I love micro-fiction. I have a former film professor who writes brilliant short, precise and fantastic character based fiction and he did it in Facebook posts. I looked so forward to these fictional microcosms breaking up the wondrous (at the time) posts from my friends documenting their lives. I miss very few things from the land of social media, but his short stories and the wondrous descriptions of my friends daily activities. Those things I miss.
A very old friend of mine described this newsletter as a one-sided communication. And she’s right, mostly. On Facebook I took the time to respond to comments and keep up with the lives of my friends. But with 3000 people as friends, it became a job in itself. I was spending 8 hours a day on Facebook. I did that for over a decade!
While I was parenting small children, that social media platform was my lifeline, it kept me from the sometimes utter and destroying loneliness of not having people my own age to talk with. It connected me with other parents experiencing the same thing, but it also kept me connected with poets, comedians and storytellers. We coordinated events and I had two lives. My life as a parent, and my life as a creative community organizer and writer, performer.
I am grateful for all of that.
Now my kids are nearly 13 and nearly 16. They don’t need me all the time, which has given me some freedom to do different things with my time.
This past six months of being off social media and moving someplace new has given me time to read, to write (both my own books, this daily newsletter and letters to friends) and I try not to feel guilty about taking a year of fallow from constant community building and social engagement tendencies.
I have made friends here in my new home. I get to meet people from Nova Scotia and all over the world at my two jobs, and I have had such incredible conversations at the dog park.
I am absurdly grateful for these moments.
I never really expected anyone to read this daily newsletter or to engage with the prompts. But people have! And I’ve made friends here, reading other people’s newsletters.
It *is* a tiny corner of the world. And I’m grateful you are here. And I have no expectations. Which has freed up my heart to just enjoy what it is. A daily place to sort my life, to engage in the practice of writing, and to challenge myself to make up whimsical prompts for me, and anyone who wants to write along with me. Like a small playground for people who write.
And this week I think I want to focus on creating tiny engulfing 300 word worlds. So here I go, making up the prompts.
All of these have a 300 hard limit for me (but you do you!)
Write the prompts (done)
Write a story from the perspective of some kind of whale.
Write a story from the perspective of a root vegetable.
Write a story about a child losing their favourite toy.
Write a story about a bird choosing somewhere to build its nest.
Write a story about a brunch gone wrong.
Write a story featuring running water.
There is a lot of truth in which you speak.
I am longing for a time when I don’t have to hear or heed others.
A time when I’m not obliged to concern myself with needs.
The quiet of a forest and water gurgling..