A Blog About Creativity
They come out of nowhere, seemingly all at once. The tap, tap, tapping of a woodpecker in one of the dead sycamores in my yard. Then various chirps and twitters. Swirls of goldfinches; I hear the whisper of their wings. A chickadee. Bushtits and … [Continue reading]
It started with a pandemic. And a bird fluttering by my office window. Back and forth in my line of sight, distracting me from whatever seemed more important at the time. Paying bills or googling how to fix a running toilet. Or maybe I was making a … [Continue reading]
I'm excited to announce that my blog post, A Call to Prayer: Morocco, was recently published online in Wanderlust: A Travel Journal. During my trip to Morocco, I was struck by the religious imperative to pray five times a day. Of course, I had no … [Continue reading]
Gertrude is freaking out. I don’t blame her. She’s an extrovert and now we've been ordered to shelter in place for a month. But she’s not making it any easier on herself. The news is on full tilt and she’s watching the stock market plunge. There are … [Continue reading]
You can’t visit Iceland without thinking—now here’s a people who’ve truly made the best of a bad situation. The landscape is stark and unforgiving: Scalding hot geysers. Craggy lava rock. Steam spewing to the surface heaving gray and … [Continue reading]
The stranger who rescued him was a dark-skinned woman. She'd been wearing a green dress with flowers and a matching sweater, delicate pearl buttons running down the front. She smelled exotic like rose petals. All he wanted to do was to thank … [Continue reading]
A sign at a café in Medellín illustrates the Colombiano passion for courtesy. Un tinto—a small cup of black coffee—costs $2000 Colombian pesos. Or about 65 cents. Ask for your tinto with a simple “por favor” and the price immediately … [Continue reading]
At the time of the winter solstice, the veil between heaven and earth narrows, opening us to the possibility of transformation. In some spiritual traditions, it’s called a thin place, an idea that captured my attention enough to use it as the title … [Continue reading]
In between fetching pain pills and making me lunch, Gertrude watches me grimace every time I roll over. Or get up to go to the bathroom. Sneezing is the worst. “No more golf for you,” she says. I’m recovering ever-so-slowly from a bulging disk. … [Continue reading]
No one is expected to be squeaky-clean cradle to grave. As a psychologist at a university counseling center, I was privy to many regrets and misbehaviors, lies, secrets, and even some illegal acts. On a handful of occasions, young men confessed to … [Continue reading]
