Category Archives: writing

Recently, in my snail mail subscription package from @hellowriter (part of the wonderful Firefly Creative Writing group), there was a prompt to write about what life has taught me. This is far from a thoroughly exhaustive list, but here goes: This life has taught me that raising my children was the greatest gift to myself. […]

Fiction writing is something I have journals and journals full of, but have never put it out into the world. Today’s the day. A couple of weeks ago, we were given a prompt for an assignment; write a short scene in which your character receives a gift they do not want.  I chose to write […]

This week in my introductory writing course we covered poetry. I am not much of a poet though I tried my hand at poetry in junior high and felt pretty sure I was the next…well, good poet (I didn’t actually read poetry so there was no one I was aspiring to be). I occasionally wrote […]

all italicized quotes by Mary Oliver, poet, 1935-2019 Sometimes I need only to stand wherever I am to be blessed Many times lately I have said to hubby, we have such a great life. That’s not new; ups and downs have been happening for 56+ years, but attentiveness to those waves has been a more […]

A friend of my daughter sends out an email weekly with “insights, info, thoughts and other things”. I really enjoy the emails; they are funny, thought-provoking, and candid. This week, the author, Jess, spoke about sharing. Not in the “here’s half my bagel” sharing, but the kind that comes from telling people the real deal […]

When I said yes to hitting the ‘submit’ button to a writing contest last January, the weight of the world lifted from my heart. The piece I submitted is my #metoo story. The writing of the story was in itself a big leap of saying ‘yes’; I said yes to doing the very hard work […]

we can rant or we can write

I am not a New Year’s resolution maker. I’ve always felt it set me up for failure. Instead, I’ve always been a promise maker. I promise to not eat those empty calories. I promise to get more exercise. I promise to get more sleep. If I commit to something for other people, I am guaranteed […]

I recently drove across Canada and the Western States and had the chance to stop by the home of Margaret Laurence in Manitoba. I have a big place in my heart for Laurence’s book, The Diviners. The book was my first ‘grown up’ novel. I had devoured every children’s book in our home by 1974, the […]

I remember when the US election results from 2016 came out. So many Canadians were walking around all smug and confident that we would never elect a public official like Trump. Wake up and smell your double double folks – Doug Ford has delivered a smack down to that smugness in the form of severe […]