My OLW

It's Tuesday.  Time to link up with Two Writing Teachers for Tuesday's Slice of Life.  I am a retired teacher, who pops in to share periodically there.  Pretty soon it will be March!  And then it will be a post a day there!

I have been struggling with if I want to try another OLW this year.  I've tried before, and gotten distracted early on - totally forgetting about my word.  But -

I'm going for it again.

I reread recent posts and thought about my life as I thought about the word possibilities. It became clearer to me what I have been doing lately; I found that I have been trying to live my life a little more boldly.

BOLD is what I want to be, how I want to act, how I want to do things, how I want to approach (of course with an LY then) things.  So maybe the word is actually BOLDLY.

I am going to eek push a little poem out and sneak deposit it in my pocket.
Scratch those meek words.  I need more flourish to nourish my soul!  (There's a line I can use somewhere else someday.)

BOLDLY

(There.  Let's see where this takes me.)

Boldly go,

Boldly speak,

Boldly light,

Boldly seek;

Fear is not

To be my plight,

Just be bold, focused of sight;

Boldly lost,

Boldly won,

Boldly planned,

Boldly done.

Stay the course,

To self be true;

Boldly smile when race is through.

by Donna JT Smith, January 25, 2016

I am not accustomed to being bold most of the time.  I say that, but some would say that isn't true.  I act bold sometimes, but it doesn't come naturally to me in most situations.  I can muster bold when I need to.  It's not very comfortable though.  My boldness can be crushed easily.

But I am going to work on bold boldly this year.  I want to make some bold strides toward what I'd like to accomplish - and hopefully (do bold people say that?) not get crushed.

Here are a few:

- get a poem in a written anthology.  I have no idea how to.

- illustrate a poem and publish it as a children's book.  I have no idea how to do that either.

- continue to lose weight.  I have an idea how to do that.  I just need to stay on this path.

- paint another picture that I wouldn't mind signing.  I'm not feeling bold about this.

- write all manner of meaningful things.  Scary for me.

- be the best me I can.  Can that ever really be done? (No, that wasn't bold...I can see that.)

Are you bold?  Do you travel life's road boldly?

How's this for being bold...oh-so-not-so-bold...

I am tempted to just delete this post.   

djfkljfklajdklfja;lfjf  That is me having a mini-melt.  I am okay.  I'm just not sure what I will do with this word (BOLD, not djfkljfklajdklfja;lfjf).  Not sure if I can live up to it, or hold myself to it.

But I haven't deleted it.

Who's up for getting a post card? (See how I cleverly distracted myself?)

I don't mean to be kind of self-promoting on SOL time, but...

Small print - not really an SOL unless you count it as BOLD, so you can skip this if you like:
Let me remind anyone who would like to take the "How To..." poem challenge, to send it in.  I will post the poems and your blog link this Friday.  (This was a BOLD move - to have an actual challenge posed by me, and that is a BOLD hint.

I am doing a postcard exchange with a small group this month, and have made some postcards - photos I've recently taken, with a haiku written for each.  Would you like an original, hand made (well, iPhone, and computer, and printer made) postcard - photos and poems by me?* 
If you would, I will mail one to you by the end of January**.  Please just email me your mailing address.  There are going to be plenty to go around!  If I find out your address, you may just get one even if you don't want it!  It's just my OLW taking over here! 
Here's my clever email address code so I won't get spam in my "important people" email box: 

d-j-t--sm-ith- -"a-t"--g--ma--il-"d-o-t"--c-o-m  Take out ALL the -dashes-, and use the signs for the "quoted words".  I hate that the computer bots are getting smarter all the time.  I shouldn't have to hide my email to protect it.  But this is one area I won't be bold in.

 

*I am actually having quite a few postcards printed through VistaPrint - they have a half off sale today.  It does mean they will be a little delayed in getting sent out. 
**You should have it by Valentine's Day at the latest.  Most likely earlier though!  It will still be winter!