finding a voice


June was a really productive month. I wrote hundreds (well, it felt like it) of articles, met and interviewed a host of interesting people, found new clients and got rid of one particularly dreadful one...
But in the flurry of it all, I seem to have lost my own voice.
Perhaps it is because I have spent a fair amount of time "ghost-blogging" for a couple of my clients? I've been crafting my words into their voices, hearing their tones and inflections and passions and speaking for them.
My mind is so filled with these other characters, that I am finding it difficult to speak for myself.



We did find some time for some fun things though... a highlight was breakfast at the Royal Hotel in Riebeeck Kasteel, which claims to have the longest stoep in Africa, or something. Here it is. A great spot. We went back for dinner... waterblommetjie breedie (stew made with water lilies) and because we were the only guests (we were early) sat in the smoking room in front of the huge fireplace. As the evening wore on and we got more mellow (I was drinking Allesveloren port) the room got more and more smokey, until the waiter and manager rushed in, all concerned, and opened all the doors and windows.

I've set myself the challenge of a post a day for July, and already I'm feeling a little daunted. Let's see how it goes...

Comments

Meri said…
Welcome back! I'm sure if you keep looking, you'll find your own voice. I found mine after it had been missing for too long.
1 July 2009 at 16:55
Lynne said…
thanks Meri! Its good to be back!
1 July 2009 at 17:00
Mary Ellen said…
Hi! I've just included your blog link in my reading list. Good to hear from you! I generally have only time/energy enough for a blog or two each week. But that seems enough (along with some checking in and comments) to keep a sense of my own voice available. Good luck with your intention of daily blogging!
2 July 2009 at 00:00
spudballoo said…
I just found your blog through your comment on mine...it's lovely. If you need to find your voice, would photos help? They shape a post, give a theme (if not a structure), and might give you some space to find your voice again? Just a thought...
2 July 2009 at 00:05
Lynne said…
Hi Mary Ellen and Spudbaloo! Thanks for the comments and the good advice ... and for popping over from Julie's place! I've been visiting your blogs after I saw your names on hers. I love these connections.
2 July 2009 at 08:23
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

the writer formerly known as...

Twenty years after I was born a Brooks, I became a Wilson in one of those happy-ever-after fantasies that didn't quite work out the way I had planned. But Wilson was a nice name, and eminently preferable to Brooks (which in Afrikaans means underpants or knickers and led to horrible teasing at school) and I quite enjoyed it. It was one of those anonymous names that everyone could spell and I liked the fact that it was totally normal at first look, but had a secret history. The great grandfather of the Mr Wilson I married had emigrated from somewhere near Moscow to the US and like so many others with unpronouncable or "difficult" names (I think it was Tobinofsky) he was given another one. One of the legends is that Wilson was chosen from the phone book, another is that he particularly admired a Wilson (couldn't have been Harold). So, for the next 25 years or so, I built my name and reputation as the journalist Lynne Wilson ... until I met and married my new happy-ever-a...
Read more

mind the gap

I'm suffering from an excess of velleity. Velleity is volition at its weakest. It's a mere wish or inclination, without any accompanying effort. My velleity is fed by an overactive imagination... I can see in my mind's eye exactly what my dream garden looks like, for example. So when I am outside, I'm imagining a tree there, a shrub here, a winding path and a bank of flowers. so the lack of all those things and the lack of effort on my part to make them happen don't worry me so much. It certainly makes things easier when you are living with a very large garden during our excessively hot and dry summers. I'd write more... but what can I say? Velleity strikes again.
Read more

happy birthday to "the Arch!"

Image
tenacity and hope in the most unhospitable of places " I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ"   I often think of Ghandi's famous words (even if it is not completely clear that it was actually he who said them) and use them as a measure and a reminder for the way that I try to live my life. I use them as a measure for other people too. For me, professing to be a Christian means that you have voluntarily set the bar that measures your behaviour, your reactions and the way that you live your life, every moment of the day. (Even when no one is watching). It is a particular joy to come across an individual who actually practices what he preaches. Someone who, like Paul, could say "Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ". For me,  Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu who turns 79 today, epitomises that example He is the elder statesman of South Africa and has been described as the conscience ...
Read more