Monday, March 28, 2011

Writer's Block

    I've been in a bit of a writer's slump. It happens from time to time. I spent the morning tapping keys. Sometimes when I simply sit a tap, tap, tap, and idea will pop into my head and I'm off to the races.

    Today, that didn't happen. I fetched my special muse baseball cap from the back of the closet and put it on. I've had it for as long as I can remember and it looks a little sad, but I hold on to it because....well because it's my muse cap. Tap, tap, tap -- nothing.
I flipped through my old pictures, and even put on my kaleidoscope screen saver.
While it did feel as though I was having one of those drug flashbacks they said I'd have, my mind was as clean as a window in a Windex commercial.

    So I decided to go for a walk.  Down behind the barn, I came upon one of our wild honeysuckle bushes in full bloom.


    These are really a type of wild azaleas, but my grandmother called them wild honeysuckles, and even though she's beed dead for twelve years, I wouldn't dare go against her word.
She lived to be 95, and was a snuff dipper. Yep, she bought Bruton Snuff in pint glasses.

    Like most other folks who survived the depression, she wouldn't dream of throwing away a good glass so she had a cabinet full of them.  When the grandkids visited her, they drank their ice tea from a Bruton Snuff glass.

    Once when I took her to the cemetery to decorate graves in the spring, I saw beautiful bush in full bloom. "That's a wild honeysuckle," she said "I think it's the best part of spring."

    Today, as I walked empty headed down behind the barn, I came across this gift, and I thought of my grandmother. All of a sudden, my writer's block drifted away. 

11 comments:

  1. Beautiful....love how writer's block disappears on a walk. Works for me:)
    Lovely memories!

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  2. Anonymous1:17 AM

    And that's the way inspirational moments come to us...nothing, nothing, nothing and then POP there it is! Actually the wild azalea does look like honey suckle so your Grandma was right. Maybe there's a genetic connection?

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  3. My grandma was the greatest person in my life growing up. I idolized her and she taught me about birds and flowers and nature and cooking and baking. Every time I see birds or hear them I think of her. When I bake, I think of her. The memories were made so long ago and are fresh today as they were 45 years ago. Grandma's are so special.

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  4. Those blooms do resemble honeysuckle, so I can see why she might have called them that. What a beautiful bush (?) that is.

    We used to drive down a country road almost every day that went past a woman's house who had every kind of iris imaginable growing in her yard. One day we stopped to admire her lovely yard and she offered us some of her plants!

    There was one iris that she called a Louisiana orchid, that later we found out was a dutch iris (bulb instead of rhizome) but her name for it stuck in my mind forever more. Those older women are quite sure in their names of plants, and it wouldn't matter if you tried to explain to them otherwise, they are the ones who KNOW! :)
    tm

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  5. Grandmothers are the best, I still have them both and love every minute with them! Aren't we lucky just to have them (had them) in our lifes?

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  6. Anonymous7:05 AM

    Nice post! I liked it :)

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  7. We have apple blossoms and Sunday night snow. In a month we will have weeds. Ya'all are so blessed to have wild honeysuckle.

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  8. I love the idea that memories can jar us from our writers' block. Great post and beautiful sentiment!

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  9. Hooorah for wild azaleas, your gorgeous grandmother and her collection of Snuff glasses!!! Now that's what I call a bevy of inspiration!!

    Take care
    x

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  10. Humm? Writer's block - can't say that I have personally experienced that. Now THINKER'S block, yeesh, I've struggled with that one off and on for decades. :)

    Loved the wild honeysuckle pictures, and the story of your grandmother even better.

    BTW - my first Ireland post (Blarney and Clorox Wipes) was a day or two ago.

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  11. I guess writer's block is like your gorgeous azaleas...waiting to bloom!! Like the seasons, the imagination comes to life again and is fruitful...yours will too, because you do it so well!!

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