I recently completed a Memoir class at The Writing Barn, a little piece of book-writing heaven tucked into a neighborhood on the edge of Austin. You would have no idea that just beyond those trees is a bustling city.
The Writing Barn, and it’s amazing classes, were raved about by Burnadette Noll when I had asked her for some advice on my project. She is the author of Slow Family Living and other great reads and was the key-note speaker at the Lucky Star Art Camp I was attending.
And although this was a two-hour weekly commute for me, it was well worth the drive. The writing class was taught by Donna Johnson author of her memoir, Holy Ghost Girl…a brilliant read about growing up in the tent revival family of Brother David Terrell.
She is fantastically brilliant and each week she gave us a different writing prompt based on what we learned in class that week.
Week 2’s Prompt was: “What have I come here to say about this situation?”
Whew! That was a tough question. Sure, I have a famous relative…but is that really what the whole FHB and Me project is about? The answer is NO. FHB and Me is so much bigger than that! So BIG that I have a hard time some days expressing it clearly. And while the project has developed a bit since I wrote this, the basis is still the same and will remain a consistent theme throughout.
What have I come here to say about this situation?
Plain and simple: I want to spread JOY. Her Joy, My Joy, and the Joy of those who come in contact with us along the way. To blow sunshine directly into to those who need it. It seems very Pollyanna of me…and Happily-Ever-After-ish…but it’s true.
I hope that people hear our words and want to Be Better, Live Louder, and Love Harder.
Frances said to her son just before her death, “With the best I have in me, I have tried to write more HAPPINESS into the world.”
I want to share her HAPPINESS mix it with a bit of my own…so that it spreads like wildflowers! (or is it wildfires?)
I like the idea of wild“flowers” spreading better, don’t you? Perhaps it’s not as fast…but it’s so much more beautiful over time!
OK, I looked it up, and it looks like the “proper” term is wildFIRES. 🙁
I was always terrible at remembering those sayings. For years I said… “It’s 8 ½ a dozen, one or the other”. I have a college education and considered myself relatively smart, until one day, I was in a high level meeting with a customer, and she stopped me and said: “I think you have that wrong”. I was mortified…even more so that NO ONE in my family EVER corrected me the million times I had said it before.
Did I ever mention how much I LOVE GOOGLE? In looking up the wildflowers thing…which I am planning to continue to use by the way, I found out that my “word issue” is actually a thing called Eggcorns.
It’s even in the dictionary now! Not sure why, but somehow I find it comforting to know that enough people have said these funny things too, that putting it in the dictionary became necessary. I don’t feel so alone now.
EGGCORNS: (acorns) a word or phrase that results from a mishearing or misinterpretation of another,
an element of the original being substituted for one that sounds very similar or identical
Some of my favorite examples are:
“Toe the line” or “Don’t get caught in the under Toad when swimming”
“It’s a mute point” and “Chester drawers”
“I pacifically told him” and one of my favorites: “I need to flush out the details”
“Escape goats” Which the GICO commercial is my favorite “escape goat” commercial ever!
“Take it for granite”, “Last stitch attempt”, “No wholes barred” and “for all intensive purposes”
Oh my goodness I could go on forever! Even though Frances didn’t have much of an education, I have yet to find any EGGCORNS in her writings, but I did hear that she could be a real “Jacquelyn Hyde”. (not really true, but you get my point)
Never taking things for granite,
FHB and especially Me
LET’s CHAT ABOUT IT:
Tell me your favorite Eggcorns that you have used (come on…confess them!) or have heard others use.
Best one gets a prize!