Today anything is possible

I picked up a deck of affirmation cards by Florence Scovel Shinn the other day at the thrift store, and they are wonderful.  The cards are quotes taken from her book, The Game of Life and How to Play It, which was published in 1925. I'd be delighted to pick a card for you. If…

Write Away!

Several days ago, I decided to write a short story about a trip that I took to San Diego in 2005.  I've gone on some amazing trips with my brother Bob over the past decade, and thinking about that trip in particular filled me with a sense of adventure. Yesterday morning, Bob called and asked…

The enlargement of the soul

Last summer, I decided to write a novel. Through the encouragement of a friend, and the feeling of challenge that this idea brought on, I completed a rough draft by early September. But almost as soon as I finished, looking back over the 300+ pages of misspelled words, awkward sentences, bad grammar, and all, overwhelmed…

Taking life lightly

After writing Friday's post, about bringing more fun into our lives, I couldn't get the image of Mary Poppins out of my head. I hadn't seen the movie since I was a kid, so I did some research on-line about her character. I loved the way that she was described as a magical person who…

Nirvana Day (every day!?)

My plans for today changed when I woke up to warnings of a big winter storm, and made the decision not to travel. As a kid, I love snow days; loved hearing, "Warrensburg Central School is closed." I can still recall the thrill of those words coming through the old radio in our kitchen. A…

Won’t you come out to play?

It feels like the deep winter today. It's cold and dark and even the cats don't want to go out for more than a couple of minutes. As I sat outside this morning, thinking about the day and how to brighten it, I thought it might be fun to play a game with any of…

Loving animals, and a give-away

A couple of times a year, I go through my books and donate or give some away to make room for the new. Instead of putting this one in the donation bag, I thought I'd offer it here as a give-away. Since I really enjoyed these stories, and we are such a community of animal…

Going too far?

Several years ago, I heard about a competition called, The 3-Day Novel Contest. It happens every Labor day and involves writing a rough-draft of a novel, and submitting it at the end of the weekend.  The comments from past participants range from, "A great opportunity to do something that I've always wanted to do", to,…

Having fun, changing my focus

I was visiting my mother the other day and she needed to go to the mall to return a lawn chair. She didn't seem to have the slip but assured me,  "It is easy to do returns at Target. They are very nice." My mother returns a lot of stuff. She gets bored, shops, and…

What is really going on here?

My mother asked me to paint a wall for her recently. She could have easily hired someone to do this but much prefers to have her children around (and no matter how much we object, she always insists on paying us way more than she would have to pay someone else...for her, it is a…