Day #24: Two random thoughts

One. Today is July 24, marking one more week of my 31-day blogging challenge to myself.

To say I’m looking forward to the end is an understatement. “Having” to write every day has been … not always so enjoyable. But I’ve learned that — as many writers have said — writing is not always fun and it’s not easy, but you get your butt in the chair and “get ‘er done.” And I have.

A lot of this writing has been garbage, or “compost,” as Natalie Goldberg says. I wasn’t really expecting it to be anything much. This challenge has been about process, and discipline, which I suck at.

Mostly it’s been about starting again, seeing if I care about writing as much as I used to. I do, but it’s different. It seems to be no longer about the adrenalin brought on by big stories and deadlines, knowing everyone’s business in a community our size, chasing police cars and fire trucks, to see who survives, and who doesn’t.

It’s the quiet stories, the one-on-one conversations I have with people I talk with at work, trying to solve a problem. People with problems most of us can’t imagine, brought on by a life of trauma, who can’t believe that they, too, serve happiness and respect. They can’t think of a life other than what they’ve grown up in.

Maybe some of these details will work their way into a larger piece, something I’m passionate about, like criminal justice reform or fixing a broken mental health system. An essay. A book. Way down the road. But these ideas are weaving their way back through my brain, waking me up again, urging me to rethink, rediscover, my purpose.

Two. I walked my dog around the yard after work. It was too hot to do much more, but I noticed that the creeping thistle, AKA Canada thistle or field thistle, has gone to seed. It reminded me of the milkweed down that carries its seeds on the wind. The last time I looked, there were purple flowers on the tall thistle. And now, its seed delivery system is letting loose.

This perennial herb is considered invasive and noxious, and spreads like crazy both through seed and a lateral root system that sends up shoots when broken. Farmers hate it, hummingbirds, bees and butterflies love its nectar. According to Permaculture magazine, it is “a highly nutritious and medicinal weed.” https://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/thistles-a-highly-nutritious-and-medicinal-weed/.

I knew none of this before our brief walk, only that the plant was called thistle and that I was (at first) disappointed to see its lavender flowers go to seed. But up close, seeing their clouds — stopping, noticing, really seeing — brought me joy.

That’s what writing does for me too, if I slow down and allow it to help me deeply see the world around me. In all its glory. Even the noxious parts, which are so much more than that.