Do you ever want to hit the reset button and begin again? I certainly do, especially when it comes to my writing practice. As many of you know, November was National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), and although I wasn’t working on a novel, I resolved to at least touch my writing every day in November. Well, that lasted about two weeks and then life got in the way. We each have our own version of this, but you know what I mean—our resolutions disperse into the atmosphere like

At the end of April a small group of writers joined me for Flower & Garden / Pen & Page, a Saturday morning writing workshop that incorporated a visit to the annual Leesburg Flower & Garden Festival within walking distance of my house. As part of our writing that day, I asked participants to enter the festival with the intention of gathering small stones. Small stones are present-moment sense impressions that invite us into deep noticing. They require us to fully pay attentio

I met Pamela Schmidt in my women's Amherst Writers & Artists workshop, "Writing from the Heart," in Purcellville, VA. A passionate, vibrant woman and a gifted writer, her stories are captivating, full of the sensory details that make a piece of writing come alive. Pamela is a homeschooling mom of three, a quilter, reader, and writer. The farm she writes about below is a small beautiful space in Bluemont, where the animals are happy, the kids are busy, and the floors are alway

Last Friday I took myself on an artist date, to use the lingo of Julia Cameron. I hadn’t planned on it. I thought I was just going to pop in on a quilt show where a lovely woman from my church, Gertrude Sherman, had three quilts on display. Feeling rushed and oppressed by my to-do list, “get in, admire Gertrude’s quilts, and get out” was my plan. The show was held at the cavernous Dulles Expo Center, where I had previously been to a few home & garden and RV shows. I paid my $

The first thing I want to say about Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear is “buy it.” Her advice is honest, authentic, encouraging, insightful, witty, and resourced, for she draws on the wisdom of not only her experience but those of writer friends such as Brené Brown and Ann Patchett, as well as Albert Einstein, Tom Waits, and Werner Herzog, among many others. After reading this book I felt understood, encouraged, inspired, and ready to pursue my writin

Last week I bought Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear. Gilbert is most famous for Eat, Pray, Love, but my favorite is her 2013 novel, The Signature of All Things. I’m about halfway through Big Magic, and so far I am convinced she has written it just for me! I suspect a lot of writers will resonate with her message. I will discuss more in a future post, but I wanted to share the passage below first. In an early chapter called "The Road Trip," Gilbert ac

Right here in the midst of the busy holiday season, I’ve been coloring mandalas. I had an article due, and I took a half hour to color a mandala. I had paperwork looming and I colored a mandala. I was on a conference call and I colored a mandala. I loved coloring as a child, but I hadn’t done it since. I’m sure you’ve seen the cornucopia of adult coloring books popping up on bookstore and craft store tables, with images of flowers, sea creatures, fairies, Celtic designs, and