Journaling | Perle Champion

Happy National Hat Day

15 Jan 2016 Leave a comment

by Perle Champion in Uncategorized Tags: Journaling

Happy National Hat Day.

I have many hats. Some are plain functional; some are fashion statements. But whether functional or fashionable, all hats serve a woman living in the South. The southern sun will bake you to leather if you don’t take care.

Functional hats: Most people call them baseball hats. When I lived in Texas, we called them gimme hats, because most of them were free handouts with various company logos – gimme one of those please. I’ve never bought a one and I own many.

Not my favorite hat, but they are useful in my life. They shield me on my morning 5-mile walkabout from the sun’s summer rays, falling acorns and pinecones, and from the errant bird relieving itself from a tree branch or on the fly. I’ve worn them on the tennis court, playing water volleyball, Frisbee golf, gardening and more. They not only shield me from the sun, but just as important, they keep my wild naturally curly hair in check.

Fashion and function: My battered Fedora gets the most compliments, but it serves me well in winter. It keeps my head warm, protects me from the winter sun. And, as I hate umbrellas, it and my London Fog take the brunt of rainy days. Berets and Boggans are for the coldest winter days when the sun rises late and walkabout is over while it’s a hint on the horizon, and when the sun sets early and I have places to go. perle hatted 22

So much of life in the south takes place outside: barbeques, weddings, receptions, fairs, Doo-Dah Days, Art in the Park, Parades, and on and on. So, I have a selection of straw hats for summer wear; my outback vented canvass hat; and I have fancy hats for weddings and dressy parties.

I am grateful to a lady I met when I was very young. I’ve long ago forgotten her name, but not her words, “Take good care of that pretty face. Clean it well, moisturize and above all else, wear a hat to protect it from the sun.”

Yes ma’am. I’ve been hatted ever since.

Monkey Brain in the Kitchen

13 Nov 2015 Leave a comment

by Perle Champion in cooking, Journaling Tags: Cooking, Journaling

Monkey brain: So I had this tad of leftover cornbread in fridge and I thought, hmmm. Crumble it and make a quick cornbread dressing.

But it wasn’t really enough, so I messed up my clean kitchen and made a quick batch of fresh cornbread.

Now having a messy kitchen I decided to deal w jalapeños from potted garden and pulled out the mini food processor, a can of tomatoes and voila hot sauce for later guacamole lunch which was going to be breakfast, but really how could I not have a hot from the oven wedge of buttered cornbread. And it went on from there..

Now to clean the mess.

Nothing So Certain as Change – a Sad Parting

12 Nov 2015 Leave a comment

by Perle Champion in Journaling, Perle Champion Tags: Journaling, Perle Champion

End of era – for me at least. I will not be renewing my P.O. Box, and I feel as if I’m losing a friend. Actually, In a way I am. The people who work there are a friendly helpful crew. I’ll probably still take them my annual gift of 3-4 tins of cookies as I have for the past 25 years, but alas, it will be the last.

The post office has always been open 24-7 for those of us who have office hours of our own and need access in the wee hours of morning or night. Now, because of the unwashed who use it as a nighttime squat, leaving their trash and on occasion vomit, the Post Office has announced office hours of its own and the rest of the day the doors will be locked.

I’m not sure how those who have jobs outside the home will make it work. Fortunately I work from home and it doesn’t affect me except in principle. I loved stopping by and picking up my mail after an evening out or on my early morning walkabout (rain, shine, or snow), but they won’t unlock the doors now til 7:30, and I’m home from my walk way before that. Worse still they’ll close early on Saturday and totally close on Sunday.

I’ve had a post office box on Southside since 1990. It’s always been staffed by a terrific bunch of people that I’ve enjoyed doing business with. It’s up for renewal and at $33 for six months, it’s a bargain for the security they’ve given me over the years.

My first 2 apartments on Southside, the one on 15^th Avenue (10 years) and then the one on 14^th Avenue that burned in 2011 (also10 years), had exposed and unsecure mail boxes easily accessible from the street. The day I moved in on 14^th in 1990, my neighbor came home to find his mail and an empty box of CD’s rifled and strewn across his front steps.

I immediately went to the Southside Post Office right next to the Golden Temple and got a box, and I’ve used it for 25 years. My neighbor did, too. I considered it a business address, but now I wonder if it’s necessary.

