Writing and Driving and Life E. L. Doctorow once said that “writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” This passage from Anne Lamott’s book Bird by Bird came to mind while driving with my 15 year old last night. We were talking about growing … Continue reading Like Driving a Car at Night
There are so many gifts of being a writer – today I am focused on the physical gifts given to me by those who cherish my writer heart. Continue reading The Gifts of Being a Writer
Honestly, the other day in a really long line at the grocery store, I ended up talking with the woman behind me, the woman in front of me, and the checker gal. We all had so much fun together, laughing and complimenting one another. I walked outside to put my groceries away and thought, “What would be so wrong with telling them I’d like to know them more and hang out?” Well, it would be weird, of course. Continue reading Always, “Forever!”
For most of us, there is only the unattended
Moment, the moment in and out of time,
The distraction fit, lost in a shaft of sunlight,
The wild thyme unseen, or the winter lightning
Or the waterfall, or music heard so deeply
That it is not heard at all, but you are the music
While the music lasts.
*T.S. Eliot, line from The Dry Salvages, out of Four Quartets Continue reading Music Heard so Deeply, That it is Not Heard at All
Inspired by dVerse Poets Pub Quadrille Challenge – a 44 word poem of any style. https://dversepoets.com They may send a shudder down our spines in all their grotesque glory. They can appeal to our dark side, our burning desire for Dracula’s romance and black lace. Or as they sit covered in snow, we sip our coffee and shiver with them. Continue reading Shivering Gargoyle
There is wisdom in these woods. It is time to begin again. Continue reading Clearing Space
“Where can I pick up your book?” you ask. Here are some happy links for you – it’s available online wherever you would normally order books (most likely). Bloomsbury Books in Ashland – – Powell’s in Portland – – Strand Books in New York – – Barnes & Noble – – Amazon I got to see her triumph and fall apart. I wept and cheered … Continue reading “Days of Soup and Holler,” ~ My New Book!
A little memory – a treasure to cherish. Rummaging in the Antique Store with my boys, looking through playthings of the past. They call me to try on a beautiful faux fur, and it fits, and it’s glorious, and I am the toast of the town. The large Islander man at the back counter with the massive smile and the tiny woman wearing all … Continue reading Sweetness or Stuff
Always the lists. Give me too much free time between calls at work, and a fairly slow day with no nearby neighbors to visit with, and I used pages and pages of scratch paper to make lists for the New Year. Lists about working out, and menus, and lists of chores and how to rotate them. Lists about writing and making time for the things … Continue reading Learning to Laugh
Driving straight into a thick blanket of fog, I wondered about our world, the darkness and lack of visibility we are entering. I remembered the blizzard in the Little House on the Prairie books that hit suddenly while children were at the school-house. They formed a line with outstretched arms – trying to get all the children home in a storm of wild whiteness. Only … Continue reading Microcosm & Minutiae
It all started with Harold & the Purple Crayon. My youngest and I read the story together in front of a blazing fire and he said he wanted to have this book in his collection someday when he grows up and moves out. I told him he would need his own copy because there are some books I will always need to have on my … Continue reading The Stories of our Lives
When something takes on otherworldly proportions because of its simplicity and beauty. Continue reading Restored
The conflict happens because she’s right and she loves you. And yet, we strive against all her rightness, her great ideas, Her prodding us into things that challenge and define us. She made memories for us, with the books she read us, The games she played, the places she took us, The worlds she opened up to us, The things she made it … Continue reading Mothers
I have heard of the dance of Eagles mating.
I have seen the statue of talons out sharp;
a fierce battle and free fall – wings and bodies
tumbling over one another as they drop to earth. Continue reading Bared Claws
There is so much poetry in dance, in the way bodies sidle up to one another and barely touch and then move away, only to come back around and move together suggestively, still holding back, still mostly eyes, still only hints at what could happen if both bodies fully engaged. There is love and loss and poise and danger. There is heart on sleeve, and … Continue reading Poetry in Music and Dance
Another bad thing in a world of bad things. I have not become numb, that is not what has happened. I crumble with each new attack, with each new assault – foreign or domestic. And then I disconnect, and block out the media, and become absorbed in my kids’ interests and the activities we can do together to fill our world with joy. I didn’t take … Continue reading We could Hug More!
“At this point in his life, he hadn’t started inhabiting his work, like he did later.” Continue reading Inhabit
I am angry and I feel slighted and perhaps, I’m being childish; but I want to pout and stamp my foot and behave inappropriately. At the same time, I know this is beneath me, that I can and should rise above. The issue at hand is of no consequence. I am literally upset over nothing, a minor inconvenience, but my pride is hurt. Even if the issue was … Continue reading Ferocious Calm
In which I accidentally discover the Ridiculously Perfect Meditation Stance for a dork like me! Continue reading Monkey Brain and Geese Chatter
This is not a reference I throw around lightly. This is something I have studied. I worked at the Anti-Defamation League in San Francisco when I was younger, helping maintain their library of groups they watched for hate crimes or atrocities in the making. Every day, researchers would hand me stacks of articles from periodicals around the world to chronicle and file. They kept records … Continue reading Horrifying Comparison of Adolescence
Being on the right side of the brain is a little like being on the Left Bank in Paris: relaxing while watching the passing show, listening to the music on the corner. It’s a place to sit around and tell stories and wonder about it all – and most important, to slow down. Call it crazy or lazy, this wisdom may be found only … Continue reading Right Brain, Left Bank and Parenting through Teenage Angst
It’s Tao Tuesday! As always, I will refer you back to the original page, Tao te Ching Daily, and her series, Tao Tuesday. There, you will find rich discussion and articles from every chapter of the Tao, spanning I think a couple of years. I’m just starting over here, and relishing the discipline of looking at these brief words and finding the wisdom and beauty … Continue reading Easy, Now, Grasshopper!
Today, while doing chores, I listened to a book on tape from the library called, “How the Universe got its Spots.” (This is a link to the Amazon book, because I couldn’t link to the book on tape for some reason.) The gifted young cosmologist Janna Levin sets out to determine the size of the universe, along the way providing an intimate look at the … Continue reading On Motherhood, Physics and Relativity
Reflections on The Tao te Ching – Chapter 1: The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name. The unnamable is the eternally real. Naming is the origin of all particular things. Free from desire, you realize the mystery. Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations. Yet … Continue reading Darkness within Darkness
These are the tiny books Bean has made for me in the last week. The Best Mom book is 22 pages with my name written on every page, and as you can see, just larger than a quarter. The other book with stars and moon and hearts on the outside is blank inside and he wants me to fill each page with a Poem. Eh-hem. … Continue reading Filling Small Pages with Enormous Words of Love
