The silver lining of vacations are the paths you cross. Hawaii exceeded all expectations: swimming with sea turtles, discovering dolphins, and chasing sunsets. The families you meet, the couples you feel at home around, the faces that become familiar, if only for a brief stint. Pat/Candi/Mallory/Greta/Grace from Hershey, PA remind me that the beach isn’t the only destination worthy of a trip… Harvey and Jackie from Alaska inspire me to travel north, that it might just be beautiful enough to weather the cold…
More trips line the horizon, more people to scratch off the stranger list, more possibilities that make me giddy with anticipation. Hawaii may be headed into my rearview, but it was lighted paths to new places not yet on my list. For that, I have my vacation friends to thank!
Monday, July 28, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
Retreat...
To move away, draw back, recoil…in war, it’s for safety and signifies giving up ground. But the blessed word has a new meaning for me.
I gave the word new meaning when I went on a Writer’s Retreat last weekend in northwest Missouri, at Conception Abbey, and a retreat, it was. The Prairie Lands Writing Project hosted the event, and the fine-tuned schedule gave way to blocks of time to start a new novel. Writing for hours at a time with no phone, no email, no texts, no dogs, no doorbell, no interruptions at all. Bliss, is what we should rename it.
Every writer should try one…every author should embrace the silence and solitude of a monastery and experience the sheer inspiration that occurs because of it. I intend to find all the retreats in my area and replicate this feeling as much as possible! For now, I’ll answer my email and my phone, but I’ll feel the pull to move away, to leave when the next retreat comes my way.
I gave the word new meaning when I went on a Writer’s Retreat last weekend in northwest Missouri, at Conception Abbey, and a retreat, it was. The Prairie Lands Writing Project hosted the event, and the fine-tuned schedule gave way to blocks of time to start a new novel. Writing for hours at a time with no phone, no email, no texts, no dogs, no doorbell, no interruptions at all. Bliss, is what we should rename it.
Every writer should try one…every author should embrace the silence and solitude of a monastery and experience the sheer inspiration that occurs because of it. I intend to find all the retreats in my area and replicate this feeling as much as possible! For now, I’ll answer my email and my phone, but I’ll feel the pull to move away, to leave when the next retreat comes my way.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Family Evolution...
At different stages in our lives, it takes on a whole different meaning. As kids, our parents care for us, wipe our mouths, our bottoms, and ready the world for us and us for the world. That function has evolved over the past generation, and the pros and cons of parenting today vs. twenty years ago is a hot debate. What happens once kids leave home and begin lives of their own starts a cycle of change.
At some point in the grand scheme of things, the roles reverse. It’s often so subtle, we don’t realize it has happened. And then it’s just the way it is. What is disheartening is that in this country, so many of our elderly are not well cared for, nor does our society treat them with the respect they’ve earned and deserve. This is something we could take from the Asian and African-American cultures: treat with reverence those who’ve brought you into this world, because as they leave it, we are made better by their time with us. When we shove our parents and grandparents into nursing homes and forget about them, we are only perpetuating that mentality with our children. What then? Are we ready to be the next victim? Do we want to be the ones on the hidden cameras being abused by unhappy nursing home workers, taking their life’s frustrations out on those who can’t defend themselves? Much like people who hurt animals and babies, those who abuse the elderly deserve nothing less than the exact same treatment. If we truly subscribed to the mentality of an eye for an eye, many would think before they acted. As it is now, we’re simply digressing into a society so plagued by violence, we don’t even see the severity and totality of it. As Gandhi once said, “An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.” So the message is to do unto others as we’d like them to do unto us. If you haven’t talked to your parents or grandparents lately, call them. Tell them you love them…better yet, go visit them. Life is short, and before you know it, visiting will only happen when you pass through the Pearly Gates. If you pass through the Pearly Gates. Perhaps the best message is that the love, respect, and compassion you show now gets you a ticket in line at those Gates. If more people had faith in that, it truly would be a better world to live in.
