I strive to write a monthly blog/newsletter. Despite my best intentions, once again, I’m late. This was supposed to be published on the first of March, but instead is reaching fruition, quite appropriately, on April Fools Day! The merry tricksters won this round!
Heart Full of Gratitude
Force of Nature, my adventure memoir, is trekking right along, climbing moutains and fording streams with vigor!
Something that I absolutely did not expect about being an author has been the number of readers who reach out to me via my website or through Facebook Messenger. Almost daily, I get a note from a reader!
Many make me tear up, while others make me laugh. I wonder, is it because it's a memoir, a true story? People write to tell me of their own recent hiking trips or stories from decades ago in their youth. They talk about nature's beauty, about the physical challenges, and about courage and triumph. I've gotten notes from Aussies and Brits and from all across the US.
Each time, I'm newly blown away by their kindness and enthusiasm. I'm filled with a powerful sense of gratitude for everyone who reaches out to me, and I try to answer them all. I’m equally grateful to those readers who pause to write a review for Force of Nature. There is also a special place in my heart for everyone who helped me turn my book into a reality, manifesting this amazing gift of an experience!
It brings to mind that old kids’ song about the preciousness of keeping longtime friends and making brand-new friends. We sang it at Camp Fire Girls’ meetings.
Make new friends, But keep the old. One is silver, And the other gold.
Springtime Energy - Field Trips
The guru of creativity, Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way, is famous for her Morning Pages advice, but she also promotes making a regular Artist’s Date with yourself. The Artist’s Date, or what I think of as a Creative Field Trip, is to be a “festive, solo expedition to explore something interesting… a way to devote time to your creative self… in assigned play…”
I’m not very good at the discipline of Morning Pages, but I love the playfulness of a good Field Trip! Cameron gives examples of walking in a garden or park, taking in live music, visiting a museum, going to a fabric store or a yarn store or a hardware store, anything with colors and textures, sensory input that gets your creative juices flowing.
Being a dutiful student, recently, I drove down to Sacramento to the wonderful Crocker Art Museum. There was a temporary exhibit I was eager to see, because my “inner teacher” was interested in the topic, so insisted!
“ABC-123” featured Fletcher Benton’s Sculptural Alphabet. The artist is famous for his huge outdoor sculptures of letters and numbers that stand in parks and gardens, but the museum exhibit’s pieces were desk-top versions of his colorful work. The shapes were whimsical. The colors were bold. They reminded me of quilt pieces and construction paper school projects and pop-up books!
Do you have some suggested destinations for more springtime Creative Field Trips? Do share with me!
Herstory - Strength, Courage, and Spirit
March was Women’s History Month, so I decided to read an armload of books about strong and courageous women, most historical. I recommend all eight of them—four- or five-stars for all!
The two memoirs were amazing stories of courage, determination, and love: The Risk, by Dorothe Kress (a new local writing colleague), and Teaching in the Dark, by Genet Simone (my former Naropa University writing instructor).
The four herstorical novels were vivid, insightful, exciting, and left me thinking, "How did I not know that?! Kristin Hannah's brand-new The Women tells the achingly beautiful story of Army nurses in Vietnam during the war. Stephanie Dray's brand-new Becoming Madam Secretary is the compelling epic story of Frances Perkins, FDR's Cabinet Secretary. I was so taken with these two titles, that I have chosen them for my Fall 2024 Semester Book Discussion Series classes at OLLI at Sierra College [Osher Lifelong Learning Institute].
The President's Wife, by Tracey Enerson Wood, describes the complicated life of FLOTUS Edith Wilson and her husband. The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd, was my Book Club's brilliant choice and the basis of a deep discussion about fear, courage, and power.
A contemporary fiction, The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, explores the difficult life of a young woman aged out of foster care. Finally, The Girls Who Went Away by Ann Fessler, digs into the lives and hearts of women who, as birth-mothers in the 1950s and 60s, were compelled to give their babies up for adoption.
Have you read any good books lately with a Strength, Courage, Spirit theme? Do tell!
Unleashing Creativity - The 100-Word Story
Way back in February, I attended the always fabulous annual Sierra Writers Conference (both via Zoom and at the Grass Valley campus of Sierra College). I took part in both Kim Culbertson’s in-person workshop on 100-Word Stories and Grant Faulkner’s Zoom workshop on Creativity Under Constraint. Both authors/speakers emphasized the creative power unleashed when writers are forced by constraints to pick and choose their words carefully.
I wrote a fun story under Culbertson’s guidance. Not only were we restricted to exactly 100 words, no more and no less, but there were a handful of words we were required to include. Quite the challenge!
I’m sharing it here, and I wonder how many of those reading this newletter will recognize themselves in the story.
Old Friend: A 100-Word Story
Late, I rush down an empty locker-lined hallway, my footsteps echoing on linoleum. Silver numerals hang above identical, blank, wooden doors. I search for room number 111.
110, 109, 108. Wrong way!
109, 110, 112, 113. No 111!
Perspiration beads. My heart gallops. I recheck the class schedule clutched in my sweaty fingers and grow more frantic. I spin.
112, 110, 109. “How can this be?” I whisper.
Overhead, a light bulb flashes on, banishing darkness and sleep, interrupting my too-familiar fever dream. I blink.
The nightmare’s harsh images fade, leaving only the residue of my old friend, anxiety. Again.
Happy Spring, my friends!
I’d love to hear you thoughts!
Your story suggested the following memory. Every decade or so I also experience a dream based on an anxious period in high school.
The math teacher looked like a woman who never smiled a day in her life. The teacher was angry that I could not understand geometry and consequently banged my head in the blackboard. We were not allowed to leave a problem incomplete so I made up any answer in order to comply with this demand. How could this teacher read my paper upside down and know I had written nonsense?
Fioli Gardens would be a great place to get your creative juices flowing this spring. Perhaps a scheduled field trip through Sierra College?