• nestled in the branches of an oak tree;

• leaving a gift on a stranger’s doorstep;

• two plane tickets to the Bahamas.

WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers

The week between Christmas and New Year’s is a peculiar one. Some of my friends are in Florida, basking in the sunshine. Our president is on beautiful Oahu, where I love to imagine him in peaceful sunshine, with the trade winds to soothe and rejuvenate. I have friends from long ago who still gather every year at the castle they own on the west coast of Scotland. Still others are stacking wood for their wood stoves and cozying up in intimate family togetherness. Others are partying and feasting in the city.

What are you doing?

What do you wish you were doing?

It may be just too hard to write this week. This feels like an out-of-kilter time, this week just before the New Year kicks in, and before we’re back to the routine of daily life.

So instead of writing, try this instead:

_______

Writing Practice

Collect some magazines, catalogues, or holiday cards – ones with lots of photographs of things like country homes, city fun, architecture, food, people, vacations, gardens, sports.

Sit at a comfy spot with scissors, glue, and a great big piece of cardstock paper. Begin cutting out all those photos that appeal to you – the ones that jump out at you. Is it the blue of a Caribbean beach? Buttery suede boots striding along a city sidewalk? A chocolate cake? Whatever it is, cut it out and place it (don’t glue yet) on your backing. When you’ve cut plenty of pictures and they’re piled high in front of you, begin arranging them. Try to make a cohesive picture rather than random placement. See what emerges as you play with the images. What is interesting to me is how unique my selection and outcome is – I always imagine that everyone would select the same photographs as me, but that’s not how this exercise works. It’s actually a visualization of how you see yourself and you are creating a world that, in some form or other, heals, encourages, and inspires.

Enjoy the process – and then glue the result so you can look at it again, especially next year, at this same time.

_______

Seven Happinesses

• playing cards on a train

• the smell of fresh ground dark roast coffee

• guests washing dishes

• doing one’s duty

• Kate

• lying on the warm sand

• ginger lemon tea

The week between Christmas and New Year’s is a peculiar one. Some of my friends are in Florida, basking in the sunshine. Our president is on beautiful Oahu, where I love to imagine him in peaceful sunshine, with the trade winds to soothe and rejuvenate. I have friends from long ago who still gather every year at the castle they own on the west coast of Scotland. Still others are stacking wood for their wood stoves and cozying up in intimate family togetherness. Others are partying and feasting in the city.

(more…)

WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers

The week between Christmas and New Year’s is a peculiar one. Some of my friends are in Florida, basking in the sunshine. Our president is on beautiful Oahu, where I love to imagine him in peaceful sunshine, with the trade winds to soothe and rejuvenate. I have friends from long ago who still gather every year at the castle they own on the west coast of Scotland. Still others are stacking wood for their wood stoves and cozying up in intimate family togetherness. Others are partying and feasting in the city.

(more…)

• a herd of giraffes in the Kalahari;

• analyzing your handwriting;

• the Emerald City of Oz.

• a friendly celebrity sitting down at your table;

• ice-skating on a frozen pond;

• self-confidence.

• fragrance from a pikake lei;

• hope springing eternal;

• Artemis.

• fragrance of pine;

• red and green stoplights reflected on rainy streets;

• the sweetness of a baby’s kiss.

• baby tigers playing in the jungle;

• a friendly gleam;

• shiny new bicycles.

• An ancient petrified forest;

• the mystery of love;

• a waning half-moon floating on its back low in the sky.