Take Back Your Life!

Magic has surfaced as a theme for the writers taking my latest Story Circle On-line writing adventure: Grab Life By The Writing Gusto.

I believe Magic exists, we just learn to filter it out on our slog to the “Real World,” which of course is anything but real. Truth continues to be stranger than fiction, so I’m not sure why we continue to train the young for the real world when that’s not in our best self-interest.

Someone said to me that the title for my class wasn’t possible, that you couldn’t grab life by the writing gusto.

Why not? That’s how ingrained folks are to sort everything into real and not real. (more…)

I read Amanda Hocking’s latest blog this morning. She titled it, “The Lost Art Of Blogging.”  She says that blogging has lost something for her. It wasn’t fun anymore. She thinks it might be because her blog had devolved into something less random and rambling and more cagey.

What I’ve noticed is the cadre of experts who’ve cropped up to tell you that you need to provide “useful” content and it needs to be in a certain format, etc. Guess one might call it the professionalization of blogging. I’m all for blogging from your heart and whoever needs to hear what your heart says, will find you. (more…)

I enjoy reading the blogs of others. Gives me great ideas for posts, essays, programs, life adventures. Yesterday, I visited Judy Clement Wall’s newest site, “It’s A Human Thing,” where she continues her love affair with showing love, especially in her writing. It always feels like she’s hugging the reader with her beautiful words.

J, as she likes to be called, has written a new love manifesto/poem that encourages her readers to choose love. Here are the first four lines:

Choose love.

In your relationships,
in the art you create,
the words you let loose,
the causes you take up, (more…)

Hello caring and loving readers,

I’ve been asked by the lovely and compassionate Hannah Brencher to write a love letter to “Elizabeth” during the More Love Letters “12 Days Of Love Letter Writing.” Hannah and I met on one of our blogs several years ago and discovered that we cared about the plight of others. After college, she went to NYC to do an internship concerned with poverty.

There while riding the subway, she got an idea to write anonymous love letters. On her site Hannah says, “I was struggling to get out of bed every morning and I needed an escape from my own sadness and loneliness. So I began writing letters on the train to individuals who seemed like they, too, could use a boost. And it healed me. It really healed me.” (more…)

Hey friends,

Went on a two-week vacation, a cruise on the eastern Mediterranean with shore excursions. Something I’ve never done before. Looking out onto the vast, seemingly endless sea from my balcony reinforced the reality that we have control over nothing and it’s best to just go with it whatever the it is.

That said, I’ve stopped trying to control my bra strap. (more…)

Always fascinating how column/blog topics enter the psyche.

Was listening to one of my singing idols — Julie London — do her sultry rendition of The Door’s Light My Fire. It’s terrific. Listen to it here on You Tube.

The time to hesitate is through
No time to wallow in the mire

(Lyrics to live by.)

Just my kind of karaoke song. Unfortunately for my higher vocal range, they only seem to offer the original by The Doors. So, I re-listened to The Door’s version and learned from the CD jacket how the band got its name. (more…)

I’m in the throes of an abstract painting class intensive. Instructor’s right up my muse alley. He’s constantly uttering rebellious phrases.

And I’ve been writing a lot of them down, like “dare to be messy.” (Of course, I love this. As a messy person, I’ve faced serious discrimination beginning at overnight summer camp when the best candy bars went to the cleanest lodges. My messiness often resulted in my entire cabin sharing a pack of Wrigley Gum instead of us each savoring our own Snickers.)

(more…)

Hey rebellious friends,

I bought a bargain book about a month ago. Something about the title, “Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart” prompted me to pick it up and thumb through it. I share most of author Gordon Livingstone’s philosophy on life and have blogged often about similar topics. I love all his chapter titles, especially the one I borrowed for today’s post: We Are Afraid of The Wrong Things. (more…)

I have a tendency to lean towards the hysterical, the passionate, the out-of-control. It took me many decades to get there and I’m proud of it.

Why?

Because I feel alive. (more…)

I’m constantly dreaming up new life shops. It’s in my creative blood. Sometimes I offer the same life awakening experience twice. More often, I take the “best of” material along with me to a new gig and give it a twist of creative lime or lemon.(Interestingly enough, I do the same thing at karaoke. The thrill of doing a new song, get’s my adrenaline pumping. And travel. Like to keep going to new villages and sites. Almost like I’m a modern day Lewisitta and Clarkitta). (more…)