“The beginning is always today.” ~ Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley I wake thinking about my writing group’s prompt for this month–fresh starts and new beginnings–and a kaleidoscope of memories run through my mind. Defining moments: some momentous, others ordinary, all heralding in a different season of life. The day I brought each of my children home from […]
“The beginning is always today.” ~ Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley I wake thinking about my writing group’s prompt for this month–fresh starts and new beginnings–and a kaleidoscope of memories run through my mind. Defining moments: some momentous, others ordinary, all heralding in a different season of life. The day I brought each of my children home from […]
“If you don’t know where you’re from, you’ll have a hard time saying where you’re going.” ~ Wendell Berry Awake long before dawn, in the stillness of the early morning, I write about endings and beginnings, shovelling words like sand into a box that I will play with and tidy up later. I’m working on a […]
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorns have roses.” ~ Alphonse Karr, A Tour Round My Garden Sometimes I start writing something that takes me in a direction best explored in my private journal. Writing is like that. It’s awesome. This morning, I’m late here because I’ve been busy there. So backContinue
“As Rosemary is to the spirit, so Lavender is to the soul." ~ Unknown I snipped the last of the lavender a couple of days ago and set a vase on my kitchen windowsill, but not before taking the fragrant bunch down to the woman cave for some photos. The lavender spikes so pretty, theContinue
I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o'clock sharp. ~ W. Somerset Maugham For me it’s usually between four and five in the morning. Sometimes I come to the page my mind awhirl with thoughts and words and the strongest desire to wrestle them into something with meaning. Sometimes—often—I comeContinue
All my life I've looked at words as though I were seeing them for the first time. ~ Ernest Hemingway Words: the first thing that come to my conscious mind when I wake for the second time this morning. Words, and the truth that they nourish and sustain me. I wake, first, too early evenContinue
We turn to stories and pictures and music because they show us who and what and why we are, and what our relationship is to life and death, what is essential, and what, despite the arbitrariness of falling beams, will not burn. ~ Madeleine L'Engle, A Circle of Quiet If you’re not paying attention theyContinue
There is still no cure for the common birthday. ~John Glenn It’s Gerry’s birthday today—seven perfect tens. This man is generous and always has an encouraging word. He thinks about the other person before himself. He has a heart for serving and will throw himself in wherever he sees something that needs doing, never waiting toContinue
There are few nicer things than sitting up in bed, drinking strong tea, and reading. ~ Alan Clark Except, perhaps, sitting up in bed, drinking strong soy-milk-frothy coffee, and writing: my delicious regular morning ritual. I’m just back from the prairie where I’ve been reimagining something that happened there a lifetime ago, tapping out wordsContinue
The greatest wealth is to live content with little. ~ Plato I went to the Dollar Store yesterday and was reminded, immediately, of the many reasons why I don’t go to the Dollar Store. I haven’t been there since this time last year when I was hunting for a cryptogram puzzle book with my granddaughter.Continue
Writing is like breathing, it's possible to learn to do it well, but the point is to do it no matter what. Julia Cameron, The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life See this is what happens. You have a routine, things are getting done, progress is being made, and then—boom!—ChristmasContinue
The patterns of our lives reveal us. Our habits measure us. Mary Oliver It was a long day yesterday, but I got it done: all 518 pages of my 2017 blog book formatted and the book itself submitted for review. Why? Aside from simply keeping the writing I do here every morning, which ranges fromContinue
As I have said, the first thing is to be honest with yourself. You can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself. . . Great peacemakers are all people of integrity, of honesty, but humility. Nelson Mandela I’m off in my private journal this morning working through something from yesterday’s bibleContinue
By January it had always been winter. Annie Proulx, The Shipping News Since I retired from corporate life, my time now my own, January has become one of my favourite months. Aside from the sweet peace it brings after the cacophony of December, it’s a month of quiet reflection on what to bring forward and what toContinue
Just as a good rain clears the air, a good writing day clears the psyche. Julia Cameron, The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life I spend a good portion of the day alone in the woman cave, the only sound the hum of the heater and the low drone ofContinue
God has engrained in all of us particular passions, drives and interests, and in pursuing them with a Godward perspective, we engage in worship. Adam McHugh, Introverts in the Church After days of crazy-making noise and prep, the floor is going in today. The plan, as I understand it, is to have the entire floorContinue
I am here alone for the first time in weeks, to take up my “real”life again at last. That is what is strange—that friends, even passionate love, are not my real life unless there is time alone in which to explore and to discover what is happening or has happened. Without the interruptions, nourishing andContinue
I count myself as one of the number of those who learn as they write and write as they learn. John Piper, Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God I spend some time free writing in my journal, starting with a question: What if I release . . . ? AndContinue
Writing is like gardening. Planting, watering, and weeding are not enough. You have to prune if you want growth. Ron Brackin Breeze blowing, perfect for recalibrating. Narrowing focus, gaining clarity, doubling down on intention. Writing life. Nothing but fragments here this morning. Irony.
I am intrigued by writers who garden and gardeners who write. The pen and the trowel are not interchangeable, but seem often linked. Marta McDowell I’m approximately one-quarter of the way through, what’s referred to in writing circles as the junk draft, vomit draft, or shitty first draft, of a book. I’ve got a theme,Continue
