6 Summer Goals and a bit of awesomeness

Now that summer is here, I have a decently challenging to-do list:

1) laugh at people more (see #2) [will explain in more detail at a later time]
2) Read Anne of Green Gables
3) read C. S. Lewis' The Four Loves
4) finish reading The Iliad of Homer, The Aeneid, The Divine Comedy, and Anna Karenina (bonus: Augustine's Confessions)
5) plan a book club
6) finish writing (or editing) at least one novel

I'd like to give a shoutout to the gal over at Heavenly Aspirations, since she also wrote about her summer plans and I think they are kinda inspiring. :)  [UPDATE: Sarah over at A Free Mind also told us about her summer plans :) ]

I don't know about you but Pirates of the Caribbean always motivates me.

And then there's young Sungha Jung's version, which is also really awesome:

(Also, Enya Radio on Pandora is usually really great to listen to for inspiring and motivating music that won't distract you!)

The following is from a new idea I have.  Please let me know what you think!  I've had a lot of trouble writing for some time now, but I'm determined to break bad habits and put the passion back into my talent.  If you have something encouraging to say, it would do a lot for my confidence.  If you have critiques, I'll accept that, too, because I want to figure out where my problems are.

Here goes.  I think I might call this book Welcome to the Wood, but I'm not sure.

"Welcome to the wood," she said.

†

Hearing a voice melodiously mingled with the murmuring of the leaves in the wind, merely a whisper at first, he stepped off the road and forged into the wood.  The singing, a woman's voice, was deeply enchanting; the tune haunting.  He pursued it deep into the wood, marking his way as he went and noting landmarks, such as a great oak growing on a rock in a clearing as wide around as its branches.  But the voice was not in the direction of the clearing.  He veered away from it in the brush and weaved on.

At last he found her, harshly rubbing a cloth against itself in the deep brook.  Her black hair rested on her shoulders and tickled the ground as her slender body crouched there.  Her sleeves were rolled up to her ivory-white, sculpted elbows; her strong arms, fine wrists worked back and forth in the water.  She couldn't be more than 25 years old.  And at last he distinguished the words she sang: 

If the water is too cold…

Go right in and catch a toad…

But if the water, the water is too hot…

Throw him… throw him in, throw him in a boiling pot…. 

She stopped when he had come near and looked at him: long, hollow cheeks and nose; closely trimmed beard; clear, round eyes; long hair; young; sword nearly concealed by his cloak.  "Welcome to the wood," she said.  "It's a lovely day, isn't it?" 

"It is, madam," he said.  "May I ask why you've come so far into the wood to wash a cloth?" 

"I live in the wood," she said, wringing out her cloth.  "What have you come for?" 

"I heard your voice while taking a morning stroll, as I like to do.  It's an odd song.  I've never heard it before."

"The words are not original to the melody," she said, her eyes locking with his unabashedly.  "The melody, ages old, belongs to a song about a lost loved one.  It was taught to me many years ago."

His imagination was captivated by her elegant beauty.  "Would you care to walk with me?"

"I must take this back to the house," she said.

"I'd be honored to walk with you," he pressed.

Smiling, "I think perhaps not this time.  But if you walk in the wood often, I will see you again.  Fare thee well."

As she noiselessly moved through the brush, he moved to follow her.  But she was out of sight and he, an honorable man, would not track her like a stag.  Rather, after a few minutes, he found the road again and continued his walk, musing.  The leaves of the mountain laurel resembled the color of her pinafore.  The soft brown of a bracket mushrom was similar to her mysteriously wise eyes.

But slowly, a bitterness settled in his face; and turning, he retraced the road back into town and to his room at Greeneback Tavern.

I'm sorry to have been neglectful for so long – Thank you very much for coming back and reading :)
~Meggy

(Also, if you'd like, check out my other blog for a recent update (and writing experiment): Our Hearts Unhindered)