Thank you to my writing friend, Donnetta, who led the way to a commitment to show up with a Slice of Life piece today. I’m here, largely to honor that fist-bump promise, but also to give some time to maintaining a writing practice. I’m reminded of the social construct of learning, in that we learn best when we learn with others. It is sometimes easy to forget that as we plow through our busy lives. My writing matters to me, but sometimes I forget that I wouldn’t be a writer without friends who were brave and said, “Let’s do this.”

Another example of writing friends is the collaboration of Georgia Heard and Rebecca Kai Dotlich who have become close friends over many years of writing poetry for children. They write together, laugh together, and teach workshops together. Their newest book, Welcome to the Wonder House, illustrated by Deborah Freedman launched today. It’s a poetry book that explores ideas and questions which awaken our sense of awe and wonder. https://astrapublishinghouse.com/product/welcome-to-the-wonder-house-9781635927627/

I watched their launch “party” today. Georgia and Rebecca talked about how the idea for the book was born during a long car ride. Georgia scribbled notes as the conversation became more compelling. What followed were brainstorming sessions, topic choices, poem assignments (Georgia wrote about stars because she likes stars), phone-call revision sessions, and conversations with their editor who helped them shape the final version of the book. I loved seeing their writing notebooks and especially the illustrator’s notebook. Deborah Freedman has written and illustrated many books of her own, but this was her first collaboration with other author/poets. It was so interesting to hear how she looked for repeated words as a way in to the themes and images the poems might suggest; how she considered the purpose of the book and its intended audience as she drew and painted.

In my TBR stack, I also have Dacher Keltner’s book, Awe: The New Science of Wonder and How it Can Transform Your Life which I am looking forward to reading. It will be interesting to compare his writing with the impact of the short poems for children in Welcome to the Wonder House. (My copy arrives Friday!)

What has inspired awe or wonder in me lately? Well, there was this bug on my dining room door which was absolutely translucent. I’d never seen one like it before. The wings were so fragile and etched with a beautiful design. It stayed there for several hours. Sadly, I lack the photography skills to do it justice, but here’s a picture of the bug that filled me with more than a bit of wonder at this vast and diverse planet we inhabit.