I'm a day late but still thankful.

A few things I appreciate this week:

Creative Kickstarts
Writing, like most endeavors, requires practice. To improve skills you gotta practice (just as in piano, painting, running, baseball, dance . . . ). I like the creative kickstart writing prompts provide. They give me permission to play with words.

A Writing Companion I've Never Met
As children we have imaginary friends. As adults, we get virtual friends. I have a poetry friend. We've never met but I'm pretty sure I'm not making her up. Each week we agree to a writing prompt and then share our work. Week after week, despite the whirl of family, commitments, and mental and emotional blocks, we keep writing. I am grateful for the accountability and encouragement this friendship provides. And it's nice to have a pen-pal again, just like when I was 10.

Newsprint
I love newsprint. The smooth yet toothy texture, the way ink glides over its pulpy surface. For me, the joy of writing is tactile. I like the grip of a pen, the physical act. When writing on newsprint — remember Big Chief tablets? — I feel loose. Words flow.

This week the Poets & Writers prompt (click here to get yours) was to:

Write a poem on a page of today's newspaper, allowing your eye to wander slightly and take in the language on the page, and for your text to overlay the text on the page. If you fix your eye on a specific word or phrase, incorporate it into the composition.

This was fun. Newsprint, like yesterday's paper, feels temporary, and so I didn't feel pressure to write something good. It was enough to let words bubble and move, which led to a wonderful realization: Everything, in life & in writing, is practice.

There now, doesn't that feel better?

It's Thankful Thursday, a weekly pause to appreciate people, places and things that bring joy. Happiness contracts and expands with our appreciation. Tell me, what are you thankful for today?