Sunday, March 2, 2008

Your Life In Six Words: Navel-Gazing Haiku

Join me in quick, pithy reflection.
What six words capture your essence?
Your cleverness may win bathtub fun.

Apparently Ernest Hemingway thought his best work was this six-word story: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." Can you sum up your thoughts in six words?

The winner of the highly subjective SurelyYouNest Haiku Contest (probably awarded to whoever can make me snort a beverage through my nose) will win three fizzy bath bombs (I'll post the recipe soon, we're learning how to make them!). Enter as many times as you want. I will arbitrarily pick a winner within a couple weeks.

Can't resist passing on this challenge-- got soft-tagged by The Cleaner Plate Club to think of My Life in Six Words. I personally twisted the assignment to write parenting haiku but you can bust the categories wide open. It's your life!

I love the idea of a wide open meme, so I am tagging YOU (yes, you, the very person reading this). Write your own navel-gazing haiku (6 words, not traditional haiku) and blame it on MamaBird (if you're a blogger, link back so I can read your post!). If you're not a blogger, put your haiku in the comments (or email them to me - I will post them there for you).

If you're into this compact genre, check out Treehugger's six word contest entries and this recently-published book, compiled from a six-word contest held by Smith writing magazine. You can also see some of the more famous entries from the book here at the WaPo. My favorite?

"Well, I thought it was funny."
Stephen Colbert


Without further ado, here are some MamaBird reflections on parenting:

Dog was not baby in training.

Baby girl, baby boy: living love.

Exhort, commiserate, hug inspiring little people.

Forage, nurture, protect, nip with teeth.

Wipe butts, noses, tears, be snuggly.

Wet baby kisses: irreplaceably gross awwwws.

Babies trump movies, sleep, peeing, hobbies.

Babies turn grandparents into silly putty.

Relax. Your child is not you.

Let her be her own self.

Tiny smiling faces worth any sacrifice.

Exercise by far the best drug.

Keep patting, Mama, or I'll cry.

Need bottle, bath, bed NOW. Waaah!

Poor dog, after baby? Not alpha.

Wrote, taught, birthed, wrote, thought.

(...and, probably my best lesson learned...)

My way or the highway? Mistake!

Photo courtesy of Duchesssa (yes, that's three s's) at sxc.

7 comments:

Ali B. said...

Well done! They are both laugh-out-loud funny and very wise!

I want to print a bunch of them out and tape them in various places around my house. They will help me breathe.

Anonymous said...

I like your "dog was not baby in training!" Ha!

Here's mine:

Motherhood RollerCoaster. Highs high. Lows low.

Cathy said...

Here's mine:

I'm so glad I found you.

Can you say suck-up? No, I really am glad you visited You Stink and led me here. I'll be back for moar.

Anonymous said...

Prince Charming turned into a frog.
I did not use enough sunscreen.

Laura/CenterDownHome said...

I love these. I will give it some thought ....

Laura/CenterDownHome said...

"I am right, glad you realized."

Sadly, it captures the essence of me, an eldest child. It will be on my tombstone, I'm sure.

Loved reading your parenting ones again. :)

MegandMag said...

Hi, Just popping in to say hello and you are in the swap. So if you want pop on over to the group blog and introduce yourself! You have some greeat info on your site! Meg