Constant Commoner

Share this post

That Was the Year That Was

constantcommoner.substack.com

That Was the Year That Was

A roundup of my 2022 favorites.

Ramona Grigg
Dec 30, 2022
7
11
Share this post

That Was the Year That Was

constantcommoner.substack.com
May be an image of text that says 'Peace on Earth'

Hello friends, the new year isn’t quite here yet so we’re still in the midst of the Holidays. I thought about skipping this roundup, considering what a year I’ve had, but through it all I wrote, I published, I bared my soul more than I’ve ever done publicly before, so after some minor soul-searching—and checking my posts—there are a few I’d like to share again.

Some of you newcomers may have missed them, and others of you may—miracle of miracles—want to read them again.

I’m doing something different this year. I’m incorporating posts from both of my newsletters—Constant Commoner and Writer Everlasting. Some may have appeared at both, but others are unique to each newsletter. And all are pieces I’m glad I wrote.

As always, I’m ever grateful to you, my subscribers, both paid and free, and to those who have let me know in some way—including in notes or comments—that some of what I’m trying to do here is making a dent.

It’s what every writer needs in order to keep going, and I try to pay it forward in my own way. It’s what we do as a community of readers and writers, and I’m proud to be a part of the Substack Experience.

So here they are, the earliest first. Feel free to share any of them, and, of course, to ‘heart’ and to comment. I’m here because of you. You are my guiding lights and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Free Swirl heart line 1187289 PNG with Transparent Background

I posted this at the beginning of 2022. It morphs into a 2021 roundup of my favorite pieces from that year. Tricky, huh?

Writer Everlasting
It's A New Year, It's a New Day
Read more
a year ago · 2 likes · 2 comments · Ramona Grigg

Soon after, I wrote a piece on a 100-year-old photo album I wanted to write about. I asked for advice here and got it. So the album sits, waiting for me to decide what to do. But it’s kind of an interesting story, so I’m repeating it here:

Writer Everlasting
Hey, Everlastings, I Need Your Advice
Read more
a year ago · 3 likes · 18 comments · Ramona Grigg

On what would have been my mom’s 104th birthday, I realized I’d forgotten her voice. I felt sadder than I ever had in years past. This is what I wrote:

Constant Commoner
I've Forgotten the Sound of My Mother's Voice
I woke up this morning thinking about my mother. She would have been 104 today. She was born in 1918, in the midst of the flu pandemic, but her birthplace was far into the remote northern reaches of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where that terrible influenza didn’t reach. She was a skinny little thing and might not have made it if it had…
Read more
a year ago · 13 likes · 10 comments · Ramona Grigg

On March 13 I shared the terrible news: that my husband, Ed, was in hospice with only days to live. It came on us so suddenly—we’d learned just days before that he had inoperable lung cancer—and he died three days after I wrote this. My life changed, and so did my writing. Looking back I’m surprised I could write about anything else, but I did. I started a section called Widow’s Walk, to include my posts on widowhood and grief. I tried to write them as honestly as I could, and as coherently, considering I felt as if every cogent thought had zoomed away, never to return.

Constant Commoner
A Quick Note to Tell You Where I Am
Hello friends, life took a turn for us a week ago and I’m still reeling from it. My husband of 65 years and the love of my life is about to leave me. He went to the ER with pneumonia symptoms and the Xray showed a large mass on his lung. He was already weak, has sepsis, and is not going to recover…
Read more
a year ago · 16 likes · Ramona Grigg

But life goes on, and I’m ever the political animal, so this piece, written in April, became my promise. It told me that life would go on, and my emotions, battered as they were, could still build into something useful—at least for me.

Constant Commoner
Six Reasons Why This *Flaming Liberal Democrat* is Getting Back to Online Activism.
Hello friends, it looks like I’m back to doing the one activity I love most: putting my incorrigibly liberal opinions in writing. Oh, you’re not surprised? I guess I’m not, either. So what happened? Everything happened. I thought I’d be out of commission for much longer, given…
Read more
10 months ago · 5 likes · 2 comments · Ramona Grigg

By June I was working on finding my voice again. I was slowly rising out of the fog known as ‘Widow’s brain’, though I still had my doubts about ever thinking clearly enough to get back to what I could call ‘real work’.

