Category Archives: happiness
Walls, Doors and Windows
I am thinking about walls, doors and windows, and the rooms that many writers feel they are kept out of. The feeling is real. I have a lot of experience with walls, doors and windows. Besides the fact that I … Continue reading
Free Advice
When you’re a writer, you receive a lot of free advice. A good deal of it (most, I’d say) comes from people who do not write. I’ve been told I have to learn Latin (which I have nothing against, but … Continue reading
Living in Fear
I have been living in fear. I am afraid of my public life. I am afraid of what it might mean to be known for what I do and recognized. I am afraid of what it might mean to not … Continue reading
A Day Without Devices
On my walk this morning I found a nub of purple chalk a child had used to scribble on the pavement. I picked it up, an opportunity in my hand. What would I write? I thought hard about it, and … Continue reading
After plenty
Dear Nancy: As you know from all the beautiful notes and photos and songs and many kind wishes on this Facebook wall, yesterday was my birthday. Birth Day. That day has always been a haunted one for me. One of … Continue reading
On Magical Places
Dear Nancy, Well, my first letter was lost somewhere on the beach at Head of the Meadow where we were yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that. Further back than that I can’t remember. It’s all a … Continue reading
The Value of Play
Dear Nancy Your pre-writing walks along the river sound glorious, and so does your description of your childhood “moodling” time in the woods. As a child, I also walked in the woods. It was a great solace to me, and … Continue reading
Spear Fishing
Dear Karen, Good lord, yes! The modern world is an anxious place. Every person I know swims in this sea, and as you say about art, art is anxiety in and of itself. I wish this were not so. Or … Continue reading
Art and fear
Dear Nancy: We’ve been off the blogging grid for awhile now, and I have missed you, missed these letters, especially at this tail end of winter. It was subzero when I visited Ohio for a reading during the last part of February. … Continue reading