Usually around this time of year I am deep into reviewing the past months and planning for the next twelve. There’s something about the dark days of November and December (which I love) that encourage introspection, pondering, and planning. I’ve been known to fill up entire journals this time of year. But this year is […]
You have a choice. You wake up in the morning and you get to open up your kitchen cupboard and decide—coffee? Tea? Smoothie? All of the above? You open your closet and you get to choose what to wear. (Or, if you work at home like me, you get to decide if you’re going to […]
Here’s reason #5,001 (I’m counting): that writing is a worthwhile activity: it’s good for your brain. Allow me to digress a bit. I’m teaching myself to crochet. (Head on over to the blog if you want to see a photo of my first finished piece, a scarf heavy enough to qualify as a weighted blanket […]
So, this past Thursday was Thanksgiving day in the United States. It is, of course, a day to give thanks, based on the time many years ago that the original settlers had reaped their first harvest and it began to look like maybe they could do this new world thing after all. I’m quite sure […]
As you read this, I’ll be finishing up a five-day stay in Louisville, Kentucky, after a conference/celebration at Spalding University, where I got my MFA. The celebration part was to honor Sena Jeter Naslund, the founder and long-time director of the MFA program, who is retiring. Sena is the author of many wonderful novels, including […]
One day this week, I rose at 5 AM. I worked for an hour and a half—nailed the organization of a book project—and then drove to my son’s house for emergency babysitting duty at 6:30. By 9 AM that morning I’d knocked a big item off my to-do list, watched George, eaten breakfast and done […]
Hi Writers, I babysat my 10-month-old grandson George one day this week, as I do most weeks, and as he gets older and more mobile I’m struck by one thing: his determination. He’ll attempt to climb on his rocking moose, for instance, but miss and plop on the floor. Up he scrabbles again. Then he […]
Meditation. Love it or swear you’re going to scream if you hear someone say the word one more time, right? I had a great meditation practice established for a long time. Fifteen or twenty minutes every day, sometimes even twice a day. I loved meditating. It made me calmer, helped me focus better, and expanded […]
If you’ve been reading my work for any length of time, you know that I’m a big believer in doing things your own way. In whatever way works for you. How you want to do it. As long as you do it, the process is yours to decide. Right? Ask any of my family and […]
Tell the story. A friend calls. A terrible thing has happened. She’s okay. But this terrible, unthinkable thing happened. She tells me about it in great detail, going over every detail and then back again, looping around and around. I listen, giving her the space to say whatever she needs, to repeat the particulars as […]
