Life’s Short–Smile for the Camera
A friend of mine (an award-winning photographer) offers professional headshots at the writers' conference I attend yearly. She does beautiful work and has photographed many of my writerly friends. Her camera is at the ready each year, yet I am…
It’s Been a Year: Lessons from 2021
As 2020 came to a close on this day last year, I exhaled a prayer of thanks. It was, after all, an awful year. As ever, December is a month of anticipation, reflection, and hope for me. Looking back to…
The Triumphant Rise of the Shlumpadinka
Ringing in 2020 felt so exciting before we knew better. A new decade, a blank calendar page—lots of hope and promise ahead. We barely got the champagne flutes washed and put away before COVID consumed our collective consciousness. Our shiny…
That Was a Quite a Trip (Around the Sun)
Today my older daughter asked what I wanted to do about my birthday this year. She and her husband just bought their first home, so she wants to have us over for cake. I hadn’t given it much thought and…
The Best Advice For Dealing with Critics and Naysayers
Being a creative person requires a delicate emotional balancing act. We need a thick enough skin to shake off unconstructive criticism while exercising enough humility to be teachable and moldable. It’s been a long-term project for me to develop this…
Invest in Yourself
It’s been picture-perfect here in New Jersey. Warm days, cool evenings, and low humidity have almost fooled me into thinking summer won’t be the normal soup ladleful of mugginess. I know it’s a trick, but I’ve chosen to embrace it…
