There’s No Such Thing As An Ordinary Life

Editor's note: Each month, the CCW blog features one of our members. This month, Kathleen Caron talks about how what we think is average really isn’t.

“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.” C.S. Lewis

Is your life fairly ordinary? Maybe not so ordinary as you think.

Every night when we sit down to dinner, our family shares stories from the day. The funny little occurences in our humdrum routine become epic in the voice of a good storyteller. We tease out the humor, pathos and drama of the tiniest tales, which then become fodder for family lore.

Perhaps because of his French-Canadian heritage, my husband Doric is a consummate storyteller who can spin the thinnest little yarn into a tale that has us all in stitches. He has passed on his keen observation skills to his children, who can hold their own as storytellers and mimics.

“Did anything interesting happen today?” someone will ask. Sometimes, it takes us a while to come up with something, but we always remember an amusing anecdote or an encounter with a flamboyant character that stimulates a great conversation.

Maybe there was a food fight at Joe’s high school, which lends itself to a discussion about world hunger. Or perhaps Marie, who is a nursing student, worked in geriatrics that day, opening an opportunity to talk about how we treat the elderly.

Sometimes the best stories are the smallest. Recently, Doric told about a visit to a home where he unintentionally caused a big stir. Just as he arrived for an estimate (he owns a home improvement company), the impatient husband was hustling the kids into the car. The littlest boy, buckled in his car seat, wailed inconsolably, “I WANT TO SEE THE MAN IN THE HOUSE! I WANT TO SEE THE MAN IN THE HOUSE!” The wife sheepishly asked Doric if he would mind saying hello to the boy. Of course, Doric did, and the little boy was happy because he had seen “the man in the house.”

Telling the story, Doric became the impatient husband, the flustered wife and the sobbing little boy to hilarious effect, and we laughed till we cried. “I want to see the man in the house” instantly became a new catch phrase and an inside joke for our family.

If you’re thinking you don’t have any stories of your own, think about where we live in and near our nation’s capital. At the nonprofit where I work, my coworkers are from Ghana, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, Afghanistan and El Salvador, among other places. All of them have colorful, sometimes tragic, stories to tell about what brought them to America and what they left behind. I could never have an ordinary day, surrounded by such remarkable people.

You don’t have to be an an international diplomat or a world explorer to have an interesting story to tell. You really just have to be paying attention. Your life is far more interesting than you think.

Do you tell stories at the dinner table?

Kathleen Caron lives in Chantilly with her husband, three children and two rescue dogs. She blogs abo{full of life} soul food and is collaborating on a book about pursuing your dreams.

ut food, faith and family at

A Special Blog

Editor’s note: Each month, the CCW blog features one of our members. This month, Edward Valaer Jr. reflects on vacation blogging.

by Edward Valaer Jr.

June 2010 found me in an RV tooling around the United States. I crossed the entire country, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.

Along the way, I utilized what I’d learned in a CCW writers meeting and started a blog of my journey. I created a Wordpress account to start my blog the day before our departure. Soon, “Motoring the USA with Ed” was up and running. I easily wrote and uploaded my posts, which totaled 28 during my 19-day journey.

I also included photos on my blog taken with my Canon Powershot SD 1300IS Digital Elph. On the road, having Wi-Fi was critical since we were housed inside a 40-foot Winnebago. Each day found us at a new location doing many new things, which fed my ideas for posts.

We had taken along a dog named Lulu and a guinea pig named Cookie. I wrote about these animals in my blog as well. Many who travel in an RV take along pets, since they do not have to be crated like pets on air planes. Some of the entries turned out humorous but others were very thought-provoking.

When I was finished, I was very pleased that the journey included a great variety of activities and people. Upon my return, I swapped out some of the photos, and found Wordpress easily allowed me that freedom.

I read On the Road by Jack Kerouac but realized that was not the way I wanted to see the USA. Instead we took our time as we proceeded through many states. People were very friendly along the way.

I recommend blogging because it is so easy to do. You can allow viewers to comment on your blog, which may spark you to additional postings. This undertaking is cementing a journey and special events—something which may never be repeated.

My blog at http://epvalaerjr.wordpress.com has received more than 1,500 visits and comments from writing friends. Several CCW members gave me some editing tips to make it even better.

If you want to embark on your own blog about a journey, I recommend preparing a general outline before you take the trip. Be careful what you share, since the Internet is generous to all. Once I reached 1,000 hits, Wordpress asked me if I would like to make it public. I decided not to go public because my travel mate was a very private person.

Creating a blog is a lot of work and you have to supply a timetable so folks can go to the documents and find new postings. I am so glad that I created my Travel Blog and encourage others to roll up their sleeves and get started. I captured a 3,000 mile journey, a moment in time and one never to be forgotten. 

