Following my heart and mending my body

Dear Friends,

I haven’t written in a long time.  My life has taken an unexpected turn and I’m taking a break from writing for a while.  I turned 60 and realized that if I keep going the way I have been going that I might not make it to 65.  I reached a turning point and decided that I needed more in life, and I wanted to be healthy enough to enjoy that life.  For those of you who are playing in the second half of life and feel like I did, that a change was needed, come join me on my adventure as I reclaim my life.

If you’re not playing the second half of the game of life, you’re still welcome to join me as I explore Qigong.  Please come visit my new site.

Blessings!

The Power of Words in a Twitterific World

Yesterday I blogged about the shootings in the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, USA and about our experience living there during an earlier tragedy, the Columbine High School shootings.  I was writing our good friends in Australia about it.  While I personally would be in favor of stricter gun laws, I also know the won’t prevent the shootings that happened on Friday.  People pull the triggers.  We need a shift in consciousness to place a higher value on life.  I believe we become the stories we tell each other. We need new stories, now more than ever before.

Aurora Shootings, Columbine and dealing with the past

Cee and I lived near Columbine thirteen years ago when that shooting happened.  Yesterday’s shootings in Aurora, on the other side of the Denver Metro area, brought up strong feelings.  Click through to read the story in our other blog.

Cherish life!

How to hook a reader – foreshadowing

As a mystery writer, foreshadowing is a favorite device of mine.  Give the readers just enough info to hint at what’s coming next, just enough to get them intrigued but not enough to give the plot away.  I always check the end of the first chapter as one of my criteria for reading a mystery.  The last paragraph has to be a page turner, and foreshadowing is a great way to take a reader into your story.

Bragging Rights – My Picture Was On National TV

My picture was on national television… not a picture of me, but a picture by me.  A photo I took.  Talk about the ultimate bragging rights for a sometime hobbyist photographer.

Here’s the story:  Cee and I had watched a little television then gone back to her office to catch up on some blogging.  I checked my email and there was a letter from a production assistant for the television series American Pickers, which airs on the History channel.  He had found one of my photographs on line and they wanted to use it on the show.  If I was the Chris Donner who took the photo, would I consider giving them permission?

Memoir Writing – Grabbing the Vignettes

I’m starting to capture some of the experiences Cee and I have been through on the last eleven roller coaster years of our life.  It’s been an incredible adventure that has been both scary and uplifting, if you can imagine such a thing.

Yesterday we had a episode  with a humble ceiling fan that triggered a cascade of memories.  I wrote it up as a short vignette that will become part of a larger work and posted it on our other blog.  Please make the jump and read Sneaky Grief and Hidden Anniversaries.  Let me know what you think of it.

Happy 4th of July to all of you in the United States.  A special thank you for helping us stay free to all of my fellow veterans.

Blessings!

New Name, New Challenge

This is my week for changes.  I’ve joined Cee’s Healing Journey blog as a regular writer and we’ve changed the name to Chronic Illness Champions.  We want to write about how to live gracefully when there is someone with a chronic illness in the house.  So Cee will be blogging from her viewpoint as someone with Lyme disease and I’ll be writing from the point of view of the caregiver.  Both are important voices, and we believe that by sharing our story we’ll be able to inspire others.  Please come and visit us there.

I’ve also had requests to start my writing challenge up again. 

Reblog: “Writing as a form of therapy” by Wendy Thomas

One of my subscribers, Cathy G, was kind enough to send me links to writer, Wendy Thomas, who is also a Lyme caregiver.  She writes about how she uses writing as her therapy when Lyme takes over her world.   If you are interested in dealing with Lyme Disease, she’s started a blog for chronic Lyme.

Writing As a Form of Therapy

June 11, 2012 by Wendy E. N. Thomas

Sometimes it stinks being a writer. You can’t take a day off (well, of course, in reality you can, but you won’t get paid) and you have to write your articles even if you don’t feel like writing.

I recently felt that way. I didn’t feel like writing – so I relied on my favorite form of personal therapy when things are not going the way I had hoped.  >> Continue reading

Strong Writing Mojo?

I woke up this morning trying to think of some way to keep my writing mojo running strong.  (Mojo, in case you don’t know, is your magic power, your secret strength, your super power.)  I love to write.  I do it every day.  If you were to get an email from me is would be more like a short novel.  When the words start flowing they don’t want to stop.  I love words.

Guest blogging – Living with a chronic illness

I did a guest blog for Cee today, giving a review of a  great book, “You Don’t LOOK Sick; Living Well with Invisible Chronic Illness”.   In it, Joy Selak describes her journey with chronic illness, writing her stories so that all of us can find a common link and benefit from her experiences.  She co-authors the book with her rheumatologist, Dr. Steven Overman, who contributes his own experiences and knowledge.  Together, they create a practical and human guide to living well despite your illness.