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One Good Reason to Tell Your Story
I was cleaning my studio a few days ago, tearing flagged pages from old notebooks, and found this note I'd written about Mara Wilson’s memoir, Where Am I Now? “Wilson discovered she had OCD after reading the memoir, Kissing Doorknobs, by Terry Spencer. Spencer’s frank...
The Time to Write is Always Now
It looks like this strange state we find ourselves in will continue for some time. The social distancing. The masks. The zoom chats. Most of us will be at home for the foreseeable future. How can you create space inside this new reality? How do you make room for...
Rest and Receive
I want to tell you a story I’ve repeated so often lately, it occurs to me that it might be something you need to hear. Even if you've heard it before, I'm guessing you need to hear it again. It's about knowing when to withdraw from giving, when it's time to rest...
Filter in Place
I've heard from some of you that you want to use this time go do deeper in your writing, but you're having trouble focusing. Quieting the mind was challenging enough before we became bombarded by the Internet. And then quarantine came along and added another...
Feeding the Mind
If you can break through fight, flight, or freeze, If you can tune out the madness in the media, If you can find some semblance of silence and solitude, This is an extraordinary time to go within. Meditation and writing practice open the mind. Reading something good,...
Things That Help
I want to share a few things that are helping me through the endless days of going nowhere, but first I feel compelled to disclose that it's not all rainbows and unicorns over here. As I've been trying to convince my students and clients, you can't tell your...
Don’t Go Down This Rabbit Hole
Anyone else find themselves compulsively checking the news? Looking at your CNN and NYT apps over and over again? Or are you going down the rabbit hole by clicking every link on social media that promises the latest news about Covid-19? As statistics and...
Stay with yourself
As we all adjust to the new normal, so many teachers and healers have stepped up to provide comfort and support, to create places to connect--which is wonderful. So many helping hands reaching out over the internet. But underneath, I sense something else. Do you feel...
The Muse
Do you remember that old Albert Brooks movie, The Muse? Where a blocked screenwriter hires a professional muse to inspire him? Sharon Stone shows up in the middle of the night wearing silk pajamas. At 3 am, she demands Chinese food. She’s like a cat. She...
What Makes Writing Practice Powerful
As a long-time student of Natalie’s Goldberg, I get miffed when I hear people refer to writing practice as “free writing” or “prompted writing.” In free writing, as I understand it, you explore the mind for material, and in prompted writing, you are simply using...