At some point in the grand scheme of things, the roles reverse. It’s often so subtle, we don’t realize it has happened. And then it’s just the way it is. What is disheartening is that in this country, so many of our elderly are not well cared for, nor does our society treat them with the respect they’ve earned and deserve. This is something we could take from the Asian and African-American cultures: treat with reverence those who’ve brought you into this world, because as they leave it, we are made better by their time with us. When we shove our parents and grandparents into nursing homes and forget about them, we are only perpetuating that mentality with our children. What then? Are we ready to be the next victim? Do we want to be the ones on the hidden cameras being abused by unhappy nursing home workers, taking their life’s frustrations out on those who can’t defend themselves? Much like people who hurt animals and babies, those who abuse the elderly deserve nothing less than the exact same treatment. If we truly subscribed to the mentality of an eye for an eye, many would think before they acted. As it is now, we’re simply digressing into a society so plagued by violence, we don’t even see the severity and totality of it. As Gandhi once said, “An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.” So the message is to do unto others as we’d like them to do unto us. If you haven’t talked to your parents or grandparents lately, call them. Tell them you love them…better yet, go visit them. Life is short, and before you know it, visiting will only happen when you pass through the Pearly Gates. If you pass through the Pearly Gates. Perhaps the best message is that the love, respect, and compassion you show now gets you a ticket in line at those Gates. If more people had faith in that, it truly would be a better world to live in.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Cold in May...
I've decided Mother Nature must be just completely ticked at us...why else is the weather completely bizarre? As I sit and write, I marvel that in late May, I'm COLD! Yes, that's right...COLD! Usually in mid-Missouri, late May is the lead-in to 90 degree days, tanning, and getting the pool warm enough to swim in. But no, after the hardest winter in well over a decade, the spring has been complete with enough rain to fill the pool without need of a hose, and now, the cold front moving through sparks my belief that the world might just be ending.
Thunder snow, ice storms, tsunamis, earthquakes, landslides, wild fires, tornadoes, floods...and I'm sure droughts are on the horizon. If this isn't punishment for all our humanly destruction of rain forests and everything put on earth to help us live, then what is it?
We've treated our resources the way we do everything else: to fulfill immediate gratification without regard for our future. And why not? We won't be around to suffer the consequences.
That mindset has worked SO well for us so far...
Thunder snow, ice storms, tsunamis, earthquakes, landslides, wild fires, tornadoes, floods...and I'm sure droughts are on the horizon. If this isn't punishment for all our humanly destruction of rain forests and everything put on earth to help us live, then what is it?
We've treated our resources the way we do everything else: to fulfill immediate gratification without regard for our future. And why not? We won't be around to suffer the consequences.
That mindset has worked SO well for us so far...
Monday, May 19, 2008
Wow Moments...
Wow Moments…
This weekend, I participated in the Kansas City Literary Festival. Reading excerpts from Dregs always means a lot to me, to share insights into what it might take to stop school violence, and I feel every person I touch might help. The weekend was a success, and I feel humbled to have been part of a wonderful literary event.
Highlights for me started Friday night when I got to see the original copies of books by Sir Isaac Newton, Copernicus, Charles Darwin, and Galileo. It puts everything in perspective… And then only an hour later, I met the last U.S. astronaut to walk on our moon, Harrison “Jack” Schmitt. What an amazing man! His wife, Theresa, was just as amazing and interesting to talk to. After chatting with him and getting his autograph, I realized that exploration and constant evolution is what keeps this country alive. So when I got home and had an email sending me to a moving video by Lizzie Palmer called Remember Me, I watched it.
Humbled again, I wanted to share and be part of the generation that says, “I may not believe in the war, but it doesn’t mean I don’t believe in the warriors.” Men and women fight for our country, they do what they’re told, and they do it without hesitation. And for that, we sit in our homes without fear of foreign countries barging in.
To all the men and women who fight for our nation, to all the pioneers who strive to better our world, thank you.
This weekend, I participated in the Kansas City Literary Festival. Reading excerpts from Dregs always means a lot to me, to share insights into what it might take to stop school violence, and I feel every person I touch might help. The weekend was a success, and I feel humbled to have been part of a wonderful literary event.
