The Woman Condition: love

Showing posts with label love. Show all posts

17 Aug 2011

Blog Love.

Time and time again I'm surprised at how supportive and genuinely kind our blogger-writer community is.

As an example of blog love: last week, the witty and wonderful Margo Lerwill of Urban Psychopomp passed on the Liebster Blog award to me with the much-appreciated words:

'K.C. Woolf at The Woman Condition has an interesting blog. Though many of her posts don’t directly address writing, they often address it in an indirect (and compelling) way.' (1)

Needless to say I was happy, even more so because it felt like she 'got' my blog. Underneath the variety of topics runs my writing. Nearly everything I touch on in my blog plays a part in my novel, be it as inspiration, setting, writing tool or one of the tiny details that make a story more lively and real.

Like most awards, this one comes with a few ~~rules~~ guidelines:

Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.
Reveal your top 5 picks (blogs with under 200 followers) and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
Copy and paste the award on your blog.
Have faith that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.
And most of all - have bloggity-blog fun!

As befits a good girl, here we go:

1. A sincere thank you to writer Margo Lerwill of Urban Psychopomp. Go check out her blog if you haven't already!

2. My top 5 picks:

Bards and Prophets by L.G. Smith. She is smart, funny and interesting. A true writer. Her blog seems to attract like-minded people, and I've met a lot of great fellow writers there.
Girl Wizard Suze. Suze has a knack for describing everyday life with an eye for those details that turn the ordinary into an adventure.

Munk Davis, who is ... different, in a very good way. He makes me laugh, think and wonder, and the opening lines he so generously shares are brilliant.
Blue Skies Sunny Days. I only met Linda recently, and I'm gradually reading through her blog. I'm intrigued by her open-minded outlook on life – sometimes gentle and understanding, sometimes sharp and uncompromising. On top of that: she's an INTP (like my husband and several of my friends).
An Endless Fascination with Stories by Toby Neal. I love Toby. She's got tons of personality, is incredibly supportive of her writer friends, and she's about to embark on the next stage of her writing adventure. She lives in Hawaii and often posts great pictures that make me want to move.

3. Done.

4. I do.

5. Okay!

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18 Feb 2011

Listen-to-Your-Heart Week.

Photo credit: Seyed Mostafa Zamani

Earlier today, I read an article about the book 'The Heart Speaks' by cardiologist Mimi Guarneri. It deals with the effect of our emotional state on our heart's health. Coming from a family in which heart disease is quite common, heart health is a big topic for me.

More and more scientific discoveries confirm what we instinctively already know and feel: anger, anxiety, grief and stress aren't good for us. Negative feelings trigger stress hormones that cause changes in our heart rhythm. They create a chaotic pattern that has a negative effect on our entire body.

In a similar way, positive emotions such as love and appreciation can make our heartbeat more stable and regular, which helps other organs function better.

So, for many reasons, I pronounce this my 'Listen-to-my-heart week'. For the next 7 days, I am going to take extra care of my heart, in its entirety.

I plan to concentrate on all that is good and positive in my life. There is so much to be grateful for! I will focus on hope, serenity, beauty and abundance. I pledge to love, laugh, treasure and enjoy. I promise to create, build, share and... write.

Are you with me? VC53HJQ52JP7

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17 Jan 2011

Writing and the Power of Vulnerability.

I have just sent out the reworked first 4 chapters of my manuscript to a select number of betareaders.

These are people whom I love and trust, who all have a particular outlook on different aspects of my writing and who I know will give me honest and useful feedback. They are aware of how writing is a craft I will forever be learning. I can be (quite) sure none of them will think any less of me when they spot the awful bits in my writing and the flaws in my thinking. Still, every time I send something out, I have to call on a deep layer of courage to get myself to click that 'send' button.

Of course, being me, I had to dig my teeth into that feeling. Find out about its nature and its origins. I didn't have to look far. I've written about perfection before, I've hinted at the human fear of 'not being good enough', of what could come back at you when you put yourself out there.

As if by cosmic accident, I found this video a few days ago. It's a TED talk by Brene Brown, a professor at the University of Houston, Texas, who has spent the past 10 years researching courage, authenticity, vulnerability and shame.

Some of what she says is probably (MBTI-) J stuff (the measuring stick, etc.), which I can only relate to from a distance, being far out on the Perceiving scale. But for the most part, what she talked about was very recognisable. And insightful. Take out the banana nut muffins and stuff in dark, Belgian chocolate, and we're talking very, very recognisable.

The talk is about 20 minutes long and well worth that time. As a bonus, Brene is an excellent speaker with a great sense of humour.

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31 Dec 2010

The Faces of Love.

Have you ever noticed how often and in how many different contexts we use the word 'love'?

We love our partner(s), our friends, family, chocolate, weekends, sex, champagne, reading, one or several gods and/or goddesses, a pair of shoes, the great outdoors, a glass of wine, a film, fireplaces, cats or dogs, an artist's work, travelling, spring, summer, autumn or winter. If anything, we are capable of many different kinds of love.

So what does 'love' mean? Or more importantly: what does it mean to you?

All-knowing Wikipedia defines love as 'the emotion of strong affection and personal attachment.' It distinguishes between:

'the passionate desire and intimacy of romantic love, [...] the sexual love of eros (cf. Greek words for love), [...] the emotional closeness of familial love, [...] the platonic love that defines friendship, [...] the profound oneness or devotion of religious love.' (Wikipedia)

Around and in between those, there are millions of variations and shades of love. Love is, above anything, something very personal and unique.

I wanted to find a way to share with you some of that strange and all-encompassing emotion that is love. Because an image can often convey more than a thousand words, I went on a search for photographs that each represent one of the many faces of love. It was a worthwhile journey, one I can only recommend.

May your 2011 be filled with love, joy and the will to learn. The opportunities will be there. Happy New Year!