Sometimes it takes decades, and sometimes just a moment... Growing Up and Out (2000) I grew up,into me,not who you wantedme to be.You remember,and so do I,that I would doall you said,that I would bewho you said,when I was small. That little girlseemed to needyou, so...

In my last post, I talked about inevitabilities, like rejection in the writing life. But there are ways to make that inevitability a little less so. First, and always, the story needs to be compelling, but most of us have a captivating tale or two to tell. If you want...

“Is that fun?” my mother had asked some years ago. “Is putting a 30-lb backpack on and hiking 10 miles fun?” I answered with a question, perhaps asking myself. “Not exactly, but going amazing places most other people won’t get to is.” I could end this piece right...

Hunkered at home during the escalating pandemic is not, in fact, a terrible thing for a writer. There are fewer excuses to keep me from the work. So, last month I finished my novel (yes, again!) and my literary agent is now submitting it to publishers for...

The trail is where I have calmed the clenching in my heart these past months. This morning, I ventured out in search of that, in the aftermath of yet another loss this tragic year—that of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a revered champion for equality. I wandered up the far...

Some of these words have been percolating through my mind for weeks, and I intended to transfer them to paper for Earth Day in April, but I think the time is right, right now. In my last post back in November, I talked about rocks in my backyard, specifically the...

Though it doesn’t occur beneath my feet unless I climb long and hard and high (as I did here), it’s my bedrock. The Madera Limestone crowns the rift-flank Sandia Mountains whose shadow I live in. I arrived here, shattered, after my husband died in an accident 22 years...

My life as a professional geologist began the week before I turned 24, since then I've spent a significant portion of the last 35 years in the air, traveling for work and play. Whether in a two-seat tail-dragger or a 747, I always choose a window seat (yes, I know...

Don’t Forget the Earplugs: The man seated in 19F must be lonely. Hard to believe with the six kids he just told the passenger next to him (19E, it’s a full flight) he has. If he’s not lonely, how could he be so desperate to talk? And talk and talk and talk (and this...

This post is related to the last one I wrote, more than two months ago now. It was about procrastination. Sure, I’ve been busy. Who isn’t? It went something like this: Finding the Words? I’ll Look for Them Later.... And that was about it. If I go looking for the...