It’s been eleven months since I had access to my paints, brushes, easel, canvases, knives et al that one might find in an artist’s space. We retrieved my accouterments from a storage shed not far from our apartment and, once again, the boxes remained isolated from my attachment to that which might be considered my passion — almost a year […]
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Category: Journal
“Long, Long Time Ago…”
“Traumatic: Unpleasant, disagreeable, troublesome, irritating, distressing, also injurious and harmful.” (Oxford Thesaurus) Moving day and three weeks thereafter… enduring the physical and mental stress of a move from a home of ten years, equipped with everything one could possible need including surround-sound and a whirlpool bath with multiple settings, into an apartment half the size, […]
Transitioning to Tomorrow, Tomorrow and ...
I sit quietly in front of my computer feeling a calmness and a sense of purpose. It is January 1, 2014 and my intention is to write my first blog of the New Year. The title comes to me immediately: “Transitioning to Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow …or the day after.” I can almost feel the movement in […]
One Person’s View from Within…
Journal entry: Living in Door County has been, and continues to be, a challenge for me. On one side, it affords me the time and opportunity to be exposed to nature, which isn’t something easily done from a high-rise in the city of Chicago. I write. I paint. I facilitate memoir writing workshops. I do […]
Writing For Pleasure and Release of Pain
Do you remember when you were in high school or college and you knew in advance that a paper or report was due on a certain date? I don’t know what your reaction to this kind of expectation is, but I do know mine. I shut down or balk or procrastinate or all three. This […]
Favorite Quotes
“Live lightly” We have to cultivate contentment with what we have. We really don’t need much. When you know this, the mind settles down. Cultivate generosity. Delight in giving. Learn to live lightly. In this way, we can begin to transform what is negative into what is positive. This is how we start to […]
The Examined Life
I am not a poet, nor have I ever written a poem… This “piece,” as I choose to call it, came to me late one evening as I sat at my desk staring at my calendar, feeling overwhelmed by the “appointments” and the “to-do’s” scribbled all over the page. Only the four Wednesdays were absent […]
Be Careful What You Wish For: Door Count...
I am a visual artist, an oil painter, to be exact. I live in a town called Baileys Harbor in Door County in the state of Wisconsin. The population of this county is around 29,000 people. Baileys Harbor has approximately 1,000 full-time residents. I emphasize “full-time” because Door County is a popular vacation and tourist […]
“Enlightenment for Idiots” by Anne Cushm
“Was it random or was it destiny? And how would I know the difference? More and more it seemed like ‘it was meant to be’ was just another way of saying, ‘it’s what happened.’”
January 01, 2011 – Resolutions
I’ve never been a person who makes New Year’s resolutions, but this year seems different to me in that I seem different to me. In keeping with my internal evolution, this year I resolve to (in no particular order): honor my friends by greeting them with “namaste” instead of the colloquial “hi”; read biographies; increase […]