I’ve decided that I need to write a little bit each day. I was originally thinking I might just write these and save them as drafts ad infinitum, both as a sort of stream-of-consciousness diary and as potential fodder for other, more coherent posts. I could publish them as well, but then that would be for a different type of audience – no longer just me, myself, and I, but now you, my faithful blog reader. (Is this really a blog? That term seems so outdated now.)

Anyway, maybe I should call this series of posts Daily Rabbit Hole – ok, I think I will. I had originally titled this post Daily Writing Practice 1 when I first started writing it, and I was not thrilled. But now I feel kinda inspired, because the rabbit hole metaphor fits better on a series like this, because it’s more about overcoming inertia and getting momentum to actually start writing. As a person with ADHD, the concepts of inertia and momentum (and how hard they are to overcome and master), feel so central to my life right now as an over 50 busy working married mom of two young teenagers, as well a homeowner and pet parent.

It was Stephanie Land that inspired me to take the pen back up. I am currently reading her book, Maid, and loving it to pieces.

I started reading it after my older daughter M convinced me to start watching the Netflix adaptation by the same name a couple of weeks ago.

At first I didn’t think I wanted to watch it, because at this point in my life, I’m at my fill of sad and/or distressing stories and situations, but she insisted, and I’m glad she did, because it was well-worth watching, and quite riveting – even my younger daughter C got hooked in. I’d seen in the opening credits that it was based on a book, so I decided to seek that out, and I was pleased to find that it was available through Kindle Unlimited.

I can give you a capsule review real quick by repeating here what I wrote about it in my local community college Writer’s Workshop for older adults, which incidentally just started last night for Fall semester. In fact, it was reading Land’s book which reminded me to sign up before it was too late! I had tried to take the class last semester, but family schedule commitments prevented me from completing it, most notably my husband C’s night class for his work certification, and M’s local rec center volleyball league. So I had to drop it less than halfway through. *Sigh*

Anyway, here is the capsule review of Maid that I wrote about in my introduction post for my workshop, in the part where I was supposed to tell about what I’m currently reading:

My current book is Maid by Stephanie Land. I’ve been really impressed with her writing. She is able to catalog her experience navigating poverty and the edge of destitution in a compelling and gritty way. At the same time, writes beautiful prose as she describes what she discovers about life, herself, and her clients while cleaning their houses

It’s all very raw, but at the same time, I just really love her honest and philosophical style of writing. She shares well-penned reflections on motherhood, poverty, relationships, bureaucracy, society, class and socioeconomic issues. Even though I was never in a situation as bad as hers, I’ve known people who were close, some inside my own family. That said, no one in my family seemed to ever have no one to turn to – one of the family always stepped up in some way. I don’t know what it would be like to feel that you had no one, or to have the closest members of your family (such as parents and grandparents) make it plain that they’re can’t or won’t be there for you. My brothers and sisters and I were lucky that my parents were like Stephanie Land herself – they would give the shirt off their backs to help their kids. NGL, sometimes it led to the kids taking advantage of them, but still, as a parent, I do think you often have to give ’til it hurts. However, once your child is an adult, the line between helping and enabling seems to get infinitely more complicated.

Anyway, I was gonna write more about the Stephanie Land-inspired rabbit hole I went down this morning, but I can always add that in later. TTFN!