Under the Water, Over the Dam -- and Into the Blogosphere

A lot of water has gone under the bridge -- and over the dam -- in tumbling, rushing, whitewater splashes and waves since I my first post here back in early November. And, since I never introduced myself then, I feel I should do so now so that you know, as the waters calm, who I am and why I am blogging.

My husband died in December, a month to the day after I had my first blogging lesson from number two son (not number two in affection or importance but in birth order). He knew then, as he always has, the importance of having a project -- especially one involving words and stories. He is a teacher, writer and encourager of the first order. However, in the waves of medical jargon, fear and grief, the blog, the blog post and any lessons that came with it were all but forgotten.

These days, folks come into our store -- an old-fashioned Vermont country store --  and tell me that they are so sorry I lost my husband. It’s as if he were a three-year-old hiding among the dress racks at JC Penney or Target and would emerge grinning after I had been appropriately terrified. Well, after three months, it is dawning on me that he is not going to reappear -- I have indeed lost him. Oh, to be sure he is here in a thousand little ways (reminding me to fasten my seat belt, close the draft on the wood stove or fix a hot toddy for a cold snowy night). But his living presence is gone, not to be experienced again on this earthy plane. So, I am left to my own devices after 52 years, and one of my biggest devices has always been to tell stories. So now I return to what is known and leave the many unknowns to be revealed in the fullness of time.

Several years ago, I self- published a slim volume called “Wayside Country Stories.” I have since been writing stories for another volume, but I am not sure I have the time (after all, that first book took me until I was 62) or energy left to publish again. Enter son number two; with his brain rushing and words tumbling, he explained how a blog can create an audience, how I can tell my stories bit-by-bit as they occur. I can even use TBT (Throwback Thursday) to revisit the stories I have previously published. I hear his words today, as I did several months ago, and now I am hearing: “Wow … let the blogging begin!  Let the stories flow! I have a project!” Perhaps this is not the typical blog as it is less a diary or forum on a particular topic but more of a slim on-line book of simple stories. And certainly there will not be daily postings.

These stories will bear a different slant than those in my original volume. Those tales were fact (though the names had been changed to protect the innocent); these will be mostly reality-based fiction. Every single one has its seed in something that really happened.  But from that seed I grew a plant -- sometimes a whole forest -- of fiction to create what I hope will be an entertaining, enlightening or funny tale. Some are a little long for a single post so I will be breaking them into two or three parts.

I hope you enjoy reading my therapy and my love of stories as much as I enjoy the writing!

-- Nancy