The “so what” factor
I've been working on my memoir for 10 years. As you learn just how long it has taken me to write it, I can feel your breathy sigh and see your inquisitive brow asking, "So what's taking you so long?" I read my first draft once and then I thought of my current draft and the two are not the same - neither in content, structure nor theme or story. My first draft was nothing but pure exercise in writing and just getting it down on paper as I have [...]
Sensory Overload
From Under the Birch Tree As I lugged my stuffed granny cart home I stopped a few times to watch a basketball game, and then a baseball game in the field across the street, continuing on with people-watching who are carrying on with their business. I stopped time to be in the moment and lie down on the cool stiff grass and feel the sun on my face warming my cheeks to pink, smelling the Bay water and noting the tingle of dampness on my skin. I breathed deeply to [...]
From Under the Birch Tree
An excerpt . . . My emotions voiced their opinion one night. Talk in my head revolved. I cried for the memories of the past and the emotions I would pack with me, masked on my face and wrapped around my heart. Feeling lost and disconnected during the unemployment days was never too far away. I traipsed Michigan Avenue from one job interview to another and felt as empty as the day presented itself- cold winters and raw windy days under the grayest of skies. I held stiff at the [...]
Fears
Fears can be crippling, even stoppers of your tracks. Others seem to have many different fears - fears of spiders, heights, escalators, swimming. How did we learn to be afraid? Babies and toddlers appear to have no fears. As they become children they take on life experiences which may be good, but then some may be bad, hence a fear has developed. I am an example of a fearful person, um, not quite, though. I grew up with a mother who wore fear as plain as she wore her permed [...]
The Yellow Weed
I was struck by how familiar the sight was yet there was something a little wrong about it. It is Spring and with budding of the new season, the conditions for fauna and foliage are just right for their awakenings. Browns are turning with slight green tinges, spring bulbs have popped their showy heads in red and yellows. Nature's landscape is filling in. It is also filling in with weeds! As I was driving down Wilmette Avenue, blankets of green running in tandem with my line of vision, the hilly [...]
Thoughts on Grace
“Oh, didn’t you know my middle name is, ‘Grace?” I’ve often said in jest to diffuse my embarrassment of any immediate physical error – a stumble, a knock over the filled water glass, a trip over the dog. Though I am no gazelle-like, willowy ballerina – a poster person for pure grace – my short, stocky legs and thick, but toned arms, defy grace. I also think of grace as a partner to “dignity.” I like to think others and myself to handle sticky, challenging matters with grace and dignity. [...]
Writing as Spiritual Practice
an excerpt... I heard the call. It wasn’t a whisper or a delicate voice or loud words urging me to transcribe thoughts to paper where I hoped to see ideas born into stories. The call went off like an alarm, telling me it was time to awaken my spirit. I received my calling when I was fifteen, accompanied by a pink hardcover book containing blank lined pages . . . and a latch glued to the back of the book that fit snugly into a lock glued to the top. [...]
THE PHOTO
. . . an excerpt. . . My middle-aged hands fingered the black and white photos interspersed with yellowing color Polaroids. As I searched for the one of my mother, burrowing deeper inside the box through layers of years, the wavy skin and popping veins from the top of my hands caught my attention. I always thought I had my mother’s hands, petite, with shapely fingers. But she always told me, “You’ve got your dad’s hands, short fingers with stubby digits.” I scanned my hand tops again and saw that [...]