Category: Life with a Reader
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The Power of Intent: Habits for Life On Purpose
All paintings on this page by Claude Monet, 1840-1926, Impressionism Living intentionally requires a person to be intentional! At first, it is hard work, much harder than the old, unhelpful habits. Living with intention means always on — at first. Every response and reaction is up for research. Every focus and flow is questioned. You…
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The Bookmark: April
Vincent van Gogh, Blossoming Almond Branch in a Glass with a Book, 1888, oil on canvas, Arles, France. An inch of rain is predicted today, starting at 11. As I am writing the skies are clear. I have plans to pull weeds if it doesn’t rain, and to sew a dress if it does. I…
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An Exaltation of Larks
A little madness in the spring is wholesome even for a king. -Emily Dickinson And what could be madder than the English language? Here’s some perfectly grammatical sentences allowed in English. Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo.Will Will Smith smith?The old man the boat.The complex houses married and single soldiers and their families.A boat shipping boat transports…
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In Poetry We Say…
Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar. –Percy Bysshe Shelley The Donkey When fishes flew and forests walked And figs grew upon thorn,Some moment when the moon was blood Then surely I was born.With monstrous head and sickening cry And…
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Lessons From a Princess
Catherine, Princess of Wales, has appeared on many ‘best-dressed’ lists. Does she have something to teach us? Here are some observations. A princess wears what the occasion calls for. She is traditional and appropriate. She wears formal clothes in the evening, pretty dresses to a garden party, hats in the day, jewels at night and…
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More Than Was Lost Has Been Found
Try reading this poem out loud. When faces called flowers float out of the groundand breathing is wishing and wishing is having—but keeping is downward and doubting and neverit’s april (yes, april, my darling) it’s spring!yes the pretty birds frolic as spry as can flyyes the little fish gamble as glad as can be(yes the…
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The Selected Diaries: 5 Things
In February I started journaling again because I was feeling so dry. Inspiration had trickled to the tiniest stream. That’s how I came to this Friday morning and nothing ready to publish here. In looking over the last few weeks, I see snippets of things to share but none of it makes a real article.…
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Create Your Own Happily-Ever-After
I have learned to read marriage advice books with a grain of salt. There might be some small idea that really works for me. I don’t ever expect to do exactly as the author says. And in the process, I noticed there are not a lot of creative resources for the happily married. Most marriage…
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Pattern Language
We miss so much because we don’t know the exact word to describe what we see. I’m on a mission to notice and appreciate beauty. I heard recently that we only notice and talk about the things we have specific names for. You cannot talk about something if you don’t have a word for it.…
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The Bookmark: January
Henri Matisse, 1890, Still Life with Books and Candle, oil on canvas, Realism I’ve been making reading plans for 2026 based on what I learned last year. The biggest revelation was slow reading is enjoyable reading. I also rediscovered the classics are really good books. Bookclub: The Q The Q by Beth Brower, 2021, 477…
So She Reads 