Wednesday 28 October 2009

It was the end of a long day ...

...and I was standing in International Arrivals but it didn't matter because I was waiting for MissM and I was so looking forward to listening to her tell me about the weekend. There was a continuous stream of people walking past me and after a while I started watching them - the couple with matching bright yellow suitcases; the shortest shorts ever; the young girl reading the last pages of her novel as she walked; the elderly couple who looked as though they had just arrived from a farm in Lapland - and so on and on...all the endless variety that is there whenever you care to lift your head and see. And I thought 'I used to be able to write a blog post about this' and it seemed incredible that I could turn such ordinary things into words. I started wondering why the words were not there any more and tried hard to understand what the difference is between 'then' and 'now'. Perhaps I have less to write about - I am hoping that is not true. Perhaps I fill my time with lists of things to do and leave no space for thinking - possibly closer to the truth. Whatever ... there are things that I need to record and so I must get back into the habit of writing again.

There is just one new rule...no whingeing...

(and that is not on the approved list
but, as you know,
I have never been very good at memes)

20 comments:

  1. but instead you wrote this blog post..which as far as I am concerned is just another way of turning ordinary things into words.
    You sum up the feeling of where you were perfectly.

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  2. Just keep showing up and the Muse eventually returns to you. At least, that's what I keep telling myself.

    Also, you never know, maybe your short posts (of which you don't think very highly) are actually the Muse for someone else's writer's block?!! Ahem.

    With love, E xxxx

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  3. Your words are perfect. Every time.

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  4. You always have a way with words that are an absolute pleasure to read.

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  5. ooooh. Very effective.
    Of course you are in a very common phase in the "life of a blogger."
    Fortunately for us, you have conquered it nicely.
    ON to tomorrow!

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  6. And perhaps those things that you deem uninteresting or unworthy of inclusion in a blog post might be things that thrill someone else. Such as descriptions of life in the international wing of an airport. Which seems far from ordinary and most delicious to me... xoxo

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  7. I think your words came out just perfectly. They're still in you. They just need a little nurturing.

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  8. ... end of a long day ... international terminal arrivals and all that emotion and anticipation in the air ... sounds like a recipe for sitting with one's feet up listening to the traveller's tales once home safely. Hope you did.

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  9. don't you just LOVE the arrivals of an international airport?

    I always cry watching people...

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  10. Oh but the words are there Alice - you have just written them, as poetically as ever.

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  11. Why would you feel like that? Your writing is always so amazing, so pleasing, so elegant.
    I am reading more and more girls in this very weird phase (hello Eurolush & Eleanor!)... I am wondering what it could be.
    But I will tell you and all the others please do not stop writing. Reading you all is such an important part of my days. They help me go through them.
    Fortunately we have bb who puts everyone back on tracks with her strong, uplifting advice.
    ON to tomorrow!
    Paola

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  12. We have only a few words, and once we use them up, it starts to feel like we repeat ourselves. Or rather, substitute "I" for "we" in the above. I find myself saying "I'm repeating some thought I've said before": but then I remember that I'm writing for me and not for anyone else, and I feel free to repeat.

    But it does seem harder these days to find things to say...

    To reassure *you*: your writing is always interesting!

    N.

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  13. I for one (coming in late on this............) loved the decriptions and the way you write is always a pleasure.

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  14. Alice, I meant to come here to your comment box to tell you how much I value and enjoy your writing. Now that I'm here, it seems others have stated it much more eloquently than I could have. So let me join the club and add my name to a long list of your admirers.

    You're a wonderful writer, with a singular outlook on the world. Life in blogland would be lonely and dull without your thoughts and words.

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  15. Plenty of words there, in my opinion! And you have just recorded a moment in time very vividly ... it's all a matter of perception. And sometimes real life comes first, and sometimes the words come first. But I hope you carry on writing - in whatever mode, and remember that the commonplace is just as interesting as the profound, as you have just proved!

    Pomona x

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  16. I wish I could right as elegantly as you do, and had the incredible ability you have of capturing a moment in a handful of sentences, yet equally I know that praise isn't always a stimulant for more writing

    And so (although I'm not sure why, and it might be somewhat pretentious of me and you are in no way compelled to do so) I challenge you to do what I used to do when I was an after dinner speaker (long time ago now, but I did competitions and everything). Use the theme "the cupboard under the stairs". Write about it, or dismiss it, or turn it into something else.

    And remember how fantastic words are, even when they are whingey ones....

    xx

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  17. I always look forward to your posts - I delight in their unpretentious simplicity - they have a wonderful "less is more" quality that I can only aspire to...

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  18. Maybe your voice is changing, not ending - I'm willing to wait and see.

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  19. So lovely to have you back. Hope all is well.

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  20. But you've just captured the scene and mood so perfectly. The words are definitely there :) K

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Thank you! I love reading your comments and even though I don't always have time to reply I am really grateful to every one who joins in the conversation.