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It is hard to write a story without using expressions or sayings that are familiar to just about everyone. However, I remember when working at a PBS station, we had a young man from another country who actually learned English by watching Sesame Street. This was great, except for those times when we said something funny that wasn’t meant literally, and it wasn’t nearly as funny because it “got lost in translation.”
When expressions/sayings have been overly used they become cliches and most writers tend NOT to use them. As I sat down to write this blog, and wondered what pearls of wisdom I could impart this month, my gaze fell on the myriad assortment of stickers, cards and pictures I have on the wall, most of which have sayings on them that have significant meaning to me. So here you go.
“Not all who wander are lost.” (J.R.R.Tolkien) This has been my mantra for many years and it shows up in my writing. Out of 20+ novels written, only a few are set in the same place (Boston, which I love). I have written settings from islands off the coasts of South Carolina and Washington, and from the Black Hills of South Dakota to the streets of New Orleans, and a lot of places in between. And I believe in visiting my settings. If I could, I would truly be a nomad.
“Well behaved women rarely make history.” (Misattributed to Eleanor Roosevelt but actually made by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich). This is me. No apologies.
Next come some sayings which wouldn’t mean the same without the pictures, so I have given credit where due.
I went through a divorce in 2009 and spent a week in Providence, RI, mostly in tears but determined to start my life over. It was truly providence that I found this card in a gift shop and it said exactly what I had just discovered. “Luckily she stopped giving away pieces of herself before she disappeared.” (Credit: watercolor and text by Deborah C. Kracht).
Next is me today. Although I know you can’t read the text, I had to include the delightful Papyrus card because that’s me on a good hair day! It says “Hey you, sexy gray-haired women of the world, Celebrate your joyful, self-expressive style. More power to YA!”
Do you have a favorite saying? A mantra that you would easily stamp on a tee shirt for all the world to see? I’ll leave you with one final saying, which I attribute to me, but it might not show up on Google that way:
“Life’s too short to go through it in a bad mood.”
Barbara Baldwin (author who will give you “happily ever after” romances.)
www.authorsden.com/barbarajbaldwin
www.amazon.com/author/barbarabaldwin
