Tuesday, December 3, 2024

Capturing Writing: Little Elm and Grammar

We read Amos and Boris. 

A place I like to go is anywhere I've been doing a project. After the tools are put away and the paint has dried, I like to walk out there and just stand. To look at the progress. To bask in the...mess...and what might be next...but mostly to feel the change in what wasn't and now is. To feel how the sound of the place changes the echoes of my footsteps. To see how the sky changes the light with a new structure or the absence of a branch or 5,000. (edited to add of too (excess) many dead branches. 

Acting on Impulse Structure. 

Thirteen minutes ago, I thought of the outdoor kitchen and all my projects. It's now almost time for lunch, but my mind still sees Jason's hands reaching down form the tar-papered roof to grab the corrugated red panels of metal. He peeks across the panels and down at me with a cautious smile. He's checking to see if the rise hurt my shoulder and if I'm ready to release my grip as he pulls it above my head. 

I wanted to talk about all the projects and explain how I feel satisfaction in getting things done. But now I realize that's not really what makes the spaces somewhere I like to go. 

Instead, I realize that it's not about what or where but about who was with me during and after the creating. 

A Staggering Thing I Saw Structure

I was teaching grammar in Little Elm ISD when mom sent a text message. 

It was a picture of Willow and her new kitten foster, Gingerly. Willow's nose was right next to the kitten's. 

My heart said, Ahhh! and I felt love for mom and how all creatures flock to her *edited to add like barefooted kids to the cool relief of the snow cone stand). I admired her all over again. 

Then it was time for the group to discuss the text structure and conjunctions. The point of which is to know and understand how ideas are connected. How a reader folows the path of reasoning over rocks in a river crossing...arriving with dry feet (edited to add, refining teh clarity of mind, and reviving a purpose behind grammar). 

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