Marmee's Corner

I'm into the second week of an online writing class, and the experience has been rewarding and enriching as I've "e-met" writers from across the nation and abroad. This week's topic is blogging/columns, which has led me to think about my abandoned blog "marmee's musings." I had such high aspirations to post devotionals there that I could someday compile into a book. Though this is not the usual goal of blogging, the first few posts came to me so easily, I was confident, I could blaze a new blogging trail! Self-imposed pressure to produce a perfectly polished post dammed (damned) the creativity, and Marmee lost her desire to muse.

With the encouragement of Susan Ito, the leader of our parent-lit class, I've opened this new space with a new name: marmee's corner. A passage in Louisa May Alcott's Little Women provided the inspiration for this new title when, at the turn of spring, the March girls seek permission to abandon their normal work routine and instead, do whatever they wish:

"May we, Mother?" asked Meg, turning to Mrs. March, who sat sewing in what they called `Marmee's corner'.

"You may try your experiment for a week and see how you like it."

. . .Next morning, Meg did not appear till ten o'clock. Her solitary breakfast did not taste nice, and the room seemed lonely and untidy, for Jo had not filled the vases, Beth had not dusted, and Amy's books lay scattered about. Nothing was neat and pleasant but `Marmee's corner', which looked as usual. (128)

I don't know exactly what "Marmee's corner" looked like in the March home, and I don't know what my corner is going to look like either. It may not be "neat and pleasant," but instead strewn with one word, one sentence, one paragraph -- all unpolished, undusted -- but honest, as I ponder how to accessorize this write spot.