Monday's Mug 020

Hello, Writers of the World. 

Welcome back to Monday’s Mug! I always love to be drinking from my mugs daily, but Monday is the day I like to catch you up on what has been happening since we last talked. Tonight I am drinking mint tea with honey. I love the refreshing smell of mint. The family spent a lot of time outside this last weekend, getting the farms slicked up again and mowing the yard. I pulled weeds out of a flowerbed, and I’m trying to get it ready for planting. This evening was mild. We spent time outside again tonight playing with our cats and dogs. I has been a good week, and I am still hoping for a little cooler weather. What is your favorite thing to do outside?

While we sip from our mugs, I would tell you I don’t remember a lot about last week. In fact, there were a lot of things I forgot about last week. I forgot errands, events, and what other people were doing that would affect my day. I’m a severe planner and write everything down. There were some minor things I couldn’t recall. I think a lot of it has to do with journaling. I haven’t been journaling as much, and it helps me empty my head daily. Do you enjoy journaling?

While we sip from our mugs, I would share with you, and I am continuing to build relationships with other writers. Not because I am expecting anything from them but because it is nice to have some writers in my life. It has been fun getting to know them better, some for longer than others. I find myself opening up more to the writing community, much like a kitten coming out from under a hiding place, wondering how safe it is. I am finally a few more steps out now that I have started to interact. 

Would you like to refill your mug? 

While we sip from our mugs, I would tell you I have been thinking a lot more this week. I’ve been listening to different podcasts this week. I have been jumping around a lot. I used to listen to podcasts the way I watch a Netflix series.  I had the impulse to listen to the podcasts in order. I quickly gave up on the order mindset and even more recently decided to look at it like reading. I have started dozens of books but never finished because I didn’t want to go any further. I feel this way about listening to podcasts now. I will only keep listening if I am really interested, not because I think I need to finish it. 

While we sip from our mugs, I would share with you, and I am trying to celebrate my life more. I have been influenced a lot by the StoryADay podcasts because their theme this month is a triumph. I haven’t been good about celebrating in any way my life aside from a couple of birthdays. This stems from my high expectations concerning my work and how it changes the world. However, slowly I am still trying to celebrate my writing. I am celebrating my downtime too. I say yes to many things and, at times, more than I should be, so I’m celebrating when I complete tasks as well lately. I have to say it has been helping me get out of my COVID funk. I am excited to see what celebrating my life long term will mean for my joy. What are you celebrating?

Until next time just write. 

Do You Call Yourself a Writer?

Have you ever given much thought to your name? I hadn't until I was older except that my name was hard to pronounce, and I ended up spelling it to everyone I came in contact with. There would be times I was asked what country I was from because outside of my small community, it is not a common name, and on rare occasions, I was asked what it meant. It never offended me that people thought I might be from another country or that they couldn't spell my name I just thought of it as the facts of my life. 

When I was in college, I was asked and told what my name meant over and over again. I finally looked up my name meaning so I could recite to anyone else who asked because I did start to get a little annoyed. I had never gone by any nicknames or some altered version of my name. It was always lovely to hear my name properly pronounced without having to correct someone, but it was rare. 

There have been other names I have been called like fat when I was a child because I wasn't as slender as the other kids in my class. I don't ever remember being called smart in school though I was called a good many times, I never could understand what good really meant. I was called quite a lot more than I have ever been called anything else in my life. But then I was called weird, crazy, or strange when I started to open up to others and stopped being quiet. 

Life changing events call for name calling too. It was fun to be called the girlfriend at times, and it was better to be called the ex. I love being called a mother and a parent. I hoped to be an aunt one day, but sister had a beautiful ring to it too. An employee was also a beautiful name when the paycheck came from it as well. 

My favorite name didn't show up until the last year, and it was one I didn't think I would like as much as I did. It was important to me and was solidifying the previous three work and devotion. It was a writer. I can remember the first time I was referred to as a writer friend in a blog, and it was absolutely fantastic. My heart leaped out of my body into the upper atmosphere and back again in a second. 

I had been hesitant to refer to myself as a writer, and it sounds like I was an impostor because I couldn't answer the questions of where I had been published at or when my book would be out. When I found other writers, there hasn't been a question about validation with writers in my community. You write; therefore, you are a writer; it does matter the frequency or how long or what you are writing, you just write.