29 Comments

Thanks for sharing these "tiny engines". As a sometimes writer with an unreliable muse, these words sparked like jumper cables even as I simply scanned the list.

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Julie! I am enormously happy to hear this. Sparked like jumper cables is a very fine phrase.

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Thank you, Beth. I've printed them off and will definitely be doing something with them

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I am pretty sure it will be brilliant —

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Beth, I'd like to make a complaint!!! :) I started on your lists and finished up making a list of the places I've lived - came to over 30 all with a story to tell. I'm now working my way through them slowly but surely. It was fascinating but took me totally away from where I was expecting to be LOL.

Seriously though thank you very much X

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Thank you :)

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Wow! You have no idea how powerful this post is Beth! Thank you! Time to pick up that pencil again and write.

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I am so very glad. Sharpen that pencil!

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Just what I need to do right now. Perfect timing on your part, Beth. Thank you.

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Write toward and of yourself, Char. You are so very generous toward the rest of us.

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Beth, these are such lovely pebbles dropped in the pond of story. Thank you for the gift of your work! One question: The link to your workshop on Feb. 23rd doesn't offer any way to sign up. Is there some way to access the registration form?

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And here it is in the meantime. There was a link inside the image advertising the workshop, as it turns out. I should have checked! https://cleavermagazine.submittable.com/submit/312714/first-person-writing-about-yourself-with-complexity-and-power-with-beth-kephart

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Oh dear! Let me see if I can fix that link. Where would I be without you, Hiro! (More proof that I am a very poor self promoter.)

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Beth, this is the same link you'd posted earlier, but it leads to a page with information about the workshop, but no indication about how to register for it. There is a link at the bottom of that page to more information about you, but again, I can't find where to sign up. Maybe it's staring me in the face and I'm simply oblivious?

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Lists. Triggers of memories to flood the mind. The beginnings of our individual and common legacies.

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Joyce, yes. So very much this.

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Thank you for this. Every reminder of why it still matters to put pen to paper is welcome right now. Always. But especially right now.

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Gwen, yes. Especially now. xoxo

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Yes to lists!

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AE, if only I could organize mine! A profusion of lists, and beginnings.

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The porcelain doll hidden away in the box. The one designated for a great-granddaughter. I bought it and six others as I lay in bed under the influence of narcotics. I had broken my neck and the pain was relentless. I didn't understand that most of that pain was due to the every four hour narcotic withdrawal and not from my neck at all. And I loved those dolls. QVC was my god during the long days in bed. I imagined the lives of my dolls. and thought of making them clothes and blankets and new hats. I lined them up on shelves in my living room. When, after six weeks of withdrawing from the narcotics, I passed by those shelves, I thought, "Who have I become?" I took them down and gave them away except for one. She goes to my little great-granddaughter and gives this doll a new and different story.

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Linda, dear Linda. Whenever I read of your stories I marvel at your journey, how you made your way through and how you know, now, just which doll to gift to your great-granddaughter.

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Thanks, Beth. It's kind of hard to believe...like there's so many versions of me.

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"... gathering yourself in the clutch of right now." I love that. Thanks, Beth.

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Thank you! So much. It's funny how long it takes to write these posts. But I love having a reason to write them.

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This is just what I needed, Beth. I always forget how powerful lists can be but even more so, to go deeper. Your words echo through me and make me want to write over and over again. Thank you so much. I am looking forward to the February class!

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We will have so much fun! I'm so glad to know this, Cindy. This piece will play a role. I'll let you know how in advance!

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Cindy will see you there!

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Yay!!!

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