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Sweet Greetings One of many cakes… I recently had one of those decade milestone birthdays. I am not an enormous fan of birthday celebrations in general, and less so when I am the one in the spotlight. I can’t remember ever being excited about my own birthday, at least not in the way I imagine other people get excited. I guess I really don’t know if other people are truly excited on their…

Lake Arrowhead, California, USA. Photo by Hayley O’Kelly “A writer finds peace in silence, speaking only to the page, yet the words survive only by stepping into the noise of the world to be seen, heard, and held by others.”― Lawrence Nault I have found a great deal of peace in the silent world of writing, “speaking only to the page.” First as an insecure and introverted girl, and later as an…

“In a single week in the summer of 1973, a quiet suburban neighborhood implodes when generations of mystical deceit become too much to bear. Drawn to the web of secrets and lies, the other worldly slivers refuse to be ignored, pushing one family to the brink.” –Slivers blurb Vicki Atkinson employs her considerable knowledge of psychology, a deep interest in intuition, and a firm commitment to…

Hello, Friends! In between a busy schedule of painting and repairs on our new/old house, Mr. P and I have been enjoying the warmer weather, and particularly the explosion of leaves and flowers on the deciduous trees and in the gardens and on the porches of many of our neighbors. We had one day that was much too hot for me, but so far, only one, so I have nothing to complain about. I am loving the…

One of my oldest friends called me last week. I’d been having a rough time and had withdrawn in a way that only a very close friend would recognize. I’d still been “in touch” with her, but I was withholding, and she could tell. She called, and I don’t remember exactly what she said, but her voice was soft and patient and expectant. She made it possible for me to reveal my heartache and gave me…

It’s been two weeks since I left Nevada and one week since I arrived at my new Michigan home. All of these days have been solo; I drove alone, I arrived alone to an empty house, I spend my days here alone. There’s a theme building . . . For now! The Way In But husband and kitties will be joining me soon. The Dreaded Cot (I do not love it) A Lonely Room (but I love it!) As an introvert, this…

My Family Spelling of the Name Has an “E” at the End: Johnstone. (candle/ image courtesy of scotstee.com) Welcome to Billings, Montana, where I have hunkered down to avoid driving on the Interstate during one of the many reported snowstorms traveling around the US of late. If I had planned better, I would have chosen a cozier hotel to get stuck in, and I would have paid attention to where my…

“In his witty and thought-provoking manner, Mark Twain once famously said, ‘It’s no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.’” https://www.socratic-method.com Sometimes, though, truth is not stranger than fiction. And thankfully, sometimes truth is kinder than fiction, too. Recently a friend and I had both just finished books that bothered us in various ways, which…

Great Basin National Park (I think!), my photo Another goodbye. This old house, the one we have loved and labored over for the past five years, is sold and we are looking for a new place to live, spending countless hours exploring our options. We are moving primarily to get closer to health care, but it isn’t just that. There are many people who fight to remain here, in this isolated little…

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Why We Write “You should write because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different words on a page. Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.” ― Annie Proulx Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com “Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” ― William Wordsworth Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com “One of the few things I…

Dear Readers, Writers, Friends, Family and Artists of All Kinds, Thank you for being here, and for all the wonder, thought, goodness, and genuine love you bring to the world. Wishing you rest, refreshment, and everything you need, today, and in the new year. You are, to me, all beloved members of the pack. The strength of the wolf is the pack, and the strength of the pack is the wolf.Rudyard…

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com “The strongest oak of the forest is not the one that is protected from the storm and hidden from the sun. It’s the one that stands in the open where it is compelled to struggle for its existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun.” – Napoleon Hill Hello, Reader and Writer Friends! I hope this post finds you well and blessed with the energy, time,…

Today is the first day of Advent, the beginning of a new year for my Episcopal and many other Christian churches. The weeks leading up to Christmas have always been my most anticipated, though I’ve probably never come close to understanding the depth of the reasons my heart finds them so. In the beginning, it was certainly the way Mom made everything magic for my brother and I, and it was the…

How I missed out on reading Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus in the several years since its publication is a classic lesson in the old adage, Don’t judge a book by its cover, and also, a lesson in personal flexibility—that being that there are no doubt a plethora of other excellent books out there that I would love if I had bothered to read them, and sometimes that deprives me of valuable…

One of my old journals “The demise of writing matters, because writing is not a second thing that happens after thinking. The act of writing is an act of thinking. This is as true for professionals as it is for students. In “Writing Is Thinking,” an editorial in Nature, the authors argued that “outsourcing the entire writing process to [large language models]” deprives scientists of the…

Lauren Scott, King Copper: Our Dog’s Life in Poetry Lauren Scott’s love of her family’s beautiful chocolate lab, Copper, shines in this sweet little volume of photographs and poems that follow their lives together from adoption day on. In her words, King Copper is “a poetic account of the joy that arises when a lovable chocolate lab walks into your life and changes it forever. And the eventual…