Last time, on the blog, I talked about my (very ingrained) habit of working hard and fast (and too much) and always staying busy. I'm continuing the thoughts here. I have a lot of passions. Last fall, I knew I wanted to work with and help the unhoused community in Seattle. I wanted to sing in an all women’s choir that a friend of mine was…
I’ve never been a “figure it out as I go” kind of person. I prefer to control and plan as much as possible. I want to know what I’m getting into. To know what the outline is. And if I don’t have some kind of a plan in place before the time arrives to jump into action, I will probably be panicked. Okay, I’ll definitely be…
“Awkward” Definition a: lacking social grace and assurance b: causing embarrassment Most of us don’t like being awkward. Sometimes we’re just unaware of the awkwardness in a situation and sometimes we mistakenly perceive a situation to be more awkward than it really is. Actually, I’m not sure *any* of us like being awkward. We don’t like saying something that could make others embarrassed or upset, or at the…
I never used to think of myself as a gardener. There’s a patience and a faithfulness that it calls for. And I didn’t possess a lot of patience for most of my life. Until my firstborn came along and then…I just had to learn it. Gardening requires a good deal of foresight and hopefulness. You weed and prune and look forward to that gorgeous season where…
I’ve wanted/dreamed/struggled for years to find a literary agent. I remember sitting in a quiet corner of the Northgate branch of the Seattle Public Library, hunched over a table with The Sell Your Novel Tool Kit (Elizabeth Lyon) lying open beside me as I tried to painstakingly write out a query letter. Every sentence was agony. It was like learning a new language in which I…
Psychology 101. A course of study dedicated to understanding the complex and fascinating ways that our brains work. Capacity for knowledge, memory, defense mechanisms, trauma, disorders, learning, and deduction (to name a few). This was of my favorites. The only textbook I kept from college was the one from this class. I vividly recall hearing: “Each one of us here is mentally unwell to a greater or…
All of meWhy not take all of meCan’t you seeI’m no good without you From the song All of Me by Billie Holiday and Lester Young My husband gave me a fancy goal planner for Christmas (Cultivate What Matters brand, if you’re curious or a goal-geek, like I am). And although I confess I’d actually told him I was really interested in this particular planner, I…
I love magic tricks. Card tricks, sleight of hand, people disappearing into boxes and slipping out of chains. I don’t understand any of them, but I love them. Even though the astonishment I experience makes me feel a bit stupid and crazy, I usually I end up laughing because I’m so perplexed by what the illusionist just did right in front of my eyes. Last year,…
As I scrolled through Facebook, the flower in the photo jostled my brain to recall another flower--this one from a fairy tale--but both with the shared purpose of marking time. To mark the passage of COVID lockdown/quarantine, a friend posted a picture of a drooping tulip with withered, pink petals of an almost magical translucence that sparkled in the light pouring through some French doors. The…
What do you fear? Fear drives me more than I would like to admit. I don’t consider myself paranoid, per se, just extremely…uhm…careful. (Sounds like I have a problem and I’m in denial, doesn’t it?) Recently my pastor asked us to write down something we feared on a piece of paper. We could choose to bring the paper forward and leave it in a pile at…