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Versatile Blogger Award



Dee over at Coming Home to Myself just honored my blog by passing on the “Versatile Blogger Award” and naming me as a blog she thinks deserves more readers. Thanks, Dee! I love more readers, if only because it invites more dialogue (read: comments), and that is what my writing is all about – creating conversation.

In keeping with the protocol of this award, I will point you to some other blogs I have recently discovered that I enjoy reading. Check out:
The final requirement is that I share seven unique things about myself. Here goes —
1. I was a vegetarian for thirteen years, very happily. Then, on a trip to the Canadian Rockies, as I sat down to nurse my then-seven-month-old daughter, Eve, I caught a whiff of the neighboring campsite’s bratwurst sausages on the grill. I begged Bubba to get in the car, drive to the nearest town (Banff), and buy me some. Ever the frustrated carnivorous husband, he couldn’t get there fast enough. I ate three that night and have loved meat ever since.
2. I have half a tattoo. Luckily it is in a very inconspicuous place. As a freshman in college, I went along with my roommate and her friends to get their tattoos and allowed myself to be peer-pressured in to getting one, too. I finally agreed and then changed my mind halfway through and abandoned the process, telling everyone that it was too painful to continue.
3. I had so many kidney infections as a kid that the doctors thought I would have to get a transplant and be on dialysis. It wasn’t until I was in my thirties that I realized the infections “magically” ceased as soon as the neighborhood teenage bully stopped sexually assaulting me on a regular basis.
4. I love cooking dinner so much that I make a weekly menu every Saturday night, shop for groceries on Sunday (and fresh produce and meat again on Wednesday), and cook almost every night of the week.
5. Doing dishes makes me happy. It is this lovely, zen moment where everyone else in the house leaves me alone (they don’t want to be recruited to help) and I get to engage in something that has tangible results. Often it is the only project I get to begin and end all in one fell swoop the entire day.
6. My dream car is a 1962 convertible Corvette. Candy-apple red with white interior and a white hard-top. Always has been. Always will be. I got to ride in one once as a Homecoming Princess in high school and haven’t forgotten it since.
7. I love the sound of moving water. My favorite place of all time is the beach (any beach, cold or warm water – doesn’t matter), but I love lakeshores, babbling brooks, koi ponds with waterfalls and backyard fountains. It somehow brings me to my center.
I’m on one last vacation with Bubba and the kids at a lake this long weekend and right now, I’m sitting at the kitchen table overlooking the water with a sopping wet dog at my feet (he has fetched about 652 sticks so far today) and two girls with their noses stuck in books in the room next to me. I am blissed out. Have a beautiful weekend, all.
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March Writing Links


While searching for a place to submit essays, I stumbled across this handy website that produces newsletters for writers listing anthologies seeking submissions and other places to send your work. Needless to say, I signed up at Poets & Writers instantly. And I found an editor looking for submissions similar to the piece I started writing just for the hell of it (well, more because I couldn’t keep it in my head for all it’s incessant leaping against the inside of my skull). The only problem is that the deadline is next Tuesday which means I’ll be working hard to tweak the essay into submission-worthy form before then.

And speaking of freelance writing, for those of you who don’t already know of her, Jenny Rough is a terrific writer who blows me away with the trajectory of her writing career thus far. She was an attorney in LA who discovered that she was not spending her days the way she wanted to, and she is way too young to be doing that, so she decided to make a change and jumped into writing with both feet. When I first met her, she admitted (and not even sheepishly) to a room full of writers who were working on book length projects that she had no interest in doing that. She just wanted to freelance. Jenny is a prime example of “ask and you shall receive,” because not only does she freelance, she teaches others how to do it, too these days. Check out her blog and her body of work. If you aren’t impressed, I’ve underestimated your need for adrenaline!

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Two Links, Please!

Sorry, not sausage links. But I think these two are better than pork bits, although pork bits are tasty. Don’t get me wrong…

A Link for Writers

Mira Bartok’s memoir “The Memory Palace” is one of the first books I downloaded to my new iPad. While I wasn’t certain how I would feel about reading without the feel of paper in my hands, there is no doubt about this book. It is lovely, well-written, engaging, and enlightening: everything a memoir ought to be, IMHO. In any case, at the end of the book, I discovered that Mira has a website where she highlights writing opportunities (grants, fellowships, residencies, etc.). Anyone who is looking for a leg up ought to check it out.
A Link for Girls (and those who care about them growing up to be strong and independent)

Yesterday I had some time to kill before a doctor appointment so I wandered into (where else?) a bookstore. One book appeared to be surrounded by that surreal Heavenly light that sucked me in like a vacuum and hollered, “Look at me!” so I did. In my current search for ways to empower women and girls a book entitled “Girls Speak Out” with a foreward written by none other than her majesty Gloria Steinem, it’s no wonder I was drawn to this book. Also in its favor was the fact that it is a used paperback and, thus, inexpensive. (I’m certain Bubba wishes my New Year’s resolution had had something to do with spending less money on books. Poor guy.)
Anyway, this book is several years old and was written as a guidebook for girls ages 9-15ish who are seeking ways to discover and honor themselves as they try to navigate the murky depths of adolescence in a consumer-driven society. I was glowing before I finished reading the introduction and foreward. And then I found their website. If you go, make sure you give yourself enough time to stay a while and marvel at all of the wondrous things Gloria and the author, Andrea Johnston, have inspired girls AROUND THE WORLD to do since this movement began. You won’t be sorry.
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This Week’s Links


Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success. — Henry Ford


This week’s links are somewhat related, in that the founder of the first one was a featured speaker for the second group. Many of you have probably heard of TED, a nonprofit organization dedicated to spreading ideas that bring us together and educate us all. There is no end to the list of topics and speakers and there are new ones all the time. In fact, it is probably the single-biggest source of inspiration for me when it comes to finding new ways to talk to my girls about difficult subjects. While many of the speeches are slightly over their heads and a little too long for their attention spans, I watch them myself and pluck out the most interesting nuggets to share with them. If you haven’t discovered this amazing website yet, do yourself a favor and follow the link now. You will be entertained, educated, and come up with tons of new things to talk about at your next cocktail party.

The second site was begun by a TED speaker, Karen Armstrong in an effort to help compassion bloom across the planet. There are so many great things about this site, but one of my favorites is browsing through the stories of everyday, mundane compassion written by visitors to the site. You can read the Compassion Charter, add your name, and learn about how others are applying the principle of caring for all humanity in their lives.

Both sites celebrate humanity, diversity, and strength in numbers without being divisive with respect to religious beliefs, race, sexuality, age, gender, or any other criteria. Check them out!
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