Okay-It wandered in!

The Tuesday Slice of Life is hosted by the Two Writing Teachers blog.  Go there to visit the other"slicers"! I'm looking forward to more great posts from Stacey, Tara, Dana, Betsy, Anna, and Elisabeth!

  Hurrah!  The Cybil's finalists are HERE!  Great lists of books to discover!

It's been a struggle for me to continue with my One Little Word these past two years.  I signed up for the class, purchased the pages, found a nice binder, and created pages through January, then stopped. During the years, I thought sometimes of my OLW, but not with much enthusiasm for doing anything. Sometimes I was too busy, or I made myself be busy with other things.  It's rather like my sewing. I used to sew a lot, and am fairly competent at it, but days hold only so many hours, and I prefer reading, writing and working for my job, so I do have time to sew, if I make the time, but I'd rather be elsewhere.  
           Back to the OLW.  I've read many posts in the past week about people choosing or discovering and the posts have been inspiring. I loved hearing from Dana recently, and remember Claire and Tammy's, Terje's, Deb's, Jennifer M.'s…  I really do love the idea!  But this time I thought I wouldn't do it. I don't have a good track record as you can see.


         However, when I wrote my post for last Saturday's Celebration, I titled it with the word "wander" in it, and then used the word "meander", close meaning.  I liked the idea of "wander" for my word, thinking about choosing new things, seeing where they take me, finding new paths of thinking and growing.  I remembered a Tolkien poem from The Hobbit that I love.  Here is its beginning:

Roads Go Ever On
Roads go ever ever on,
Over rock and under tree,
By caves where never sun has shone,
By streams that never find the sea;
Over snow by winter sown,
And through the merry flowers of June,
Over grass and over stone,
And under mountains in the moon.

                                 the rest is here!

 I felt as if it was a good fit for my word.

        Then, packing my bags for work on Sunday, I was reminded of the cute little calendar I bought for my office at school. Here is its cover:

       I always purchase a fun little calendar at my favorite bookstore for my desk at school.  This reminds me that I'm supposed to be WRITING every day, and I knew each month included an illustrated quote.  That sold me for sure!  But look at what is on the back of this cover!!

The words: "Not all who wander are lost."

       Finally, Monday I took some time looking for a specific poem I needed for a poetry lesson later this week!  And found this!  It may seem funny, but it works for me and this 'wandering' around I've been doing, only some of it searching for my OLW.  Another 'wander'.

The Cow

          R.L. Stevenson

The friendly cow all red and white

I love with all my heart:

She gives me cream

With all her might,

To eat with apple-tart.

She wanders lowing here and there,

And yet she cannot stray,

All in the pleasant open air,

The pleasant light of day;

And blown by all the winds that pass

And wet with all the showers,

She walks among the meadow grass

And eats the meadow flowers.

         Who knows what will come of this word in 2014?  I've committed to posting once a month of my discoveries as I wander.  If you have any other poems or songs that are favorites, please share.  You see, I've already thought of that Christmas song, "I wonder as I wander out under the sky…"  

          This will be good!  And thanks for allowing my "wandering"!