Emily Dickinson

What does it mean when I read an Emily Dickinson poem that I could have sworn was one I wrote in Junior High?

If I can stop one heart from breaking, 
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.


I'm quite serious. As I read this in the book of poetry I recently bought my 11-year-old, I remembered it overwhelmingly and could have sworn it was one of the many poems I scrawled onto scraps of paper during seventh grade. I was quite surprised when I saw Ms. Dickinson listed as the author. Presumably she didn't steal my work, but I was still taken aback.

I suppose the fact that the poem reads "unto his nest again" instead of "into her nest again" should have been my first clue that the poem was Emily's, and not mine. Clearly, however, she and I share a certain spirit. (No surprise to anyone who knows me - right, Megan?) And I must say that it's healthier for me to focus on this poem instead of I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died, which was my particular poetic obsession during college.

Nevertheless - I tip my hat to the Lady in White and her poetry. It took me almost four decades to come back to this poem and recognize that it summarizes my life purpose perfectly.

Campout Art

After leaving for work on Friday morning, I didn't make it back home until lunchtime on Mother's Day because it was Girl Scout campout weekend with our troop. Luckily, it wasn't the "roughing it" kind of campout. We had bunks and a fridge, not to mention showers and lavatories. (Whew....)

I spent a significant amount of time last night fighting with our fire (or lack thereof) and, therefore, ended up smelling quite smoky and having some free time available for artistic pursuits.

My daughter was playing with the charcoal first and made the big black mark on the rock. I started playing around with it after she left and ended up making the lady's face, the tree, the funky "thought waves" (or whatever those are coming off of her) and the few birds up in the lefthand corner of the rock. I was much more impressed with my art than others were, but sometimes we just have to happy with the fact that we impressed ourselves. Don't we? (By the way - may I just point out that I tried to use shades of grey to add depth to the drawing on the left side? If you look closely, you might notice that side of the stone is darker because I took charcoal powder and tried to make clouds, or sky or shadows or something like that.)

The mother/daughter campout was a splendid way to spend Mother's Day weekend and I appreciated my Sunday bubble bath even more than normal once I made it into the warm water today.

Of course, then I opened up my Mother's Day present from my son. He'd spent days working on a book for me and it's lovely. But the first two pages talk about how I don't like it when his room is messy (that one has a picture of him telling me "sorry") and that I don't like it when he and his sister are silly.

Sigh.

Obviously, I have a long way to go in the mother department. But I'm closer than I used to be!

Promoting Geekdom

I did my part today to promote Geekdom and all things nerdy. As it turns out, the first Saturday in May is Free Comic Book Day and, of course, what kind of mom would I be if I didn't take my seven-year-old son to Austin Books and Comics at 8 a.m. in the morning so we could get our 10 free comic books?

A crummy mom, that's what I'd be. And I'm all about being a great mom. So....the two of us headed down Lamar bright and early to stand in line with my kind of people (i.e. smart guys with quirky senses of humor who tend to get very passionate about odd issues) and other parents of small children who also wanted to expose their kiddos to great culture. (A shout out to the other Jennifer and her little man who found us in line!)

We weren't alone as we waited in the long line for our swag. The Hulk made an appearance...

My youngest was beyond thrilled by his free new comic books (especially the G.I. Joe book). Between the ride in the car, the reading during breakfast at Galaxy Cafe, and the 30 minutes on the couch once he returned home - I bet he spent at least an hour reading comic books today. Way to go comic culture, for getting my first grader excited about reading for an hour on a Saturday morning!