Be In Touch

Before Facebook or Twitter and before digital T.V. happened, I was a bit of an avid T.V. watcher with the local channels. I must admit that of all the channels I still really miss PBS the most and still make an effort to see some of my favorites from their shows online as they share them. I also was a fan of ABC's World News Tonight with Peter Jennings. I felt a uncomplicated sadness when he departed from this world in 2005 and from his anchorage on the news. His final sign-off still poignant in my brain because of its honesty and YouTube where I can view it and re-live that simple minute from time to time - "The journalist who doesn't value deeply the audiences loyalty should be in another line of work." I've not kept up with whomever is reporting now either. Since I was in high school, I was also a bit of a news junkie and interested in journalism in general. My Grandpa Hatch wrote human interest stories for a local station and I remember having conversations with him about different stories he thought about writing. I loved that he wanted to celebrate the goodness of humanity by writing the stories that should be told more often. So, as you realize, I basically used to enjoy watching the show 20/20 when Barbara Walters and Hugh Downs were hosting it. I enjoyed the stories they covered and always in anticipation I expected the closing line of the show: "We'll be in touch so you'll be in touch." I'm not sure why but that line was somewhat comforting perhaps because I knew that it was coming. For some reason, it caused me to reflect on what I would report from my own life and I felt even then that I needed to write down those reports. Sadly, I didn't always take myself up on that task. I'm still working on a remedy for when I fail to write because the truth is I do enjoy writing. I need to make it a significant part of my daily life and see where that leads me. I'm tired of missing out because I forget what's been happening around me because I didn't write a little something down. So, now's the time for me to change that and here's my way of making a come back to stay in touch with you.

We'll start in November where I had an excited and roaring start with NaNoWriMo only to fizzle out in the end toward an epic FAIL to make it to the 50K deadline. Even though I didn't make it, I'm still amazed with the writing I did do and what came out of attempting this goal. I was able to enter three poems I wrote into a poetry contest and I'm looking forward to seeing if anything comes from that. This definately helps me not feel like a complete failure and the writing I did does not feel like a waste of time at all. I'm alright with it and even like some of it. In fact, I look forward to my third attempt at NaNoWriMo next year. "Third times a charm," right?

Another significant thing that happened in Novemeber was the passing of my father-in-law, Melvin, on Nov. 9th. I still remember readng the text from my husband about it and feeling unbelief. Even though he was eighty-two, it felt so unexpected. I still remember reading his daughter Martha's facebook status when I heard the news: "Exactly one month to the day of my mother's passing, my father passed away. I like to think that it was because he was missing my mom too much." This affected me deeply and I can't explain it. Perhaps because I was looking forward to working with him on a family history project for his dear Clara. Since her death, he had seemed very urgent about it and I could feel his urgency but I didn't reciprocate it back to him like he deserved. I was worried about other non-essential things I realize in hindsight. His efforts to encourage and help me were huge and he fulfilled them right away. He wasn't waiting around, he mailed me what I needed to make sure that this project would happen. Now, I need to fulfill my end of the deal. I'm working on that including the grieving process. Most of all, even though I miss my parents-in-law, I am quite happy that they are together in heaven for their upcoming anniversary of 60 years of marriage this month. I'm learning the depth and scope of their lives and the difference they silently made in their efforts to help others as much as they could serve them. There are many things I hope to continue learning about their lives. I only lived close to them in the first four years of my marriage and I wasn't always as great in the gratitude department when I had that privelege. Looking back, I feel very thankful that they have been a part of my life and my children's lives. I know that we will continue to remember them.

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
Shades of the prison-house begin to close
Upon the growing Boy,
But He beholds the light, and whence it flows,
He sees it in his joy;
The Youth, who daily farther from the east
Must travel, still is Nature's Priest,
And by the vision splendid
Is on his way attended;
At length the Man perceives it die away,
And fade into the light of common day.

~William Wordsworth