An Artist with No Art Form
“Like any artist with no art form, she became dangerous.” —Toni Morrison Tell me what this means to you.
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Moments in Florence
Sniffing the roses. Rose garden, Florence. Perfect spot for a jet-lag induced catnap. This is my favorite moment in Florence so far. I just love street musicians with absolute talent. He didn’t have his name out front but I left him a generous tip! TURN UP THE SOUND! He has a fantastic voice. Another shopping
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I Didn’t Get a Pedicure, But I Am in Florence!
Well, too many fires burst into flame in the days leading up to our departure and my toes remain unpainted, my usual travel ritual woefully incomplete, my toes bare, but we did get on the plane and arrived in Florence last night. I am doing my best to get in this time zone right away.
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Compostable in Paris
Made it on the overnight flight to Paris. Waiting for our connecting flight to Florence. Both with or Air France breakfast on the plane and with the piece of flan I just bought, we were given compostable bamboo silverware. Why don’t they do it everywhere?
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All I want is a pedicure.
It’s my ritual for getting ready to go overseas on a long trip, something I like to do before any big event (like a wedding) or before teaching a major retreat. I’m leaving for Tuscany tomorrow and “get a pedicure” has been on my list for several days now. But it has dropped off my
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My Life At 20
“Eight of the ten things you have decided about yourself at the age of twenty will, over time, prove to be false. The other two things will prove to be so true that you’ll look back in twenty years and howl.” —Cheryl Strayed Where did you think you life was going at twenty? Who did
Italy, Here I Come!
A week from today, Karyn and I will be heading to the airport to fly to Tuscany for the 2023 Write, Travel, Transform retreat at a 15th century villa. This morning, I got up early and had a couple of hours before my morning class, so I went to my closet and started pulling out
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Who Do You Become?
“It’s not what you produce as you write that’s important; it’s who you become as you write that’s important.” —Louise DeSalvo, American writer How has writing changed your life? When I write, I become…
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Caring For My Soul
“You have the need and the right to spend part of your life caring for your soul. It is not easy. “You have to resist the demands of the work-oriented, often defensive, element in your psyche that measures life only in terms of output – how much you produce – not in terms of the
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Life’s Surprises
“Each time I write, each time the authentic words break through, I am changed. The older order that I was collapses and dies. I lose control. I do not know exactly what words will appear on the page. I follow language. I follow the sound of the words, and I am surprised and transformed by
Writing as Transformation
“I have forced myself to begin writing when I’ve been utterly exhausted, when I’ve felt my soul as thin as a playing card . . . and somehow the activity of writing changes everything.” —Joyce Carol Oates How do you change when you are writing?
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About Grief
“Grief is the rope burns left behind when what we have held to most dearly is pulled out of reach, beyond our grasp.” —Stephen Levine Describe your grief in as much vivid detail as you can.
Waiting for Birth
“Everything is gestation and then birthing. To let each impression and each embryo of a feeling come to completion, entirely in itself, in the dark, in the unsayable, the unconscious, beyond the reach of one’s own understanding, and with deep humility and patience to wait for the hour when a new clarity is born: this
The Benefit of Being a Fool
“Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself.” —Charlie Chaplin Tell me about a time you were willing to make a fool of yourself—to take a risk where you knew you could fall flat on your face. Tell us the story of the risk and what happened after.
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Time
“Time can do all sorts of things. It’s almost like a magician. It can turn autumn into spring and babies into children, seeds into flowers and tadpoles into frogs, caterpillars into cocoons, and cocoons into butterflies. And life into death. There’s nothing that time can’t do. Except run backwards. That’s its trouble really, it can