1. Do not berate your body for not going as far as it used to. Be grateful it has carried you this long and held up well through illness, grief, and broken relationships, always propelling you forward.
2. This morning, your husband runs in wide and long circles around you, ensuring your safety. Sometimes you orbit him in life; sometimes he, you. In a strong partnership, no one can always be the sun; everyone has to take turns being the planet.
3. Behold the ferns, thriving in shadow. Sometimes darkness offers as much a chance to grow as light does.
4. None of these birds care what troubles you brought into these woods. They sing, despite your worry. Their days are not clouded by your anxiety.
5. In these woods are dead things, though you cannot always see them. This is the way of this Earth and you must learn to let things go.
6. The rhododendron blooms today. As does the yellow coreopsis, the thimbleberry. Never mind the rain, the cold, the heat.
7. The sunlight leaks down through the cracks between branches. You just have to move a little to one side or the other to see it. You can stand still, but it will take much longer that way to find the light.
8. There will always be people who run faster than you. It’s okay to be passed. Slowing down allows you to notice what you used to overlook.
9. These chestnut oaks came into this world before you, and they will outlive you. What will you do with the moments you’ve been given?
10. There is so much to hear. You spend so much time in your head, but the world is trying to talk to you. This morning, this evening, every day: Listen.
Upcoming Seminars & Workshops
Let’s Write Together!
Tuesdays at noon EST: July 13, 27 and August 3, 10, 17, 24
Having a hard time finding inspiration and motivation to write? Join me for any (or all) of these online one-hour sessions on Tuesdays at noon EST. We’ll talk about a piece of writing, I will give you a prompt, and then you will WRITE. These workshops are part of Press 53’s High Road Festival of Poetry and Short Fiction. Cost: $10/session.
Register for any of them here.
Make Your Titles Do More of the Heavy Lifting
Wednesday, August 4, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. EST
Titles should serve your poetry (and prose) rather than simply helping to navigate the contents page. Using poetry titles as examples so we can cover more ground during this short seminar, together we'll look at titles that work hard and offer zing and pizzazz so that your own titles will entice readers and better serve your writing. (What is covered in this seminar applies to flash fiction and flash nonfiction titles, too.) Cost: $30.
Register here.
Moments that Matter: an Introduction to Flash Nonfiction
Thursday, August 12, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. EST
In this online workshop, we’ll talk about what flash nonfiction is, how it works, and why it works. Together we’ll mine some powerful flash pieces for effective techniques you can use in your own writing. Cost: $30. Register here.
The Art of Memoir & Personal Essay:
A Generative Writing Workshop
Wednesdays, August 18-September 15, 1:30-4:00 p.m. EST
Join me in this five-week, online (Zoom) workshop during which you will generate new writing, read writing that inspires, and learn some tools and techniques on the craft of personal essay/memoir writing. There are no critiques in this workshop. The goal is for you to leave with first drafts and a writer’s toolbox ready to help you finish and write the rest of your own life stories. Regular Rate: $349; Early Bird Rate going on now: $299. Space is limited. Learn more here. Register here.
A Small Thing to Want: Stories
Won the 2021 Independent Publisher Bronze Medal for Short Fiction
On sale now here (price includes S&H in the United States).
“It is the most exceptional short story collection I have read in quite some time.” —Dayton Daily News
A Small Thing to Want chronicles the choices people make about whom to love and whom to let go, their yearnings that either bind them or set them free, and the surprising ways love shows up, without reason or restraint. The characters in these stories long for freedom, truth, friendship, courage, and second chances, but each person will have to grapple with the consequences and costs of their desires. (Published by Press 53, 2020.)