Monday, January 02, 2006

Thanks.











Image of one of my writing desks at home. I currently have five writing desks, each with a different purpose.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

First, I would like to thank everyone who expressed their concern for me and my family since my last post. In no particular order: Gretchen, Lily, Vince, Beth, Paula, Cynthia, Robin, Maisie, Vicky, Judith Heartsong, Christina and her mom. Thank you for your thoughts, prayers, meditations, and for the information you shared about our son's illness.

Because this is a public forum and I use my real name, I won't talk about my son's illness in detail, but I will give a brief overview of what has happened the last month. Our son had to be hospitalized at the very beginning of December, just before the end of the semester, my busiest and most stressful time. I went on automatic pilot for a while. There was much to do at work and we visited our son at the hospital every day. Adding to our stress, during the time he was hospitalized, the temperatures here were bitter cold and we had two significant snowstorms, making the road conditions extremely treacherous.

Slowly, I have returned to myself. When I experience a devastation or a lot of stress, I need to retreat and take a lot of alone time. It helps me to sort things out. It isn't that I don't feel connected to my creative life or to my friends, but something important in me shuts down. As a result, I have to rebuild myself.

A lot has happened to me since I've been a Lecturer at BGSU: I lost both parents and a brother, and I had a major, life-altering operation. Not one of those events--not all of those events combined--approached the anguish I felt about our son's illness.

Our family has had and continues to have good and bad days, but I am happy to report that our son is now on promising medications. He is out of the hospital and doing better. I am feeling a sense of balance in my life again, enough to resume the blog.

I have visited your blogs and noticed that some of you posted pictures of your writing desks. So I reenter the world of blogging by offering mine. I have (right now) five desks at home. I say "right now" because I am ever adding another desk. I collect them, it seems. Each desk has a different purpose.

The desk in the photo is one I use to write letters and do typing projects. I am the owner of three wonderful manual typewriters I bought off eBay. This gray one is an Olympia model, made in the fifties. It has a wide carriage and is tough as a tank. I've been using it the last few weeks to type out notecards for my Ohio River Boat Journey project. (Many of you will remember that my husband and I floated down the Ohio River for 8 weeks this past summer and that I'm trying to write a book about it.)

Look to the right of the typewriter: see that big stack of notecards? Those are the cards I've finished. I would say there are probably around 150 cards in that stack alone. And I have just barely scratched the surface of my project.

The open box to the right of the cards is a cigar box one of my sons gave me, actually the son that is ill. I'm using this box to hold the finished cards. I can envision I will need several boxes to hold cards. I haven't done notecards since I wrote my Master's Thesis back in the '80s (From X to I: The Evolution of Salinger's Narrative Method). I'd forgotten how much fun it is to do notecards! Yes, that's right. I love doing notecards!

It is probably hard to see, but on the back of the desk is an old-fashioned glass milk bottle. Inside it is a long stick wrapped with leather, decorated with beads, and topped with a buzzard skull. I collect bones and skulls (more on that sometime). My husband made this stick for me many years ago, and I cherish it. Inside the jar is also a back scratcher shaped like a hand. It has an element of magic to me, and I enjoy looking at it.

Just to the left of the jar, glowing orange, is a turtle nightlight.

Next to the jar is a stuffed bird, another of my Goodwill treasures, a recent acquisition, one I've had to take a lot of ribbing for. As you can see, our youngest son, Brian placed a plastic gorilla on its back when he was here for Christmas, as a joke. That is a quirky habit our sons have: they rearrange my treasures in order to "tell" funny stories. So my bird suddenly has "a monkey on its back" and a hungry lion attacking its feet. My stuffed characters from Nightmare Before Christmas suffer similar terrors, although Sally is forever being saved by Jack or vice-versa. And etc.

Next to the bird is a white monkey-like creature my husband made from clay. We raku fired the piece in our yard just this past summer. The tall blue cat was also made by my husband, back when Bill Bradley was running for president. The cat looks like Bill Bradley to me, so I call it Bradley. Behind Bradley, on the wall, is a mirror.

On the left corner of the desk is a cedar letterbox my husband made for my mother many years ago. When she died, I assumed possession of it. Hanging from the little green lamp is a cloth bird from India, a gift from one of my creative writing students.

The picture on the wall is a collage by Marce Dupay.

Well, that is one little corner of my life.

Again, thanks to all for your comfort and your patience. May we all have a wonderful, productive year.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Holy cow, I love you dear. What a delight to see you back. And what a GREAT return post--I love this picture and description of your (this) desk. Wasn't it smart of Christina to start this "here's my writing space" tradition? And I'm so jealous that you have a buzzard skull...how cool is that? Symbolism upon symbolism. Once again, I love you dear.
Paula
http://journals.aol.com/paulajlambert/PaulaLambert-Author

Anonymous said...

