Q

When you see a Q and it’s next to a U.

It sounds like it sounds like “qu, ” as in quack-quack and quail.

Qu-qu-qu-quiver and qu-qu-qu-quiz.

What a quality letter this letter q is!

Quiddily quiddily diddly doo—this is a song that is all about Q.

Quiddily quiddily diddly dee—Q is the letter that comes after P!

(…)

Now you know lots of words starting with Q.

Now it’s time to quit, to quit means I’m through!

Yes it’s true.

The ABC Mouse

One year. 43 posts. 36 thousand words or more.

It all started with the ABCs of a dream. My dream. 

The dream of spending a year in Australia was preceded by always looking for the journey. For riding up and down winding roads on an orange folding bike. Fruit snack packed.

The ABCs of a dream. April 2019

This is Z. Or at least Q. The Q in the alphabet of my dream. Not quite finished, but almost at the end. Q … what? Quoi? 

My number 2 son’s favourite movie is World War Z. Watched it a gazillion times. Not so much anymore lately, as there is enough apocalypse going on in the real world. Minus the zombies. Though lately I do feel like one sometimes. But that’s a different story. The Z stands for zombies, it turns out.  I always thought the Z stood for the end. Final. Done. 

Not quite yet. Not yet Z. 

So let’s stick with the letter Q.

Seventeenth letter in the alphabet. The most useless letter in the English alphabet or not. Never alone, always to be found with his/her BFF the U. A voiceless uvular plosive (sounds exciting, but really just a sound you make in the back of your mouth), stands for heat in and electrical charge in Physics. Who knew? Q?

There is only one letter Q tile in the game of Scrabble. Gets you 10 points. Q for quarantine. Q for thank you. 10q . Thank you.

ABC. Antecedent-Behaviour-Conclusion. What came first was my dream to spend a year abroad to teach and travel and write. And so I did – the B of my dream. And then the C – conclusion. Part of my dream has come to the end. The Z. Done the teaching. Done the travelling. Done the writing about it.

Not quite. Q. 

If you feel the urge to write, do it without thinking too hard about the consequences or the quality. Worst case, no one reads it. Best case, your words will touch someone else and what could be better than that?

Matthew Hague. CBC Writing Contest 2020

For a year it has been my Saturday morning routine to get a weird long black at the local coffee shop. Buy the paper and a fresh croissant (Just one? she would ask me – every time! Talking about feeling awkward living on your own). Return to my little blue house and start writing about my time in Downunder. Part of living the dream was writing about it. Sharing it. 

So what do you do when a dream comes true? You enjoy it (oh I do). You share it (doing that with you). And you are grateful (Thank you).

Pinch me. Post from October 2019

Travelling the world has always been my dream and probably always will be. The wanderlust in me, as someone put it just recently, unknowingly describing me so perfectly. 

But so is writing.

A light blue journal with dreamy white clouds on it  – I remember my first writing book received as a gift from my mother when I was maybe eight or nine. The woman who instilled the love for reading in me, who introduced me to the secret world of libraries and bookstores, who would always let you buy as many books as you wanted – even though the pile of 36 romantic novel paperbacks stacked up high next to me on that back seat in our car driving to some summer destination did seem excessively extravagant, even to me!

 I remember sitting in front of that first pristine page of the light blue book, unfilled lines staring at me, fountain pen at hand, fingers cramping, my mind as empty as the paper in front of me . I remember so desperately wanting to write a book, write something, write. 

A box full of countless light blue cloud covered journals and other books later, hidden away in my bedroom closet, of no interest to no one, yet closed up with duct tape just in case, writing has become another one of my dreams. Makes me happy. Keeps me sane. And while it is always somewhat of a solitary act to sit at that patio table in front of my little blue house or at the old scrapped up desk in my chilly bedroom back home, it never makes me feel alone. In fact, it connects me to others like nothing else would do. 

So what am I up to during Q? 

I’m going to take a break from blogging. Because my dream of travelling and teaching abroad is taking a break too. After the letter Q comes R. Rest. Read. And write. W. Work on my writing. Signed up for a class. Creative writing here I come.

I’m still ways away from the letter Z. Still looking for those cherries. Thank you for reading. Thank you for riding along with me on my orange bike . Than-Q!

Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, or making friends. It’s about getting up, getting well and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy.

Stephen King. On writing