Here we are, more than halfway through a year with a number I would never have imagined when I was a teenager – 2020. And what a year it ha been so far – a winter that never seemed to end, a global pandemic and months of lockdowns, rumours of murder hornets, plagues of locusts, sex crimes and videotapes, the horrific death of George Floyd and violent law enforcement tactics, Black Lives Matter, smack-your-head political shenanigans, economies in tatters, the rise of Karens and Kens everywhere being called out for bad behaviour. Back in the Sixties, we didn’t spend time thinking that far ahead. But now that I’m a decade older than sixty, every year, every month, every day has a special meaning. I…
… random observations from my journeys through a well-lived life
Posts from the “Things I’m Going to Do” Category
This is the only place you’ll hear me saying that word, and the only time. David Farland said in a recent blog post, “I hate the word “resolute.” Whenever I think of it, I think of soldiers circa 1800, marching resolutely into battle, knowing that they’re going to die. Yet every year I make resolutions anyway. Maybe if we had better attitudes about resolutions in the first place, it wouldn’t be so hard to keep them.” Well, I can certainly agree with that, since resolutions have become more of a joke than a a goal statement. Then he said this: “It seems to me that if I approach my goals properly, then reaching them won’t be too hard. For example, let’s look at writing…
Whew. When Words Collide in Calgary is the most comprehensive, well-organized, affordable reader/writer conference anywhere! Three days of non-stop activity, starting with a Master Class facilitated by Marty Chan, who writes plays for adults and children. He started out penning interactive murder mysteries for dinner theatre and had to learn to layer on action, mystery and clues to keep patrons coming back for more. But talk about tumbling down the rabbit hole! With 180 sessions on a variety of topics (12 going concurrently) in 50-minute sessions, it was a mind-boggling task to pick out just one to attend in each time slot. It was wonderfully chaotic. Can you imagine – 700 participants and meeting rooms in two separate buildings of the Delta South hotel.…
Categories: Things I'm Going to Do, writing
Yikes. I haven’t posted for a week. Do I feel guilty? Sort of. ‘They’ say develop good writing habits and be consistent, so that your readers anticipate your next post, like it’s a gift or nugget of wit and/or wisdom. I retreated to my fall-back get-inspired position – be observant and take photographs, then write. Yesterday, I met a friend for coffee. She’s a published author and a lovely person. In fact, we had talked about going into business together to offer writing courses, but after a flurry of initial planning and curriculum development and searching for a suitable location, we came to the simultaneous realization that we’d rather write than teach others how to do it well. As much as we’d have liked…
Here we go. January 5th, for heaven’s sake, and I’m just gearing up for the New Year. Time for new starts and cleaning up old stuff. Embracing tranquility. Yup, that’s on my agenda. Along with finishing not one but two novels, home renovations, yada, yada, yada. How am I doing? Well, I haven’t reached flea-market status yet. I have not embraced the KonMari Method nor have I gone on a purging binge. The weather has been too lousy for facing the emotional tug of throwing out old stuff. But I was re-reading some of my blog posts from 2013, when I wrote over 320 entries about my journey to mindfulness and weight loss. I’m not sure if I became any more mindful, but I…
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