In one half of the world, winter unfurls and unravels blankets of ice and cold and spells. If this is where you find yourself, in long dark nights, listen for magic and starlight and bells. * I hope whatever season you're in is treating you well. I've kept a few New Year's resolutions! And I'm …
I was expecting different news. So, ever since my cancer diagnosis, I have gone regularly to my oncologist. You may be familiar with such a routine. At first you go in what feels like every other day and gradually, if things go well, you go in less and less. My appointments alternated too. One time …
Sorting through old papers, I came across stories my mom write in college. Keep in mind she didn't go to college straight out of high school. She was in her 40s when she went to USF. We were, in fact, in college at the same time (though not the same place). This piece is dated …
Perhaps this history could begin with the Big Bang, but instead I'll begin the day my mom left my dad, packing what would fit into her pale blue Volkswagen Beetle and heading to a new life. If the object didn't fit into that car, she didn't take it with her. She didn't come back for …
I still have my little altars of objects and treasured things. We still have hundreds of books. No one is ever going to walk into this house and say, "Are you a minimalist?" I feel that's important to make clear before I again mention that most trendy of lifestyle phenomenon names Marie Kondo and confess …
Maybe the word of the year, or at least of January, is Kondo. Have you Kondofied your home by any chance? I had no intention of watching Netflix's Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. I hadn't so much as picked up her book to judge the cover. But curiosity got the better of me (and I …
Resolutions take time to root. Most are caught by prevailing winds and carried off to the horizon, not seen again until perhaps a birthday or the next New Year. I've been thinking about resolutions and the wisdom and foolishness behind them. Obviously, a resolution can be made on any day. There is no cosmic law …
Welcome to the New Year. What are you looking forward to? What is good in your life right now? I've decided to plow ahead with goals and dreams in spite of fears of disappointment. I'm not going to list all my goals (mostly important only to me anyway), but I thought I'd comment on one …
Optimism is not my fuel. Numbers and Optimism don't appear to be friends. Do they? Sometimes they might hangout together, but forever hitched they are not. I look at the numbers of agents and publishers and people trying to become authors and I'm not optimistic those numbers are going to work in my favor. But …
How do you travel from one year to the next? I shall not dwell in the mistakes and failures, though I hope I'll find the lessons in the year's wreckage to pack them up and carry with me into the new year. I shall not make resolutions which end up being pitfalls and snares. I …
