a year-end life lesson
It seems that some of us are always trying to find our figurative home. Maybe for others, they always feel at home. I had written in my memoir, Under the Birch Tree, about making connections and discovering my self. I wondered if my discoveries would continue though my story had come to an end with the publication of my book. One thing I learned from writing my memoir is that finding home can be more like a moving target where we stray, we come back around to aim high or [...]
Of Memoir and (Self) Forgiveness
For all memoir writers who have published or hope to in the near future . . . via Of Memoir and (Self) Forgiveness
Go on, take a hike!
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com Our time is filled with input. We stare at screens of many kinds– desktop computers, laptops, phones, iPads, televisions – being inundated by someone else’s thoughts, a type of pre-programmed programming. We become sedentary in body and in mind where our bodies cease to move through a sensory environment and our minds become one-way streets, focused in only one direction. We are unconnected, dull and unimaginative. As a writer, I realized this was affecting not only the way I write, but also how [...]
How “aha” moments are your “becoming”
Michelle Obama’s recently released memoir, Becoming, has sold more than 2 million copies in 15 days. The number of copies sold in a short period of time did not surprise me. The long awaited release, characterized by preorder numbers and publicity, drove anticipation. Why were so many eager for the book to be in hand, to hold it as if a found treasure, to turn pages in anticipation of a discovery? One does not necessarily need to read the book to answer the question; the one-word title tells us. Becoming [...]
Got autobiography but want memoir?
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com I recently had an opportunity with the National Association of Memoir Writers (www.namw.org) to talk about my memoir, Under the Birch Tree and other points about writing my book. During this hour-long virtual book club, the topic was transforming autobiography to memoir. However, so many points to make in so little time, so thought I’d expand on that discussion here: Memoir from autobiographical narrative. Call me a rule breaker; my memoir covers three decades. Contrary to the definition of memoir as only a segment of [...]
is there noise in silence?
Photo by Oleksandr Pidvalnyi on Pexels.com When recently rifling through a slush pile of started-but-never-finished blog posts, I came across one I remembered where noise in silence appeared to be the topic. I thought about what is silence and the absence of it. Are we ever really in a state of silence? I thought I'd pick up where I left off writing this one, allowing a nonfiction recording segue into a fictional scene. Distractions keep pace with my foot travels. Like any good shadow, distractions cling to our [...]
mindful connecting
The warm foundation walls contract with a bang and a clatter and then a snap from cooling after the furnace kicks off. The sound effects, intermittent with varying degrees of volume and consistency, interrupt an otherwise silence that is characteristic of most days. The stillness and quiet seemingly overpower any audible interruption making me feel as if I am suspended and unconnected. It’s in the quiet where I notice a void. I sit on one end of a couch in the living room, an east-facing space in the front of [...]
connecting to the light
As a Catholic grade-schooler, the nuns taught me a conversation with God was as important to my education as was getting good grades. The nuns chimed in ritualistic reminders, “Pray to God, evoke him in daily prayer, and you’ll be closer to him.” The idea is to develop a relationship with him and you won’t need to fear anything. I believed the lady, dressed in a below-the-knee pencil skirt and fitted button-down shirt with the collar button tightly fastened around her neck. It was the seventies and nuns were transitioning [...]