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A friend of mine posted a question of Facebook asking: Those of you who were elementary schoolers in the late 70s and 80s: Could you please share a few books that you read then that meant a lot to you? Or that you just super loved? I responded right away without thinking. The “Little...
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Today’s Scintilla prompt… Talk about a time when you were driving and you sang in the car, all alone. Why do you remember this song and that stretch of road? sent me back immediately to a moment in time, October 2010. I was in the middle of two major and  intersecting life renovations. Both...
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Moving to England? Concerned about being lonely and ostracized due to your homeland’s generalized ignorance, poor eating habits, and moronically Machiavellian leadership? DON’T WORRY! It’s simple! Just follow these easy, tried-and-true steps! Study important films from your host country to create an understanding of what ALL the people in that country will be like before you...
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Priests have drank wine in front of me since I was a baby. When I needed a tooth pulled, dad numbed my gums with whiskey. My dad taught me how to refresh his 7&7 when I was not much older than seven. This was during my parents wild “card” parties where couples came over...
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I admit it: when it comes to Twitter writing projects, I am such a sucker. Well, that assumes of course that getting myself tangled up with an online community of like-minded thinkers and writers (99 percent of whom I have never met!) makes me a sucker. Yes, please. I’ll take another lick of that....
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I submit to you this broken heart. A year ago, I (unintentionally!) kicked a little snowball down a snowy hill, and I discovered how cold and mean life can be. I am awfully terrible at telling personal stories, and since this story has intertwined a few other hearts of people I love, I am...
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Yesterday one of my oldest friends called me… from the “inside.” Well, to put it more clearly, she called from an inpatient psych ward. My friend and I have known each other now as long as we have not known each other… longer actually. And since she met her husband about 3 weeks after...
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I am fully aware that it is a bit ironic that I write a BLOG with the word “letters” in the title. Is it a misnomer? Maybe… Originally my blog was “Letters from London (and Elsewhere)” and it was really just a way for me to — en masse — “post” to a bunch...
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Today is wrote a small stone called “The Time.” I wrote it for two reasons. First, because I notice I had about 11 minutes before the kids had to leave to go to school. The kids were happily engaged in something and I suddenly thought: “Hey! I should write my small stone right now,...
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Hey, before we kick 2012 to the curb and rush headlong into our resolutions, I’m just wondering: What did you like BEST about 2012? You can reply in the comments, or on Facebook. But I’d really like you to write out a response. Why? Because when we write things down, it makes them more...
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The person I most dig, admire, croon after, and just all-around want to brain-pick (for the year 2012) is Maria Popova. In case you haven’t gotten any of my many nudgings about her awesomely curated website Brain Pickings, here’s another one. Her site (and the weekly newsletter, which is any artist or bibliophile’s perfect inbox source...
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In the next week, you’ll likely ponder, and then make, New Year’s resolutions. Yes, you’ll break them eventually, and that is what I’d like to mention. The root word for “resolution” is the word “resolve.” This is a beautiful word. As a verb, it means ”to solve a problem or a dispute.” This could be something personal and internal (the...
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Here’s a post today from a writer and poet that I love, Kelly Letky, also known as “Mrs. Mediocrity” and “The Blue Muse.” This poem is called “Decadence.” (click to read it) Kelly posts her poetry with original photography. This enhances the poetry, solidifying the imagery in her writing. But it also shows the...
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Trying to come up with a single small kindness to write about today for Fiona’s blogsplash has been one of the more difficult writing assignments I have been given in a while. Some of you know me, and so know the story of our family. If you don’t, I’ll just say that ours is...
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On Tuesday the 27th of November I’m joining the international Small Kindnesses Blogsplash. Along with more than 150 other bloggers, I’ll be writing about a special small kindness someone paid me in the past. My blog post will be found here, as usual, but you can follow this link to read many many other posts...
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