#Reverb10, Day 4 Prompt: Wonder. How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year? (by author Jeff Davis @JeffreyDavis108) Wonder isn’t an experience: it is a spiritual geographical location, a destination I can choose to visit, or live in. It is exactly a “sense” — just like smell or sight. I…
Category: Writing
This is not content.
Don’t Make Me Look: Writing, Scorned.
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Yeah it’s now 2:30 and I HAVE been awake since 7 a.m. and yes I HAVE thought about this Day 2, #Reverb10 prompt and I suppose I HAVE had at least TWO chances already to write this post, but I HAVEN’T and whose fault is that I’d like to ask but I won’t because if…
Details Are Forever
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On Writing Beautifully: Another Part Writing lives through images which cut and scar us. We don’t remember wise pontifications. We remember bleach spilled on boiling pine boards. Good writing bruises us with its visions, then leaves its scent upon us when she departs. See (and feel) here… “Workers began to occupy the this particular flat-building…
The Opposite of Boredom
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Apparently I am riffing away on Tara’s 4-part series; maybe because the content of the series– “The Deconstruction of Ennui” — is like my own personal gospel choir Hallelujah-ing behind me while I work. Consumption is one of those things I’ve written about before, but I don’t think I’ve ever connected it to boredom. When…
Where Wisconsin Is…
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…And Other Existential Observations on Home My colleague (we both teach at university) said, quite innocently: “I guess I don’t think of Wisconsin as the Midwest.” This while I was rapping a heavy mix of Madison virtues and Midwest easiness. “Oh,” she said when I called up the map. “I guess I thought it was…
Where the Wild Onion Grows
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Wild onions grow everywhere here. I smell them through the moon roof on those particular weekend days when men are at home in their kingdom yards, busy mowing alone and in harmony. If I made this up, forgive me, but I think maybe someone told me that a long time ago this entire area was…
Embracing our Inner Madonna
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It’s another We Scout Wednesday! Thanks Tara! Everyday my life is being reformed by the choice to be “teacher of children,” big and small, at work and at home. So I was glad Tara asked: What will you teach the new generation about creativity? Every single one of us must embrace our inner-Madonna. The pop…
Peace is the Word
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On Setting Peace in Stone “Compassion is kindness. What we say or do in the name of compassion rarely is.” —from Karen Maezen Miller today, via TweetDeck. This weekend, I cleaned a closet. And felt like a minor superhero. I imagine what Jimmy Carter must feel like, in those moments of action, when he has…
Enter the Storm
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I like to see people who write –all people who sit down and write, not just those who call themselves “writers” — to try to write beautifully and meaningfully. One of the writing concepts that I teach is this: Complicate the Metaphor To make writing more meaningful, we all need to back the f*ck away…
The Keepers of Risk and Possibility
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Tara Gentile and her posse of Great Minds have twisted my head up today. Being a working artist is a continuous rubber banding between being true to love and brushing off the fairy dust to face life’s sharp corners and heavy footfalls. Walmart is real. And even if don’t want to accept it, the status…
On Loving Things
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Thanks Tara! It’s Another We Scout Wednesday great topic. I have talked often here about how we should all de-stuff ourselves. Get rid of everything and just stop the consumption train. It’s no secret how I feel about that. I am the anti-packrat. At my house, if you leave your sh*t on the counter too…
Whispers in My Ear
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Or, Distinguishing Random Life from Serendipity People keep giving me things to read that are telling to SHUT DOWN. Books about Machu Picchu. Books about moving to the country in Vermont. It always seems so hard to distinguish between what is the universe whispering in my ear and what is just an act of random…
Shhh! I’m reading!
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Found: Beautiful Writing Ooh, so yesterday’s post was so amazing because the replies came in with such wonderful responses and referrals. I haven’t gotten to look at ALL of them yet of course, but I am LURVE with this one “Today’s Letters”, referred to me by mac and cheese buddy, Stacy. I am a sucker…
I Need You Now… More Than Words Can Say
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I’ve mentioned before that I am making some changes to my blog, and that they will be happening over the course of time. Key to the success of my space, though, is making it a bit less MINE and a bit more YOURS. We like to think of ourselves as islands — There’s ME and…
Disney Princesses Have Ruined the Color Pink
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Being politically motivated and standing up for my beliefs had an interesting side effect of making it difficult to choose a straw for my iced tea this morning. At my favorite locally owned coffeehouse, I purchased organic tea in a recyclable cup. Being the artful sort, I paused as I reached toward the cup of…
