my left hand

Day 14 of Verb Tribe we were invited to write our daily prompt, ten minutes on a paper bag, with our nondominant hand. I met this invitation with full resistance which looked like closing the prompt and doing everything else but write with my left hand. Eventually I came full circle and returned to the prompt and to the page, or bag. Here's what I shared after the prompt:

Oh resistance! Huge crooked letters...and then an in rushing of sadness...this is how mom wrote at the end...oh how this frustrated her...I wrote through the sadness and struggle until the end of my bag. Then I flipped it over and with my right hand, wrote this:

Say

It's too hard, she says.
Keep at it, I encourage.
It looks like chicken scratch, she says.
I can read it...kinda.
Pfffffft. She says.
Mom—you can do this.
She picks up Mount Pen.
I don't say
it is chicken scratch.

Her cursive handwriting
was the first to go
Along with memories
of where she lived
and who I was.

She moves Mount Pen
incrementally
the letters of her name
printed like a kindergartener.
Great job! I say.
If you say so, she says.
I do.

Comments

[Honoré]

Oh, how wonderful that you have that memory to guide and comfort you as you commit to your writing..and free up yourself? Thanks for sharing and isn't it wonderful how moms know just the right time to show up?

Cheers~