A Haiku, a Couplet, and a Black Eye by Kayla

What to write as guest?
Will Kristi accept haiku?
Does she have a choice?

Perhaps a nice rhyming couplet
Man, I am in such a writing rut

Um, and then I tried to write a sonnet about the ideas other people gave me and failed miserably.

I am, of course, thrilled that Kristi asked me to guest post. It makes me feel important! And skilled! And like I possibly have the ability to say important things skillfully!

Except I've had some serious writer's block lately and even begged post ideas off my readers in hopes they would jump start the flow of creativity. It's only sort of working, which isn't their fault. My brain is just temporarily out of order (have an idea for me? Leave it here! And yes, I just shamelessly begged for inspiration from someone else's readers).

So then I thought I'd look through Kristi's archives and try to write a post that would fit in here at The Little Things. It didn't take me long to find a common theme.

Black eyes.

Kristi writes about failure and almost-failure. She writes about things going awry and the narrow misses. In a blogworld full of sunshine and rainbow mommy blogs, she paints a real picture of the ups AND downs of life and motherhood. It's refreshing, ya know? And it's part of what makes her so charming.

And so, in honor of Kristi, one of my recent black eyes:

Last Sunday was the fifth Sunday of the month and in our church that means the men and women are combined and there's usually some sort of special lesson. Last week my ward did a "hymnimony," which is where anyone from the congregation can go up to the podium, talk a bit about their favorite hymn, and select a verse from that hymn for everyone to sing.

We did the same thing once in one of my student wards and it was pretty much my favorite thing ever. Before they even finished explaining the concept I had my hymn book open to #214, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.

I love that hymn but rarely get to sing it since there's such a limited number of Sundays between Thanksgiving and Christmas when we can sing Christmas hymns. And since it's one of the less common ones it doesn't even get sung every year.

So I was THRILLED at the prospect of forcing it upon everyone. I prepared my little spiel and picked verse 4:

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead nor doth he sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men."

As soon as the 2nd counselor invited us up I shot out of my seat and edged by Aaron and Wes toward the aisle.

In my excitement, I knocked Wes over.

I didn't stop to help him back up. I wanted to sing my hymn, dangit, and he wasn't going to stop me!

Wes started crying. I finished climbing over Aaron, shot him an apologetic look, and headed up to the podium.

Somehow, another guy beat me and was the first to introduce his favorite hymn. The crying from our row grew louder. Finally, as the organ began to play the opening strains of I Need Thee Every Hour, Aaron had to take Wes out.

After the selected verse, I stood. As I spoke a bit about I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day being a hymn of hope and comfort, I could hear Wes screaming outside the doors. It added a nice note of irony.

But then the organ started and I couldn't hear him anymore. And my theory is, "if I can't hear him then he's not crying." And I sang my heart out and loved every second of my hymn and didn't feel bad at all.

(until Aaron came back in 3 songs later and gave me the stink eye)

(it was worth it!)