I was so pleased to have my poem “Eleven One” featured in the new Written in Arlington anthology and on the book’s website just before its November 2020 launch! But it was a true delight to be part of the book’s January 24, 2021 reading organized by 1455, a literary arts organization and writing workspace and retreat…
poetry
Day 5: A found poem
I have read the same issue of High Five over and over to my daughter the past few days while she’s been home sick and wanted to spend what has added up to hours sitting on the potty for no apparent reason. My son was never much of a “read it again” kid, so it’s…
Day 3 of daily writing: a poem out of season
My goal for NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) will be to write daily: I will aim to write a blog post and also, for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) to do at least 15 minutes of writing on my novel every day before 6:45 a.m. I might not get the blog piece posted with a photo until…
The beginning of some kind of writing: starting NaBloPoMo
The heft of a child against your chest The sitting of a raindrop on a leaf The turning of the calendar on the wall The dirtying of dishes at the table The coming of a holiday or any day without consulting your level of preparation These things are humbling inevitable and all there is…
What I learned from a month of poetry
December may be halfway over, but just because I haven’t blogged since I ended my month of writing daily poetry for NaBloPoMo doesn’t mean I didn’t learn anything from the process. I learned that setting an intention is powerful. I Did. Not. Miss. A. Day. I learned that I love writing poetry and taking photos….
The end of poetry
The repetition of the word “work” bothered me today when I observed my daughter at her Montessori daycare. My older son went to Waldorf school, and even if the two approaches share an appreciation for real-world duties and chores, Waldorf education comes from the perspective that childhood is for play, exploration, unfolding. Not for doing…
There goes the neighborhood
Missing from my To-Do list today was the item “Watch elderly neighbor get carted away by police.” And yet, unlike many of the things on my To-Do list, this actually happened. And I can’t shake it. It really was just a matter of time. Mimi had seemed to be suffering from dementia since we moved…
Food for thought
I can’t stand it. After 27 days of writing poetry, I want to write about nutrition! Aside from the fact that tomatoes are out of season and that I didn’t preserve any local ones, and aside from the fact that I’d once all but banned even gluten-free pasta from our house as a processed food…
Balance is overrated
Another night out, this time tutoring. In two hours, I have paid for three days of childcare. But what really is the cost? I would rather make less easy money to make money that is more meaningful to my everyday existence. And that doesn’t require me to go out 8-10 p.m. But I also value…
On moons and mothers
Got the kids to bed exactly three hours ago and dashed off to a lovely evening of blessing two pregnant mamas in my Holistic Moms chapter and honoring a third whose child chose to come before we could bless her back in September. My camera was out of battery, but I had in mind a…
Not so serious
My husband and I have both been seeing a holistic doctor who prescribes homeopathic remedies and other things to address emotional energy patterns and blockages. There is a brand of sprays (by SafeCare Rx) for which he tested to need “Serious,” and I tested to need “Grief.” I can’t speak for him, but I do…
A change in the forecast
Closing in on December Even though you can’t see the fifteen degrees that tromped out of the woods yesterday with as many miles of winds each hour, their departure left today hunched over, knocked into a new category where shoulders that once opened to warmth and the smell of dry leaves baking turn heavy, and…
How would you slant light?
Blank canvas If you had the chance to paint the sky, how would you do it? Would your brush be brash and full of color, from orange through pink up to early-morning blue? Or would you go for the sunset, dimming down from dark to the last warmth of sinking light? Maybe you would deeply…
Out of words
You’d think that on Thanksgiving day, I’d be welling up with heartfelt warm-fuzzies or could at least feign some kind of thoughtful riff on how good I’ve got it. But I’m struggling to find something to write about. Now, I do know how good I’ve got it, really, I do. I’m so lucky to have…
Prelude to Thanksgiving
It occurs to me when facing certain social situations that I’m still nursing a soap opera hangover from age eight when I learned how to talk to people by watching “General Hospital.” It wasn’t pretty. No one on that show is nice, unless for pretend, to get something. Everyone judges. The snappier an insult you…
The short and long view
It’s now been over three months since I started reading Katrina Kenison’s The Gift of an Ordinary Day. I’d picked it up even before that, but three months ago I devoured as much as I could while away from my kids at a conference. Since I’ve been back, time has been scarce amid getting unpacked,…
Home is where too much of your head is
This, a gorgeous fall day, was my last full day visiting family. A few weeks ago, a local mom I barely know let me stay in her apartment so that I could start work in earnest on my novel. Whenever I get out of my comfort zone, I always find that I breathe differently, appreciate…
Day Two on the road
So tonight it’s Monopoly I’m missing to write, but I’ll be brief with this, inspired by our visit to the Indianpolis Children’s Museum, and as I noticed as I wrote, the cadence of some children’s book I haven’t read in a long time. Maybe Freight Train? From two to twelve Orange ball Rock wall Kids…
Travelin’ mama (day one)
“Did we make these pancakes this morning?” my son asked a bit ago, at the table of my sister in the Midwest, far from where he woke — an hour earlier than usual — this morning. It’s been a long day, filled with travel, seeing people we rarely see, and stressing over lost items, namely…
Flashback
After a few days of coughing and sniffles, and a lot more of them last night, my son declared today that he didn’t want to go to school. We couldn’t blame him. Since I’m taking him and his sister on a plane tomorrow where they will spend 3.5 fun-filled days (and possibly late nights) with…