Category: People are people

My philosophies of people and their people-ness.

Without Remembering

Another sunrise, another lifeCreating is not remembering… It is to look and to hear and to write — without remembering. It is the immediate feelings arranged in words as they occur to me.” — Gertrude Stein We are all in our ruts, our patterns, our habits. It’s a relief, I suppose, to discover they are…

I Submit to You This Broken Heart

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 not…

Heading into a ‘Month of Letters’

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 of…

11 Minutes is alot of Time

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, while…

What did you like best about 2012?

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 true,…

Take a Letter, Maria

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 for…

Beautiful Writing: Decadence by Kelly Letky

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 direct…

In Chaos, Loving Kindness Endures

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 not…

When I’m Wearing Home Shoes

These are my “home shoes.” I don’t mean slippers or anything like that. What I mean is: when I am wearing this shoe configuation — ie. tennis shoes and blue jeans — I feel “home.” It’s a cultural thing. And a family thing. Growing up, this is what we wore: white tennis shoes, blue jeans,…

What Are You Looking At?

This weekend — at Art in Paradise Alley — you get the chance to stop staring at your screen. Walk outside. Talk to artists. To look inside yourself and ask: “What am I looking at?” Art takes us into the minds of the artist, true. But it’s best used for getting to know ourselves Art works…

How to Be Amazing

One of my favorite things to write about is PEOPLE. I often get the chance to interview people and just ask them: How did you end up here?  By “here” I mean right where they are in their lives… doing exactly what they are doing. Cutting hair, owning a bar, running a business + being…

On Changing My View of Cooking

making tea, how to make iced green tea

Today, I have a guest post over on “Take Back the Kitchen,” a great blog hosted by Alma Schneider. My post is a RECIPE (don’t faint) I created for Iced Green Tea that actually tastes good. Yes, I realize that I won’t win any foodie awards for this recipe. (ie. What? “Boil water. Put tea…

Food Courage, No Judgment

This weekend, the kids and Colin and I went to New Jersey for the first time, (barring a visit to Newark airport) to visit a family of friends. It’s sort of rare to meet another family with more than two or three kids these days, so we immediately magnetized to Alma and Brian and their…

Sometimes it Takes Awhile

The summer the kids and Colin and I went to Maine, we were not right in the head. That is to say, life was a little askew for all of us. It was good for us that August to pile in the van and get out of dodge. We drove a long way… up to…