Author: Elizabeth Gaucher

Life’s Own Rules

/ Elizabeth Gaucher / 2 Comments

My friend Rick is an avid gardener.  As I drove past his house on the East End of Charleston a few years ago he called me to the yard and ran about with a spade asking, “Do you want this?  What about some of this?  These are great….oh, and these!”

I had just moved into a new house with a rather “Lowe’s Home Improvement Center” feel to the landscape.  I was chomping at the bit to bring heirloom perennials, herbs, ornamental specimen trees and pass-along plants to the space — the spontaneous encounter with Rick was perfect.

Around 5 years in the ground, this little plant blooms for the first time.

So this little guy has hung in there for 5 years, but has never done much more than poke out of the earth in the spring to say hello.  I had no idea it even could flower……and yet here we go.  Delicate, nearly hair-width stalks with tiny yellow buds.  Lovely.

The garden is a reminder of all things life.  You never know to what potential the roots reach, what genetic material is invisible to your eyes, and what the ideal conditions and time will produce.

Chatter

/ Elizabeth Gaucher / 4 Comments

Anne Lamott is an idol of mine.  This from her book on writing, Bird by Bird, says it all:

Close your eyes and get quiet for a minute, until the chatter starts up.   Then isolate one of the voices and imagine the person speaking is a mouse.  Pick it up by the tail and drop it into a mason jar.  Then isolate another voice, pick it up by the tail, drop it in the jar.  And so on……..Then put the lid on, and watch all these mouse people clawing at the glass……Then imagine there is a volume-control button on the bottle.  Turn it all the way up for a minute, listen to the stream of angry, neglected, guilt-mongering voices.  Then turn it all the way down and watch the frantic mice lunge at the glass, trying to get to you.

There are a lot of reasons not to write.  There is really only one good reason to write, and that is because for some of us it is life.  It is voice.  It’s a long road, finding and honoring that voice.  Maybe writing isn’t your thing, but you have a mode of expression that is vital to who you are.  Just remember, they’re just mice. 

Tighten that jar.