Today's #Reverb10 prompt is a great one, carefully crafted by Patti Digh:
5 minutes. Imagine you will completely lose your memory of 2010 in five minutes. Set an alarm for five minutes and capture the things you most want to remember about 2010.
Here goes, from January until now:
It's cold. There's lots of snow. Lynnette goes into labor. We're up all night. Lindley breaks into our busy world just shy of 6 AM on January 13. We celebrate despite our exhaustion and not knowing the first thing about parenting. We take her home and figure out how to survive with little sleep.
I go back to work. Eventually Lynnette does, too. We leave our daughter with strangers. Granny Lu and the aunts help out. Relatives visit.
Springtime happens. We go for walks around the neighborhood.
A flood comes. A big one. Nashville is devastated. Being in the right place at the right time means that Cool People Care can help by making T-shirts with the We Are Nashville rallying cry that Patten Fuqua eloquently penned. Sales are brisk. Anderson Cooper helps with that. We become overwhelmed and the next two months are full of even less sleep as we figure out how to print and ship over 10,000 We Are Nashville items.
We help raise $100,000 for our neighbors. We're weary and thankful.
I sign a book contract and am excited to write another one. Again. Finally.
I help coordinate training teens with Inconvenient Youth. More busyness for June. The summer comes. Lindley rides on a plane a few times.
I become a finalist in the Fairfield Inn Small Business Challenge. Lots more travel. Some speaking opportunities. I go to Argentina. I finish writing 50 Things Your Life Doesn't Need. I see the inside of too many airports and planes. I begin to hate them, but am trying to expand what I do.
Matt moves to Nashville and we start Proof which grows very quickly. We're doing creative work. It's fun. Lindley's eating real food. And crawling. And starting to stand up.
50 Things comes out. I promote it. Hello, holidays.