Archive for April 2017
Dear Student, XII
Dear Student, It’s a rare occasion that I address a student who is not mine, and yet, today, I find myself doing so. I don’t know who you are or what classes you are taking this semester. I don’t know if you go to school part-time or full-time or if you have a job, a…
Read MoreWanted: Peace and Quiet
Last week, I found myself with a rare Thursday morning, empty of all obligations. Tim had left the day before on a business trip, so once all the children had departed for school, I started a load of laundry and drank my cup of coffee in near silence. Only the warbling of the birds and…
Read MoreSunny Monday
Monday morning blog posts should be inspiring. They should provide the reader something to take with them on their week, sort of like the homily is supposed to do on the weeks I go to mass. Usually I fail miserably short of that goal, and today, I can’t say I’ll reach it either. I’m under…
Read MoreSweet Smell
Bath and Body Works website describes their Sweet Pea fragrance as: “An award winning mix of juicy raspberries and pear kissed by soft pink petals.” It’s not the sort of aroma to which I am normally drawn, but due to the lovely pink bottles in which the entire Sweet Pea line comes in (shower gel,…
Read MoreTossing the Cookies
I made cookies the other day because Melina was going to have a friend over to play. Thankfully, we still have a few cookies left. And as I am wont to do on a day when I woke up at 4 a.m. (thanks, cat!), I reached for one of them as an after-lunch snack. Those…
Read MoreShe Who Hesitates Is Lost
My dad used to be a walking Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations. Really. I vividly remember him pulling out a quote when the time was appropriate (and sometimes not so appropriate). Instead of telling us something from the heart, he’d use a quote to convey his meaning. I’m not trying to be judgmental when I say that…
Read MoreBeginnings and Endings
I love opening a book and finding a quote that speaks to me. To be quite honest, most books do speak to me in some way or another. Just the other day, as I was reading The Book of Mirrors, by E. O. Chirovici, I reached a paragraph that jumped out at me. Somebody once…
Read MoreFrom the Editor’s Desk
How difficult is it to send an email that says, No thank you? Very difficult, let me tell you. I’ve been on the receiving end of those emails many times. Go check my email, in the folder labeled Rejections, and you’ll see what I mean. The myriad ways editors and agents have said “Not for…
Read MoreHot Pursuit
I sat in the front office, grading papers. My colleague, Ken, walked in, the usual coffee cup in hand. “You write that Great American Novel yet?” Ken knows all about my “other” life as a writer. In fact, he’s been a great champion of the cause, since he himself dabbles in photography. Over the last…
Read MoreInto the Pensieve, X
Mom moved away from her family in 1973, so the phone served as an important life line for her. I don’t remember her speaking to acquaintances much, but I do remember tripping over the long, winding cord of the phone hanging between the wall and the floor as Mom spoke to her sisters. Those calls…
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