Post #155 – Women’s Memoirs, Writing Prompt – Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler
Happy Fourth of July
July 4th. A day of honoring our history. A day for celebrations. A day for picnics with hot dogs and potato salad. If you’re from Kendra’s family, it’s a day of red, white, and blue deviled eggs. (More about that in a couple of months.) A day for fireworks.
In Corvallis, the fireworks started late in the evening of July 3. Perhaps you heard some going off in your town as well.
But today, I’d like to reflect on the notion of independence. Personal independence. What was the first time that you took a stand for independence? Were you a teenager? Maybe not until later in life. What caused you to not go along with what was expected of you? How did it work out?
How do you now feel about independence? Do you prefer to let someone else take the lead and you become the agreeable second person? For some people that seems to work. But others get caught somewhere between the desire to please others and to please themselves.
I hope on this day you’ll find some quiet time to think about your own independence. Sometimes it needs to be defended just as our nation defended its right to be independent. Do you put aside your writing when someone else needs something? Is everyone else in the family more important than your time to write about your life? I hope the answer is no. But if you are thinking “well, that’s somewhat true,” then make today the day when you declare the value of your writing by determining your writing schedule and sticking to it for the rest of the year.
Then watch out world. You’ll be amazed at what you can get accomplished when you set reasonable goals and then work to achieve them.
We’d like to hear your thoughts on this.