Writer Everlasting
On Finding My Voice Again
Hello my dear, patient friends. If you’re still here, it means you might be okay with me wandering away now and then as I contemplate my new life or get bogged down in a widow’s red tape or just find pleasant distractions in reading or looking out the window…
Read more
7 months ago · 11 likes · 10 comments · Ramona Grigg

This summer, while I was alone in my cabin up north, I spent days going through old files reflecting years and sometimes decades of published and never published work. They were strangely comforting, as if I’d discovered a part of the old me, far removed from this desperately conflicted widow who sought comfort in the here and now, afraid of what might be ahead. This is a piece of flash fiction I wrote for a contest but I didn’t win. There are parts of it I really like so I’m sharing it here again.

Writer Everlasting
The House on Sorrow Hill
On September 26, 2010, we were coming back from Sault Ste. Marie and the radio was tuned to NPR. They were announcing another of their Three-Minute Story Contests, giving the details, including the mandatory first and last lines. I had heard about the contest…
Read more
7 months ago · 13 likes · 9 comments · Ramona Grigg

In July, Joni Mitchell made a stunning comeback at the Newport Folk Festival and, not for the first time, she enthralled us mightily. This was my take on it.

Constant Commoner
Joni Mitchell Left and Then She Came Back
Set scene: It’s the Newport Folk Festival, July 2022. After nine years away from the spotlight and an astonishing 53 years after the last time she performed at the Festival, Joni Mitchell, in a surprise appearance, is back on their stage. She’s singing ‘Both Sides Now’, her signature piece, a grueling song not for the faint of heart, but she wr…
Read more
6 months ago · 11 likes · 10 comments · Ramona Grigg

In September, friends and family made the pilgrimage to Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula, where we buried and honored the love of my life and the light of so many others. It was just the kind of celebration my Ed would have loved.

Constant Commoner
I buried Him
I need to tell you where I’ve been for the past week or so. On the Tuesday after Labor Day my family and I traveled to the Keweenaw Peninsula to bury Ed’s ashes at the little cemetery behind the village of Ahmeek, where my parents, my brother, my grandmother, …
Read more
5 months ago · 13 likes · 18 comments · Ramona Grigg

And lastly, the story of how I ran away from home twice. I just noticed that I published this piece on November 14, the day after what would have been Ed’s 89th birthday. I could have written another paean to him the day before, on his actual birthday, but I didn’t. Instead, I wrote for the very first time as a woman making decisions alone. They weren’t always wise decisions, and sometimes they were downright wacky, but I’m only just now recognizing what a turning point it was.

Constant Commoner
Leaving it All Behind
The Democrats pulled it off! Democracy is sitting up again and taking nourishment. I can breathe. I can get back to living a normal life. I’m telling you, saving democracy is a thankless job but somebody has to do it. Thank you to all of you who took on the effort. You made all the difference…
Read more
3 months ago · 13 likes · 12 comments · Ramona Grigg

So those are my choices for the year past. I’m looking ahead now but there are still no guarantees that anything I’ve promised, even to myself, will actually happen. I want to write more and write better in the coming year, but life, as I’ve learned, is the ultimate rule-maker. I’m at life’s mercy, it seems, but I’m still breathing and still fighting.

I hope you’ll come along with me into 2023. I think of us as friends, as a growing community, as a fun house, a comfort station—whatever we want us to be.

Together.


A note about the photo at the top. One winter as I walked the beach at Pawley’s Island, SC, I found a sand dollar almost split in half. As I handled it back at our apartment it broke open, and those ‘birds’ fell out. They looked like Doves of Peace to me, so I arranged them on a navy blue velvet shirt and took a picture. It was long enough ago that I could edit it with Picasa, so I added the letters and made it my Facebook New Year’s message. I’ve been using it ever since, and now I’m happy to be sharing it with you.

May this new year bring to each of us our own share of peace.

(Cross-posted at Writer Everlasting, my other Substack newsletter)

Constant Commoner is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, I urge you to become a free or paid subscriber.

Support my work with a one-time gift

Leave a comment

11
Share this post

That Was the Year That Was

constantcommoner.substack.com
Previous
Next
11 Comments
Lisa Whitacre
Dec 30, 2022

Your written words nourish my soul and give me strength to use my voice to continue the evolution of humanity. Thank you. And may you continue on for as long as possible, I suspect there are so many more of "me's" benefiting from your messages. The ripple effect is alive and well.

Expand full comment
ReplyCollapse
author
Ramona Grigg
Dec 31, 2022Author

I’m so glad, Lisa! Your constant support means so much.

Expand full comment
ReplyCollapse
9 more comments…
TopNewCommunity

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2023 Ramona Grigg
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great writing