Melinda VanRy

  • Melinda almost forty years ago
    Identity,  Memoir,  Snapshots

    Fifty Years in the Future Forty Years Ago

    / April 1, 2020

    The future was bright and my possibilities endless. Yes, the world looked different when I was nine, but I was figuring things out.

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  • Blog,  Identity,  Memoir

    Burning Words

    / August 2, 2019

    Words... So many words. Heavy. Laden with the weight of... me... What could I do with them?

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melindavanry

Melinda VanRy
Perfect morning for warm beverages and words. Read Perfect morning for warm beverages and words. Reading some. Writing some. 😊 Yeah, I need to edit some, too. 🤷‍♀️ And then there's laundry. Always laundry. #amwriting #ammom #warmmilkandhoney
Gray-sky, gray-eye quiet autumn morning. Cozy clot Gray-sky, gray-eye quiet autumn morning. Cozy clothes. Day off. School with the reds. Small house projects. Chromebook for writing. Maybe some art-ing. No appointments or obligations. Calmly excited to be staying in. Though perhaps I should brush my hair anyway. #amwriting #cozy #beingme #beyou
Hey, Writer Friends! New post on melindavanry.com. Hey, Writer Friends! New post on melindavanry.com... Do you have November writing goals? Feel free to share, especially if you'd like some accountability. #nanowrimo #flashnano #writinggoals #amwriting #whatareyouwriting #getwriting #writingisgoodformentalhealth
#beautyinsmallthings #getoutdoors #findthebeauty #beautyinsmallthings #getoutdoors #findthebeauty
I don't love autumn. I don't quite understand peop I don't love autumn. I don't quite understand people who do. It's not that I find no beauty in it. It can have some of the most gorgeous golden sunlight of the year. I like cute boots and jackets, and sometimes sweaters, even cardigans. Thick fuzzy socks. At times I can feel the coziness of home on a chilly day, baking or making soup. Hot cider, hot cocoa. But it never changes the fact that overall it feels like death. It's not a comfy tucking in for the year. It's nature’s urgent strive to prepare for the harshness bearing down, the drive to survive. Flying away, sometimes thousands of miles, on small wings. Caches of nuts and seeds, and the bees’ jagged quest, on warm- and dry-enough days, for the last of the nectar from the few remaining scraggly flowers. No, I don’t love autumn. It’s at odds with my body’s wiring, with my mind’s. Winter is bitter. Cold. With too many hours of dark. Winter is long, oh, so long. Autumn’s sole purpose is to usher it in. To tamp down summer, drain its life and vigor. Autumn is so efficient and pleased with its job it throws us into winter’s grasp long before the calendar gives it place just days before Christmas. I do prefer a white Christmas. But when the holidays are over, it’s disheartening to realize there is still the bulk of winter weather to survive. But it's autumn. Love it or not, it's time to live it. If you love it, I'm happy for you. If you don't, I'm there with you. If you feel heavy with it, feel the loss in it, the death of it, you're not alone. Live anyway. Find the beauty. #autumnthoughts #livethismoment #findthebeauty
Maybe they knew the rain was coming, could feel in Maybe they knew the rain was coming, could feel in the air the approach of the change in the weather. Or maybe it was just the typical rush to prepare for winter. We won't all survive the frozen months. Each creature must be as aware as I am of the shortening days. Perhaps more so. In many ways my life carries on in winter as it does in summer. With artificial light and heat, and easy access to a grocery store. I sat in the dark gray of this early-autumn sullen midmorning. Most of the leaves have barely started to turn. But many lower things are dying back, putting themselves away at the end of their season. The flowers left in my yard are technically weeds I suppose. As the rain beat harder I thought of the few bees I saw yesterday, rushing to give their colony its best chance. Would their alight-and-flight have been as frantic if they were unaware of the hours they'd lose today? #autumn #honeybees #changeofseason #beautyofnature #harshnessofnature #notreadyforwinter #liveeachmoment #mybackyard
I was talking to a friend last weekend. Loudly. In I was talking to a friend last weekend. Loudly. In that way that involves my entire body. Filter, what’s a filter? Writing came up pretty quickly, as it does. I’d just wrapped up my participation in the hope*writers Instagram writing challenge; she’s making progress as a member. I was considering. My first sticking point in this look at them was actually the writing challenge post and what I found when I followed it to its source. My overwhelming impression of hope*writers Instagram branding was… beige. BEIGE. Recent posts were awash with it. Pale and minimalist, with about as neutral as you can get dark green accents. A later look clarified what left me unimpressed to the point of disappointment. Most of the recent pictures of people were presented in soft-edged monochrome. Was the goal to not overwhelm potential member-customers with an organizational personality so they’d feel comfortable bringing their own? Which brought me back to why I had previously dismissed hope*writers out of hand: the sameness of the blog-branding of women I was aware of as being involved. The Instagram seemed to represent an organization intent on and content producing inoffensive cookie-cutter writers. Innocuous to the point of repellant. But they’re helping my friend develop her voice. HER voice. And a closer look at what they have to SAY makes it seem I could benefit from their guidance to commit and focus and find my audience. But as the rest of the weekend went, if that’s my route, now is not the time. What I said in the moment—standing beside my friend’s table, where she sat with two other friends I’ve met but don’t know well, feeling like I may be kind of holding them hostage, with the friends I’d been sitting with at the table at my back, occasionally realizing I was being REALLY LOUD with the attendant flitting knowledge that sometimes I’ve come down from moods like that and groaned with embarrassment or regret at being... extra… but I knew this time I wouldn’t— “I’M NOT BEIGE!” And that’s what I’m saying today. I’m not beige. Sometimes I’m gray. But if I’ve ever been beige I never will be again. #beingme #BEYOU
Fall is not my favorite... but it can have some go Fall is not my favorite... but it can have some gorgeous sunlight. Find something that makes your heart smile today. #autumnsun #livethismoment #getoutdoors #smile #breathe #porchtime #beingme #beyou
Beautiful mourning cloak butterfly... in my drivew Beautiful mourning cloak butterfly... in my driveway... #mourningcloakbutterfly #beautyofnature #mybackyard #getoutdoors #breathe
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