• Creativity a part of survival

    Creativity a part of survival

    Creativity. Life has a way of crowding out creativity. But what is life if not creative?   Survival. Survival at the mercy of our society’s structure.   But there are those who don’t survive very well without following the creative impulses, whether they lead to inventing, or organizing, or creating beauty through words, color or structure. I am one of those people… When life crowds out the ability to create, I withdraw inside myself and move toward being a hermit, which causes other issues inside of me. Spending time with people has always put deposits into my emotional bank, and moving…

  • Finding permission to be called a writer

    I am a writer.   It is that simple. I AM a writer.   How can I call myself a writer when there is little current evidence of my craft? That question often plagues me and holds me down like a wrecking ball resting on a pile of broken walls. I also transfer that question into others, though I have no idea if they really feel that way.   How can you call yourself a writer? You don’t write every day, you don’t get paid for what you do write and your book isn’t selling itself? Those critical questions open the door to…

  • Strengthening the crackling veneer

    Have you ever felt broken? Like someone else is living in your body?   I have, and I think the other person’s name is Meno Pause. Meno has more depressed days than I ever had, is less tolerant of others and is so fragile that little things crackle the veneer that holds her together, sending her into a room alone to get the shaking under control. She also has trouble thinking, would rather be alone and often avoids gatherings. She is the opposite of who I am in so many ways…   Meno Pause has been living in me for…

  • Creating a layered herb pot

    I am truly a reduce, reuse, recycle person. When something is heading for the garbage, I often see ways to repurpose it. Like the 5-inch-tall cardboard tubes that hold labels we use at work. I was watching the 6-inch diameter tubes adding up in the recycle box and wham, I was struck with the idea of using them to create a layered herb pot.   For my idea, I needed four of the tubes, a pot ?with a minimum of 14 inches in diameter, potting mix and herbs. I filled the pot with the potting mix up to about 2…

  • Enchantment in the hills

    As I enter my columns into the computer I realize how much my writing has changed over the years. I really need to edit the columns I wrote in the early days. Anyway, while writing during a lull at one of my recent book signings, I was struck with the idea of blogging about being still. We have a tendency to keep moving along with our busy lives, and rarely slowing down to breathe, to listen and to rejuvenate. No wonder we have so many physical and emotional health issues! I ran across the following column, which I wrote in…

  • Life is fragile

    Life is truly amazing! We never know, from one minute to the next, what life holds. Every day is a blessing.   I am about half way through a book titled “Life with Grace” about a child’s early years after a premature birth at only 24 weeks. The book, written by Jennifer Schwertfeger, Grace’s mother, describes what the family went through, mostly from the eyes of Jennifer. She lays out the fears, the medical issues and the emotional trauma of nearly losing Grace many times. She talks about how those things affected her, the weight loss, the sleepless nights, etc.,…

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