Once again.

 cartoon from toothpastefordinner.com

Haiti hurt my heart. I’m not sure why as I don’t, as far as I know, know any Haitians, nor have I ever been there. It just did. And unlike many writers/bloggers, when big, bad things hit, my first instinct isn’t to write about it, to react instantly – it’s to go silent. And think. Or mourn. Observe. Then maybe write.

This is me in offline life, as well, so I am not sure that I can change that feature (or bug) of mine, but I am going to make an effort.

Anyway, though silent I have not been idle, writing wise. I have a couple of articles started – one on Haiti, due Monday for Human Beams, and another on Obama and brands, due Wednesday for Serenity. And then a very surface history piece for Book of Louis about the women I had been missing (but then found) who were enslaved in the US. That is due Friday.

What is all this “due” stuff, you may be asking? Well, I’ve also decided to do an editorial type calendar, committing myself to a certain amount of writing for each site per week – plus whatever nattering I happen to do in between the scheduled articles. Now, considering that I’ve already missed one deadline for each (all the dates have been moved back, lol) this may take a little getting used to, for me, to get into the groove. But get into it I will.

I am posting this at all three sites (I know, cheating!) to get something up, and also to be accountable to more than myself. Ack!

What an abominable tragedy. My thoughts are with everyone there and their loved ones around the world.

Here is a Daily Kos diary with links to places to offer help and other info.

Twitter.

I mentioned yesterday that I was going to leap – into committing to writing for this and other sites even if I didn’t yet have a reliable computer or quiet space to write - and let the net appear.

Well, as the title implies, I have half my net. I am typing on my new laptop that I was just able to get last night. It’s primarily for (and due to) classes, but it will certainly come in handy elsewhere. I’m fairly sure i got a good deal, the best for the money I was willing to spend and it’s got Windows 7, so I am happy. Now I just have to re-learn to type without Blackberry’s little helpful shortcuts. I keep clicking the space key twice and expecting that not only will a full stop be applied to the previous sentence but that my next letter will be automatically capitalized, and other stuff. Oh, well… a little backspacing never hurt anyone. A full-sized laptop can seem HUGE, though, to someone who has gotten used to an itty bitty screen.

What i am still lacking is the quiet place to write – but I where there is a will and all that. And there needs to be a will if I want to write anything besides general blather, such as this. And since generally blathering is not my goal, though it’s fun sometimes, I need to make this work somehow.

I tried to write about Miep Gies this morning. She passed away yesterday at the age of 100. My piece, should I get it written, is not actually about her so much as about her spirit, her actions and that same gene (for action, even if the face of personal danger) that dwells in untold numbers of people. I first heard Miep’s name and story from an elderly Muslim man who was, in a way, wondering where all those untold numbers of people were – when New Orleans (and surrounding areas) was being left to drown after Katrina.

So, if I want to write as I wish to about heroes, about the people who are today working to do things to make this world a better place, I’d better get out my needle and thread and make the other half of the net myself.

(photo at the top is from Anoop Negi’s photostream – lovely stuff)

... if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up. Anne Lamott

I should have found this quote the other day but it will do just as well for today. Dawn is sometimes a long time breaking.

I had other options for quotes; after all, there are zillions of people who have said quotable things, but what caught my eye about this one was the word “stubborn”.

Stubborn. So often that is a negative. A stubborn child (I was said to be one). A stubborn stain. A stubborn man or woman, who won’t budge from a wrong path. Bad things that won’t go away everywhere are said to be stubborn.

But some things should be, must be stubborn.

Hope. Without that, life would be unendurable for a good portion of the world.

Generosity. I had never thought of a stubborn generosity - of spirit, of time, of money - until I read a future friend’s work that mentioned it. But after that, I’ve seen an abundance of examples of it in many places past and present.

Friendship. Lasting through the good and the bad, pursued despite time and distance, nourished and propped up when it flags, greeted anew after time away - I’d say that many lasting friendships are of the stubborn variety.

Belief. In one’s self or in someone else (or, if you are so inclined, in spiritual matters). For all the pop culture hoopla over believing in yourself, I am not sure all that many do. Even some of the more successful people. They may believe in their abilities, to great monetary or professional success, but in themselves? I’m not so sure, for many. To me that is something much different and separate from just what is conventionally considered success.

And you can hardly do a more stubborn thing than trust. In yourself, surely. That’s a lifelong lesson to be learned, for some. Trusting in someone else is, at times, easier - though still the height of stubbornness.

I think I like this.

Here’s to living a stubborn life today. And all the tomorrows.

That could be taken so many ways, these days, no?

But mostly I am just testing the changing over to the main Human Beams blog. And the desktop blogging software that I am trying out to access it.