darkness reigns unworthiness shames me I hide among the shadows cold ostracized my only protection is silent invisibility spark ignites hope and love surprise me writing me a new biography I step forth boldness overcomes fear I embrace the light, defeating dark
©ARHuelsenbeck
My hair is tired of stay-at-home orders. Tired of being held back by the ties of my face mask. My hair wants to be blowing free at the beach basking in the sun. My hair wants to hang in my plate in a restaurant. My hair wants to fling around as I dance in public. My hair can’t remember the last time it was cut. It seems such a waste to wash it and comb it. Who sees it? Just a couple of people on Zoom. My hair is tired of ponytail elastics. It’s craving hair jewelry bling. It’s demanding retail therapy—and not the online kind. It wants to be dyed—not some inobtrusive color, but something sparkly and bold, something that will make people take notice. My hair wants a selfie on social media. My hair wants to go viral, and not in a pandemic sort of way.
©ARHuelsenbeck
I met Betty Arthurs around 1990 at the Tempe Christian Writers Club. A friendly extrovert, she encouraged the writers by pointing out the excellent passages in their writing and making helpful suggestions for improvements.
Another member of TCWC invited several members to form a smaller, more focused critique group. We called ourselves Tuesday’s Children, because we met every Tuesday morning–for almost thirty years.
In 2015 we started this blog, Doing Life Together. Betty was one of the founding members.
She was a registered nurse with a degree from Roberts Wesleyan College. She was forced to retire early because of rheumatoid arthritis, but that didn’t stop her from being a wonderful wife and devoted mother of two children. She wrote freelance articles and was working on a novel based loosely on her adventures in nursing school. She loved to laugh and pull practical jokes.
Betty passed away on January 22, 2022 after a long illness. Today her friends and family celebrated her life with a lunch at their church.
To continue remembering Betty, I’ve compiled some of her most popular posts on Doing Life Together:
don’t take us out of the box we’re happy here, brand new as perfect as we’ll ever be don’t violate us with your stinky feet don’t destroy our perfect twinness we are each other’s ideal partner if you put mileage on us we’ll wear out, no longer new no more new shoe fragrance this is war we will fight you we’ll pinch you and blister you but treat us gently and we’ll hug you we’ll give you height we’ll let you dance or we’ll trip you up you’ll never know which until it happens better yet, leave us in the box put us on the top shelf of the closet forget about us let us rest in our perfection forever
©ARHuelsenbeck
amuse me, muse now tickle my imagination with whistles of whimsy and whit make the words flow from my pen and paint pictures with their cadences I am merely the stenographer who captures the images and mounts them on the page you gave me this gift, this curse now have your way with me make me fertile with verse don’t sit me here with an idle pen and ideas that drift away like smoke what do you have for me today what little bit of cleverness what wordplay what syllabic art what chorus of rhyme and rhythm what little ditty will you hum to me today
©ARHuelsenbeck
the practical woman in me does the right thing the expected thing follows the rules chooses a theme devises a plan and then works according to plan makes well-thought-out decisions strives toward perfection the emotional one in me turns her back on caution leaps forward with abandon smells the roses flings the paint experiments to see what will happen dances to the music no one else hears feels the pain the joy the beauty cries until she laughs these unmatched twins whimsical / intellectual have equal merit in my self they spar with each other and embrace one another shake hands smirk wink walk a mile together and only occasionally push the other away
©ARHuelsenbeck
I love to look at art journals. For example, I love the blog Sketch Away, by Suhita Shirodkar, in which she records her days. I dream of being outside, pulling out my sketchbook, and drawing what I experience.
But I have no idea how to get started.
I don’t remember how I found out about Draw Your Day: An Inspiring Guide to Keeping a Sketch Journal by Samantha Dion Baker, but I immediately ordered it.
It is, of course, illustrated with pages from Dion Baker’s own journals. I love her style.
She tells a little about her own life, and how she first started journaling, and how over time the artwork disappeared from her journals. She missed the drawing, and needed to purposely reinstate it into her life.
I really appreciate her discussion of tools. She explains the numbering system for pencils, which I really never understood before. She recommends certain brands of art supplies, some pricey and some not, and explains the reasons behind her choices.
But most of all, she explains how to make a sketch journal a part of your daily routine. She suggests multiple ways to use one, and leaves it up to you to come up with your best way to adopt the sketchbook habit. I love this book, and I can’t wait to make sketching a daily part of my life.
You can look at Samantha Dion Baker’s artwork on her Instagram page.
I watched this TED talk by Anne Lamott.
And I thought, I could write an article like that. But what do I know about life?
It turns out I know four things for sure.
That’s it. That’s all I know.
Allison Boley
Carol Boley
dgood648
Joy
Andrea R Huelsenbeck
Betty Mason Arthurs
Linda Carlblom
Peggy Levesque
tuesdayschildren100
Judy Robertson
Doing Life Together 