A Girl Named Eve

I meant to write last night but I ended up falling asleep. I had a very nice date with my husband. While we were at a restaurant having dinner, I looked around to notice other couples. Some of them, young and old, sat in bitter silence, the kind that you can see the invisible wedge in the relationship that splits the couple in half and the table. We've been there before, for whatever reason, boredom, bitterness, not having a life outside the daily routines. I sat there for a moment to remember what our own version of that looked like. And then I returned to our conversation grateful we weren't there any more. Yesterday we set off on adventure date which ended up with our destination being closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays due to state budget cuts. It didn't matter, we had a wonderful date getting there.

Anxiety is not only an inevitable part of the writing process but a necessary part.  If you're not scared, you're not writing. ---RALPH KEYES Oh, good! I tend to be a nervous wreck when I write about anything that's of any real significance. Lesson 5 of Barbara Abercrombie's A Year of Writing Dangerously is about getting caught. To sum it up Abercrombie says it best when she writes, "We're caught like a fish on the hook of our own words, our secrets exposed, our inner life and imagination up for inspection." I guess that's what I'm afraid of the most. People will judge me for what I once said or felt. They'll forget about the fluidity of human thought and spirit, and will deny me the peace that comes with it because it was put down on a book to stay trapped forever. But maybe I'm just projecting.

Lesson 3 of Barbara Abercrombie's A Year of Writing Dangerously is best summed up by Elizabeth Gilbert's quote: "I believe that - if you are serious about a life of writing, or indeed about any creative form of expression - you should take on this work like a holy calling. I became a writer the way other people become monks or nuns... I was writing's most devotional hand-maiden. I built my entire life around writing."                                                                          -- Elizabeth Gilbert I was recently talking with some coworkers about my upcoming theater show and they asked, so this writing is what you do for a hobby? They know its not what I do for a living so its easy to apply labels and call something a hobby, but its what I do for a life. It's sort of hard to e...

I'm so happy I finally was able to attend the UCLA Writer's Studio this year. I attended Samantha Dunn's Memoir Writing: Works-in-Progress. For those of you unfamiliar with the Writer's Studio, every year UCLA Extension offers 4 day intensive classes in Creative Writing and Screen Writing. Space is limited to 15 students per class. This year, I applied early enough to get in. The experience was trans-formative  Why? You put yourself in a room with 15 other writers and one incredible supportive kind honest sincere instructor, Samantha Dunn and you write away. Sharing. Learning. Laughing. Crying. This was a memoir class after all. One of the lessons we had from the class was to bring a picture that moves us and write about what is not in the picture. Clever. I never would have thought of that one. There were several interesting exercises we participated in, but I'd say the real lesson doesn't come from one exercise or writing tip that you suddenly get...

I enjoyed reading Gordon Smith's latest book, Intuitive Studies A Complete Course In Mediumship because it took me into a whole new world I had never considered exploring before. I have been meditating for several months now on a daily basis. In my journey to learn more about meditation, I also have come across different websites that warn about the dangers or startling revelations that can occur as a result of opening up to the spirit world when you are under certain states such as deep meditation. I decided to read Intuitive Studies A Course In Mediumship in order to learn what to avoid so that I don't accidentally fall into some trance and inadvertently become a medium, like if that was even possible. From the Intuitive Studies, I learned becoming a medium takes much patience and practice.  I appreciate that Smith takes the readers step by step through each exercise, and walks them through being able to distinguish the calling card to ensure you are maki...