I live in a more secure 4-plex now; the boxes are inside; the mailman climbs the stairs to deliver packages to my door; I only have one magazine subscription that’s print; all my bills, bank and credit card statements, etc., are digital; payments from Amazon and other places that owe me money go thru PayPal or digitally credit my a special credit union account set up for such payments – separate from my house account at another bank.

Sad to say, but my PO Box is no longer necessary. I might of kept it just because it’s been part of my routine for so long. I picked up change of address forms, but opted to do the deed online instead. Later I’ll order new business cards from VistaPrint and probably omit a physical address and opt just for email, as that’s pretty much how people contact me these days.

I waited until the last possible pay by moment, November 10, to let the box go. I stopped by to say goodbye to the crew.

Up there with the certainty of death and taxes there is change. Death comes and you’re no longer here to know it on this plane; taxes are a constant and expected, but change, oh change. Of the three, I think change is the more difficult.

Summer is late and I’m glad

31 May 2015 1 Comment

by Perle Champion in Cats, Journaling Tags: Cats, Journaling

Sunday and it’s the last day of May. I pulled the kitchen calendar from the wall and sat down at the kitchen table to flip the page to June and add dates from my iPhone calendar. The back d aerie balcony jaz 2 oor is wide open, kitty gate in place. Jazzmine preens and watches every moving creature in the back yard, but her kitten days are long gone. She never attempts to leap out. Not sure she could at her age and weight even if she wanted to.

I am amazed that this old place is still so cool inside when I know it’s a very warm 80-something outside when I took the trash to the alley just now.

Perhaps the daily rain storm is a contributing factor, but I also know that old buildings built before there was air conditioning were designed for air flow. I have windows open in the back bedroom and the dining room and the kitchen door, which all face west. I have the door and windows to the screened in balcony open wide as well. That, the ceiling fans and a few strategic box fans have been keeping it very comfortable in here. The minute I open the kitchen door in the morning, the air moves through the place at an event quicker and cooler pace.

I love living on the second floor – I can keep windows and balcony open year round. The only thing I do close when night falls or I head out to run errands is the kitchen door.

However many days I can delay cranking up the central air, I’ll cherish. I hate shutting myself off from nature and the outside world – the trains passing through in the wee hours; the birdsong and chattering squirrels that wake me in the morning; reading on the balcony loveseat; sitting at my small bistro tablejournaling, sipping and watching the life ebb and flow on the street below.

Who Do You Write For?

08 Nov 2014 Leave a comment

by Perle Champion in Blogher NaBlo, Journaling, Memoir, Poetry Tags: Blogher NaBlo, Journaling, Memoir, Poetry

Laying Life on the Line

she sat pen in hand
journal open before her
her life paced the lines

glory inglory
marching cadence cross the page
bare and unadorned

“Never mind the misses and the stumbles…” “The habit of writing for my eyes only is good practice, it loosens the ligaments.” – Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf’s quote hits home for me, and if you would write, I hope for you. There is something so freeing about writing just for yourself with no deadlines. It doesn’t need to be perfect; it’s a conversation with and exploration of yourself for yours eyes only now or forever unless you decide to share it.

Saying you want to write is not enough, you must write it. The truth is so much writing is just mental gymnastics. A skater skates, a harpist harps, a writer writes. It is the practice that perfects.

Day after day, with no one to see, no one to hear, and no one to applaud, I rise and go to my practice. I write in my journal.

You Can Publish What You Journal.

07 Nov 2014 1 Comment

by Perle Champion in Blogher NaBlo, Journaling, Poetry Tags: Blogher NaBlo, Journaling, Poetry

Filling the white space

white space taunts my pen
my épée etching each word
slowly on the page

words marching cadence
along pale blue journal lines
and then there is light
© Perle Champion 2009

William Wordsworth wrote: “Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart”

I’ve filled the pages of my journal since I was a child: daily observations, traumas & dramas, poetry, essays, stories and more since I was a child. I didn’t realize how much publishable material languished there in my own journal until one day.

One day I was rereading an old journal when I realized that one story was practically complete, so why not type it up and send it out. That story was “Rain” back in 2004. What a thrill it was to see that story so dear me, not only published but resonating with so many readers.

