Gather 'round…
How does one go about collecting words? You know, quotes from this and that. Snippets. Sentences you need to remember and hold onto. Paragraphs that are life-altering and never to be let go of. Words you simply must collect. Anybody else do this? I know you do. Tell me how you've done it. The nuts... Continue Reading →
I was with a few close friends the other day, and we were talking about our experience of God. Now, please understand, Im’a simplify the context violently here, or we'll never get anywhere. I'll just cut to my part, which was kinda' two parts: First there was my general presence answer. The deep knowing, the... Continue Reading →
So I found my word. I can’t get around it, and who am I to argue? Fifth Annual Word of the Year. Deep Breath. Rime Ice, a lá the earliest days of 2021 I’ve been thinking about this since well-before 2021 hit, and thinking about what these words mean. Every year I think I have... Continue Reading →
I was working through one of those loud and chaotic inner conversations with myself yesterday about how I want things to go. You know, in life. Do you have these? Well, this one got a bit heated, and me, myself, and I all had to take separate corners for a while there. In the end--when... Continue Reading →
"Is it possible to practice noticing? I think so. But I also think it requires a suspension of yearning And a pause in the desire to be pouring something out of yourself. Noticing is about letting yourself out into the world, Rather than siphoning the world into yourself in order to transmute it into words.... Continue Reading →
I love Annie Dillard. Non-Fiction, anyway. I can't speak to her fiction. But her NF is brilliant.It's interesting to me how I can forget things so easily. I was in the middle of An American Childhood when it had to go back to the library many months ago, and I never did get it back. Plum... Continue Reading →
That retreat, that last post about the seedlings needing tending, they both ushered in something I've never previously managed. Something I've never really even tried. Not for fear. Well, maybe a little for fear. But mostly because I have some very specific priorities, and while writing ranks pretty high on the list, it does not... Continue Reading →
And the starvation was effective. Somehow, by some miracle of January, I was able to break hard, frozen ground at my retreat, and push forward into a new project. There was a seed before, but the thing just would not develop. Compost is faithful, however, in heating things up. The manure of starvation and the fertile... Continue Reading →
I have wanted to "make books" since around the sixth grade, and I published my first book when I was in my late thirties. My point is that the time in between was not wasted - submarine service, marriage, college, bringing up three kids, starting a school for them, and so forth. This kind of... Continue Reading →
The word 'humility' comes from the Latin word 'humus' which means fertile ground... [It] is the situation of the earth. The earth is always there, always taken for granted, never remembered, always trodden on by everyone, somewhere we cast and pour out all the refuse, all we don't need. It's there, silent and accepting everything... Continue Reading →
"Just write. Write whatever comes out on the page. Don't worry about content, grammar, anything. Just write." We've all been told this at some point in our lives. It is not advice given exclusively to writers. If anyone has ever been in charge of our education, we've been told to just get some words on paper.... Continue Reading →
Tales From the Nexus 