Write an abecedarian of whimsical companions that can cheer you up when you are low, inspire you and bring joy.
A whimsical prompt from the brilliant Amanda Earl
Write an abecedarian of whimsical companions that can cheer you up when you are low, inspire you and bring joy.
I love that abecedarian can mean in alphabetical order, or a person who is just learning. I feel that both are appropriate here.
Tomorrow I start working at a magical bookstore only two minute drive from my house (I haven’t attempted the walk yet, as there are many many hills and the weather has been…quixotic…and unreliable. Sometimes it’s sunshine and birdsong and then the next minute it’s windy with sinister intent) and I’m excited to be shelving books and talking with people who love words.
My own novel has become a delightful mess of ideas and form and I love it dearly and am almost certain that not a single publisher would want to publish it, and that it might be one of the strangest things that ends up on my bookshelf. It is possible that I will only ever make one copy and sew it together with fancy thread and print it on several different types on cloth. And maybe it’ll just end up under my pillow, a stuffed creature full of words.
I think that’s likely as good a segue as any into my
ABECEDARIAN
OF
WHIMSICAL COMPANIONS
A is for Amanda Earl a whimsy loving writer that brings wondrous worlds to life in poetry and spinning text and prose and drawings. She is a creative human ahead on the path with whom I could sit and chat for hours! I am fascinated by the community magic she brings to the world, and how ravenous she is for words and I love how open and honest she is about her sexual proclivities and finances and medical conditions. I feel so absurdly honoured to know her and call her friend.
In her own words from a comment on another strange post of mine about what sort of creature I am, where I asked what sort of creature you might be, this was her response. (It’s so wondrously written I didn’t want it to be lost there)
A raven with iridescent wings, i fly into black and white dreams to give them colour, joy, imagination and a sense of well being. I croak colour into a grey day, each sound is red, yellow, blue. I sing gold into trees. I fly with purple dragons and frolic beside blue whales. I am a friend to the polka dot cat and the tiny tortoise. (A sample of Amanda’s writing! For more go check out
)Just writing that was invigorating.
I think though maybe I was supposed to make up some whimsical creatures and I messed up the assignment.
I have so many incredible humans in my life who inspire me regularly. Who lift me up. Who I can weep with. Laugh uncontrollably with. Be fascinated with. My life is full up with brilliant humans. And I’m always meeting more. I’m ever grateful for the whimsical humans who’ve known me for ages, and with who I can just talk, no matter how long it’s been. I’m not sure I experience linear time in friendships/relationships. It’s more like a…cloud of iridescence and that everything that has ever happened or will happened is in that cloud. I’m not sure I’m explaining it very well. I understand that time passes, but my feelings for my friends…they don’t degrade, they are not eroded by time. Far from it. My friendships are like magic beans growing to the sky, and my friends are all on adventures of their own, and I’m grateful for the moments where they pop in to say hello, but I do not expect daily contact or on-going interactions, and for the most part, I’m incapable of maintaining the kind of friendship that demands.
I’m the kind of friend that is happy to be there when you’re wanting to celebrate, or to grieve, or to show me a little thing that made you think. I am not good at being your one friend. I’m a complement to your friendship circle. A reliable will o the wisp who will always love you, but whose physical presence isn’t always available.
I do have deep friendships. But they are with people who are similar to me. We don’t demand things of each other. Our support is reciprocal and takes strange forms cultivated to just that friendship. They exist out of time. They are forever friendships. For those friends I’m grateful to a point without words to describe it.
And maybe that does make me a sort of imaginary friend you can summon. But I exist in a different world where I’m responsible for parenting two human children, walking our pup, making meals, doing laundry, keeping sure this family unit is safe…
But when I’m with you, I get to be a purple dragon, a dreamer of strange fictions, a summoner of joyful oddity…a part of your abecedarian of whimsical creatures. And I’m happy to be here.
Heart,
Wake
The earth is turning, I know I won’t fall off. The purple peoples pods are stupendous. The hoot of the owl is invigorating as I walk through the forest on a cool spring evening. Wake you are the best and most delightful friend.💖
goodness. thank you, my dear. i am glad we are whimsical, magical companions on this road. i also love the term "quixotic" to describe the weather. i think it's a quixotic century. you're amazing. hearts and hugs from a rainy Ottawa... xo