Tuesday Slice of Life: Coloring

Looking to connect with a positive, supportive online community?  Consider sharing a slice of your life with Two Writing Teachers. All writers are welcome! 

Tuesday Slice of Life: Coloring 

"I brought coloring books. Does anyone want to color?"

"Oh my God! Yes!" Two sixteen-year-old students, sitting in the bus seat across from me, eagerly grab my small stash of coloring books, markers, and colored pencils. They page through the two books I brought, exclaiming at the spread of designs.

"I love to color," One of them shares, "I cannot even remember the last time I colored anything."

"Me too. We should have more times to color." 

Indeed, I think and smile. For now, their iPhones are put away and they are coloring and chattering. 

We are en route to a school-sponsored trip to Chicago. As a chaperone, I will be in close quarters with these high school students for the next three days. Beginning our trip with something light, like coloring on the bus, is a great way to begin our adventure. 

Why I Slice

I have been going through some heavy, messy personal stuff for a long time now. In the past week I have been especially grappling with some significant shame. Although writing is often healing for me, sometimes it also takes me on a path that makes it easy for me to ruminate on all that is painful. This sort of writing often comes out in my daily Morning Pages in my notebooks. 

My current notebook

Although I can usually talk about messy, heavy stuff with trusted friends and professionals, I purposely do not share in a public way - through social media or through blogging. 

Yesterday, for the first time in over a month, I wrote and posted this slice on Two Writing Teachers. Writing about an ordinary moment (playing games with my children when we were without power) helped me to focus in the best way. In addition, it reminded me how writing about one ordinary thing can be worthy of my time and valuable to leading a writerly life. As an unexpected bonus, writing a slice helped me set aside some of my shame yesterday. It helped me feel good. I needed this.

Chief of Operations and Lead Writer, Stacey Schubitz, reminds us that, "Our daily lives are filled with so many worthy moments just waiting to be written about and shared." Indeed, writing about ordinary moments is essential. In addition, I love reading small moments from other slicers and rereading some of my own slices. 

Thank you to the Two Writing Teachers writing community. This is why I slice.  

Tuesday Slice of Life: Sequence

Looking to connect with a positive, supportive online community?  Consider sharing a slice of your life with Two Writing Teachers. All writers are welcome! 

Tuesday Slice of Life: 
Sequence

"Mom, wanna play Sequence with us?" Eleven-year-old Alaina inquired. 

"Of course! I'll go get it!" I quickly responded, my heart giddy that my children wanted to play a board game with me. With each other. 

It was the second day without power following a massive storm. Batteries had long died from Nintendo DS systems, iPads, etc. Power banks were reserved for keeping cell phones charged and cell phone usage strictly monitored. Dusk was falling; no one was ready for sleep yet. 

Using our Coleman Carabineer Lantern, I ventured into the unlit basement and eventually found our weathered garage sale treasure of Sequence buried among forgotten jigsaw puzzles and various board games. Sequence game in hand, I cautiously climbed up the stairs.

The three of us sat on our living room floor, not too far from our bay window - the brightest spot in our house on summer evenings. Thirteen-year-old Isaac propped up a flashlight so we could see our game board and playing cards. 

That night we played two rousing rounds of Sequence before we retired to sleep. I imagine our giggles and elevated tones could be heard from outside our dark house. 

We created our own light that evening.