Mother Writes: Memoir

Saturday, 20 October 2012

Memoir

Lago Atitlan, Guatemala

I know I've mentioned Mslexia before, a women's writing magazine I subscribe to and have been reading for years. I very often try to send in a piece of new writing for their quarterly submissions, with new themes each time. A different guest writer decides which stories she wants each time but blimey, is it hard to get a piece in there. I have sent countless stories off and twice reached the shortlist but never actually been accepted. I shall persevere!

Anyway, the reason I'm writing about this is because the upcoming theme is 'memoir'. I've been scratching my head, thinking what to write about. It can be anything, something that happened yesterday, an event of your childhood or anything in between. Anything that merits a story. A significant period of my life was four months I spent in Guatemala in 2004. Most people reading this need no explanation for that, but in case you don't know, this is where I met my husband on the banks of Lago Atitlan, surely the most beautiful lake in the world. I started trying to write our story down but it kept slipping through my fingers like sand and I realised that somehow, the details of this episode (although many people know them verbally) don't want to be shared. Not now anyway.

I kept focussing though on Guatemala and then I remembered another event out there - not romantic, not profound, just pretty bloody hilarious if I'm being honest. Humour in writing is not something I've had much practice with, but I think it's about time I give it a go. The event? Getting my mother stoned, again on the banks of Lago Atitlan. It was a mistake, I promise! But stoned she undeniably was. I hope she doesn't mind being the unfortunate heroine of my story...I don't think she reads my blog so will probably be unaware of this, at least until after it's been written. Thankfully she still finds the story as amusing as I do, so I'm sure she'll take it in good humour. And now time to knuckle down and cast my mind back to that fateful night in 2004 when George W.Bush was being re-elected, Athens was hosting the Olympic games, Facebook was being launched and my mother was - ahem - getting stoned.

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Mother Writes...What's it all about?

When I was little, I imagined with the supreme confidence of a child that when I was all grown up, I'd be a celebrated writer. And by grown-up, I probably meant about eighteen. The concept of even reaching the age of thirty, let alone beyond, was off my radar and my seven-year old self shuddered at the ominious thought of not having published at least several novels by that grand old age.

Fast forward to the present. Here I am, age thirty-five, wife to a lovely hubby and mother to three gorgeous children. Now, am I writer? My seven-year old self would hold a very strong opinion on this: No, because I don't have a single published novel to my name. But I'm pleased to say that now I'm all grown-up, I'm also a bit more measured and realistic in my expectations of myself. Don't get me wrong - I love my seven-year old self for believing I could achieve that much but I have, over the years, come to an important conclusion:

If you dance, you are a dancer. If you paint, you are a painter. And if you write, you are a writer.

But we have to actually do it, not just talk about doing it. It's all too easy to procrastinate about our creative endeavours and that's all I ask of myself now: to create; to write. And if I'm lucky enough to get something published (which I'm pleased to say that I have done, in the form of short stories, reviews and articles), well, that's a bonus. And that's what this blog offers: little slices of honesty on my plate of life as mother, wife and creator of words. It's often not easy to juggle all three, particularly dealing with bouts of chronic insomnia. But I have to trust this is all part of the journey, and challenges are what make life interesting.