I suppose that most of us have goals.  My goals as a writer tend to be mnemonic:  I will finish the novel.  I will publish another poetry chapbook.  I will submit my work to literary magazines more frequently.  Perhaps some of you share the same or a similar mantra.

Often, I will be in the second half of the year, however, before I realize that I have interrupted myself so frequently with a lapse of discipline, or my “real” life as a wife and mother, or, yes, even my own creative spirit (I can get enthusiastic about so many different projects and collaborations!), that I have not taken all the necessary steps to ensure that my writing goals will be met by a time certain.  It is not that I am failing to accomplish things.  I am just not always accomplishing those things I set out to accomplish. Continue reading “Another New Year” →

In discussing the need to free ourselves from “ego,” Eckhart Tolle, in his latest book A New Earth, writes, “To do whatever is required of you in any situation without it becoming a role that you identify with is an essential lesson in the art of living that each one of us is here to learn.  You become most powerful in whatever you do if the action is performed for its own sake rather than as a means to protect, enhance, or conform to your role identity.”  [emphasis added]

It’s a little ironic that I should be quoting this passage on the day after I have embarked on a new kind of “self-promotion” (you will see why this is a misnomer, I hope) with this blog, but let’s explore both the passage and this seeming irony.  Perhaps this post should have a subtitle:  Does Three of a Kind beat a Par-a-dox? Continue reading “Immersion” →