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Thank you, fellow Inkling, Linda Mitchell, for this month’s prompt which gave me permission to write an almost-definito for a word I’d been saving since mid-March:
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You can see what the other Inklings came up with here:
Linda @A Word Edgewise
Heidi @my juicy little universe
Molly @Nix the Comfort Zone
Catherine @Reading to the Core
Margaret @Reflections on the Teche
Linda B. has this week’s Poetry Friday Roundup at TeacherDance.
A(nother) Year of Reading 
Ooh, yes! I missed this word because of all my factotuming (which is probably not a word.) Busy is best. You inspire me.
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Factotuming is DEFINITELY a word!!
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LOL! I love it. Are any of us any less than a factotum these days? A perfect word for all of the excellent active things you do. The ‘volunteering and more volunteering’ make me smile. These days, I’m familiar with the term, voluntold.
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Ouch. I do not like the word voluntold. Ugh. Luckily, I know you are happily factotuming with collage and writing and butterflying and poetry pandemoniuming!
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Thanks for Factotum, do I hear a bit of polymathum in there too…
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Yes! (thanks for a new word!!)
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I love this word, Mary Lee! I think it describes many of us who have moved into trying different things in retirement. My new activity is celloing.
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You and Irene! I love the verb celloing!
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I’m unsure I’m a factotum because I seem to be sticking to literary activities with the writing and some drawing, then the bookstore! However, it is now time for gardening, so maybe! Not only have you given us a poem for a new word about you, you’ve entertained us through and through with all the activities, Mary Lee.
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You’re a real Renaissance woman, Mary Lee! (“a woman who is interested in and knows a lot about many things”)
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Mary Lee, what a fun poem. I’m learning new words every day from poetry. Today it’s factotum. I like the beginning, “I never aspired to be a factotum…” Sweet poem to get to know you even more.
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Yep, gathering the facts and toting ’em here and toting ’em there–to the page, to the garden, to the river, to the thread. I also have been reflecting (off my son, mainly) that there are those of us whose principal specialty is “a little of this and a little of that, most of it competently with flashes of brilliance.” Love your flashes!
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You are! And you debunk the whole “jack of all trades, master of none” thing, too. Go, Mary Lee!
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Love this word. I also think I’m a factotum. What fun!
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I confess I had a different idea about what this word meant, but your poem makes its meaning crystal clear. I do agree with Tabatha, though, that Renaissance woman is more fitting for you!
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“Identity” reminds me that we meet people where they are – so we may be many things at many different moments. And they are all us. Our factotum-ness. 🙂
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Yep, you’re a factotum all right! ❤
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Oooh, I think I am a factotum too! Loved your poem and loved learning this new word. 🙂
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