Guest Blog Post: “A Wish List for a Better Life,” in Julie Morris’ exact words

Photo looking down neck of a guitar

Is New Year's when you resolve to improve your life? A life and career coach, as well as a blogger, Julie Morris recommends we start this very minute... We all want to be happier, smarter, healthier… better, right? Well, there’s nothing wrong with wanting a little self-improvement.  But there’s no rule out there that says… Continue reading Guest Blog Post: “A Wish List for a Better Life,” in Julie Morris’ exact words

Five Across, Four Down by Sharon Lynne Bonin-Pratt: Reblog

Crossword Puzzle
Art by Sharon Lynne Bonin-Pratt
Art by Sharon Lynne Bonin-Pratt

Love words? So do I! No matter how hard we try to be precise though, verbal communication can be confusing. Here fellow blogger, Sharon Lynne Bonin-Pratt, shows us one example of how when we combine our actions with our words, magic can result…

Sharon Bonin-Pratt's avatarSharon Bonin-Pratt's Ink Flare

That which we encounter everyday should be that which we celebrate. That which we celebrate can be that which teaches us how better to do what we love. And that which we love can inspire us to write, even when we think our inspiration took off with the last Mongol invasion of Central Asia.

Crossword puzzles occupy a lot of my time, especially true in the last eight years. I don’t have an obsessive love of crosswords, but my mom always did. A pop-in visit to see my folks was as likely to be met with the urgently asked, “What’s a seven letter word for something important?” (gravity) as a heartfelt, “Glad you came by.” Right there, the beginning of a story for NaNoWriMo. Whose mom wants the right puzzle word more than a visit from her progeny? Yours, course. (Well, mine, but you know what I mean.) You thought…

View original post 1,137 more words

Magic: David Sedaris Makes a List

Author David Sedaris

If you don’t already know who David Sedaris is, you should. He’s a great writer, that’s why -- moreover, he’s a fabulous performer of his writings. His most recent book is least like his prior books. For those new to his writing, it’s easier to start with any of his older books. His recent, “Theft… Continue reading Magic: David Sedaris Makes a List

Magic: Leonardo da Vinci Journaled and Affirmed by da-AL

The Vitruvian Man (c. 1485) Accademia, Venice, by Leonardo da Vinci. Photo by Luc Viatour / https://Lucnix.be

When Leonardo da Vinci died, the amazing all-things Renaissance man who changed the world forever as an engineer, a scientist, an artist, a sculptor, an architect, a chef, and a bazillion other things — his final words amounted to the effect of, “Forgive me for not having accomplished everything I set out to do.” Let… Continue reading Magic: Leonardo da Vinci Journaled and Affirmed by da-AL

Be Your Own Best Role Model + Learning to make homes by Elizabeth Semende

Real hand with two toy figures in which heads are replaced with toy hands.
Thank you, Ryan McGuire.

Role models can be great. They provide wisdom for how to get where we’d like to be.

Take care, though.

In our eagerness, we risk blindness and deafness to how sometimes they’re better examples of what not to do. Of the ones we love, those who are closest to us, their familiarity can feel like normalcy.

The amazing poem posted by afroliz of Zimbabwe that follows illustrates what I’m trying to say.

I believe we must all continually work to be our own best role models. Let us be lighthearted in working toward that goal. Let us be as serious as happiness when it comes to understanding which role models we might already have unwittingly chosen.

afroliz's avatarflowers and poems 🌼

In these places where women come to die

My mother’s words take turns to hit my ears:

“When you find a man, carve a home beneath his pride and

learn to make homes from nothing.”
Then I screamed: Mother this is not my home!

This is not a home!

It carries the weight of a man’s pride

the same way corpses carry the weight of tombstones​

In silence.

Mother did not listen.
She too found a home

In these places where nothing remains

but a swam of men urinating on the flame of our souls

She said: that is how we make homes out of nothing

By carrying the weight of a man’s pride

In silence.

© Elizabeth Semende

View original post