International Women's Day and Selfies.
On this International Women’s Day, I’m reading a book called “American Girls” by Nancy Joe Sales. It’s a fascinating look at how social media affects girls between 13-19. Note: Of course, not all girls are so involved. And of course the problem isn’t limited to ‘girls’ — a term Sales recognizes as problematic in terms…
Read MoreMy Own Ten Best Reads of 2015
Although I’ve not finished my reading for 2015, ’tis the time of lists. A number of ‘best of’ lists this year have me scratching my head, since I read some of the books and didn’t care care for them very much, and the fact Kim Kardashian’s SELFISH made the Globe & Mail’s list… well… the…
Read MoreSister Rita's Thanksgiving
My dear friend, Sister Rita, SSJ, and I are writing a book together, and will tell you more about it as we go along. For now, let me just say I couldn’t be more excited about it, as the wisdom I’ve received from her over the years has been, and continues to be, invaluable. She…
Read MoreOpposing a Rush To Judgment
There is a situation playing out in Canada right now that has me both sad and alarmed. I won’t go into details, since at present we have almost none of those, and they will come out soon enough. I didn’t want to put my face in this fan, honestly, but as a writer with a…
Read MoreRefugee Blues
Time, I have come to believe, is not linear, but cyclical, a spiral not a line. Indigenous people and the Old Testament tell us everything has its season, and after winter comes the spring, the summer, the autumn, and then the winter again, although of course it’s never exactly the same winter. Each day both…
Read MoreCourage, Dear Paris.
As I watch the horrific events unfolding in Paris tonight, of course my mind goes back to the years I spent in the City of Lights. I remember that terrible day, 9/11, when I lived in Paris in a top floor apartment in the 16th arrondissement. From my window I could see all the way from…
Read MoreThe Author In Autumn
I remember a walk I took at twilight nearly twenty years ago. I was living in Menthon-St.-Bernard, France then, a mountainous region in Haute Savoie on a deep lake. My Best Beloved and I lived in a house a ways up the mountain, perhaps a twenty minute walk up the steep path from Menthon itself…
Read MoreRichard Glossip — Help Save An Innocent Man
My friends, Sometimes, you just have to raise your voice. I know there are a lot of terrible things going on in the world right now, all vying for your attention. This is one life. One man. One innocent man. And maybe, just maybe, you can make a difference. I’ve written before about Troy Davis…
Read MoreWhy A Writing Workshop? Thoughts on Sharpening the Quill
September’s right around the corner, which means it’s time for Sharpening the Quill, the writing workshop I lead, to start up again. People sometimes ask me what I think writers will gain from the workshop experience. Let me try to answer that question. Discipline. Showing up regularly for a writing workshop keeps the writer focused…
Read MoreHomecoming
This morning I woke up and, after taking the dog out to do his business before the rain started, made up my bed, smoothing the linen cover, plumping the pillows, setting the lavender sachet among the pillows just so. Then I went downstairs and made coffee, and while the water boiled I looked out the…
Read More