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Day 1 of 3 Quote Challenge #3dayquotechallenge

July 15, 2015 by admin

Just as my well of blog post ideas started to run dry, my good friend Gwynn Rogers has come to the rescue! She challenged me to a Three Day Quote Challenge. If you haven’t checked out Gwynn’s blog yet, take a look.

Anyway, here goes!

Treating myself like a precious object makes me strong.

—Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way

We’re a no-pain no gain, just do it society. We’re supposed to be healthy, fit, have the perfect relationship, and work at the peak of our potential.

We’re supposed to be vegan or paleo or whatever the diet du jour is. Recently a complete stranger scolded me for having oatmeal for breakfast. Seriously.

Even some of our spiritual quests seem to involve striving. If we’re not happy, fulfilled, and grateful every minute of every day, we’re doing something “wrong.” I actually had people tell me if I were spiritually better, I wouldn’t have had a miscarriage and stillbirth (don’t get me started on that one!).

And God forbid we complain about anything! There’s always someone to correct us and offer unsolicited advice.

It’s no wonder we’re all so uptight these days.

But treating myself like a precious object makes me strong.

What does that mean, anyway?

For me, it means making sure I take time to rest and rejuvenate. Often on Sundays I will do restorative yoga so I can deeply relax. I get regular massages, and from time to time I take a soak in the local bathhouse, Soak on the Sound. My husband and I have a date on the weekend and one in mid-week in order to connect with each other.

Your list may be different, but I’ve come to realize that the creative life doesn’t come from pushing, striving, and cracking the whip. It comes from coaxing and gentle encouragement. It comes from being kind, forgiving, and compassionate toward ourselves. When I remember this (yes, sometimes I go back to my old type-A ways), I get more done with less effort. I don’t stress. I have more fun. The work itself has a deeper quality.

Do you treat yourself like a precious object? If so, how? If not, what would you like to do?

I’m supposed to nominate three people to participate in the challenge, but I don’t like tagging people online. Any volunteers? Let me know, and I’ll feature your blog prominently here.

A Quick Hello

July 8, 2015 by admin

Hello, friends. I hope you’re all having a busy and productive week!

I am giving What She Knew one more run-through before sending it to my editor at the end of this week. With the pressure of a deadline, I’m suddenly coming up with great ideas for amping up the drama, so I’m rewriting like crazy. I’m also juggling a couple of other projects and trying to keep up in the garden.

As a result, blog day snuck up on me, and my well is dry. I have no epiphanies, no wisdom, nothing but a heartfelt hello to all of you out there. Thanks for stopping by!

Take good care of yourselves, and I’ll try to do better next week. In the meantime, the tomatoes are coming! Pics are, too.

Oh, one more thing: The Foreign Language of Friends is on sale for another day or so. If you’re interested in getting it for $.99, follow this link: http://tinyurl.com/nocgg6w

What I’m Reading #amreading

May 13, 2015 by admin

Now that the AtoZ Challenge has ended, I’ve had to remember what I normally write about in my blog! While you’ll still see garden posts from time to time, you’ll also find posts about travel, writing, health, genealogy, and who knows what else. Some would call this unfocused, but I prefer the word eclectic.

Anyway, I love sharing books I enjoy. This week, I am covering two from nearby Pacific Northwest writers. Though they are different from each other, both are memoirs, and both are fascinating in their own ways. I also had the privilege of meeting both authors!

First, Sleeping on Potatoes: A Lumpy Adventure from Manzanar to the Corporate Tower, tells of author Carl Nomura’s time in a Japanese internment camp during World War II. Though born in the U.S., his harrowing experiences of being treated as an alien enemy in the land of his birth is a must-read. We cannot ignore this uncomfortable period in our history, for the seeds exist in our current politics for this to happen again.

Though some aspects of the book are weak (his description of his children seems more for family benefit and don’t add to the story), Nomura’s journey is extraordinary. Nomura is 93 now and has difficulty seeing and hearing, but he can still tell a great story.

A Long Way from Paris by E.C. Murray will delight those who enjoy such books as Eat, Pray, Love and Wild. Ms. Murray focuses her story on 1980, when she ran away from a bad relationship to herd goats in the south of France. I won’t tell you how that happens, but this is one of those books I couldn’t put down. The more she delves into her French experience, including relationships with her employers and a fellow goatherd, the more I loved it. The goats will win your heart, too. It is funny, touching, sad, and honest, achingly so at times.

How about you? What are you reading these days? Help me add to my “to read” list!

Z is for Zen #AtoZChallenge

April 30, 2015 by admin

Congratulations, fellow AtoZ Challenge participants! We made it! *pops virtual champagne cork* Thanks to all who visited during this busy month! I applaud all of you who dove in and gave it your all.

***

When I was younger, I wanted to identify with one spiritual practice and went on a search for what that would be. I entered churches where people got saved, and I entered churches where people stood up and gave each other psychic readings. I have done a vision quest and Native American sweat lodges. I studied Catholicism for a while. Eventually I converted to Judaism, but even that wore thin for me.

I wanted to belong to something. I longed for that community of like-minded spiritual practitioners. I just never found that in organized religion.

