Five Years a Writer

I dislike house painting. Inside or outside, I find the process tedious. And big. It’s a big job to cover all those walls. I like the results, of course, but, in my view, the process itself is a bore. So, the last time our walls needed painting, we called in the professionals. They arrived with an enormous number of tools, gizmos and gadgets to do the work. The result was sharp lines between the walls and ceiling and no messes on the floor. How did they manage it? It’s in the prep work, of course. The painting itself went quite quickly, but the two guys didn’t pick up a paintbrush until all the meticulous prep had been done first — the taping, the floor covering, the paint choosing, the cutting in. Then it was “simply” a matter of covering the walls and ceiling in broad brushstrokes. Done!  In one way, it is not unlike writing: Get the idea, map the structure, do the research, find the images, only then start putting words on the screen. But unlike the house-painting project, once...

My collage / vision board for 2024 New Year's Day 2024 365 days coming  so many starts  with so many intentions with so much wanting planning languishing  avoiding restarting and petering out. . .  so let's just stop right here right now   and focus F-O-C-U-S  on what we do -- actually do  each day every day all the time we breathe in and out live as best we can  in each moment we have because one day, we will run out of moments and plan no more so while we have these moments let us live each one to the fullest  plans be damned goals unlisted Focus  on what we do -- actually do  and be satisfied in that  It's the NEW YEAR  and I am choosing  to focus  on the moments, one after the next, and I will do what I do There will be writing and more writing  and teaching and other things, too, and this will be my year the NEW YEAR not unlike the old year Moment by moment  breathing in  and breathing out I w...

Do you see it rushing past, out, through the door? That’s 2023 gathering momentum to leave us in its dust, while we gather our own selves and get ready to step into the next year, the New Year, into 2024. But hang on. First, let’s take a moment or two to look back on 2023 and consider the highlights, the challenges and the learnings of the past 52 weeks. The idea comes from mental health podcaster Mel Robbins ’ (hyperbolically titled) workbook “Make 2024 your BEST year” and, while the title left me cool cold, I like that her first step in looking ahead is looking back to consider those three things — highlights, challenges, and learnings. So, at Robbins’ suggestion, I took out my (old fashioned) paper calendar and flipped through it to remind myself of webinars attended, writing deadlines met, essays published, and also of personal highlights like trips to visit my mum, buying the new car, and booking the front yard refurbishment. It was a good exercise which I completed as a collage ...

This Thursday, December 21st, is the shortest day of the year, and thank goodness for that because these short winter days with the dark early mornings and early dark evenings have been sapping my creative energy. I need the glimmer of more light to rekindle my spark for the new year coming.  Maybe you feel the same, or maybe the changing seasons and the greater or lesser amount of daylight makes no difference to you. No matter how your internal clocks chimes, we in the Northern hemisphere will all soon be enjoying increased daylight in incremental measures — and, if you are like me, we will revel in every single second of that renewed light. For it brings us closer to warmer temperatures and longer days outside and, thus, greater internal energy to enjoy what those days can offer.  In the meantime, I will hunker down, burrow into the current longer dark hours, and embrace what creative e...

  Photo by  Boston Public Library  on  Unsplash I had submitted the article about a year ago, so didn’t immediately compute the import of the email’s subject line: “Beyond 9 to 5 story submission”. The title rang no bell in my cluttered mind and the sender’s name had me reaching for the delete key, as it was unknown to me. Thank goodness cautious reason kicked in and I opened the message: It was informing me that my piece on the six lessons I had learned during my first year of retire ment would be published. Yay! Which, after some extensive editing by me to make it the appropriate length, it was. This past November. In the subscriber- and print-only magazine  More of Our Canada  (a Reader’s Digest publication). The issue landed in my snail-mail mailbox in late October. Holding the issue in my hands was novel, as everything else I’ve had published in the last while has been online only, which is equally lovely but far easier to share. How could I circu...

  Suddenly it’s the final month of the year, the days are rushing by, each one bringing us closer to the holidays — whatever that means for you. December is a month of too much going on, too many expectations, and too little time to do it all with grace and charm.  Well. That’s my experience, anyway.  I remember this month from my full-time teaching days: The term is coming to an end, assignments are piling up — all needing to be graded; students are anxious about marks; Chairs are fierce about today's deadlines being met while also planning for the next term; and somehow in amongst all that are personal preparations for the holidays that fight for attention. I would feel bad for my colleagues with young children for whom the magic of the season NEEDED to happen despite all the requirements of the parents’ jobs. For them, saying NO wasn’t an easy (realistic) option.  But for me now, this year, this season, saying NO is at the top of my list. I have no boss ...

The task was to consider a story in list form. What could be told if the standard story structure was eschewed for a leaner form? The idea arose from (what research told me is) the American writer Susan Sontag' s iconic love of lists. She wrote , "Nothing exists unless I maintain it (by my interest, or my potential interest). This is an ultimate, mostly subliminal anxiety. Hence, I must remain always, both in principle + actively, interested in everything. Taking all of knowledge as my province." And, "I perceive value, I confer value, I create value, I even create – or guarantee – existence. Hence, my compulsion to make ‘lists’. The things (Beethoven’s music, movies, business firms) won’t exist unless I signify my interest in them by at least noting down their names." Her lists include these two :       "Things I like: ivory, sweaters, architectural drawings, urinating, pizza (the Roman bread), staying in hotels, paper clips, the color blue, leather belts...