Audacious Muse
Dreams and Nightmares
Night after night my friendly pet tiger turned into a menace and chased me all over the neighborhood. One second he'd be purring contentedly on the sofa and the next he'd be ready to eat me for supper. My dream self is in superb physical shape, unlike my waking self, so I was always able to escape by the barest of margins using fancy footwork and dreamy logic. I'd wake up in a cold sweat with my heart pounding, terror coursing through my veins. Read more.
A Fine Line
When you hate confrontation but are fiercely independent, life can be a tightrope walk. Believe me, I know. Navigating that fine line between gracefully accepting the words of others and being true to myself is one of the biggest challenges I've faced as I've grown into a mature adult. Read more.
Time Warp
They say time is relative. They say it's a man-made construct with no meaning. If they, whoever "they" may be, were right, wouldn't warping through time be easy? I'd scrunch my face, wiggle my nose, and say "Universe, beam me to 1996." Suddenly I'd find myself standing in line to ride the Wildcat, a dangerously clacking old roller coaster in an Oklahoma City amusement park, three days before my college graduation. Or maybe I'd say "Universe, I'd like to take a peek at 2011" and I'd watch from a distance as my sweet little baby boy entered his first day of kindergarten. Would he still have the long streak of black hair shooting through his blond fuzz? Would he be well-mannered and polite or would I back away in horror and beg the universe to send me home so I could read up on discipline techniques? Read more.
The Truth of the Matter
I come from a long line of people-pleasers. I know many women are programmed to make others happy by hiding their own will under a façade of happy helpfulness, but the women in my family are some of the worst--best?--I've seen. Read more.
Anticipation
I spent the month of March obsessing over chocolate cake. If a website can gain weight, Google must have gained at least twenty pounds while tracking down the likes of "chocolate decadence" and "death by chocolate." I found recipes for dense chocolate concoctions that were so rich they came with a warning. I drooled over the endless variations of chocolate cheesecake. I debated the age old question of light versus dark--chocolate that is. Read more.
Never Say Never
Clichés become clichés because they contain truth. Birds of a feather flock together--just join a playgroup and you'll discover how true that is. Don't count your chickens before they hatch--how many times have you had set-in-stone plans fall through? Be careful what you wish for--we've all learned that lesson the hard way, haven't we? Read more.
The Generation Gap
Ah, the good old days. My grandmother longs for them. My mother longs for them. Now I long for them.
My grandmother speaks fondly of USO dances, roller-skating carhops and smoking in the movie theatre.
I can't even imagine. Read more.
Turning Points
Quantum physics fascinates me. It's not that I know a light year from a light beer or have any clue what a quark is, but I've read enough science fiction to know that there might be alternate universes out there. I think that falls under the heading of quantum physics. Read more.
Yes/No/Maybe
Who would have thought a simple "yes" could lead to an almost two-year-old writing collaboration?
It was exactly two years ago that I first heard about National Novel Writing Month. The premise seemed crazy: write 50,000 words during the month of November. No plot, no problem! That was the motto and I took it to heart. With no plot and no plan I churned out a fairly bad 50,000 word novella. The novella is sitting on my hard drive, just waiting for some tender loving care, but the insanity of that month did a whole lot more than just produce mediocre writing: it gave me confidence in my writing abilities. Without NaNoWriMo, I never would have had the confidence to say "yes" to starting an online magazine. Read more.
Just a Little Frustrated
Life has been just a little frustrating for me these past few days. Actually, it's been just a little frustrating for the past three weeks.
It all started when I determined it was time to make the phone calls that always precede a move to a new place. There are utilities to cancel and utilities to hook up. There are addresses to be changed and people to notify. For someone who hates talking on the phone, it can all be a little overwhelming. Read more.
Independence
Those of us in the Western world take independence for granted. We just assume that we will basically be able to say what we want, do what we want and live how we want as long as it doesn't hurt other people. We assume that we'll always have the luxury of speaking our minds. Most of us can't imagine what it would be like to live in a time or place that required absolute agreement with the powers that be. Read more.
Expectations
As we were putting together this issue of Mosaic Minds, I tried to imagine what types of submissions we would get. I'm feeling the thud of a fetus kicking me in the gut several times a day, so I was on the baby track. I have great expectations growing in my belly, even if my husband and I can't agree on a name for him. Read more.
