First Response, from Priscilla

 My collage inspired by the Prologue

During our first "LIAV Challenge" meeting back in November we had some great discussion and shared some of the writing from our journals inspired by the Prologue, the Introduction, and Part One of LIAV. It's hard to believe it's been four months since our last meeting and after reading more and more of LIAV with my Advanced Composition class (in honor of Angela Faith Kania) I am inspired to get this "challenge" going again.

Here are some of my responses for those of you that weren't able to make it to our first meeting. (The journal topics are in this font and my response are in this font.)

Prologue: Why 37 Days? What would you be doing if you only had 37 days to live? 

I tried to make a list of 37 things but only got to 17! Here are my top 10.

1. writing
2. sharing
3. connecting
4. LOVING
5. helping
6. creating
7. traveling (seeing
8. spending lots of time with family and close friends
9. hearing good music
10. dancing

My next 7 are...
-telling stories
-breathing fresh air
-singing
-making Annalee smile
-eating great food
-drinking good wine
-laughing

I really loved Valerie's quote, "I would sing...with no thoughts of success or failure."

Introduction--What if our lives are books? What is the sign of our presence?

*living with intention is the opposite of living passively--REFLECT--digest--ruminate. 

I see my blog as my "book," a physical place to write in the margins of my life. I really do write to remember--I want all of the nuances to fit together and make sense in life, and the more I write, the more I notice and the more I'm inspired, and the more things fit together and make sense. I also write my personal blog  because I truly love sharing things with people--sometimes to a fault. I just can't STOP and enjoy a moment sometimes--I want to share it, capture it, connect it, whether on Facebook, or with a camera or a text or a phone call. 

*So, how do I live to write in the margins of life, as Patti says? Is blogging my way of doing this?

We do so not by just passively flipping pages, by not remaining silent--by telling our stories...which leads to...

"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." --Anais Nin

Part One: Inhabit Your Story, Chapter One: Write to remember: What makes you, you? What is your story?

Notes I took from the chapter:

-"We inhabit ourselves without valuing ourselves" from Joyce Carol Oates poem

-"...here, no, this very moment is sacred..." from Joyce Carol Oates poem

-"Being lost only has meaning when contrasted with knowing where you are" from David Hollies, "Lost and Found" poem

-my mechanism for "storying my life" is blogging--it helps me learn from and leave something behind for others. 

-it is my strategy for learning--for determining who I am--who I yearn to be. 

-Reminds me of the quote: "Write to make the great escape. To save yourself." --G.Lynn Neslon

-Reminds me of my famous quote, "I am not lost. I am RIGHT HERE." while pointing to my pages of journals.

What is my story? This is all I could come up with:

Maybe more will come to me as I read!

I look forward to our next meeting and encourage everyone to post their own work inspired by LIAV!

~Priscilla