Afterthought #25 - Beautiful Words

River Teeth Journal came up with a brilliant idea for the short-in-days-but-long-in-wintery-ness month of February.  Each day, River Teeth staffer Michelle Webster-Hein posted “glimpses, glimmers, meditations, moments, reflections, refractions, interrupted shadows, river shimmers, darkened mirrors, keyholes, kaleidoscopes, earring hoops, slabs of cracked granite, cracks where the light gets in” for the 28 Days of Beautiful Things Project.

I’ve enjoyed the short pieces waiting in my e-mail inbox each morning this month (if you missed them, they’re archived), and evidently others did, too. River Teeth has decided to continue the series as a weekly column, called Beautiful Things, that will run on Mondays beginning in April.

Readers who subscribed to the 28 Days of Beautiful Things list automatically receive the new column. If you didn’t, no worries.  You can sign up here to receive Beautiful Things for free in your inbox. And you can offer your own beautiful words to the column through Submittable.

Here are a few more beautiful words to end this month. 

The wait is over. Gretchen Wing writes: “It's here! Friends, I am THRILLED to announce that my young adult novel, The Flying Burgowski, is now available to purchase.”

My thesis advisor, Ana Maria Spagna wrote this after critiquing my revised memoir manuscript:  

 

Well, you’ve done it!  You’ve written a beautiful book: honest, moving, cohesive, spiritual, most assuredly publishable.

Then, because she’s such a damn good writer and editor, Ana Maria offered 261 comments in-text—suggestions to make the book even more beautiful. And because she’s such a fine writer, I’ll take ‘em. My beautiful words in response – thank you.

            “Afterthoughts” is my blog version of a practice followed in some Quaker meetings. After meeting for worship ends, people continue in silence for a few more minutes during which they’re invited to share thoughts or reflect on the morning’s worship. I’ve adopted the form here for brief reflections on headlines, quotes, comments overheard, maybe even bumper stickers.