Reboot, Rejuvenate, Resurrect

LOOK AND SEE Earlier this year, I created a self-portrait collage for a creative vitality class that I enrolled in. On the day it was due, I felt compelled to black out the irises and pupils in an infant photo of me. I am learning to trust my creative spirit, so I did it—then spent months wondering why. The pupil is the dark opening at the center of the iris. Working with the lens, it admits light to the retina: widening in dimness, narrowing in brightness. Emotion and cert

SCRAPS AND SCROLLS Last week’s blog, posted October 12th, marked my mother’s earth arrival date 114 years ago. In many ways, she is more alive in me today than she was 24 years ago when her soul took flight from its earthly shell. I’m not conjuring her up. I don’t hear her voice. I can’t remember what it sounded like. I have cassette tapes of her singing, but no cassette player. Her impact lives mostly in the things she did with her hands. On some mystical level, she continue

BEYOND THE WINDOW Life is embraced in two ways – dutiful, and then you die, or bountiful, and then you die. Every day, we get to choose. Yet many of us struggle with the feeling that we have no choice at all. As I have written before, feelings are unreliable and must be vetted thoroughly, because one of their essential ingredients is fear. “Is it possible to live so defensively that you never get to live at all.” Rachel Naomi Remen Could fear be a major contributor to d

IS IT WORTHY OF WORSHIP The title may have made you wonder whether you should keep reading. It sounds a little “church-y,” doesn’t it? Certainly, worship can refer to church or religious things. But a study of the word reveals that this was not always the case. For centuries, it was used as a title and only gradually became associated with church or religion. Worship is showing deep love, respect, and honor to someone or something. Through our words and actions, we treat

Are You Burning—or Just Glowing? My predawn ritual begins with lighting a fragrant candle that sits atop a four-shelf bookcase. A few months ago, that ritual changed. For a milestone birthday two years earlier, a friend gifted me an electric candle warmer lamp. “Hmm,” I thought, “nice gift, but I am never going to use it.” I liked striking a match, touching it to the wick, and watching the flame catch. So, I continued buying candles. Then, while cleaning one day, the discar

THE BRIDGE OF OUR STORIES I came across this question at the beginning of a reflection by my current favorite author, Mark Nepo: “When was the last time you told your story? Question put to the sick by a Native American Medicine Man.” My first thought was to keep reading. My second? “I am not sick.” My third? “We are all sick!” So here is my attempt to answer. You, I, and every other human who has walked the earth are more than ninety-nine percent the same. It is that remai

A HEART FOR THE ART I find doors fascinating because of their potential for something mystical and magical. The doors of transformation are even more so. In fact, it is so magical and mysterious that we mostly don’t recognize it when stepping over the threshold. I know this to be true especially around the pain door and its transformative effects on me. But this isn’t about me and pain. I am married to an incredibly intellectual and creative personality—more intellectua

PERMISSION TO PERCH “THE HIGHEST REWARD FOR A PERSON’S TOIL IS NOT WHAT THEY GET FOR IT, BUT WHAT THEY BECOME.” —John Ruskin Every summer, unintentionally, I have at least one day that I deem a “No Goal” day. I never surrender to it without a struggle, even though my body desperately needs it. I have noticed that giving in is easier when it rains and storms. This summer, it rained often—until it didn’t, and the relentless heat arrived. After a long string of days when the h

THE WELL OR THE BUCKET We are a society always looking. Looking for what? We may not even know. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, voices bombard us with messages about what we should want and where we should search for it. I haven’t watched television in—well, I don’t remember the last time I watched television. Still, I have not escaped the bombardment: billboards, social media, and streaming ads tucked inside articles. We may have no idea what it is, yet we carr