Fourth funeral of the year

The Minister read out this poem at a funeral I went to on Tuesday. You can substitute 'he' for 'she'

You can shed tears that she is gone,
Or you can smile because she lived.
You can close your eyes and pray that she will come back,
Or you can open your eyes and see all that she has left.

Your heart can be empty because you can't see her
Or you can be full of the love that you shared.
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday,
Or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.

You can remember her and only that she is gone,
Or you can cherish her memory and let it live on,
You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back,
Or you can do what she would want:
Smile, open your eyes, love and go on.

Life's Mix

Yikes. Just re-read the last entry. It doesn't sound like me at all and also I'm re-iterating things from other people which I'm not sure I agree with. I talk such nonsense at times...at times?
Well. Fourth funeral of the year tomorrow. It could be the set up for a play for today, tomorrow's funeral, over in Yorkshire again, but the lady involved was a person worth remembering so we'll put aside the background drama. She wanted to be a missionary and probably because of her modesty and small stature, she was turned down. She would have been ideal. Very strong willed underneath a gentle persona. Setting off today, visiting my godmother, the widow of the 100 year old gentle, kind, highly intelligent man who died not so long ago.
Back Wednesday evening and think I'm going to an erotic flash fiction night as part of Didsbury Festival...

Just started re-reading A Kind of Loving. The voice of the main character, Vince, reminds me so much of a friend it makes me laugh. Smile and laugh. Vince is very funny. That's the key. You follow him because he is funny in a very northern way.
I've been sounding angry lately. Humour is the key. Laugh and the world laughs with you...
Life is about living.

Explanations

"What has what 'they' think got to do with my life? They'll think what they like whatever you do and some might be right and some might be wrong. But they can't know because nobody lives inside your skin but you.
In the last resort you're on your own. Nobody knows but you. It's you who makes the decisions and lives with them.....
....So am I expecting approval for what I'm going to do? Do I send a memo round explaining, so I won't be misjudged? And if I do and manage to get it all down accurately, will they understand then?'
Stan Barstow.

I know, I know, I'm quoting someone else, but I want to. I was asked to justify myself at the weekend. No.

Writers' Groups

It's great the writers' group is so successful that the number of members has swelled, but less good in that we now read out more intermittently which means the process of writing or editing work slows and threads are less easy to follow. In some ways, I'd like to pick and choose the ones I follow, but that is not how it works. We could splinter into smaller groups, maybe chosen by genre. Maybe that way advice would be more pointed. But then I wouldn't hear genres I wouldn't naturally pick and that would be a mistake.

Mmm.

Didn't get to read out Chapter 3 of Monster Belt. Can you tell?

Writing

Chapter 3 of Monster Belt ready for the writers' group tonight. Chapter 26 of Erosion with its emphasis changed. Trouble is, swapping between the two on the same day, will Lizzie merge with Jane? I don't think so, they are very different, but my female characters are very contradictory in everything they do and think. But then, isn't everyone?
No.
Better if characters in books are though.

Going to make an apple crumble in a bit. Apples from the garden. And custard. Winter food in autumn. Jacket potatoes are in the oven now.
Didsbury Arts' Festival starting next week too. And the Manchester Literature Festival looming.
And currently, Musicians Without Borders. Juba gig Friday. Great stuff.

Sometimes...

Sometimes I think it gets to the point when you need to quieten all the voices and noises around you so that you can hear what's going on inside yourself.