In my gratitude list, I mentioned the support of colleagues and mentors as something I am grateful for. When I decided to spend my time writing, finding fellow writers was a year-long journey. For the first several months, I just wrote. And read books about writing. I learned a lot […]
Continue readingCategory Archives: Philosophy
Jingle Bell Villanelle
As Christmas approaches every year, I worry about all the things to do — send cards, buy presents, mail packages, make travel plans. I feel overwhelmed. Here is the poem I wrote a couple of years ago to express my frustration. It is in the classic villanelle rhyme scheme. Jingle […]
Continue reading‘Ode to Joy’ on Our Wedding Anniversary
I always assumed I would walk down the aisle at my wedding to the strains of the Bridal Chorus from Wagner’s opera “Lohingren” (also called the “Wedding March”). You know the one: “Here comes the bride, All dressed in white, . . . “ So imagine my surprise when I […]
Continue readingMeet the Parents and The Circle of Life
No, my dad isn’t Robert DeNiro, but we did have our own version of “Meet the Parents” just before my husband and I were married. As I’ve mentioned before (see here and here), my husband and I are about to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary. We got married on the […]
Continue readingMy Gratitude List, 2012
Gratitude journals are a tool used in many disciplines. Psychologists prescribe them to combat depression. Writing and creativity coaches encourage them as inspiration. Religious leaders recommend them as a way to focus on the blessings in our lives. There is even a Wikipedia entry on gratitude journals, and for those […]
Continue readingCelebrate The 10th “I Love To Write Day” On November 15, 2012
Delaware author John Riddle established “I Love To Write Day” in 2002. According to the I Love To Write Day organization’s press release, the day is now celebrated in over 28,000 schools across the United States, with bookstores, libraries, community centers, and just plain writers also joining in the fun. […]
Continue readingFamily Read Aloud Month: Building a Community of Readers in Kansas City
As I wrote recently, reading has always been very important to me. I didn’t know when I wrote my post two weeks ago about my mother reading to me that November is Family Read Aloud Month, nor that the Kansas City Public Library is working with Mayor Sly James on an initiative […]
Continue readingHaunting Book: Turn of Mind, by Alice LaPlante
The last book in my October series of haunting books is Turn of Mind, by Alice LaPlante. I would not have known about this book, except that it was a Stanford Alumni Association Book Salon choice for September 2012. When I learned Turn of Mind was the September selection, I […]
Continue readingHaunting Book: Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn
I’m turning now from haunting books that deal with violence and man’s inhumanity to man on a global level (The Hunger Games trilogy, The Sandcastle Girls, and Unbroken) to a novel that haunts because of the violence and inhumanity within a family. Gone Girl, a bestselling novel by Gillian Flynn, […]
Continue readingMemories: In Song and Words
We don’t know what will suddenly bring a dormant memory to consciousness. For Proust, it was the taste of madeleines. For me, it was a hymn sung in church. “Whatsoever you do” was the song sung after communion at Mass a couple of weeks ago. “Whatsoever you do to the […]
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