I’m worried about the planet. This is not new. I was worried in grade school when I held my breath as school buses dropped us off and pulled away, when I stepped back from idling cars. Mom said not to worry about the fumes and to set the table. Dad launched into a lecture about …
When 9/11 happened, I was in a sailboat in the Mediterranean with seven friends, one captain, and one crew person|chef. We didn’t have a cell connection or wifi. Our news viewing was restricted to the end of the day, on whatever TV we could find in whatever bar, before we went to a restaurant somewhere …
On Saturday, October 22, I heard Aaron Sorkin speak at the Niehoff Lecture for the Mercantile Library in Cincinnati. A week later, I drove to Lexington, Kentucky to hear Barbara Kingsolver speak. She is another author hero of mine, but more of a personal totem. The Poisonwood Bible was the book that opened my mind …
“Who would I be without this story, which I cannot possibly know to be true?” Byron Katie Byron Katie, who goes by Katie, is the creator of The Work, a method of inquiry to access the wisdom within. Her premise is that we are miserable not because of our circumstances, but because of the stories …
Last Saturday night I went to the Mercantile Library’s Niehoff Lecture. It’s their annual fundraising event, and it’s glorious. The men wear tuxes or dark suits in fine cloth, the women and the non-binary wear sparkles. The pre-lecture chatter on the second-floor atrium of the Hyatt Hotel is deafening. Previous Niehoff speakers I’ve heard include …
Sometimes help comes from friends. Sometimes it comes from books. This time it came from a book. Even with all the GOADS (Get Out And Do Stuff) work, with all the dancing and pickleball, I felt myself sliding backwards toward the miasma of lethargy and despondency. The book that helped? Happier Hour, by Cassie Holmes. …
Three weeks ago Saturday, I finally went back to the African dance class. Summer camp was in session, so the class was me and four eight-year-olds. They had so much energy. In the pause between dances, while I caught my breath, they did cartwheels. In the second dance, the one about planting seeds, the one …
After writing about the container cabin, I was energized. Based on the emails some of you sent, you were, too. Even now, as I write this, thinking about the long cabin gets me excited. “What now?” “If I proceeded as if I was going to build the kind of cabin I’d like in Kentucky, what …
A few weeks ago, I was in a webinar with Jane Friedman and Dan Blank related to book marketing. Blank said that when someone asks you what your book is about, don’t launch into a description of the plot or characters. Instead, talk about what it’s About. When we write, we write from our beliefs, …
Some parts of a journey are downhill, with a light breeze at our backs. Some are uphill, over a rocky path and with the sun beating down on our sweltering heads, the empty rattle of the canteen reminding us that we should have packed more water. I’m being overly dramatic. I’m not on a life-threatening …