I am aghast with gratefulness, truly I am. But … That\’s the danger, isn\’t it. Not being able to stay in a place of gratefulness because of all the other things going on. Today, for me, it\’s immense anxiety. There\’s a lot going on and I feel like I\’m standing on one foot, atop a rickety staircase built of rotting wood at the precipice of the tallest mountain peak in the world and I\’m juggling large, heavy chainsaws. Did I mention I get height-sick, have a bum knee right now, and can\’t juggle? The best thing, the greatest cure, is…
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It is said that birth, the coming out of an infinite world and into this finite one, is painful — not only for the one \’giving birth\’ but for the one experiencing it. In most situations, such a description refers to a mother from whose womb a babe arrives. One way or the other — via birth canal or surgery — there is pain, shock, and loss for both mother and child. Is it not so for other types of birth? Most assuredly. But what has been given in birth? Think of it: cocooned in space and time, dreaming of…
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Yep. Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes fame) sums up how I feel about 2022 right here. I said to at least four people yesterday that I\’m already tired of \’22. The holidays are typically not easy but between Christmas and now has been a seeming never-ending slew of bad news. Between losses of life and health challenges, along with my own interesting health experience earlier this month that has resulted in an anxiety disorder diagnosis, it\’s been just a barrel of laughs (cue sarcastic resting face here). My real reaction after the yelling is to say that God\’s got something…
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I indicated that I would post on Facebook, perhaps once per year. I offered that tidbit right around New Year\’s Day, 2021. I asked that people not post in reply or on my feed through the year, since I wouldn\’t be checking it much, if at all. Imagine my chagrin when I popped in there to 1) changed my photo and 2) check in on a writing group or two that seemingly don\’t exist anywhere else … and found a litany of posts on my thread. I guess y\’all thought I was kidding. I grew tired of the fakery and…
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I decided today would be my day to write out a few Christmas cards. In case you aren\’t on my regular list, here is the letter I\’m including in the cards of people to whom I usually send a yearly update. December 2021 By the dating of this short missive, I am sure you can believe that I can’t believe it’s already Christmas. When I do send out cards, it’s usually sooner than a couple days before, but it’s been a full year and time got away. For those who were unaware, I basically left social media in 2020. It…
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In 2004, I was in the basement, working away on some music mix or other, putting song sets on floppy discs for later burning onto CDs, downloading from sources that will go unnamed here but that were sort of okay then. It was before we had a mad panic to move from that house, which was likely only standing thanks to walls filled with squirrel nests (and carcasses — yes, a few had died in there, likely babies who could not yet navigate the narrow beams and thus plummeted to untimely rodent deaths where we could not retrieve and mourn…
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Well, that didn\’t take too long. Did a bit of tidying, updated some site images, and voila! I invite you to check out the Quill Has Landed page. As a matter of fact, bookmark it. That\’s where you\’ll find the published stuff. I\’m prayerful in the coming months that there will be more to see. I\’ve left it reader-friendly (took down those \’look at me\’ cover shots … ew. Why\’d y\’all let me do that?) and you can click on the links to access the sites where these items are available. The Amazon link will take you to my author…
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Here\’s the thing: When I ditched my \’starvingactivist.com\’ URL in favor of this one, I guess I put the new (or gnu, as it were) flower in the old, nasty water from the old vase. In other words, I slapped a new coat of paint on the rusty fence. Or something. My point is that spring cleaning is coming. For anyone who wandered over from the old site to this one, you know I would have my moments and bam! new layout. Yeah, that. And I know it\’s not spring but you get the gist: the pages, they are a\’changin.…
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I told you I was writing a letter to the incomparable @theebillyporter. I\’m even doing it the same day I made the pronouncement. I\’m even doing it while listening to his rendition of I Am Changing. It, along with the live version of Why We Sing are in my Spotify \’liked songs\’ that I often keep on rotate while I work. These two amazing songs are between Eric B. & Rakim\’s Don\’t Sweat the Technique and Joe Jackson\’s A Slow Song. Do with that what you will. But I digress. The point of this evening missive is to say thank…
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Before you say a single word, I know. I didn\’t even bother to look to see the last time I posted here, but lissen … No, I mean – lissen! Have you looked outside lately? Stuff\’s real. I just waxed poetic over on Academia.edu in response to a very nice fellow academic who\’d read a little diddy I wrote several months ago about the possible influence of the \’rona on educational spaces. If I was in music, it would be my track that went platinum. Anyway, this nice academic had downloaded my paper oh, what … let\’s just say about…