Whoo-ee, girl! Pink? PINK?! I'd never have guessed it...tells me it's time to rethink the pajama-mama party! You up for it yet?
Paula
http://journals.aol.com/paulajlambert/PaulaLambert-Author

Tammy Brierly said...

Theresa, I have really missed you! I checked your journal as much as I could hoping for good news. We had recently met, but your comments kept me journaling. I'm so glad to hear your son is doing better and you took time for yourself to be there for your family and students.

8 weeks on the Ohio River...Wow!

alphawoman said...

Glad to see you hav returned and that your son is on the road to recovery.

V said...

Ahh, a new Theresa post. Just what I`ve been longing to see.
You & your husband must be so relieved over your son`s recovery.
And now you owe us 4 more writing desk photos. This arrangement is beautiful.
V

Anonymous said...

Theresa, I don't see how to poste a comment to the (awesome) rabbit entry? Is that an error of some kind, problem on my end, or are you not interested in receiving comments there?
Paula

Anonymous said...

Oh, my dear, you are back! I am so happy about your return! I love this photo and your description of it. And I am delighted that your son is on the mend. I hope that your soul is healing too - it certainly appears so.

Welcome home.

Love, Vicky - and I love the new look!

emmapeelDallas said...

Theresa,

It is GREAT to see you back, and to hear that your son is doing better. I've been writing Lily, asking her if she'd heard anything. I love the pink, and I'm so happy to see you back here.

Judi

Christina K Brown said...

Oh my Mom will be so excited to know you are back too!!! She is ia AZ right now but I will tell her!


And I love this little space and the stories behind each item, I didn't think to tell the stories of the stuff. I should have. I love the type writter because for some reason my heart thinks that that is how things should be done.

And the monkey on my back....


I wonder, does this mean that the river trip will be something to buy then? I bet the answer is yes. Will you tease us here and there?

Christina K Brown said...

PS: I have missed you.

Paul said...

I am so relieved to hear that your son is getting better, Theresa. Write on.

Tamara said...

Dearest Theresa,

I'm soooooo glad to see that you are back and to hear that your son is doing better. I have kept you both in my prayers and I hope you know that mother to mother, woman to woman...my heart goes out to you!

Welcome back dear lady...welcome back!

Hugs,

T

dreaminglily said...

Oh it's so good to see you back! Such a relief. I've been so worried about your family.

Beautiful desk, beautiful typewriter. I have a love of old typewriters but I haven't found one I've bonded with yet. When I find one that hits a heartstring I'll know I need to get it.

Much love,

~Lily

Judith HeartSong said...

you know that we have been thinking of you.... and I loved this glimpse into your process.

Anonymous said...

What really knocks me out is a book that,
when you're all done reading it,
you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours
and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it.
That doesn't happen much, though.
~ J. D. Salinger ~
How wonderful to find you again!
ggw07@aol.com

Dreaming

Dreaming

About Me

My photo
Northwest Ohio, United States
"I was no better than dust, yet you cannot replace me. . . Take the soft dust in your hand--does it stir: does it sing? Has it lips and a heart? Does it open its eyes to the sun? Does it run, does it dream, does it burn with a secret, or tremble In terror of death? Or ache with tremendous decisions?. . ." --Conrad Aiken

Followers

Search This Blog

Epistle, by Archibald MacLeish

What I'm Listening To

My Music

Great Artists

www.flickr.com
This is a Flickr badge showing public photos from theresarrt7. Make your own badge here.

Fave Painting: Eden

Fave Painting:  Eden

Fave Painting: The Three Ages of Man and Death

Fave Painting:  The Three Ages of Man and Death
by Albrecht Dürer

From the First Chapter

The Secret of Hurricanes : That article in the Waterville Scout said it was Shake- spearean, all that fatalism that guides the Kennedys' lives. The likelihood of untimely death. Recently, another one died in his prime, John-John in an airplane. Not long before that, Bobby's boy. While playing football at high speeds on snow skis. Those Kennedys take some crazy chances. I prefer my own easy ways. Which isn't to say my life hasn't been Shake-spearean. By the time I was sixteen, my life was like the darkened stage at the end of Hamlet or Macbeth. All littered with corpses and treachery.

My Original Artwork: Triptych

My Original Artwork:  Triptych

Wishing

Wishing

Little Deer

Little Deer

Transformation

Transformation

Looking Forward, Looking Back

Looking Forward, Looking Back
CURRENT MOON
Powered By Blogger

Labels