Commencement

I'm sure you've sensed somewhat of a theme around here of late. Last night my daughter participated in Commencement exercises from my alma mater. The graduating class of 2010 was the largest in the history of the school...604 students will now begin anew. So often we tend to view graduation as an end. It is, I suppose. But commencement...

(kə-mĕns'mənt) The beginning. The start. The act or process of bringing or being brought into existence. The initial stage of a developmental process.

The evening address was given by alumnus John Ruth. He spoke of his friend, fallen University of Missouri football player Aaron O'Neal, whose life was cut drastically short on the practice field. He spoke of another who was diagnosed as a young man with Lou Gehrig's Disease, who lived his last days spending long minutes communicating simple sentences ~ via blinks of his eyes. These were sobering reminders that life is often unexpected. I hope the graduates will make the most of theirs. "Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart." ~Steve Jobs
My daughter is not lost on the idea of moving on... It took relatively little time for her to lose the "ugly robe" and set her phone on rapid fire. She is finally free. You've waited so very long for this, haven't you McKenzie? I hope you don't forget your name as you go out into the world...

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I'd like to introduce you to two friends... If you have time, please check out their blogs! You can find Janel at Dandelion Dayz. She is a hometown girl but currently resides in the Carolinas. She is an amazing wife, mother and friend. Her thoughts are a bit like kisses of fresh air...so true to her personality and dimpled smile. The same is true of my friend, Dawn. (I remember you from your pre-Mason days! Do you remember that...the days near West Main Street?) She, too, is an amazing wife, mother and friend. Her blog is an affirmation that you really CAN do it all! And after seeing her recent vacation photos, you'll be wanting to pack a suitcase and GO! Stop by and see her at Two Princesses and a Pug. I promise you won't be disappointed. These 'chicks' are two talented gals. Glad to call you my girlfriends. I think those of us who write might just be the summation of this quote..."You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You can't get there by bus, only by hard work and risk and by not quite knowing what you're doing, but what you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover will be yourself. " ~Alan Alda

Summer vacation looms on the horizon and I am excited about this process of self-discovery. I have so much to say, so much to write, a book to begin...but first, the research. To be a good writer, you must first and always read. There are other voices I need to hear first. My list begins something like this:

• A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
• My Antonia by Willa Cather
• A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
• The House of the Seven Gables by Nathanial Hawthorne
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
• The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
• The Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe
• Radical Reflections by Mem Fox
• Light One Candle: A Survivor's Tale from Lithuania to Jerusalem by Solly Ganor
• The complete works of Patricia Polacco and Cynthia Rylant

With only one exception, I have already read everything on my list. As I mentioned, this is research. This is an electic mix of authors and titles, but these are the voices that will help me find mine. If by chance you, too, are fascinated by Holocaust literature, you will not be disappointed by Mr. Ganor's book. He is a survivor of the Dachau Concentration Camp, a camp my grandfather helped liberate so many years ago. Solly and I have enjoyed e-mail exchanges in the past and I will definitely be providing my daughters with copies of his story. Heartwrenching.

And check out this music! It is Yiruma's River Flows in You. It is in instrumental piece but I wonder...Can you "hear" the words, too? Sometimes the voice the writer hears is silent to all but himself.

"It is so easy to waste our lives: our days, our hours, our minutes. It is so easy to take for granted the color of the azaleas, the sheen of the limestone on Fifth Avenue, the color of our kid's eyes, the way the melody in a symphony rises and falls and disappears and rises again. It is so easy to exist instead of live. " ~Anna Quindlen

I hope you will spend each of your days truly living.