Let's Start at the Very Beginning: December 1 & #reverb13

This was actually one of my favorite photos from last January. Simple yet I think very beautiful. (Edits came today!)

I am combining two different prompts for Reverb13 in this post. Primarily this is because weekends tend to have less time for writing, so a part of me feels like I am cheating though the practical me says I'm taking care of myself. That being said, reverbing is a great end of the year tradition for me over the last 4 years. Check out the #reverb13 hashtag on Twitter to find several possibilities for prompts and oodles of grand new friends.

The prompts asked where I was when I started 2013 and how I feel on December 1, 2013.

I started 2013 in San Francisco. I can not think of a better place to begin anything new. I was there as a driver, bringing my friend Barbara to the bedside of her daughter who had just given birth to a tiny little baby girl who is now eleven months old.

Unbelievable and quite a reminder of the way time passes even when you are not paying attention.

I had a cocktail in a fantastic neighborhood bar called Shanghai Kelly's. I chatted up the bartender and he gave us: Kelly, Barbara and Me, free shots of some concoction with the name Obama in it. It was a specialty of the house. We laughed and drank and felt corporately optimistic.

Even as the driver my favorite moments were walking through San Francisco, both near the hotel where we slept - not far from where both Imogen Cunningham and Ina Culbrith at one time lived. I doubt they knew each other, but the thought is a fascinating one.

I was primarily optimistic during those moments.

I begin December 2013 optimistic once again.

I somehow feel more mature but not older. I feel as if I am looking realistically at what is and what was much more than in the past.

I just finished reading the classic A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and within that reading I felt a continued spiraling up - written by Betty Smith, I wish I had read this book before which for some reason I thought was overly saccharine and unrealistic.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Read it! You'll love it!

I am putting my toe into Reverb again. This is the first year I have been sort of detached from it, or rather unattached to it. Usually I am all aflutter about getting comments and networking. I do want to get to know as many people as possible, but I am focusing on relationships and quality over numbers.

I studied this through Art Every Day Month which ended officially yesterday. I made many good friends and a lot of breakthrough art. I was conscious about building relationships and I had more contacts with more people than ever.

Interesting how that happens.

I am going to continue with my art making and hopefully continue with those friendships.

I realize now there is much to tell, much to look forward to and much much much muchness within me. I haven't felt this way in a long, long time.

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Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

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