Knee highs, puddles, multi-tasking and a writing prompt

lizshine74by lizshine74

In Prompts.

Emy and I went shopping at Tuesday Morning last Friday. Man, I love that store. I bought all sorts of xmas gifties, including three toys for the dog. I think he’ll be most interested in unwrapping gifts this year. ☺ He’s curled up in a perfect ball in my line of sight right now. We just went for a walk in the cool night air. Fog hovered in the air at the track. I let him run off leash. He ran in circles, sniffed around and sprinted through puddles. Ah, to be a dog. Mostly, I bought gifts for people, but I did buy a couple of items for myself, including a pair of knee-highs. Now, I haven’t worn knee –highs since probably the third or second grade. Do you remember how good they are? How they don’t bunch around your ankles or slide down your shoes? I didn’t. How did I ever come to think I was too young for cable-knit knee-highs?
Puddles. We’ve had some trouble with those around here with streets closed and people flooded out of their homes. Personally, I was barely impacted by the storm early this week. It did, however, inspire me to buy a pair of rain boots, which are a perfect combination with my knee-highs. From now on, when I walk the dog in the rain, no more walking around or stepping over puddles. Splish. Splash. Fun!
This time of year is always a bit of a romp. It’s a busy time at school, but I have almost no interest in school at all and am keeping my eye on December 19 (winter break) at all times. I have the usual projects going on: decorating for Christmas to complete, Christmas cards to fill out, presents to buy, crafts to make and the usual projects to complete. In fact, I’m currently seeing double. If I could just forego sleep…

Prompt for this week:

Write about a gift or write something that can be given as a gift.

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Some past posts to keep you making time: 
Adjust your pace accordingly.
It’s about the routine and how you shake up the routine
There are things you will have to give up
See it to achieve it
Washing the dishes
Write slowly
A celebration of the pause
Monday, a run through the driving rain
Zen accident
Get out of your comfort zone

lizshine74

lizshine74

Liz Shine teaches high school English, writes, edits, and coaches other writers from her home in Olympia, WA. When she begins to feel overwhelmed by it all, she simply looks up at Mount Rainier in the distance and gets back to work. If that fails, she heads to the ocean. She is a founding editor at Red Dress Press. Her Substack Make Time is her gift to writers, like her, trying to magic time in this crazy, busy world. All of those posts are cross-posted on the blog here. You can see more of her writing at lizshine.com and find her on Instagram {@lizshine.writer} cooking, traveling, and in other ways seeking moments of awe. She has been an active participant in communities of writers since the early 1990s. She’s learned that two things feel truly purpose-driven in life: writing and coaching other writers. In the in between (because one cannot be driving for a purpose every moment), she enjoys looking for wonder and connection. She is a lifelong yoga student, an enthusiastic walker along streets and trails, and an amateur gardener and vegetarian cook. She lives in Olympia, WA in the USA. She believes in the power of practice and has been practicing writing since some time in the early 90s when she became an adult in the rain-soaked city of Aberdeen. Writing began with journaling, as a way to understand a confusing, sometimes violent coming-of-age. She writes mostly fiction, some nonfiction, and poetry, and holds an MFA from Pacific Lutheran University’s Rainier Writers Workshop. She has published in Shark Reef, Dual Coast, and Blue Crow Magazine. She is a founding editor at Red Dress Press.