For many years now, in March, I have taken part in the Slice of Life daily writing challenge via the Two Writing Teachers community. This year, I can’t seem to muster myself, and it kicks off tomorrow. I figured I’d write a bit about my thinking- – a Tuesday Slice about whether to Slice or not.
My ambivelance may be part of how I view this Kevin’s Meandering Mind blog these days — it’s no longer a place where I am always doing a daily bit of writing anymore. It’s become more of a periodic space to share and think out loud when the interest strikes. I gave myself permission in the last year to let go of the idea of needing to post something here at the blog every single day. It may also be that my teaching life is taking up my full attention. It is. Sleep issues that have bedeviled me make for a more difficult morning transitions for me, too.
I also know that my daily writing focus has shifted towards writing short poems each morning with one-word prompts off Mastodon (and, of course, the DS106 Daily Create) and adding a third task to the writing routine seems like a bit too much to me right now. I know I have merged poetry and Slice writing in the past (using Haiku, say, for Slice writing). I’ve also done Day in a Sentence as Slice writing, narrowing down a reflection into a single sentence of thought.
I had an idea of doing Visual Slices this year, of using simple artwork with no writing to express a sense of a day, and maybe I will still do that from time to time. I’m giving myself permission in this post not to worry about Slicing every day, or even any day, but to keep the door open for when I feel inspired to reconnect. I hate the idea of not doing anything but that’s still a possibility.
A powerful element with the Slice of Life challenge is that you get to see many, many educators writing and reacting to each other. What began as a small community of teacher/writers sharing and commenting (a key component is that you comment as a reader) has now become a massive community — a good thing, in some ways, but maybe a bit too large for my tastes these days when I find myself leaning towards smaller but more vibrant networks of people. But I know that I can find familiar bloggers, too, from past Slice events, and reconnect, if I need to.
Whether I will or not … I’m just not yet sure.
Peace (thinking it out loud),
Kevin