The Story of Life

Editor’s note: Each month, the CCW blog features one of our members. This month, John Cowgill reflects on the stories that unfold around him.

By John Cowgill

Life is a series of stories, but only a few are ever written down. Each story is different from the other. Each one’s story begins at birth, and the story does not end until the day life ends. The stories are fast-paced and slow-paced, but every story has meaning to someone—from large crowds to just one person. It can be a novel, a short story, a journal or a poem. No story is a waste.

As I go about my day, I observe stories happening all around me. As I see these stories unfold, I see more stories unfold within them. They are stories with happy endings and sad endings. They are about heroes and sacrificial people who inspire us and losers who depress us.

In elementary school, I discovered the joy of writing stories. Unfortunately, my stories were met with much discouragement from many teachers and acquaintances. But there were bright spots of encouragement from those who looked forward to what I had written. During high school, I withdrew from writing stories, from everyone, really. At that time, I felt God leading me to write particularly films, but there were no opportunities. Both my school and church had closed the doors to movies.

My interest in motion pictures led to my being banned from that church. However, at another church, I saw opportunities unfolding before my eyes. I started writing stories to promote activities, and people liked them. Some asked me to write one an Easter Pageants for the church. Although the choir members supported my pageant, the music leaders tossed it without reading it. It bothered me at first, but at that time, I did not see what God was seeing. Now I do.

I changed churches again, to one more receptive to my writing. I later joined the Fellowship of Christian Filmmakers. I am now part of NoVa Christian Film, and many different writing groups. I’m a graduate of the Long Ridge Writing School Short Story program. I regularly write railroad articles for the D.C. Examiner.

I might have received discouragement in my younger years as a writer, but today I have encouragement from a variety of sources and people. As I continue to live my life, my story continues. I might not know what part of this story I am currently in, but as God continues to unfold it, I will continue to write about it and other stories He has given m

The Write Place

Editor's note: Each month, the CCW blog features one of our members. This month, Nancy Hoag reflects on having her very own place to write. Nancy wrote this piece in her fifth-wheel  RV, riding in the front seat of a pick-up truck, and emailed it while waiting for the washer to finish.

  

Twenty-five years ago, I didn’t let not having a room of my own in our home stop me from writing—I wrote anyway and everywhere. At a Smith-Corona portable typewriter planted on my sewing machine cabinet, at the kitchen table, on Pizza Hut place mats and scraps of paper created from junk envelopes. Then I started noticing articles about "the setting” a writer must have. I especially remember a photo of a well-known author reclining in her Adirondack chair beside a sunny lake. I’d long dreamed of lake living and mentioned this to an editor friend that since my sales had slowed, perhaps that meant my setting wasn’t right? She suggested I create a space that would be the prettiest room in our home. So I purchased wallpaper, country curtains, a pretty chair, an antique desk, and a dozen fresh-cut tulips—and that worked!

            Not too long after, though, we found ourselves moving every several years because of my husband, Scotty's, work. Still, the first thing we looked for was space where I would write. In one home, that special place measured eight-feet square, but my husband cut through layers of wall and added a window so I could see the sun rise. In another home, we discovered a nook up under the eaves where I could watch the sun rise and set. In my very best place—in Northern Virginia—a cottage door opened onto a balcony from my office—and I wrote and wrote and wrote.

            However, shortly after moving back to Montana (my husband’s best place), Scotty and I felt called to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity. We would build homes for the working poor and single moms—and live in a trailer with not even a corner to call my own. And I began to believe I would never write again.

            To my surprise, that was not the case. I still longed for a balcony, and a view, but I discovered I could write behind chain-link fencing and concertina wire in North Carolina; in a thrift-store parking lot in Georgia; next to railroad tracks in sweltering Florida heat; and stuffed between deteriorating and abandoned mobile homes in Louisiana. In just over three years, I created nearly 100 articles and devotions, saw 71 pieces published, received an AMY award, and recently got news that one of my stories would appear in an upcoming Chicken Soup book.

            While I still believe a special writing space would be the ideal, and I personally dream of one day having a hideaway again, today I type in a fifth-wheel of an RV with my supplies in overhead cupboards, inside my stiff-backed chair, and in tubs below the floor (with access from the outside only)—and I finally understand that writing does take courage, but our inspiration comes from God—and He is the “setting” I need.

Travel Blog from Phil Barth

Phil Barth mentioned a travel blog he had written about his travels with his father over the summer. Since several CCW members were interested in reading the blog entries, here's the link: http://www.danieljosephson.blogspot.com/ . The road trip entries were posted in May and June 2011, under the title: "Finding Fritz, Sr."