Life, Death, And Everything In Between
“Living is abnormal.” – Eugene Ionesco I came across Ionesco’s quote right around the first of the year and I thought about sharing it then
July 28, 2018
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“Living is abnormal.” – Eugene Ionesco I came across Ionesco’s quote right around the first of the year and I thought about sharing it then
Tina Turner famously sang the question, “What’s love got to do with it?” She even called love a “second-hand emotion,” based on the rather cynical
“What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you
I picked up my cell phone just now to text a friend. Then I remembered, she’s gone . . . two weeks already. It’s the
It’s true, I suppose. We could call a rose by another name, Armadillo for example, and it would smell as sweet, would look as beautiful.
Permission. To take time. To dedicate that time to oneself, to one’s dream(s). To do. This seems like such a simple thing. Yet it is
Imagine showing up to grad school, embarking on a journey toward that thing you love, chasing after your passion, and in the process moving closer
“Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires.” – Francois de La Rouchefoucauld I think this is
I love to write. To be at the page. That moment when the conscious self gives way to the subconscious and you are transported to
There is a Zen saying that sometimes the obstacle in the path is the path. A friend of mine who is not a writer, though
“Lean forward into your life. Begin each day as if it were on purpose.” – Mary Anne Radmacher I am starting a new trend for
“How did it get so late so soon? It’s night before it’s afternoon. December is here before it’s June. My goodness how the time has
“One lives in the hope of becoming a memory.” – Antonio Porch We may not spend our time consciously trying to live a life worth
“You’re only given one little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.” – Robin Williams I think it’s safe to say that laughter saved my
When I was a boy, you would have needed one of those super-powered commercial staple guns to keep me in place for longer than a
“Read whatever you want. But you should feel embarrassed when what you’re reading was written for children.” – Ruth Graham That was the subtitle
“The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” – Sylvia Plath Of course, as discussed before, there are several other enemies including a lack of motivation.
“Children are extremely perceptive and absorb what goes on around them long before they can talk or even comprehend language. They are like finely tuned
“Listen,” my dad said. “Be a good listener.” I grew up as a fan of superheroes, sure, and of mountain men, and of good-guy gunslingers
“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be
“Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own.” – Aristotle Gotta love that Aristotelian wit. Though,
“It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for something you are not.” ~ Andre Gide True as Gide’s
“The way to happiness: Keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry. Live simply, expect little, give much. Scatter sunshine, forget yourself, and
“Every utopia – let’s just stick with the literary ones – faces the same problem: What do you do with the people who don’t fit
“Hope is the thing with feathers – that perches in the soul – and sings the tunes without the words – and never stops at
Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it’s much more serious than that. – Bill Shankly Football and
I didn’t grow up with some prized comic book collection, like one of the characters on Big Bang Theory might have, but I’ve always been
“Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.” – Victor Borge So many times, laughter has saved me. And some of my best friendships have
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” Ralph Waldo Emerson Most of us
“Say it, reader. Say the word ‘quest‘ out loud. It is an extraordinary word, isn’t it? So small and yet so full of wonder, so
“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” – Thomas Merton I’ll admit this up front. I don’t know art
Not intending to downplay the words of wisdom my parents have shared with me over the years, but I recently realized that all you have
![Mickey McKay & Frank Conifrey - Lenox Hill Settle't [i.e., Settlement]](http://lafayettewattles.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/boxing-locb-300x189.jpg)
“Words are easy, like the wind; Faithful friends are hard to find.” ― William Shakespeare As a boy, even with best friends, there’s sometimes very
“Creativity is contagious, pass it on” – Albert Einstein What a great thing to pass on! While I was in grad school I met (and
“Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.” ~ Henry Ward Beecher Nearly the entire time
“After the family broke, and when the house was about to sell, I walked around it for a last look. Under the eaves, on
“Never give a sword to a man who can’t dance.” – Confucius Believe it or not, I’ve actually been called a good dancer (no, not
“Writing became such a process of discovery that I couldn’t wait to get to work in the morning: I wanted to know what I was
Today I’m going to write briefly about Christmas and the Gift of Generosity. I don’t remember a lot about my childhood. I’m not sure why,
In the beginning, FAMILY is pretty much all we know. While we’re infants, they’re perceived as an extension of us (in regards, mostly, to how
“Other things may change, but we start and end with family.” What is family? For some, it is the heart, the marrow, the soul. For
“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.” – Thornton Wilder Thanksgiving is more
Although I became “a reader” rather late, I’ve had the good fortune of encountering some truly wonderful books and remarkable authors whom I have enjoyed
“In my opinion, television validates existence.” – Calvin and Hobbes TV has been part of my life since the very beginning (not unlike children today
For the past week, one word has been creeping around in my head, popping up over and over and over. That word is TENDERNESS. Maybe
“I’m not afraid of death; I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” – Woody Allen Fear. At a basic level, fear is
“It’s not denial. I’m just selective about the reality I accept.” ~ Calvin and Hobbes I guess you could say this is a post about
The first time, there were just three of them, my used-to-be-friends, with their wild hands latched onto my arms like vines imbued with dark magic,
Dorianne Laux and Kim Addonizio write in the opening pages of their wonderful book, The Poet’s Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry,
“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.” ~ Scott Adams There’s a common saying about life, how not
Piers Anthony has spent nearly SIX DECADES doing the one thing I want most to do – creating worlds and stories and characters that captivate
“Art is when you hear a knocking from your soul — and you answer.” ~Terri Guillemets That’s so true. Especially when it comes to creating
If you had uttered the word “POETRY” when I was a boy, I’d have probably run, sort of the way I would have reacted to
“A little talent is good to have if you want to be a writer, but the only real requirement is the ability to remember every
“Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The key word is love. You have
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.” – Mark
“It is never too late to be who you might have been.” George Eliot I admit it. I’m flat out and unabashedly envious of those
“Writing is both mask and unveiling.” ~ E. B. White That quote seems to sum up one of the most rewarding byproducts of writing for
RETREATING: I’m writing from Historic New Harmony, Indiana (I’m here taking part in the 2nd Annual Extraordinary Time Writer’s Retreat)! Look, any chance I get to
Last week I mentioned that one of the best things I ever did for myself as a writer was attending an artist residency at Ucross.
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” – Mary Oliver It’s one thing to “plan” to
“What we see depends mainly on what we look for.” – John Lubbock There are two small scenes in my favorite novel, To Kill a
At first, I thought this blog might be about the journey of writing a novel from start to finish. You know, a log so to
Q: Did you always want to be a writer? A: Not a chance! As I mentioned on my ABOUT page, I never read my first
Write Side Up seemed like the perfect name for this blog because it’s taken me a lifetime to get here, but this thing, writing, is