 

Word Painting

 By Maryanna Gabriel

I have awakened with a feeling of closure. The book I am writing has been gone through sentence by sentence and has the sense of being a cohesive whole. I ask myself, have I told the story well, and can I live with it? It's my story. How could I alter anything?

What I am experiencing is one of a job well done, like the feeling of a painting where one is trying to get it just right and it is framed, and hung, and I walk around it and say, oh, I have caught the light here in just the way I wanted to, and look how harmoniously one side blends with the other, and I stand back, pleased with the result. I don't know what others might think, but this is my creation and I am a very fussy creator. But I am so happy with it. And feeling so good about it. 

I know now I can put the dedication back to where I had it in the first place when I set out on this book journey years ago. 

Wordle: Free Not Much Longer

 By Maryanna Gabriel

The game Wordle, by software engineer, Josh Wardle, designed for his wife over the lockdown, has been sold. My daughter and I play it. The game is for word enthusiasts and cross-word puzzle

lovers. The word to be guessed is five letters only.  You get one puzzle a day. My writers group is playing it. You get 6 tries to guess the word. 

It won't be free much longer. 

Green=letter that you guess is in correct spot
Yellow=letter is in the answer but it is in wrong spot
Gray=letter not in the word

https://www.powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle/