thick and heavy

Today on my walk, I passed by this:

The words made me think.

I wondered who wrote it? 

I wondered how they are doing? 

I wondered if they are still writing? 

I certainly hope so.

collectors

I’m curious about people who collect things. While I was at an SCBWI writing conference this summer, author/illustrator Judy Schachner described her creative process as an act of collecting. She creates characters by collecting and collaging images. I love this idea! So much, I began to search the Internet for things that people collect. Here’s a few of my favorites:

alarm clocks

baseball cards

bumper stickers

coins

Cracker Jack prizes

dried flowers

garden gnomes

guitars

insects

lunch boxes

marbles

mason jars

rocks

sea shells

stickers

t-shirts

vinyl records

Another thing I’d like to add to this list is... words. That’s what I collect.

In third grade, I started my first journal. Since then, I’ve accumulated dozens of journals, filled with thousands and thousands of words. Interestingly enough, I rarely reread what I’ve written. I don’t keep the journals to look over my past. Instead, I keep them because they mark time. I look at the big stack and see the years I’ve lived and the things I have inside me.

How about you? Are you a collector? What do you collect?

word of the week

Our Word of the Week

that I added to the fish bowl on my desk

is...

become (verb) 1. to grow or come to be  2. to be appropriate or suitable to  

3. to show to advantage; look good with