A YEAR AGO last month, I was celebrating the loss of 30 unwanted pounds and embarking on a bicycle tour of the Coeur d’Alene trail in Idaho. My heart was filled with gratitude, the world was wide open, and anything — truly, anything! — seemed possible. During the tour, my […]
THIS MORNING, I was happily nosing around in the back yard, checking to see if my latest veggie plantings were thriving or if everything was watered sufficiently. I even potted a flowering plant in a pot I decorated myself — with mosaic tiles (a ten-year project). As I moved the […]
I AM NOT A STRANGER TO SOLITUDE. At times it has been my best friend as I strived to reach a writing deadline or just wanted to enjoy silence in an otherwise busy household. However, I didn’t know what true solitude was until the Covid-19 pandemic became a reality. Prior […]
IN THIS FIRST guest contribution to the Writing Through Change series, Linda Chisari shares reflections from her Corona Crisis Journal. Please leave a comment and, perhaps, share a reflection from your own Corona Crisis journal. Shelter in Place—A Lesson in Resilience 3/12/20 It’s the direction we’re receiving today: Stay […]
THERE’S MORE THAN ONE WAY to escape a pandemic. You can shelter in place, go nowhere, see no one, exercise indoors. You can catch up on home-improvement projects, learn how to cook, start painting, read that pile of books that’s been gathering dust on your nightstand. You can finally write […]
“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.” ~ Maya Angelou ~ THERE’S AN OLD SAYING: “The only constant in life is change.” If that’s true, and I believe it is, you’d think that we’d all be […]
“You don’t need to change the world; you need to change yourself.” ― Don Miguel Ruiz IF YOU’VE BEEN FOLLOWING THIS SERIES and journaling about the relationships in your life, you began with writing about the most fundamental of all relationships — your parents. You then branched out to write about your […]
My youngest son turned eighteen this week. Five days before his birthday, he left home, marking a significant turning point in both our lives—for him, the start of independence and life as an adult; for me, a sudden transition to “empty nester.” Now, I sometimes find myself standing still, looking […]
They say the only constant in life is change. I believe that to be true. And if there is anything certain about change, it’s uncertainty. Just when you think things are moving along according to plan, Blam! something changes. Jobs, relationships, homes, and people come and go. Even when we […]
I had been packing for weeks. The boxes were clearly labeled with their contents and which room they belonged in. Yet when the moving van arrived, every surface overflowed with items that still needed to be boxed, the pictures hung on the walls, and the still-full garage mocked us. Luckily, […]
SPRING is a time of transition, the time between winter and summer, when everything is changing rapidly, growing, greening, budding, and flowering. Spring is also a symbol for many life experiences: times of change, times of growth, times that vacillate between rain and sun, pessimism and hope. For all these […]
WRITING THROUGH TIMES OF UNCERTAINTY clarifies perspective and strengthens decision-making skills. We all have times of change in our lives, times when we don’t know what’s going to happen next, when the future seems to be engulfed by a vague, gray fog, inaccessible and maddeningly disconcerting. When confusion seems to […]
