Today I’m writing about nothing. I feel as if I have nothing to say. But it’s time to write this blog, so here are a few meditations on the meaning of nothing.
Making Something From Nothing
Blog
Book Review: Marcel’s Letters
For someone who writes, I do not have beautiful handwriting. I don’t think anyone would read my writing if I had to write longhand. I don’t think anyone could. My husband routinely asks for translations of the grocery list. Once I was brave enough to read my own journals and I had a hard time deciphering much of what I wrote.
Perhaps that’s why Marcel’s Letters: A Font and the Search for One Man’s Fate by Carolyn Porter was so interesting to me. The story begins with the letters she found in an antique store and bought because of the beauty of the script. She planned to someday design a font and thought the letters and their beautiful form may be the basis for it. They were in French, so she couldn’t read them.
Changing How I Think About New Year’s Resolutions
As a lot of people do this time of year, I was thinking about resolutions. I don’t really believe in setting New Year’s resolutions. Usually, when I want to change something about myself, I just start when I think of it. I don’t necessarily think you have to wait for the calendar to turn to make a change.
But that doesn’t mean I don’t think about change at the beginning of a new year. I am a planner by heart and like everyone else, I like to think about what the next 365 days will bring. As a writer, usually it starts with words. But since I’m not a fortune teller, what those words will be are anyone’s guess.
Comparing my Words of 2019 to the Official Words of 2019
It’s year-end wrap-up time. I love reading all kinds of lists that encompass the mood of the the past year, but my favorite has to be the words of 2019. Miriam Webster’s list is a mix of politics and culture.
- They
- Quid pro quo
- Crawdad
- Egregious
- Clemency
- The
- Snitty
- Tergiversation
- Camp
- Exculpate
How Do You Quantify Writing Rejection?
As a writer, I submit my writing just about everywhere in the hopes of seeing it in print or on a screen other than my own. But that means rejection is inevitable. Because it’s the end of the year, I wanted to look at my writing rejection stats for 2019. Sometimes counting writing rejection is the best way to show you’re moving forward.
Family Holiday Recipe Blog Share
This week I’m pleased to participate in a blog share with Sarah White. I met Sarah this summer when I took her Remember to Write! memoir workshop. We agreed on the topic of Family Holiday Recipe. Sarah came up with the topic after reading a colleague’s blog post.
My post about some family recipe books I received will appear on her blog True Stories Well Told. Enjoy Sarah’s post below. This was a fun topic to write about. If you are moved to write about it on your own blog, let me know in the comments.
Getting Creative with a Weekend Trip to Chicago
I live only three hours away from Chicago and I lived there for a few years. I still love to visit occasionally, but doing the same old thing can get boring. It’s a big city, so there are many areas to explore. That’s why I decided to try out a new neighborhood and a fun exhibit when I visited Chicago recently.
Would You Rather be Lucky or Perfect?
I couldn’t decide what to write about today so I opened up my copy of Old Friend from Far Away by Natalie Goldberg and the page I came to had Lucky on it. It told me to write for ten minutes on who lucky I’ve been. Still not moved, I looked across the page: Perfect. Without looking at the prompt beneath that word I thought about the juxtaposition of these two words. What’s the difference between the two? And if I had to choose one, which would I pick?
Of course Natalie must have thought about the yin and yang of these words too. They didn’t just happen to land across the page from one another. If I were perfect, would I need luck? If I counted on luck, would I need to be perfect?
Reading Mrs. Kennedy and Me in the Time of Trump
I could have chosen a stranger time to read Mrs. Kennedy and Me by Clint Hill and Lisa McCubbin than this week as the Trump impeachment hearings went live. This inside story from the Secret Service agent who protected the wife of President Kennedy shows what the presidency used to be like. It is hard to believe such protocol, decorum and restraint ever ruled the office of the President when seeing today’s players.
10 Ways to be More Thankful
During this month of thankfulness it’s easy to be grateful for everything we have. But how do you make counting your blessings a routine? Here are just a few ways to be thankful more often.