These days, I can honestly say I have found a measure of peace in my life. I say “measure,” because I live with a certain existential discontent. At some level, that’s how I’m wired. Restlessness and curiosity are part of my nature. I don’t mind, though, and one could say I have found peace even with that discontent in place.

That peace, that zen, happens when I spend time in nature. Whether I’m on a hike or digging up weeds, this is where I discover myself, where I am calm, where I am most alive. As I work out garden problems, I work out plot problems, too. Writing and gardening, for me, are entwined.

It’s been an honor to share my garden zen with you this month. I applaud the organizers and many volunteers who have made the AtoZ Challenge so rewarding and fun. I honor all of you fellow bloggers for your content. You have made me laugh, cry, and think. Thank you!

I hope some of you will stay with me on this journey. I won’t always write about the garden, but the themes you have seen here will show up in other forms.

If you have enjoyed what you’ve read, please consider purchasing one of my books listed below. I never do a hard sell, but shame on me if I don’t mention them.

In yoga, we join the palms of our hands together at our hearts and bow to each other. We say “Namaste,” loosely meaning, “I bow to the divine in you.” Namaste, and I hope we will meet again.

Nadine

The Foreign Language of Friends

When a Grandchild Dies: What to Do, What to Say, How to Cope

Patchwork & Ornament: A Woman’s Journey of Life, Love, and Art by Jeanette Feldman (edited by Nadine Galinsky Feldman) — to purchase this book, please send me a message on the “Contact Me” page.

Walking the Moors – Thoughts on Bronte Country

November 12, 2014 by admin

Did you know that the Bronte sisters, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, wrote and published a book of poetry that sold only two copies? Though well reviewed, the book flopped. Even when they did achieve literary success, it came under male pseudonyms, and reviews after they were outed as females took a nosedive.

Yet Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre remain two of the greatest and best-loved novels in history.

The Bronte sisters wrote together, and we can imagine them bouncing their ideas off of one another, but they also wrote wildly. Their stories were too “improper” to be written by women. Yet they couldn’t help themselves. In their regular walks along the Yorkshire moors, strolling through thigh-high fields of heather, they captured the passion and raw fury of winds and rain and exposure, stamping unforgettable settings and emotion in their work. They wrote true to their natures, and their boldness has kept their novels in the public ever since.

Recently I had the great privilege to walk the moors the Bronte sisters once did. I visited the home where they made history, looking at their tiny clothes (including Charlotte’s wedding bonnet) and pondering their lives. Of course, I came home with a stack of books to learn more about them. As always, it helped me as a writer to literally walk their path. A hike to Top Withens, said to be the inspiration for Wuthering Heights, brought the stories more deeply into my bones.

I don’t pretend to even come close to the skill of these authors. I do know, though, as I walk along the moors, absorbing the life and strength they emanate, I am adding to the files of my imagination. The Bronte ghosts tell me they, too, were merely human, and struggled to balance their unusual writing styles with the marketplace of the time. Their struggles are different, but we understand each other. I return to my own work renewed and inspired to continue.

What Ifs and Wales

November 6, 2014 by admin

What if a man finds himself a prisoner in a place of great beauty, unable to go home? What if he loses his name and is known only as Number 6? What if he raises his fist and refuses to conform, saying, “I am not a number. I am a free man!”

Debonair, charismatic British actor Patrick McGoohan asked those questions in the 1960s during a visit to Portmeirion Village in Wales. The result was The Prisoner, an iconic miniseries that remains a cult favorite.

It’s not surprising that Portmeirion inspired a classic. Sitting on the edge of an estuary, Portmeirion has the look and feel of a hillside Italian village in miniature. Upon seeing it for the first time, I let out an involuntary gasp at the stunning, elegant buildings and the abundant nature surrounding them.

Portmeirion was the brainchild of Clough Williams-Ellis, who asked himself, what if he could create beauty without disturbing the surrounding environment? He spent 50 years working on the answer.

What if? It’s my favorite question. Sometimes “what if” paralyzes me with fear when I’m trying something new and fear the worst. “What if” helps me plan ahead and solve problems before they happen. “What if” ponders my fate had I made different choices as a young woman.

As a writer, I rely on “what if” to come up with story ideas. What if an ambitious female money manager gets caught up in the Madoff scandal and loses the life she knew? What if a troubled young woman with low self-esteem and a burgeoning alcohol problem is the only person who can stop a dangerous bully? What if my great-great grandmother, the one who bore a child out of wedlock and died ten months later of typhoid, was not the victim her story would suggest?

“What if” brought me to Wales. When we decided to visit the U.K., I said, “What if I ask Juliet Greenwood, a Welsh author I met online, if she wants to meet in person?” I did ask, and she said yes. We met first in her home, then she joined us later to relax in Portmeirion.

Juliet recently wrote about her visit here. As you will see, she gathered some incredible nighttime photos!

Juliet is one of those writers for whom I have great respect. She works hard at her craft and has created two lovely novels, Eden’s Garden and We That Are Left. Getting to know her better in person in Portmeirion made the experience that more magical.

What if I worked as hard to build my stories and skills as Juliet does? Hmm. Something to think about.

Rested and recovered with creative juices flowing, we left Portmeirion for Bronte Country. What if we find a Bronte ghost walking on the moors? More about that next week! As they say in The Prisoner, “Be seeing you.”