A high-school classmate of mine, K, lost her son to suicide earlier this year. We had become Facebook connections, and in the immediate aftermath she reached out to me. Now that I think about it, she never asked me any “why?” questions. Or maybe she did once or twice and I’ve blanked it out. Mostly […]
Laundry? Or writing? Cookie-baking? Or writing? Maybe tomorrow will be different.
In the past week I’ve taken some pockets of time for that most American of pastimes, goal-setting. I’ve noted down what I’ve done and what I’ve accomplished in 2016, compared it to a list from 2015, sketched a list for 2017. They are mostly similar. I realized that the list, for the most part, contains […]
The art of losing isn’t hard to master; so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster. Lose something every day. Accept the fluster of lost door keys, the hour badly spent. The art of losing isn’t hard to master. Then practice losing farther, losing faster: places, […]
I just finished my annual Christmas mailing. 15-20 glossy artworks with a sentiment inside, to go to those we see routinely–the ones who hear our monthly/ weekly/ daily tales of trial and satisfaction. Nearly 70 “correspondance cards” with a charming seasonal image on one side, and a brief but comprehensive summary of the Year in […]
My new pastor blogs. Just as you see my words pop up each morning (if you signed up for that), I read his thoughts as I eat breakfast and review my email. Today he looked at his family’s Christmas village, battered in their move last week, and looked at himself, and pointed out how God’s […]
I don’t know whether it’s a triumph of intellectual composting or a triumph of physical activity’s utility for freeing creativity’s stuck gears, but after a round of listening to podcasts while lawn-mowing and hedge-trimming, I know that today I’m going to shake my head about the silly things boys say. I’m not going to link […]
In contrast to long-term memory, working or short-term memory is severely limited in the number of words, phrases, or “chunks” of material that it can hold simultaneously (Baddeley, 1986). With space for only five to nine chunks, the component of working memory serves as a limitation as well as a resource to writers. –R.T. Kellogg […]
I’d saved a quote from some marketing materials to share here. The emailing voice revs up to exhort the reader: is your blog a HOBBY? Or is your blog a BUSINESS! I’m paraphrasing; in the end I couldn’t bring myself to repeat the whole spiel. I read this message before I arrived at the Hochschild […]
Today I see that I’ve become a snob of silence. My bestie C invited me to join in her faith community’s Quiet Day today. Well, Quiet Chunk, since we began 10ish and will knock off somewhere around 2. As we waited for our formal starting, I overheard various half-laughing, half-nervous comments about how the day […]
