Know Your Directional Pulls
I feel a certain kind of peace. Sure, it might just be the amino acids I am taking after reading The Mood Cure, but I think it is a peace that sometimes comes when things are torn asunder, as our lives have been the past two years because of the COVID pandemic. …
Be an Adventurer
I have never been so lost in a learning environment in my life. It was as if I had been dropped into a class being taught in Ancient Greek or Latin. From the first moment, I was lost. It sure wasn’t a beginning weaving class, which is what I needed …
Acknowledge that people change
I bought it after seeing a video of a kid using it. It was called a “folding board.” You put your article of clothing on it—let’s say a shirt—and you fold the plastic board parts in a particular order to make a very neat folded shirt. Feliks has always had …
Learn to Receive
A dear friend learned I was taking weaving classes—it has been a lifelong dream of mine to weave—and she gave me her loom. But not just any loom. A big, amazing, floor loom that I could never afford on my own. “I want to pass it along to you,” she …
Your ordinary is extraordinary
Last week was a milestone week for our family. And this week was as well. Last week, the boy I despaired would never drive, work, or be able to live on his own passed the last test and got his high school equivalency certificate in the form of his GED. …
Catch and Release
I just finished teaching my “writing op-eds that create change” class full of such wise people who care so much about issues facing society today. It was an honor to be among them. During our final live call, we were talking about using our opening paragraph to “hook” people who …
Keep Looking Up
I sat under a large tree today at a picnic table, and sent out a writing prompt to the hundreds of people who subscribe to receive a writing prompt every Monday through Friday morning from me. Today’s prompt involved looking at clouds and then writing what you saw. So, I …
Come Home to Yourself
I had forgotten what it felt like to cook together. Our lives since we had children had become compartmentalized and expedient: you take them to their lesson and I will cook dinner. You get the groceries and I will cook dinner. You deal with homework and I will cook dinner. …
You Must Be Able To Do Three Things
Please read the following poem aloud three times. In Blackwater Woods Look, the trees are turning their own bodies into pillars of light, are giving off the rich fragrance of cinnamon and fulfillment, the long tapers of cattails are bursting and floating away over the blue shoulders of the ponds, …
What Does Your Courage Look Like?
My friend and colleague, Mary Anne Em Radmacher, often reminds me to focus on “my nine.” My Nine are the 8 people who will be there to carry my coffin and the 9th to count cadence. She is one of my nine. We met because when asked by a woman …
