Home » Things I have learned so far (Page 30)
Everyone has a cherished place where they can get away from the world. When I was eight, it was the upstairs bathroom with no windows and the door locked, where I could read in peace and dream of the day when I would no longer have to share a bedroom with my sister. Fifty years later, with an entire house to myself, my special getaway place is a mere thirty-five minutes from home: The Spa At Norwich Inn.
On Friday, April 13, 2018, I wrote the word I sometimes doubted I would never write:
Last weekend, I started writing a blog post about my sweet Buddy. He was lying in my lap as I wrote, dozing and sometimes purring.
And dying.
That post ended up getting bumped when a friend called to advise me of the horrible tragic death of someone I’d known as a friend and to whom she’d been much closer. I thought I had more time to write about Buddy.
I was wrong. At least if I wanted to write about him during his lifetime.
Photo credit: Viktoria Hall-Waldhauser
Last night, a dear friend called to tell me about a horrible tragedy [the “Occurrence”] involving someone who was once very important to her and whom I knew as a friend, although he and I lost touch many years ago. The Occurrence will have repercussions, not only in breadth as people farther from the event are notified–ripples in the pond–but in depth as all of us explore and deal with our own reactions and those of others. Continue reading
Time is one of those subjects that never seem to wear out their welcomes. A Google search for “time” with no qualifiers turns up “[a]pproximately 11,300,000,000 results”. Small wonder, when so much of our lives are devoted to talking about it, thinking about it, planning for it, using it, wasting it, managing it, killing it, maximizing it, praying for more of it. Whether seconds on the clock, hours in the day, or years in a lifetime, time is a universal obsession: Continue reading
If there’s a way to dissect an issue, I’m there. Maybe it’s the lawyer training, or maybe it’s the writer instinct. Either way, I can meet practically any statement with “but what if . . . ?” (Not everyone loves this about me.) Continue reading
Today is February 14. Valentine’s Day.
There are probably couples who will have a magical, romantic, Hallmark-style holiday. Good for them. Enjoy. Godspeed. Continue reading
For some writers, stories spring into being, fully-formed and populated with fascinating, well-rounded characters. The act of writing is little more than taking dictation from the Muse, with perhaps a bit of sprucing up here and there to ensure that the foreshadowing is properly balanced with the revelation and the metaphors sparkle.
We do not like these people. Continue reading
A year ago, I went to my very first protest march. Around the world, on all seven continents, millions of women, men, and gender-nonconforming people marched for a number of causes: women’s rights, pay equity, reproductive freedom, justice, equality, civil rights, disability rights, voting rights, LBGTQIA rights, immigrant rights, environmental protection, and others. Continue reading
We’ve all heard of setting ourselves up to fail. It’s what happens when we’re gung-ho about doing something right now even though any remotely rational person would say, “Um, honey? Maybe this isn’t exactly the right time.” Continue reading
P. Jo Anne Burgh 