A small room in Boston
- At January 17, 2020
- By Lisa
- In Experiences, Features, Wellness, Writing
2
I write from a small room in Boston without a view. There are two west-facing windows which open to the mustard-colored clapboard siding of the neighboring three-story, and at this time, it is an advantageous vantage point. It keeps my attention focused on my writing and my mission.
Several weeks ago, I took to rearranging the furniture in this room to something I felt was more conducive to creativity. Pushing my desk into a corner I made a cozy place for concentration. A great chair, good lighting, and a variety of sacred items that I believe help my process. It’s a comfortable room also containing an old unused fireplace in the corner — it’s interior bricks painted white against a red wall. There are piles of books, journals, candles, and two sleepy cats. I see this arrangement as something I hope will prove beneficial in the full immersion of my craft because an enemy also lurks within these walls.
The War of Art, written by Steven Pressfield, discusses this enemy. It is known as Resistance. Pressfield refers to Resistance using a capital letter and assigns to it some powerful personality traits. It is what he considers the major deterrent of artists being able to do their work. It is a formable enemy — invisible, insidious, impersonal, and infallible. The battle with Resistance is fought on a daily basis.
Read More»Sleeping with Hemingway
- At October 07, 2019
- By Lisa
- In Experiences, Musings, Wellness
- 6
I sleep with books now. Sleeping with books wasn’t something I planned nor was it something I was aware of wanting to do. But it seems there was always some memory or picture in my mind of doing so — perhaps taken from the scene of a movie or from my former Scandinavian lifestyle.
In the past, I’ve never been able to sleep with books — which I promise is delightful — because I’ve always been sleeping next to a man. But there they are now, books and notebooks scattered around my bed, stacked in piles on the floor, and grouped together like high-rise buildings on my mother’s cedar chest. Presently I’m sleeping with a copy of Haruki Murakami’s Kafka On The Shore, Benjamin Dryer’s Dryer’s English, Hemingway’s Moveable Feast, Mary Gabriel’s Ninth Street Women, and Laure K. Denton’s Hurricane Season.
Read More»Collecting Visual Trinkets – The allure of beauty in everyday life
- At March 24, 2019
- By Lisa
- In Art, Features, Musings, Photography
- 2
I had a hard time writing this essay. It has been several weeks in the making and perhaps because it was meant to be uplifting and inspirational, it stifled me. The photography came easily but words are hard and I found them somehow lacking in rightful expression—my writing tends toward the dark side of late. There are some creative notions, however, that I wish to share with you, dear reader, so let’s carry on.
Read More»Oliver Sacks – Write as if you knew your death date
- At April 01, 2018
- By Lisa
- In Experiences, Writing
- 0
I’ve become obsessed with the writings and lectures of Dr. Oliver Sacks. Not only was the man absolutely delightful – he had a sense of humor that often causes me chuckle through the lines of his essays and books – he was one of our greatest minds and a break-your-heart beautiful writer.
Sacks, a British neurologist and author, had an insatiable curiosity at what his website describes as “the far borderlands of neurological experience”. Through his writings for the general public, Sacks described for us conditions such as Tourette’s syndrome, Parkinsonism, migraines and musical hallucinations, phantom limb syndrome, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer’s disease. He explored what it meant to be a conscious individual and how our brains make us who we are. Dr. Sacks wrote and lectured about these things so we could understand them, infecting his audience with that same sense of awe one might experience when learning something new about the universe.
Read More»Cigarettes and Malice
- At March 25, 2018
- By Lisa
- In Musings, Writing
- 0
It’s been a few weeks since I’ve entered a post here. I’m not going to apologize for this because I believe my readers understand that there are times one needs to regroup and reflect on one’s path. The path is as important to me as the end destination but often the path is arduous and can be all consuming. The end is just the end. It doesn’t require a lot of work.
This isn’t to say that I haven’t been writing privately and I’ve written for a couple of different publications – namely Venü Magazine and Artscope Magazine – which has been deeply satisfying. But before sharing posts here with you, I feel a certain responsibility to be sure of the content I’m writing, the authenticity of my voice, and the validity of what I am sharing. These are self assigned essays, and posts which appear here are often something between the private thoughts I jot in my journal and the offerings I may provide for any editor of public consumption. It’s a tricky terrain.
It is said that a significant part of recovery from trauma includes embracing your thoughts and emotions – to really feel them as opposed to pushing them aside and soldiering on. There is a need to find answers to certain questions but there is also wisdom in being able to sit and accept the questions – many of which may go unanswered. For now. Forever.
Read More»A book and a bouquet
- At January 17, 2018
- By Lisa
- In Experiences, Musings
- 0
While we travel to arrive at a destination, it has always been the journey which spoke to my heart. A long car drive home at night, quiet and uninterrupted, or the excitement that comes with lift-off. There is the ambiance that accompanies the sound of a train along the tracks, and the companionship of a book and a bouquet illuminated by the compartment overhead light. These comings and goings are the expectant beginnings and reflective ends of an adventure. The act of travel.
Years ago, I took the train to New York City quite frequently. During one such trip I decided to indulge myself for the ride home and purchased something noteworthy and something beautiful. A treasured book and a bouquet. When I arrived home, they sat together on my desk as a reminder of that most recent trip. Later the book took up residence on a shelf, its pages stuffed with ticket stubs, receipts, and postcards. I loved this whole idea of a book and a bouquet so much that they became my ongoing companions on Amtrak.
Read More»Thoughts on rebuilding a life
- At September 16, 2017
- By Lisa
- In Experiences, Musings
- 8
A friend of mine recently wrote to me asking, “How does one go about starting a new life?” She explained that everything in her present situation was unacceptable and she desperately needed changes. She needed really big life changes.
Her reason for writing to me was because, knowing my past history, she considered me to be a bit of an expert on the subject. I’ve gone about and reinvented my own life twice in the last five years – the first time through choice, the second from trauma. Both events were life changing and challenging, the second much more than the first.
Having given my friend’s question a good deal of thought – for this is not a question to be taken lightly – I wrote to her providing the only answer I could, “It takes something extraordinary”.
Read More»Your Daily List of Desires
- At August 19, 2016
- By Lisa
- In Musings, Writing
- 0
Tasks on a To-Do list can grow like the snakes on Medusa’s head. No one likes a To-Do list and yet we make them in attempt to keep our lives and our goals on track. But the thing about the To-Do list is that is becomes rather counter-productive as you check one item off and add four more. We begin to get the sense that, despite our best intentions, these lists don’t benefit us in any way except to remind us of how much we have to do and mostly how much we haven’t done.
Several years ago I wrote a post which suggested replacing the To-Do list with something that I considered a better idea – a Done list. That post received quite a nice reception so I thought I’d share the idea here again but with some refinements.
Read More»
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