Revise This...

I started out as an oral story teller and did not start putting pen to paper or typing the fingers in the keyboard till much later in life for example when I got to college the first time.  I always had stories in my head, jokes and poems that I could do.  I even did impressions of people but writing was not my strong suit.  So, when I got an opportunity to take a Creative Writing class in college...I was quite frankly nervous.  I knew I could tell stories quite well but write them that was a whole different thing.

The creative writing class involved writing poetry.  Something that I did not think I would ever write in my lifetime.  The professor was also a writer and not just a professor.  He was working on a book.  He was immensely into revising your work as I think all English professors are.

It came time for the first assignment.  The professor was so delighted by my writing and overly praising the excellent writing he then had the nerve to ask me "How many times did you revise this?"   "Revise,"  I said.  "This here on the paper is the first and only draft there will be.  I did not revise nor will I.  It flowed out of me like the creek to the river which in turn flows to the sea."  He turned beat red when I added, "I wrote it in five minutes.  Thanks for all the wonderful compliments about my work but I never revise.  It is what it is."  He did not believe me about the no revision thing.  Every class, I got wonderful praises for my work and then the question came..."How many times did you revise this?"  "NONE!"  Would always be my answer and I felt a lot of tension in classroom between us. With all his wonderful praises and never critiquing my work I was sure I was going to get an A in the class.  Disappointment set in when my final grade was a C.  He apparently was jealous that I never had to revise and he was making constant revisions. 

The morale of the story is trust. Trust in the talents God gave you, God made you and said you were good just like the rest of what God created.  Trust in that.  Don't revise yourself and lose who you are just adapt to things around you.  You are good.

Prepare Ye The Way of the Lord....Build the community

Last week at Bible Study, my roommate and I were leading the discussion/the group.  We were focused on the theme of inclusiveness and community that we found throughout our studies of the Bible and of Jesus.  Then today, while I was looking at our disorganized bookshelf, I found a book I had not read since my first attempt at college.  "Dorothy Day:  The Long Loneliness", had jumped almost right off the shelf into my hands.  Before turning her autobiography over to see the cover with her standing there in the woods, I noticed the following quote:

"We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes from community." ~ Dorothy Day

How powerful, I thought.  She was speaking right to me.  Love being the solution and community being so vital in bringing about that love.  I started to think about the Golden Rule: Treat each other how you would like to be treated.  or as I always heard it.  "Love thy neighbor as thyself."  The question for me always was how was I treating myself?  Did I love myself if not how could I love anyone else?  This puts us in a disadvantage point.  We become isolated and withdrawn.  We do not see the good in ourselves and possibly in others because of our inability to love ourselves.  Years of loneliness and isolation had brought me down.  But a community of love and compassion built me up. 

The Beaver is central to building a community.  The Beaver family only gnaws down enough trees to feed on and to build the dam which in return makes a pond.  Then the deer and the ducks and all the other animals including the fish have a place to live.  It is a co-operative community.  It is inclusive and full of love.  Each animal and plant, the soil and water and rocks, all know what their role is in the community. Let us be busy beavers and build a compassionate, loving community.

The Beaver

The Beaver gnaws and feeds on the Spirit of the Birch and the Weeping Willow.  The crystal tears with hues of pink run down my cheeks as I journey through this sacred land called Mother Earth.  The wind breathes in and out through my being as rays of light from the glorious Sun shines upon my Spirit.  The prairie grasses blow in the wind holding their roots firm to the rocks and soil.  The seeds of hope, compassion, love, growth and beautiful bounty are spread through their breath. ~ Theresa Dolata (The South Dakota Fall Trip 2010)

Differently abled and as abnormal as can be...That is me!

When I was a young third generation Polish American girl growing up in a small town in Central Wisconsin, I learned that I was very different from every one else.  They had abilities and strengths.  They seem to be more intelligent then I.  Of course, I felt worthless and had low self esteem because of that.  I had a disability or two that had not been acknowledged until young adulthood.  I had no idea that someday my disabilities would turn into triumphs. 

Kindergarten through eighth grade at the same school, had left me no options to figure out why I was different.  Why did I struggle so?  I told great stories always but my reading and writing were very poor.  I would score high on standardized English test but be failing English.  I was told I was not trying hard enough.  I was lazy.  Many of times I sat at the principles office because I did not have my homework done.  They thought I was lazy and I thought I was stupid.  Who was right? 

It took into adulthood to figure out that I am neither.  I am not lazy and I am not stupid.  I am a narcoleptic dyslexic young woman, who although received grades of D's and F's in school for English and in Speech class, does a lot of writing and public speaking.  I have strengths in my weaknesses.  I have weaknesses in my strengths.  But I know now that I am not stupid or disabled.  I am differently abled and thankfully as abnormal as can be....That is me!