Living Large In Our Little House

“You can’t take a pic­ture of this, it’s already gone,” Nate’s ghost whis­pers to Claire when she wants to pho­to­graph her fam­ily in the series finale of the HBO tele­vi­sion show “Six Feet Under.”

When I was a child, my par­ents remod­eled our Little Green Bungalow by tear­ing out walls to open more space. Before the wall was sealed with dry­wall, I placed a let­ter to the future in the new wall of the kitchen.

I was all of about 9 or 10 at the time, but the let­ter detailed the house’s his­tory (my par­ents pur­chased it brand spank­ing new in 1948), our family’s his­tory and our cur­rent fam­ily mem­bers and dogs names. I don’t know where I got the idea; mil­len­nium time cap­sules weren’t even on the radar in the early 1970s. Perhaps I had heard of some other time cap­sule project or maybe I got the idea from all of those arche­ol­o­gist books I scanned in my child­hood (my mother wanted me to grow up to be an arche­ol­o­gist in the worst way!)

Whatever gave me the ini­tial idea, it was renewed last year watch­ing a show called “If Walls Could Talk,” a show that doc­u­ments peo­ple find­ing cool reminders of their home’s his­tory. Old bot­tles, children’s toys lost in floor­boards and dropped into unsealed walls, even let­ters and pho­tographs hid­den away for decades and even centuries.

On this show, the walls really do offer a win­dow into the past.

When we were build­ing The Belle Writer’s Studio in 2008, I decided to write another let­ter to the future and drop it into an unfin­ished wall of my office.

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If one of your New Year's Resolutions is to  learn how to tap into your own expe­ri­ences to write, then you might want to join us on Saturday, January 16 at the Bel Arco Resort in Bull Shoals, Arkansas for a writer's workshop.(Bull Shoals is about 1.5 hours south of Branson, Mo.)

My work­shop, Write What you Know, which I orig­i­nally devel­oped for Johnson County Community College in the Kansas City area, will include point­ers and lots of exer­cises to help you tap into your own pas­sions and life expe­ri­ences to write for busi­ness or just for yourself.

We'll be writ­ing from 9a.m. — 1 p.m.

The cost is only $10, but you have to be reg­is­tered by January 8.

Send your check or money order to:

Mary Nida Smith

c/o Bel Arco Workshops

162 Stamford Dr
Lakeview, AR 72642

I hope to see you there!

If you cel­e­brate Christmas, I hope you had a very Merry one, and I hope, if you had the oppor­tu­nity for some time off, that you enjoyed some down time with fam­ily and friends, hearth and home.

The thing about hav­ing a small space and cel­e­brat­ing Christmas is that you have to find the room to put the stuff you just got. Granted, we didn’t get much stuff, I asked for things I needed from Dale – a bot­tle of good smelling burn­ing oil, some lotions, and sweats (my work wear). We also got a few other things and lots of candy and var­i­ous food items. Still, all of this stuff had to find a home in the pantry and clos­ets to keep to my mantra of “a place for every­thing and every­thing in its place.”

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I couldn't resist get­ting up this morn­ing and snap­ping pho­tos of our first white Christmas at The Little House. We caught a dust­ing last night of the storm that bat­tered the Midwest.

Here is a photo of Sade (left) and Emma on the road lead­ing away from The Little House. It's a bit­ter cold Christmas morn­ing here in Arkansas, so I'm not so sure the dogs didn't think I was a lit­tle crazy tak­ing them out on the road in the pre-dawn.

Merry Christmas, everyone!