That day I started paying attention to what I wrote in my journal and noting in the margin whether it would make a good poem or essay or story or a character in a book. That decision has since stood me in good stead. Most of what I’ve published originated inthe pages of my journal.

Do You Use the Excuse of Writer’s Block?

06 Nov 2014 Leave a comment

by Perle Champion in Blogher NaBlo, e-book, Get Published, Journaling, NaNoWriMo, Poetry Tags: Blogher NaBlo, Journaling, Nanowrimo, Poetry

I’ve often wondered about those folks who use the excuse of writer’s block for not writing. Yes, I think it is an excuse akin to a certain in-law of mine who opines, I can’t cook. My response to her is if you can read and follow instructions, you can cook. My response to writers or wanna be writers. If you can put pen to page, fingers to keys, have a thought in your head, you can write.

I write everyday in my journal – that’s a start, and then there’s the Blog challenges, NanoWriMo, and poetry contests, etc. They all have deadlines, so I make the commitment and on top of my daily journal, I write.

It’s day 6 of the BlogHer Blog-a-Day for November (note: they throw that gauntlet down every month), and I’m on track.

And

I’m still plodding away on my NanoNovel and have 17,545 words to-date, so I’m on track to get my 50,000 words done by and hopefully before November 30. I plan to do heavy edit by/before December 15, so I can take advantage of Amazon’s offer to NanoWriMo winners (anyone who reaches 50,000 words) to publish 2 free hard copies of their novels. I planned on uploading my finished novel to their Kindle platform anyway, but oh, to see the actual book in print (every author’s dream).

I’m encouraged by the sales of my non-fiction e-book published on Amazon in late 2012 – How to Journal and How to Publish from Your Journal. While not a best seller it is selling and yay! It’s making money. I opened my P.O. box this morning and amid the bills, 1 rejected manuscript and the detritus called junk mail, was the check – a royalty check from Amazon.com on my book. It was not large, but oh it’s such a nice feeling to get paid for doing something you enjoy. As I have not promoted the book except for a few Blog posts and an Amazon affiliate link on my Blogs, I’m rather amazed and more than a little pleased.

I like the Amazon affiliate link, as it allows me to link all to the books I review and even those I just like and think everyone should read, and in return I make a few cents commission for having done so. It adds up over time.

What is your journal to you?

03 Jan 2012 Leave a comment

by Perle Champion in Blog 365 Challenge Tags: Journaling

My journal, my little 5×8 spiral notebook goes most everywhere with me. From

my nightstand, to the kitchen bar where I sip coffee, to breakfast whether home or at a restaurant, tucked near at hand in my purse throughout the day, and returned to the nightstand at day’s end. It is my friend, confidant, psychoanalyst. I firmly believe I owe my sanity to committing my day good or bad to the page.

Natalie Goldberg said, “Take out another notebook, pick up another pen, and just write, just write, just write. In the middle of the world, make one positive step. In the centre of chaos, make one definitive act. Just write. Say yes, stay alive, be awake. Just write. Just write. Just write.”

I agree. Last year with so much loss, it took my pain and grief. These days when death stalks a sweet friend, and we can only watch and wait, it helps to put pen to page and voice the feelings there that cannot be voiced aloud.

It also helps to end the day by listing at least 5 things I’m grateful for that day as well, whether that thing is as simple as birdsong, sunrise or a gentle rain. Gratitude soothes the soul. Yes, Natalie, I’ll keep taking out another notebook and I will write, write, just write.

Old Year/New Year

01 Jan 2012 Leave a comment

by Perle Champion in Blog 365 Challenge Tags: Journaling, New Year Resolution, Poetry

It’s been a year of incredible loss. The February fire took most all of my worldly goods and the life of one of the sweetest men I’ve ever known. I don’t miss the things, but I do miss my friend.

I pulled an old poem from my archives which speaks to me now, as it did when I wrote it at another trying year’s end many years ago.Old Year, New Year.Old and gray – tired and worn

many died – more were born

much was said – so little done

with the rising and setting of each sun.

Farewell to thee with tears we say

and greet the new with laughter gay

So much could, should, would have done

but alas, I’d just begun and the year was gone.

And so, today I make firm resolution

to do much more by this year’s conclusion.