because words are powerful
I thought about the question Katie posed in between bites of zucchini bread. We were catching up in a coffee shop near my office. My explanation was brief. I haven’t been writing much. In truth, I haven’t felt like I had much to say—at least not much I’d like to post online in quite a…
I am an active participant in three writing groups. The group we call Word Church meets weekly on Sunday afternoons. The other two meet monthly. One focuses on poetry and the other concentrates on the process of writing. Each group and the beloved communities that show up helps me to keep my creative juices flowing—even…
By now you know the drill: a group of writers come up with a list of words from which to draw. We write on our own for 30-40 minutes, and then come together to read what came from those words. It’s such a meaningful experience, we’ve come to call it Word Church. I am a…
I saw it coming. I shed preemptive tears. I even admitted I was aware that sadness would soon follow. I dropped off my roommate at the airport. As I pulled away, I was a tire with the air let out. I barely cracked open my journal. I fell asleep with a heap of books and…
A few autumns ago, I climbed my hill with some hand tools, a bucket of potting soil, and bags of bulbs I’d added to the cart at ALDI. In my mind’s eye and the naivete of a novice gardener, I was planting what I imagined was going to be a small-scale Holland–blooms of tulips and…
Every Sunday around 2:00 I get excited thinking about what I will write in the coming hours. The excitement is knowing that I cannot prepare or bring a particular topic to the meeting because the direction I take is dependent on the word list we draft. This group keeps my creative juices flowing, and is…
The words in bold are from the list my writing group compiled and are the springboard for this post. I feel myself limping my way into spring. I like the hibernation of winter. Nature’s wooing one to bed, early, moonshine for a night light and guilt-free since there’s no lawn to mow, no seeds to…
Every Sunday for months, I have logged on to a Zoom meeting with other writers. We make a list of random words, and write on our own for 30 minutes. We then read our work to the group, and share feedback. This community has become so very dear to me. We share our words and…
This was an a-ha moment for me during a stretch when I found myself on the side of the road awaiting the arrival of a AAA technician to tow me to the mechanic’s shop. It was an upside-down time for me soon after my divorce. Three roadside rescues in as many weeks. Certainty seems more…
For the past six months, I have been untangling myself from a difficult situation that was my reality since early 2012. You read that right. Since two thousand TWELVE. For what spanned a decade, the majority of my daughter’s childhood, I dreaded going to work. There, I encountered, well, that’s just it. I never knew…
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