The One With Motherly Life Advice

This month, I'm participating in the Slice of Life challenge with Two Writing Teachers. If you want to participate, you can link up at their Slice of Life Story Post or you can head on over there to check out other people's stories and follow along with the fun. For more information on what a Slice of Life is about, you can go here. 

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Tomorrow is the last day of the March Slice of Life Challenge! I missed a few days so I might keep going until I get to 31 posts but today I was thinking about my post about Sarah Kay when she talked about writing what you know to be true and what you don't understand. 

The other day when I was talking to Peanut and Little Bean, I talked about how important it is to show up, try your best, and have fun. 

We went to a local library to be part of their cardboard challenge. It was so fun to talk into a room full of all sorts of different boxes and tubes and differently shaped pieces of cardboard. Little Bean took off gathering supplies and building right away like it was a race. He was so excited! It was fun to see his energy. But as we kept creating, things didn't always go his way and he had to rework his designs or add more tape. We had to talk through what it feels like when something doesn't go as we plan and we have to try again. 

And then at lunch, I took out a notebook and talked to them about the Sketch50 Challenge that my heck awesome friend Carrie is part of. Little Bean joined in and was sketching with us but when I brought it up later, he said he didn't want to do it any more and eventually said he just wasn't good at drawing. 

I said, "You know, sketching isn't about being good or bad. 

It's about showing up, 

trying your best, and having fun." 

And then when Peanut and I were doing our interview for Story Corps, I mentioned this same advice again, how truly in life, if you can show up, try your best, and have fun, you're doing it right. 

I strongly believe that life is what you make of it. You can never know exactly how anything is going to go but showing up and trying your best at least means you have a shot. And again, no matter whether things go well or not, as you planned or not, ideally or not, you can still smile and enjoy the experience. You are the one who brings joy and laughter to a moment, you can make anything fun if you want. 

I'm not sure but I think this might be a start to a spoken word poem...I'll have to think on it but it definitely gets at what I know. 

This is also a reminder to me that writing begets writing. Doing the March Slice of Life Challenge this year and focusing on spoken word encouraged me to think about ideas for spoken word poetry. Writing these posts has given me more things to write about. 

Whenever you think you might be at a loss for ideas, just write. And write some more.