Allergy season is upon us and we begin to point the finger at the culprit, that dastardly Goldenrod. But is it really the culprit, or is it the fall guy for a sneakier, less showy plant that releases its allergens every year at the same time that the golden flowers burst forth in splendor. The villain Ragweed strikes again, and takes none of the blame. Today I am cranky. I did not want to run this morning, or write, all I wanted to do was sleep and eat. I could blame it on not enough sleep, or Pretty Morning Sunshine, or the lack of daylight in the morning. Any of those could be the culprit, but sometimes I need to look deeper. What is my Ragweed? Why am a little off kilter today? Possibly because I haven’t connected with God the past few days. My meditation practice gets shoved aside on the weekends, the writing doesn’t get done with altered sleep hours. My schedule is altered, then it gets altered again. Maybe my Ragweed is a lack of consistency in my weekly life, constant shifts that have no sense of grounding. I think that I need to make sure that as I weave back and forth between schedules I have a core practice that doesn’t alter because of added time at the dog park or country fairs. My morning prayer and meditation practice allows me to ease into the day, creating a smooth transition from night to morning that I don’t have between week and weekend, and school and summer. Because I will be the first to ignore what is really going on for the showy excuse. Time to alter the score, Ragweed 1, Goldenrod 1.
● About Me
I wrote and published my first blog post on May 26, 2009. I was about to turn 36 and had been accepted to Mount Holyoke College as a non-traditional student, on my way to completing a Bachelor of Arts in English with a minor in Medieval Studies. I had managed, finally, to know what general direction I was traveling. As a self proclaimed voracious reader I knew that I needed a vocation that would allow me to engage daily with words: reading words, writing words, and hearing words. I also needed to eat, so I navigated my way to a teaching position and I began to fine tune my craft. I love to teach and I love my students, but I also needed to continue to hone my own literary technique, voice, and style. I continued my education in order to delve deeper into literature, making connections, and most definitely, writing. I gained more confidence as a reader as well as a writer of both creative and analytical text. That first blog post in 2009 is short, the writing average, and the topic mundane, but as I continued to learn from other writers I began to understand that to become a better writer I needed to write more. Each time I write and release a poem, a post, or a story, I hone my skills. I invite you along for the ride, for this journey of mine as I attempt to wrangle a wealth of ideas and competing directions into an organized freshly paved path to publication. I might get distracted along the way, but sometimes those detours lead us to amazing views and new friends.
Laura Smith Writer 
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