Friday, January 02, 2009

five

Ocean is five years old today. Five years – that’s not exactly a generation, but it is a big chunk of life. For example, five years ago, I thought and wrote like a person just entering her fifties. Now I think and write like a person who thinks fifty is on the childish side of things.

People talk a lot about finding your writing voice. Yawn... But I’ll admit this much: when you write publicly, everyday, for five years, you get into a mindset – for me, an Ocean mindset – and it is there every time you think about your next post and the next. The mood varies, but the mindset stays.


It’s never easy to post daily. When traveling, stories throw themselves at me, but time pressures and Internet issues are huge. On a work day, I often do not sit down to post until after dinner. I fight tiredness. If I hadn’t thought of a story yet, or taken an okay photo, I feel defeated.

It’s good to challenge yourself. To try to improve, do better stuff, to think of ways to tell a story. But every story lives not only because of the teller, but because there is a person who listens.

Thank you for being there, for listening.


A P.S. on this day – daughters and I went downtown…


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…to see if the world was really on sale, 75% off. It was. I survived, sure, I did, but I think the best moment was at the end, as the evening seeped in and we settled for a while at a Rush Street bar. I watched and half listened as the two of them laughed and bantered about years past and the weeks ahead. And the city lights outside sparkled and the air inside was warm and life felt pretty damn good.


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7 comments:

  1. happy happy anniversary -- love you so,
    ca

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  2. Congratulations. Five years of Ocean is an incredible accomplishment in so many ways. Your decipline and dedication impress. Your stories, opinions, observations all illuminated by meaningful photographs never fail to enrich my day. Whether you are in Madison or Marrakesh your posts leave me with something to think about every day. Thank you for sharing a part of your life. Gratefully, dande

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  3. Your blog is inviting, charming and a daily delight - thanks for sharing!

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  4. Wow. Five years. And what a five years it has been. Of cours, that is 35 five years in the lives of regular people, since you pack so much into everyday.

    Saul

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  5. Congratulations! Impressive work.

    My verification word is "matin" -- so it's still morning in blogdom.

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  6. Damn good. Your writing and your commitment to try and do that writing every day has inspired me since I first landed here.

    I recall stumbling here in late summer 2006 just before starting law school. Shortly after starting school, I then started my first blog..then I replaced the first one with my current blog.

    Your combination of writing and your photos are what drew me in. Your soul is transparent here and beautiful.

    The sharing of life's beautiful moments is what I take in here - and what I try to do a little bit of at my place.

    Now, more than ever - as I go through my days, ordinary and not so ordinary, I look at images of life and of events and feelings -as through a lens. I continually think "how can I capture that" in words or images. I don't always post my own photos - often I capture others' photos on flickr or other places.. but whether mine or even my son's or whoever's.. it is the views that say something to me.

    Thank you for the inspiration. May you write five more years -times five at least.

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  7. Happy anniversary. Once when I needed a Nina fix and you were off line (could it have been the Michigan trip?), I saw the listing of all previous posts beckoning me so I thought, what the heck, and went to hmm what is it, January 2004? Sure wasn't the Nina I know now with the confident "voice" and the fabulous photos. And besides, who wants to relive the 2004 election? So now if you're not there when I look for you, I just wait.

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