poetry wednesday : if you knew
If You Knew by Ellen Bass What if you knew you’d be the last to touch someone? If you were taking tickets, for example, at the theater, tearing them, giving back the ragged stubs, you might take care to touch that palm, brush your fingertips along the life line’s crease. …
book stack tuesday : mindfulness and depression
The poet Jane Kenyon, who suffered from devastating depressions, wrote, “With the wonder and bitterness of someone pardoned for a crime she did not commit I come back to marriage and friends…to my desk, books, and chair.” And, at another time, she wrote, “Unholy ghost, you are certain to come …
break open by surprise
an excerpt from my book, “The Geography of Loss” One October a few years ago, a woman named Jodi Cohen invited me to come read from Life is a Verb in Madison, Wisconsin. I asked Jodi if she had any favorite stories in the book, because I wanted to …
a simple act with a single intention
Ten years ago today, I sat at my dining room table with some significant bedhead and a mug of black coffee and started writing this blog. Why did I call it 37days? I didn’t begin it as a blog, though it used a blogging software. That is, blogging wasn’t my …
strong offer friday
Work, play, learn with me. First, what is a strong offer? A strong offer is an offer of yourself (your love, your talent, your art) without comparing yourself to others, without attachment to how that offer will be received, without a story attached to the offer, and with detachment …
thinking thursday
mind Dualities: “In 2013, she decided to begin a series that dealt with the realities of what it means to put on a brave face while simultaneously coping with forms of depression. Starting with herself, Obert took two photos: one that showed the person she chooses to present to the …
poetry wednesday : new year’s poem
New Year’s Poem By Margaret Avison The Christmas twigs crispen and needles rattle Along the window-ledge. A solitary pearl Shed from the necklace spilled at last week’s party Lies in the suety, snow-luminous plainness Of morning, on the window-ledge beside them. And all the furniture that circled stately And …
book stack tuesday : my best of 2014
I read a lot. It all started when I was a kid. Under a quilt with a flashlight, staying up far past my bedtime, I cheated sleep for the love of the word, those pages I longed to touch and move, one by one, from the front of a book …
entering a new year
There are a lot of words of wisdom about starting a new year–choosing a word for the year to represent your intention, for example (we all need some way to make decisions, and a word is as good as any other metric). Pinterest is full of pins about organizing your …
