My final #reverb10 entry

I’ve given up on #reverb10. It was bad enough that I was 12 entries behind when the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve, but staring at all the unread prompt emails in my inbox (most had been read at least once, but marked back to unread so I wouldn’t forget about them) was just too overwhelming.

I can give you a million excuses: we’ve all been sick, the prompts took more thought that I had time for, we were too busy, Christmas, traveling, but ultimately it adds up to “blah blah blah, I couldn’t hack it”.

Staring at all the unfinished prompts was making me not want to write at all. I know I feel better when I’m writing so something had to give. Archiving those undone prompts was a relief.

It was a good exercise and I’m glad I tried it. I’m not sure if I’ll take part in this sort of meme again though. Producing this much content is hard when it’s something I do in my limited spare time. Especially when it involves such heavy soul searching.

It did get me writing and thinking so I’m grateful for that.

Here’s to more thoughtful writing in 2011, even if it’s not prompted.

#reverb10 – Day 19: Healing

December 19 – Healing.

What healed you this year? Was it sudden, or a drip-by-drip evolution? How would you like to be healed in 2011?

(Author: Leonie Allan)

Time alone heals me.

I desperately need time alone with my thoughts and to do my own thing to be able to give back to those I care about.

Parenting a toddler makes getting this restoration difficult sometimes. Any parent will tell you the same thing. I steal moments when I can, which sometimes makes Sean crazy. He’s either looking to steal a moment himself or he thinks I’m just hiding away to goof off, to let him do the heavy lifting of parenting a young child.

I know in my heart that I’m a better parent when I get those few moments to myself during “awake time” (mostly because “asleep time” is devoted to things I couldn’t get done during  awake time). I know those moments help me keep my patience up during the intense one-on-one times. They also help me keep my perspective during the fun times. That I willingly signed up for this, and that while I love sitting by myself and doing nothing, hanging out with my little family is pretty awesome.

I don’t think I get enough alone time all the time. I probably won’t for the next several years. I hope to prioritize and blend everyone’s needs so that we’re all at least having some of our needs met if not all of them. That sounds more selfish than it’s intended to be. But it’s like what we’re told during the airplane safety lecture: “put your oxygen mask on first, then help someone else”. You can’t help someone else if you have nothing to give yourself. Time alone is just how I replenish my strength.

#reverb10 – Day 18: Try

December 18 Prompt

Author: Kaileen Elise
kaileenelise.com
@kaileenelise

Prompt: Try. What do you want to try next year? Is there something you wanted to try in 2010? What happened when you did / didn’t go for it?
reverb10.com

This year I tried to reach out to the Canadian blogging/social media community at large more than I have in the past. I tend to be a lurker – I do a lot of reading but I don’t always reach out myself. This year I tried to reply to more tweets, leave more comments and contribute to the community at large.

I’m not so sure I succeeded but I have met (or in some cases “met”) some lovely people so it certainly wasn’t a bust.

This year I’d like to try the following:

  • Take another writing class (would love to do this workshop with Rona Maynard, but I don’t think I can swing it financially right now)
  • Read more books. I’ve been doing most of my reading online lately and while the blogs and websites are interesting, they just aren’t the same as a good book.
  • Keep my house a little cleaner (trying not to dissolve into giggles as I write this)
  • Spend more time with my husband one-on-one

Here’s hopin’ kids.

#reverb10 – Day 17: Lesson Learned

December 17 Prompt

Tara Weaver
The Butcher and the Vegetarian
@tea_austen

Prompt: Lesson learned. What was the best thing you learned about yourself this past year? And how will you apply that lesson going forward?

reverb10.com

Note: So yeah, I’m a little behind on #reverb10. While December is a lovely time to take stock of my life, I think I would have more time to actually do that in January. The holidays and all they entail are done with and the whole “new year, new start vibe” is in full effect. Honestly, I don’t think I’ll get all the prompts done by December 31st, so I’ll likely get my wish and continue the prompts (well) into January.

Hmm….so what was the best thing I learned about myself this year?

I’m having a hard time answering this. Anything I think of feels boring or mundane and not worthy of a blog post saying “look at me! I’m the awesome!”

The truly kickass things I learned have hopefully been absorbed into my daily life so that they feel like I’ve always known them and can apply them at will. That they become boring and mundane.

But that doesn’t answer the question does it?

#reverb10 – Day 16: Friendship

December 16 Prompt

Author: Martha Mihalick
Editor at Harper Collins
@curiousmartha

Prompt: Friendship. How has a friend changed you or your perspective on the world this year? Was this change gradual, or a sudden burst?

reverb10.com

I don’t think I can think of a specific incident where a friend changed me or my perspective. It likely happened, but nothing sticks out.

Edit: December 21, 2010, 9:35pm

So my husband read this post through Facebook and wrote me the following comment:

Weak sauce..you have friends on the Internet community that helped you be more social, friends that are pregnant that allow you to appreciate the miracle children give, a November weekend that allowed you to appreciate alone time and remind you that your still a woman and not just a mom..would you like me to write these for you 🙂

I wrote the following back to him:

Point taken. Thanks for calling me on it. I have to admit, I haven’t been giving some of these posts the thought they deserve. I’ve been just trying to push them out. Not everything needs an over-the-top story, but that subject didn’t deserve such a weak response.

I think I’ll go back and edit a little later and incorporate what you’ve reminded me of. Thanks.

(For those playing along at home, I’m at my folk’s place right now so that is why Sean and I are talking about this here instead of face-to-face.)

So yeah, Sean was totally right. Hear that honey? You were right. We’ve since talked offline (well, technically online since it was a Skype conversation, but it was just a conversation between the two of us).

I was thinking about this the wrong way. I was thinking about how an individual friend had completely changed my life. I wasn’t thinking about the gifts that my friends have given me this year.

Each of the three things Sean mentioned are extremely valuable to me. I’m not a good friend. I don’t keep in touch as much as I should. I don’t nurture my friendships very well. Yet people still talk to me.

That is a gift unto itself.

I need to change my perspective and return that gift to them.
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada
This work by Melissa Price-Mitchell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada.
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