I wrote this letter to a colleague who dedicated years to writing a novel. It was not easy. When you chase something meaningful while navigating daily existence, you feel time’s tick. Yet there are moments when we slip wholly into creative flow that frees us to step out of time and connect with something greater.
Tag: nature
Starting the Day with an Offer of Loving-kindness
I remember a time when I started the day seizing on the news cycle or my to-do list for work. However, exploring what’s behind anxiety and depression, I shifted my before-dawn routine to quiet time. Settling into a meditative practice has taken years. I discovered the loving-kindness approach and never looked back.
Mom’s Gift: Taking a Nature Pause in Early Morning
In recent years, I relearned a lesson from my mother: there’s beauty in common scenes unfolding before you if you stop to see them. When I lived in Atlanta, walking along the Chattahoochee River offered this daily gift and the chance to turn passing moments into poetry.
Poem: Before Dogwood Winter
I love plants that herald early spring before Dogwood Winter, the cold snap that occurs in mid-April when dogwood trees start blooming. This poem notes the painterly strokes I’d give these blooms if wielding a palette knife (page 25 from The Tears of Things: Poems (Madville Publishing).
How I found poetry through my parents’ connection to nature
My parents handed me the beauty of poetry at an early age—from ballads to literary classics—and opened my senses to nature with sojourns to the country and botanical gardens. Writing memories into reflections, and later into poetry, allowed me to embrace the therapeutic value of creative expression.