This is a re-write of my earlier chapter “I Am Born”. Two Birthdays It was a few days before Memorial Day 1929, the last week in May. My maternal grandparents were out on the town, partying in the rumble seat of their best friends’ Buick Coupe. Mémère loved to dance and sing, personifying the quintessential […]
Belize Day 4 – Morning Has Broken
“Morning has broken like the first morning Blackbird has spoken like the first bird.” Cat Stevens At 5:10 AM, I peel back my comforter and step out onto my porch. Yikes, the burrito man, with his bicycle and a cooler full of breakfast, is standing there in front of me with a broad smile on […]
Belize Day 3 – Synchronicity, continued
In 1970, I was an undergraduate student at UMASS Amherst trying to come up with a suitable subject for a lithography printmaking assignment. I wasn’t terribly inspired in those days. I had a Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary that had been a graduation gift from my local hometown newspaper, where I was a high school journalist. I flipped […]
Belize Day 2
It’s been less than 12 hours since arrival in Belize and, already, I’m back in the groove. Any thoughts I had of maybe going elsewhere next winter are slowly getting squashed by the synchronicity that I always experience here. syn·chro·nic·i·ty1 /ˌsiNGkrəˈnisitē/ noun the simultaneous occurrence of events that appear significantly related but have no discernible […]
Perfection is Overrated
Is Perfection overrated? I think so. A writer friend just sent me a download on the importance of being “Good Enough,” as opposed to being “Perfect.” Long Story Short: If we fall victim to the whims of the Perfectionist in ourselves, we can damage the expression of our Creativity. Example: You write a stream-of-consciousness response […]
The Dream, Climbing Back to Creativity
The Dream, Climbing Back To Creativity Yesterday I arrived at my destination just as dark fell upon a tiny beach village on the U.S. side of the Canadian border at British Columbia. I had driven north on a grey day (or a gray day or a grey dey- I was already contemplating poetry and prose- […]
Writer 2.0 Podcast
When is listening to a writer podcast as important as sitting down to write? When it’s A. C. Fuller’s Writer 2.0, a podcast dedicated to writing, publishing and the space between. I met A. C. Fuller at the 2015 Pacific Northwest Writers Association conference by attending his presentation on editing, and later, at his book […]
How Do You Want to be Remembered?
Write down ten things that you want to be remembered for or ten characteristics that you want to be remembered for. Ten “totally you” remembrance criteria. Do this before you read any further so that you’re not influenced by the ten criteria that I’m going to share regarding my own life. “How do you want […]
From Hopeless to Hope – My Week at Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health
This is Mental Health Week. Last week I enjoyed a glorious retreat of self-discovery and restoration at Kripalu, the world famous yoga and wellness center in Stockbridge MA. I didn’t check in under my writer name and I definitely didn’t plan on writing about my time there. I also didn’t plan to be transformed by […]