Even though I’m writing about laziness today – another writing group prompt – I’ve been far from lazy. With escrow closing on the sale of my house in forty-three days, I have to stay busy with the clearing out of the things I’ve accumulated for over forty-two years. It’s a horrendous job. Nobody should have to do it. So, no wonder I like the idea of laziness. These days I find myself wanting to nap at almost any time of day. For most of my life I was an early riser. Sometimes getting up as early as four thirty so I could workout at the gym before having to get ready for and go to work. That kind of schedule became a habit for me. Now that I’m not working, I still get up to workout before starting the rest of my day, but I’ve become a little more lazy about it. Sometimes I’ll set my alarm for six thirty, sometimes seven, sometimes seven thirty, and sometimes I don’t set it at all. Most days however, I wake up on my own in the dark of the morning way before my intended wake time. But … [Read more...]
How I’m finding my muse again
I've had a tough time getting back to my writing routine since completing my recent consulting job. While consulting I did manage to write a journal entry almost everyday, but that was the extent of my writing practice. Besides the grueling proposal work I lived out-of-town in a hotel and ate bland uninteresting food for about four months. I had hardly anytime to do anything else besides work. There were no muses in that hotel room, believe me. The first thing I did when I got home was sleep. I napped several times a day for two weeks, until I finally felt like myself again. Although I worked out in the early mornings as usual, not long after breakfast I needed my first nap. Finally I started to look for something to kick-start my writing, to bring back my muse. I had put my list of poetry prompts into my Dropbox folder so I'd have it handy while I was away, but I never once opened that file. I didn't even update it with the prompts that came by email every Wednesday. So that … [Read more...]
Birthday plus three
I turned 75 on May 20. And it's taken me three days to fess up. But I shouldn't have any problem with it. I'm in great health, my body feels great and lets me workout everyday. I'm also able to work a full-time consulting job right now - my mind seems as sharp as ever. My secret is really no secret. I eat healthy, I workout, and I take my hormones and vitamins every day. That's about it. Oh, I forgot one more thing. My husband and I will be married 45 years next week. That longevity helps as well. I felt very blessed on this birthday. I got loads of greetings from family and friends and a few little celebrations. We celebrated my great niece's second birthday last weekend, and I got to share in the festivities with my very own delicious chocolate gluten and dairy free cake. Here are some of the online gifts I received. … [Read more...]
My life changed in an instant
I started my long-awaited consulting job this past Wednesday and with that my life's daily routines changed in an instant. I get up more than an hour earlier so I'll have enough time to workout before I have to be at work at 7:30 am!!!! Also, the amount of time I have to train for the Boston Overnight walk in June has been cut in half. I drive to work rather than walk downstairs to my home office. I need to be dressed in business clothes with makeup on rather than in my grubbies and no makeup when I work at home. I haven't watched any television for the last several days I sure miss my daily dose of Jeopardy nor have I read one word of any of the books stacked on my beside table. But most important of all, most of my writing time has been snatched away. So far I'm clinging to daily journaling usually right before I go to sleep, but my other writing has stopped. I was going great with the April Poem A Day prompts until this week. Though the prompts stopped on … [Read more...]
A walk for suicide prevention
Those of you who have been following my blog for a while know how obsessive I am about writing. My life is about the actual writing or thinking about writing when I'm not at my computer. I also am obsessive about exercise. I workout in some way every day - either at the gym or taking long walks in my beautiful beach neighborhood. Working out and writing were instrumental in saving my life after my son Paul died by suicide in 1999. Since my son's death I've also become obsessive about working toward erasing the stigma of mental illness and helping to prevent suicide. I've volunteered and participated with others whose mission aligns with mine. I've also written much about mental illness and suicide here and in my memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On. This coming June 27-28, I'll take an amazing journey in Boston - another way to memorialize my son and show what I stand for. The Out of the Darkness Overnight Experience is a 16-18 mile walk over the course of one … [Read more...]
A poem in three acts
I've mentioned before that I write to Robert Lee Brewer's Wednesday poetry prompts that he posts on his Poetic Asides blog. Robert is one of the Writing Community Editors at "Writer's Digest Magazine." He also provides a prompt a day during his April and November poem a day challenges. Some Wednesdays writing to his prompts comes easy, some days it does not, but I always copy and paste them to a running list of his prompts with my sporadic poem attempts. I also religiously take the PAD challenges - just to keep up my poetry training, if nothing else. Last Wednesday Robert's prompt said: "Write a poem in which you've imagined a story for a stranger. Maybe someone you see on public transportation, a couple at the laundromat, or a neighbor. Is the person more fabulous than expected? Fallen upon harder times? Exactly as one might guess?" This one hit home because a couple of years ago I decided to write a series of poems about people I didn't know. I found it to be a very fun … [Read more...]
