Life Lesson on Coming Home Day 365

A paperweight seen at Silverscape Jewelers in Northampton, MA

There are many ways to come home.  We can tap into the collective consciousness of images that have been portrayed in the books we read and the movies we watch to imagine them.  There are so many ways to come home.There is the soldier, walking the long, dusty distance from the road to his house with valise in one hand, cap in the other.  There is the mother, cradling her new-born child mounting the steps of her front porch.  There is the child, shouldering his backpack, pulling open the the screen door.  There is the husband stepping into a still, quiet house calling, “Honey? I’m home.”  And there is completing a year's worth of daily blogs. I cranked out short, 500 word essays in order to fulfill a pledge made when imagination and capriciousness were both plentiful and easy to summon.

My journey began with words written on September 4, 2011: 

I am inviting you to join me on this adventure. Three years ago, I turned fifty. I enjoyed a pleasant dinner with my husband and another couple. Later, I wished I had made more out of the occasion than putting on mascara and pearls. Using the book "Julie and Julie" as a model, an inspiration was fomenting. The idea was unwelcomed and yet, appealing. After all, I had the staying power to "do" the entire Course in Miracles (a program of self-awareness that integrates your daily life with the presence of that of a Greater Being). Yes, it was a year course and it took me eighteen months. However, the point is that I had the intention to complete such a task ... and I did so. On the eve of my 53rd birthday, once again, I feel the need to make a grand gesture on a scale that fits my world and my abilities. It is unlikely I will hike Machu Piccu, travel to the Antartica, or even see the Russian steppes. However, I can reread Dr. Seuss's treatise-- Oh, the Places You Will Go-- and reflect upon that question. I can dig out my high school copy of Voltaires's Candide; I will rediscover Candide's voice when he utteres his opinion that, "Il faut cultiver notre jardin." In other words, before we reach out to "fix" the world beyond our immediate environs, we must first take responsibility for caring for our own gardens.

This journal is exactly how I will cultivate my own garden. For one year, I will keep a daily log of my adventures. My great-grandfather was a sea-captain. He maintained careful logs on his Atlantic passages. They helped him to arrive at strategies to better navigate the next voyage and the next. So... I will take a page out of his log and begin my own. I invite you to come along.

My journey concluded September 5, 2012.

I did it.  I made it home. I wrote 365 entries, of which 59 of them were pages in a serialized novel.  It has been more difficult than I imagined to have the discipline to take an hour and a half daily to write coherent words. I had not imagined the content or the direction my words would take me.  Having reached the anniversary of this blog, I feel less of a sense of accomplishment than I thought I might.  Here is the embarrassing truth, I watched the numbers of views (last view, 13,008) closely. It was the comments and mounting numbers of views that kept me on the path of production and each day. I did not receive money or acclaim, but the satisfaction that faceless readers in Latvia and Russia and Mississippi and Massachusetts took time out of their days for me?  Well, that was an amazing gift.  

I am left with the question of what comes next.

My plan is under development.  A few day breather is essential.  Then, I suspect, back to the boards.  I will post the continuing plot of Whately Prep on a blog entitled
Whately Prep: a novel of mystery, revenge, and intrigue. http://whatelyprep.blogspot.com     I will transfer all the past blogs related to 
Whately Prep to that site for those of you who would like to start from the beginning.
A New Dawn is comprised of short, sometimes quirky essays about life. www. anewdawn.blogspot.com
Dawnings  - a collection of longer, more in-depth essays are located at http://www.dawneliseevans.com

Lest, this seem complicated and incredibly prolific, I do hope to simplify and streamline eventually, but for now, it works best that are three different blogs offering three different kinds of writing.  Ultimately, of course, it's all me.  I hope you have enjoyed getting to know me. Please, keep the comments coming. Your words, suggestions and thoughts have been, and remain, ample motivation for this writer.

Be well --
Dawn