Relativity
Despite a high school love for science, I have never figured out what Einstein's famous theory of relativity entails. Maybe that's because I dropped out of physics. I asked my rocket scientist husband to explain it to me, and was able to follow the first sentence of his explanation, "everything depends on your frame of reference." Then he started talking about spaceships and time and my head started swimming and I stopped listening. Read more.
Defining Moments
We've all had them. Those little moments when everything changes and our life as we know it is over. Sometimes we don't even know they've occurred. We make a tiny choice, based on nothing more than whim, and three years later we are able to weave an intricate thread into the past and know that one little choice was the beginning. My little choice was simply saying "I'm Jane," when a raggedy little boy came up to me on the playground and informed me that he was Tarzan. We became best friends, he forced me to read books I thought I wouldn't enjoy, I became obsessed with said books, I found an online club devoted to them, and eventually met my husband at that site. If that raggedy little boy had been sick that day or decided to play on the swings instead of the monkey bars we might never have become friends and I would never have met my husband. Little moments have big consequences. Read more.
Kindred Spirits
I can't hear the words "kindred spirits" without picturing Anne Shirley solemnly holding Diana Barry's hand while explaining that they are kindred spirits. I don't think I'd ever even heard the term "kindred spirits" until I saw the movie Anne of Green Gables. I was 12 at the time and was instantly in love with the story. I endured a PBS telethon in order to watch the movie, which proves just how captivated I was by Anne and her friends in Avonlea. The next day I begged my mom to take me to the bookstore so I could buy the whole set of Anne novels. Read more.
Serenity
Come on. Admit it. You're looking at the theme of this issue of Mosaic Minds and asking yourself if we've completely lost our ever-loving minds.
I can assure you that we were insane well before we decided you needed a little Serenity during the holiday season. Read more.
Fears and Phobias
The air is growing crisp, pumpkins and scarecrows are popping out of every corner and little ghouls are making plans to collect a glutton's supply of candy. Halloween strikes again! Read more.
Self-Acceptance
Self-acceptance is a tricky thing. There's just so much to accept--looks, sexuality, intelligence, talent, wit, and on and on and on. If there's something that can be judged, you can bet there's someone out there bemoaning the fact that theirs isn't good enough, isn't big enough, isn't small enough, simply isn't enough. Read more.
What If?
What if? Those two little words pose a big question that can encompass anything a person can dare to imagine. What if we could teleport? What if we all had flying beds? What if aliens land tomorrow? What if I hadn't become an English teacher? What if I had never met my husband? What if people had to take a parenting test before they could conceive? What if we could find a solution all the troubles in the world? What if someone found a cure for cancer? Read more.
Heroes and Role Models
What is a hero? It seems like every single English teacher I ever had, insisted on asking that question. Is it someone who has no fear? Or someone who has fear, but isn't stopped by it? Is it someone who helps others at great personal cost? Someone who wears tights and a cape and roams around a big city saving the world from evil? Read more.
Winging It!
Winging It! The phrase conjures up images of adventurous souls jumping out of airplanes, rafting down wild rivers and giving speeches without note cards. Read more.
What Goes Around Comes Around
It's been a few years since I was a kid, so I don't often find myself roaming the toy aisles at my local Wal-Mart. However, my friend has little girls so about a week ago I found myself entering the pink world of the girl toy aisles in search of a birthday gift. Things have changed since my time. There was neither hide nor hair of a Cabbage Patch Kid. Big-eyed Bratz take up more shelf space than big-boobed Barbies, Little People are a lot bigger, and the Easy Bake oven has been joined by smoothie blenders, ice cream makers, and other tiny appliances I would have died for when I was a kid. Read more.
Letter from the Editor
We've all gone through transformations in life. We've transformed from child to woman, idealistic student to realistic bill payer, or maybe even daughter to mother. Some transformations are exactly what we hope for. We shed our student persona and become respected professionals. Or, more likely, we transform from lowly entry-level workers into respected professionals. We visit home and find that our parents are starting to understand that we're adults, not children. Perhaps we meet a man, fall in love and transform from party girl to happy partner. Life keeps moving and eventually we look at ourselves with horror and realize we've transformed into our mothers. Please, oh please, never let me go through that transformation! Read more.