I admit that the idea of being “inspired” hits me in a sort of hokey way. I think it’s because, in my line of work (i.e. being an artist), there is a false idea that the end product derives less from skill or fortitude, and more from some magical notion of “the muse.” So if…
Tag: Ordinary Thanks
On normal little things and being grateful.
Suddenly, and Again – #Reverb13 Day One
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On my tripwire connections of mind, body and soulHow do you feel, on this first day, in your mind? In your body? In your heart? In your soul? First, I feel like saying “Oh my goodness hello and I’m sorry!” If there is anyone out there who has been counting on me to blog…
On Having to Cut Down a Tree
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Is it worth being sentimental over one tree? The last time I mentioned to friends that we might have to cut down our two huge Norway maples, one FB friend replied “good riddance. They are invasive species to New England anyway.” I sometimes think that our attachments to trees or cars or other “stuff” isn’t…
What We Did in Summer
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My memory of my youth is a haze of fine particulate.I don’t remember what I did in the summer as a kid. Not specifically. I remember that I played outside with the neighbor kids and my siblings. We rode bikes and ran around. I went on vacation with my family. There was the library and…
Probably the Greatest Book List Ever for Elementary Kids
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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 House”…
Ordinary Rockstar (Scintilla Redux)
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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 of…
What did you like best about 2012?
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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 true,…
Take a Letter, Maria
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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 for…
In Chaos, Loving Kindness Endures
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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 not…
A Splash of ‘Small Kindness’
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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 about…
How to Be Amazing
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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…
More Mystery than Family
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Louis Bonaventure Chanez and Margaret Salome Urban Chanez Agnes Schebler Hiegel and Alois Hiegel — While I was at my parents place for their 50th, I got a little melancholy about genealogy. I guess as we get older, it’s easier to see how our lives are like a filament in a lightbulb… Once we break…
Sometimes it Takes Awhile
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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…
My Most Beautiful Thing
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This is a Blogsplash. Today, Tuesday April 24th, bloggers around the world are blogging about their ‘most beautiful thing’, to celebrate the birth of Fiona Robyn’s new novel, The Most Beautiful Thing. On Tuesday 24th and Wednesday 25th April, you can download a copy free to your kindle, pc or phone, or win a free paperback. Click on…
We Interrupt this Life for a Meltdown
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Have you ever been puttering along a normal sort of way, and then suddenly, without warning, found yourself in a big wet, messy heap? Once when I lived in London, I drank a bit too much at the after-hours while working at the pub. I was walking back home around 2 a.m. and one minute…
