I don't like wasps, but I hate to see anything struggle. That's why I freed one from a cobweb on my porch, as a spider trotted across her tapestry with eight-legged delight. Watching the small red spider retreat to her usual spot in an upper corner, I felt more like a Big Jerk than a hero. The next day, I got a chance to set things right after an unseen bird dropped a grasshopper. I delivered the insect's remains, half-eaten and still twitching, to the lower portion of the web, gently tapping … [Read more...] about The Feng Shui of Spiders
Nature
Empty
December's Winter Solstice marked the longest night of the year. The ending before the beginning. The darkness before the widening light. All around us, Nature shares the wisdom of emptiness, dormancy and surrender. Trees empty their branches of leaves. They channel their strength inward, and they let go. To be empty is to be open. To be empty is to be full of possibility. Waiting for birth. Harvest has finished, whether you mark this week as the birth of Jesus or the historic celebration … [Read more...] about Empty
Creative Experiment: Vimeo
https://vimeo.com/462772666 Creativity is (almost) never truly blocked. My brain hasn't stopped working just because I've stopped posting. Words are still flowing. If fresh ideas aren't showing up when and where I need them, I can flinch or I can give my creativity a new playground. Guess what works best? Experiments can't fail, because they always teach us something. Kids experiment; kids try. Adults want to be instant experts, and that tendency can cage us. How can you liberate your … [Read more...] about Creative Experiment: Vimeo
Something Beautiful Grows
My best writing might land in someone's inbox. I send "epic" emails, I'm told, and texts as long as letters. Befriending a writer in love with words – and all the ways they connect us – means you'll get some heartfelt messages. Finding one 2015 note to an old, long-distance friend last week, pasted into a journal, uplifted me. The backstory: We'd both been through recent breakups, and I wanted to encourage him. May you also be encouraged. * * * It's not a new lesson, to be with someone … [Read more...] about Something Beautiful Grows
How to Walk a Labyrinth
As I walk, someone is watching. He is working, and so am I, stepping in circles and following loops of patterned brick. I'm focused on my feet and my feelings instead of the cold breeze. Twenty minutes later – when I'm finished – he stops grooming shrubs and asks what I was doing, what it all meant. This is the heart of that conversation. A labyrinth is not the same thing as a maze. There's one way in and one way out, but the shared goal of labyrinth and maze is reaching the … [Read more...] about How to Walk a Labyrinth