Blog
What You Are Doing Matters
After the attacks in Lebanon and Paris, all the other violence the world experienced in the last week, and all the various reactions and counter reactions, amongst all that, I did not despair. Because I saw people everywhere responding to the horror in their own noble...
Deciding How and When to Quit
Last week I wrote about the power of staying with something and that made me think of one of my favorite columns I wrote for Body & Soul years ago—on quitting. It came to mind because nothing is black-and-white: sometimes we need to stay, sometimes we need to wake...
Why A Raw Camel Milk Martini Isn’t What You Want
Have you ever heard something like this inside your head: “This writing project / spiritual practice / __________ is taking too long!" Followed by… “So it must not be working." I am intimate with this line of “reasoning,” which can sound something like, “If it’s not...
Here’s to the Ever Present Grace of Your Creative Radiance
Earlier this year, I attended a meditation retreat and the retreat opened me to a new way of being. Yes, like all retreats, the exquisite nectar of the experience faded over time... yet with this retreat, something stayed different, if you will forgive me that awkward...
What to do after the transition
The boxes are unpacked. The diploma awarded. The laughter from the retirement party has faded away. You are on the other side. Now what? We spend so much time, it seems to me, talking about transition: being in one, approaching one, or trying to avoid one, we perhaps...
How Making Art Changes Your Life and Why You Can’t Make it for That Reason
For the last two years, I have been trying to make sense of how, after a very hard period in my life, I got so deeply mired in regret and sadness that even falling in love with a man who makes my whole being light up just by walking around a corner wasn’t enough to...
What TeachNow Grads Are Up To – Believe Me, You Want to Know!!
Once a year, I convene a course I co-created a number of years ago with Michele Lisenbury called TeachNow. What the course is really about is developing your craft as a teacher, about what happens when you ask yourself, "I want to be a better teacher; how do I do...
News Flash: Fear Does Not Respond Well to Self-Discipline
This past weekend I went wild. I’ll admit, wild for me may appear tame to some, but hey, half a loaf of bread was consumed! Three bars of chocolate! Nine episodes of various Netflix TV episodes. Two naps! 200 pages of a stupid novel (I wish it hadn’t been stupid). Let...
The Art of Tiny Transitions & Why They Matter
Here is a video I recorded earlier this year. I thought it was particularly poignant to share with you now because I am in the midst of a giant transition, writing this from a friend's ranch in Montana before we finish our epic drive to our new house in Colorado. I...
Learning to Say Goodbye
I write this from my almost empty studio attached to my almost empty house, a house I have lived in for 14 years, longer than any other. The air is scented with cardboard and our voices echo if we yell to each other. I packed stupidly and have dresses to wear and a...
Must You Have a Public Opinion About Everything?
On Facebook a few months ago, a friend bemoaned that no one was talking about another tragic murder of a black man by a police officer. “Where is everybody?” she asked. My face grew hot reading her comment. I wanted to post something immediately. I wanted to have an...
A Prayer for Writers & Creatives
I have long practiced “metta" or loving kindness, a Buddhist practice of compassion, using the metta recitation I learned years ago. May I be a happy. May my heart remain open. May I be healthy. May I be a source of healing for all sentient beings. The metta practice...
13 Things I Learned in 13 Years of Teaching My Taos Writing Retreat
The sweet, salty sea air hit the back of my neck as the ferry shuddered out of Eagle Harbor. I took a sip of tea and two thoughts came to me: This was my last ferry ride to the airport before we move to Colorado... ...and the second thought never arrived. I tensed,...
The Best Books and Other Things I’ve Read Lately
I am an inveterate reader. I travel with a stack of books, even just for the weekend. I do not understand people who get on a plane without two books and a New Yorker. I feel sad when I visit a town and can’t stop by the bookstore just to see what they recommend. I...
Sarah Selecky and Jen Talk Writing + Nitty Gritty Inspiration
I love love love finding fantastic resources to share with you. I hear regularly from you that it is one of the ways I serve you best - by turning you on to superb resources, wise teachers, and wonderful writers. Today I am sharing a little bit of all three of those...
What to do when you can’t stand your patterns another %&@#*! minute
In life, there comes a time when you so sharply, so clearly, see your recurring patterns; you see the cost, feel the pain of doing the same thing yet again, that you can barely stand it. You watch yourself (just for example) yet again: Make a snarky comment about...
When You Need Help Finding Your Way Back to Yourself
I am writing this at my sister’s dining room table in Florida. My mom is asleep nearby on the living room couch, contorted into a comma-like shape in the corner. My sister is asleep in her room down the hall. Mom was up wandering most of the night so everybody is...
How Journaling Can Change Your Life or Strait-Jacket Your Creativity
I’m always sad when, on one of my writing retreats, the subject of journaling comes up and someone will sigh and say things like, “I know I should journal but I never can seem to make a daily habit of it.” “I tried morning pages but I couldn’t find time to write three...
Finding the Wisdom in Your Worrying & Whining
I was speaking with my friend Hiro the afternoon of June 6th, having a little catch-up. She listened to me kvetch about not being able to find a house in Colorado and about not knowing when we would move my mom to Florida because there wasn’t a spot in memory care...
How to take care of yourself when everything is up in the air
My last post struck a resonant cord with many of you. Thank you so much for all your supportive wishes and sharing my words with your friends so widely. Your experiences of being in liminal space - this betwixt between time when you’ve let go of one person, place, or...
How to Live When Everything is Up In the Air
After yoga on Saturday, my lovely teacher, Jen, grinned at me and said, “So when are you moving?" At a book signing event that afternoon, my author friends joked to Bob, “You can’t take her,” and then listened as we explained that we haven’t found a house in Colorado...
Need Help Getting Started
Making Your Thing?
Grab the stunningly intuitive & effective:
Make Your Thing guide
I’m not one of those creepy people who make it hard to unsubscribe or email you again nine years after you’ve unsubscribed. Giving me your email is like a coffee date, not a marriage proposal.