The last time I took a new job I wasn’t a writer. Well, I wrote white papers and technical manuals so I could put pen to paper. But I didn’t have a personal writing practice. But four months into a new job and I’m surprised how much creativity is a part of my job. Sheesh, that sounded dry. Bear with me – I think I’m … Continue reading Creativity as a Job Skill
Today, I surrender to the beauty of life Everything feels so light I woke up with a peace of mind And see no need to run or hide Today I feel free from all the ‘Should’ve’ Musts Or dancing between the ‘could’ve and would’ve Today I am all in And there is nothing in between I walk around, firmly feeling the ground Uninhibited, no longer … Continue reading The Beauty Of Life
Gratitude is very popular these days. Especially this week since it’s Thanksgiving. I’m not against gratitude and I even have some, but the smart-ass, non-compliant, rebel in me is crawling out. Continue reading A Hater’s Thanksgiving
Please don’t misunderstand. Gratitude, and the cultivation of gratitude, are wonderful. What I am asking is whether there are ways in which gratitude, or messaging about gratitude, or the cultivation of gratitude, can go wrong? How can gratitude go wrong? Have you ever experienced or seen this? (This image thanks to Pexels) Continue reading Question of the Day: How can gratitude sometimes go wrong?
Two days ago, I was in the car with my friend on the way to listen to a book reading. As we drove, my friend commented on how observant my four-year-old son is. It immediately sparked some stories about conversations we have when he’s riding in the back seat of the car. Like on a recent frosty morning when we passed a baseball field and … Continue reading Creatively Seeing
My greatest regret during my Peace Corps experience is that I wasn’t into taking photos at that time. I was into living life, though, as hard as it could be lived, tiptoeing right up to the line of being wildly self-destructive. It’s just that I don’t have much of a photographic record of all that living beyond the boundaries. I do have memories, tons of … Continue reading Repost: Places that “Made” Me: Installment Three
What happens when your husband dies in an avalanche and then you marry his best friend? It’s a fascinating question that artist and writer Jennifer Lowe-Anker set out to answer in her 2009 book Forget Me Not. The Backstory Jennifer Lowe-Anker was married to the famous climber, Alex Lowe, and they had three sons together. When Alex had another really early morning departure for a … Continue reading Climbing to The Top of the Rankings
Where is home? It is a question that has been growing within me more, the older I become. My life has been greatly affected by politics, moving, and family patterns. This has given me a broader insight regarding life, the world and humanity, than most people around me. In this video, I am talking about where is home, my experience as a foreigner and uprooting … Continue reading Where is home? They say home is where your heart belongs
Have you ever cooked a meal just for yourself? The dish may taste good and we may be proud of our efforts in making it, but in the end, it just isn’t that satisfying to do all that work just for one person. Continue reading Post Creative Pain
At a recent elementary school open house, my daughter’s third grade teacher said something profound. Well, she said a lot of wise things, because the knowledge of teachers is immense. But one particularly thing about writing and reading that caught my ear. Here it is – that she looks for books for these young readers to be either “windows” or “mirrors.” Windows are the books … Continue reading Writing Windows and Mirrors
If you read my first installment, you know that I was a Peace Corps Volunteer and was sent to PĨock, Poland, a beautiful and fascinating city located on the Vistula River, to complete my Pre-Service Training (PST), a demanding educational regime that was designed to see if I’d be up to the various challenges I’d certainly encounter once I was sent off to the town or city … Continue reading Repost: Places that “Made” Me: Installment Two
When I was 17 years old, I worked in a grocery store. One day a co-worker and I were pushing a giant skid full of milk cartons through the store. The skid was piled high with milk crates and was much taller than we were. We were using a skid mover, which was being steered by yet another coworker; driver in the front, two “engines“ in the back. Continue reading Judge Me, Judge Me Not
This is an interview with Hanne Kristin Rohde, the former police chief of Oslo. She worked in the police for 25 years, the first 5 years as a police prosecutor, and the last 20 years as a manager. In 11 of these years at the senior management level; from 2008-2014 as police inspector and head of the Section for violent and sexual crimes in Oslo Police District. Continue reading A life of great variety
My mind works in mysterious ways. For example, three or four days ago, for no particular reason, the following question popped into my head: I wonder who said, “Clothes make the man”? I then almost immediately forgot that I’d asked this question—my brain having its own unique way of functioning—and went about my daily business. This morning I got online and found out that Mark … Continue reading Repost: Places that “Made” Me: Installment One
I usually buck the trend of list-style writing, but some matches really do seem to be made in Heaven- like these. Continue reading 10 Killer Combos
Today I’m going to depart from my usual topics in order to talk about and show you some photographic artwork I’ve been working on. I’m including a digital image, plus the same print under two different lighting conditions. The photograph, or artwork, that I’m showing you in this post belongs to a specific project I began about a year and a half ago. The piece … Continue reading Autumn Sky Artwork- First Release of a New Photographic Project
A humorous but reality-based look at how we’ve over-improved the public bathroom experience. Continue reading Overflow: Our Bathrooms Are Too Nice?
My adventure is coming to an end. I couldn’t think of a better way to mark the occasion than by finishing the poem that I started at the beach in Malaga at the beginning of my trip. Finishing and publishing this poem feels like coming full circle. An incredibly beautiful journey of over 850 km of steps and endless talks. Continue reading I wonder as I wander
Jesus wept. The shortest sentence in the Bible. As a pastor’s kid, this is the type of trivia that I know. Although I know I’m not alone, and that one doesn’t have to be a Bibliophile to know this. The short sentence has power. You couldn’t guess that I know this from my writing though. The readability analysis of my writing is forever telling me … Continue reading The Power of Short Sentences
The other day I was introduced to a brilliant piece of self-promotion in the course of my work. A man had a small business that he wanted to promote. I don’t know the exact number, but there are probably at least 100,000 other businesses in the United States that do the same type of technical consulting he did. He didn’t want to buy Google or … Continue reading Promoting Your Writing With Search