Highlights for me started Friday night when I got to see the original copies of books by Sir Isaac Newton, Copernicus, Charles Darwin, and Galileo. It puts everything in perspective… And then only an hour later, I met the last U.S. astronaut to walk on our moon, Harrison “Jack” Schmitt. What an amazing man! His wife, Theresa, was just as amazing and interesting to talk to. After chatting with him and getting his autograph, I realized that exploration and constant evolution is what keeps this country alive. So when I got home and had an email sending me to a moving video by Lizzie Palmer called Remember Me, I watched it.
Humbled again, I wanted to share and be part of the generation that says, “I may not believe in the war, but it doesn’t mean I don’t believe in the warriors.” Men and women fight for our country, they do what they’re told, and they do it without hesitation. And for that, we sit in our homes without fear of foreign countries barging in.
To all the men and women who fight for our nation, to all the pioneers who strive to better our world, thank you.
Monday, May 12, 2008
The Blank Page
When I see a blank page, like Donald Murray, I see the promise of what could be…
I live in an era not of erasers or trashcans but of delete buttons and recycle bins, but the goal and triumph is universal. To write something beautiful, eloquent, readable, entertaining, inspiring…is nothing short of amazing every time I attempt it. I, too, am not sure if I’ve completed anything deserving of accolades, of that point in which you stop and think My god, I’ve done it. I never feel finished.
No matter at what stage I’m in with a project, I could continue to edit, revise, elaborate… when I pick up a copy of one of my novels in a bookstore, I don’t actually read the lines or I’m afraid I’d want to take out a pencil. However, the rush of emotion as I gaze at the product is overwhelming. The product itself never satisfying, it’s the journey that evokes the sense of wonder, of completion, of a sheer euphoria only experienced while writing. Many hobbies satisfy, exhilarate, even intoxicate me, but none elicits the response of writing something I feel worthy of reading aloud. First to myself, then to my dogs, then to my best friend. If it survives the triad, I surge ahead with edits, revision, and the ultimate goal of finding where it fits: a blog, a chapter, an essay… That component may signify the end of the journey for the child I’ve created, but for me, it’s the point in time at which I created it that exudes the memories. Isn't that what conception truly is? I think so.
I live in an era not of erasers or trashcans but of delete buttons and recycle bins, but the goal and triumph is universal. To write something beautiful, eloquent, readable, entertaining, inspiring…is nothing short of amazing every time I attempt it. I, too, am not sure if I’ve completed anything deserving of accolades, of that point in which you stop and think My god, I’ve done it. I never feel finished.
No matter at what stage I’m in with a project, I could continue to edit, revise, elaborate… when I pick up a copy of one of my novels in a bookstore, I don’t actually read the lines or I’m afraid I’d want to take out a pencil. However, the rush of emotion as I gaze at the product is overwhelming. The product itself never satisfying, it’s the journey that evokes the sense of wonder, of completion, of a sheer euphoria only experienced while writing. Many hobbies satisfy, exhilarate, even intoxicate me, but none elicits the response of writing something I feel worthy of reading aloud. First to myself, then to my dogs, then to my best friend. If it survives the triad, I surge ahead with edits, revision, and the ultimate goal of finding where it fits: a blog, a chapter, an essay… That component may signify the end of the journey for the child I’ve created, but for me, it’s the point in time at which I created it that exudes the memories. Isn't that what conception truly is? I think so.
Monday, May 5, 2008
6-word memoirs
In honor of the 6-word memoir trend (thank you, Ernest Heminway for your powerful: for sale, baby shoes, never used), I have dabbled with these for myself...
Glass half full, cracked but functional.
Pen to paper is my oxygen.
To love is everything to me.
Apathy only abated by enthusiastic innovation.
Fame matters only to get read.
If you try this and come up with some really powerful ones, share!!
Glass half full, cracked but functional.
Pen to paper is my oxygen.
To love is everything to me.
Apathy only abated by enthusiastic innovation.
Fame matters only to get read.
If you try this and come up with some really powerful ones, share!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)