Believe it or not, Elizabeth Gilbert was a name surprisingly unfamiliar to me. Prior to having seen her inspiring video on creative genius last year, I had only ever heard about this author’s “freakishly” successful non-fiction book Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia. The book was a prominent […]
Limiting Beliefs: A Tale of Mistaken Identity
For most of my life I had been consumed by negative thinking. This was part of who I was … or rather, who I believed myself to be.
The ContainerArt Project: ‘In the Box’ Means ‘Out of the Box’
When we put out the call to action to local artists, we also told them they could leave no visible mark after their installation was removed. No holes, or glue or painting could be done on the actual container. So the whole thing was themed on “No Visible Mark.”
Why I Wear Black: A Love Affair with Dark Fashion
Johnny Cash once sang, “I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down, / Livin’ in the hopeless, hungry side of town…” I love Johnny Cash, but that’s not why I wear black. I don’t wear black because I’m depressed either. Or to look thin. Or to look mysterious.
Ol’ Blue Eyes: Music of Broken Dreams
I woke up the other day to Frank Sinatra singing “Learning The Blues” on my iPod alarm. In the wrinkle between sleep and waking I remembered the day he died. I got up and wrote it down.
Inspiration Comes from the Darkest Places
It wasn’t all fairytales and magic and happy endings. Here were real people, grownups, using their imaginations to come up with some really horrible stuff. And this was okay. Their books were getting published. I had to try it.
Scot for a Day: Hanging Out with Haggis
For a wee Canadian lass, I felt a bit like a kid at an 18th century wedding on Robbie Burns Day. A true fish out of water. Nessy out of her Loch, as it were.
Coming Out: Revealing Secret Passions
This knee-jerk shame about writing, an activity I hid like masturbation, kept me away from practicing the thing I loved for many years. It was too intimate. When I wrote, it felt like I was touching everything all at once, rolling in mud, needlessly gorging myself.
All Ears in the Garden: Landscape as Soundscape
It’s easy to forget that a landscape is also a soundscape. One summer we were working away in the garden, so absorbed in our earthy labours that we really didn’t pay attention to the mixed bird chorus punctuated by the occasional shriek from a jay –until it stopped, as abruptly as the flick of a […]
Fireworks, Afghanistan Style
At 21:45 the loudspeakers crackled and announced “Attention on the FOB, Incoming. Take Cover. That is all.” I laugh every time I hear those last words because it reminds me of the absurdity depicted in the TV comedy “M*A*S*H*.”