Quimmer. Stranded. Separated from his pack. About as visible as a grain of sand stuck to the smooth side of a seashell, the dog stands on a slab of sea ice floating atop the placid waves of Scorsbysund. Four days ago, everyone in the east Greenlandic village of Ittoqqortoormiit woke up to a different world than what they had been used to at this time of year.
Mother Nature’s April Fool’s Day prank? Hmmm… Continue reading
“I’d rather be here, with you, than anywhere else in the world.”
When the man in the mountain spoke, it wasn’t with words. A wave of warm air rippled across his furrowed forehead, crept over his craggy face, and burst from the mouth of a cave carved above his clean-shaven chin. The breath of wind beckoned. “Come,” it coaxed. “Let us walk together in another’s footsteps.”
The distance from the edge of the mesa to the bottom of the rock face might just as well have been the height of the Empire State Building. I thought we’d be maneuvering the 200 foot drop along some wide, gradually sloping, hand-railed staircase, not snaking down a perpendicular footpath where I’d have to stab my fingers into hand cracks to stay balanced and, in particularly narrow spaces, pry my dusty size six sneakers from smooth grooves worn into the pitted volcanic tuff by legions of industrious feet for nearly six hundred years.
Clouds of steam rise from bubbling pits on the pocked landscape.
It smells like Beelzebub is venting a batch of burned hard-boiled eggs from his sizzling subterranean scullery far below our hiking booted feet. Continue reading
One paper heart
trimmed in frilly,
white lace,
One arrow,
one promise
of a sweet,
warm embrace.
Once it’s notched, drawn, and trained on a specific bullseye,
Cupid first blows a kiss, and then lets it fly ~ Continue reading
How long does it take for a potato to freeze? I wondered as the rotors whirred to life. It was April in the Arctic. We were on the last leg of our journey to spending eight days in a remote village in East Greenland. Four days in a guest house and four in the wild on dogsled.
How long would it take an eyeball to freeze in its socket? was really the burning question that churned in my stomach before the helicopter taxied, lifted, and lunged toward our destination with the first half of our group on board. Continue reading
‘Tis three nights before Christmas,
the day after Hanukkah,
eight from St. Lucia,
and five ’til Kwanzaa.
‘Tis two months since Diwali,
India’s festival of light,
as Sun settles into
our world’s longest night.
A breeze hugs the mountain, nudging daytime to eve,
while an unkindness of ravens and a hawk take their leave.
Observing them soar to where they’d come from
I notice how still it’s suddenly become. Continue reading
A Blast from Thanksgiving Days of the past…
Same place, different holiday, but you get the idea. ca. 1972
Once upon a Thanksgiving Day, the only room large enough to host the Lambo family was in my grand-parents basement that had been fitted with a second kitchen just for such occasions. The oblong, wood-panelled room sported a bar at the far end fashioned from the same panelling that covered the cinder-block walls. Its red speckled linoleum top ran just about the width of the room under a casement window that looked onto the shrub lined cement driveway.
A few cousins, my younger sister, and I often played behind the bar, rummaging through an assorted collection of treasures—pirate ship embossed coasters, gold-rimmed wine glasses, wrinkled sepia photos of the old country, and glass cocktail stirrers topped with fruits, animals, and, close your eyes now, slim naked women.
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Today I am happy to be part of Writers Persevere! It’s an event that authors Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi are running for the next few days to celebrate their release of their newest book, The Emotional Wound Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Psychological Trauma. This book looks at the difficult experiences embedded in our character’s backstory which will shape their motivation and behavior afterward.
Because Angela and Becca have spent the last year exploring painful human struggles, they wanted to highlight a very important aspect of overcoming difficult circumstances: it can make us stronger. I promised to let Angela hijack my blog today, so please read on!
***
Hi everyone! When you set out to find examples of inner strength, you don’t have to go very far. Right here in the writing community we see it every day. Continue reading
Ahhh, Callanish. The moment we stepped into the circle, it felt like I’d crossed a threshold into another world. Immediately, I was drawn to this particular stone. Mostly since it was not much taller than I, but partly because she called to me, as if she had a story to tell.
Imagine my surprise when I leaned in for this photo, totally unprepared for the tale that she and her ancient monolithic sisters were about to share… Continue reading
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