It is a sunny day with no trace of a cloud in the sky. The weather has warmed up to -1 Celsius. Despite the beautiful conditions, I am under a cloud, like Jo Brfsplk, from the Lil’ Abner comic series by Al Capp. Why am I depressed with my head under a cloud when there are no clouds in the sky? I have learned, albeit slowly, that there is rarely a good response to that question. Yet, I still try…
I have finished NaNoWriMo 2020 and did so with a new record for words written for the event – 77,447 words. Now that I have finished, I am setting that story aside and taking up one that I had been working on before the first of November. But, perhaps almost as important, since it is the first of December, it is time to make our home look festive. The tree, of course, is at the centre of it all. New…
For the past number of weeks, I have been wandering in a different universe. There, no one pays any attention to my presence or whether I wear clothing or not. It’s a world where everyone goes about their business as though I am not even there. Unknown to them, I am there, deep in their unconscious like some mythical god or goddess. Even though I am a male in this dimension, this universe, in this alternate world I am the…
It has been a while since my last post. I want to assure you that it simply a matter of life getting in the way, not an issue of psychological distress or of intentionally abandoning this site. The primary reason for being absent has been related to the weather. It has actually been nice weather, the kind of weather that pulls one to be outdoors. For the past ten days, I have been taking walks between eight and twelve kilometres….
Being an introvert doesn’t mean that I am more or less rational than an extrovert. Nor, does it mean that I am more or less irrational. In the effort to try and understand myself and others, I have done a lot of studying and taken innumerable sorts of personality tests. After all, the objective is to “know thyself” as Socrates once stated thousands of years ago. You’d think that we would have had it all figured out by now. Yet,…
Well, it looks like early winter has set in here on the Canadian prairies. I woke up to -13 Celsius and the long term forecast tells me that there will be no overnight lows above freezing for the foreseeable future. As a writer, this is perhaps the best and most productive time of year. The urge to be doing something outdoors rather than sitting at a desk [or other writing location] seems to abate with colder outdoor temperatures. At least…
NaNoWriMo, the thirty day novel writing project, is quickly approaching. Since I have at least six writing projects in process, I have found it hard to focus on one particular project since returning to Canada in March 2020. I blame it on COVID 19. Now, in just over two weeks, I will be adding yet another novel to the mix. How do I manage to keep my sanity with all of this going on at the same time? Well, for…
Tomorrow is the official day for Thanksgiving in Canada. However like almost all Canadians, the whole of the three-day weekend is treated as Thanksgiving. Actually, for many, the holiday begins at some point on Friday. On Friday, I went solo hiking, as the previous post explained. Yesterday, I went hiking again, this time with my wife who had booked the day off. Today, she is back at work until the middle of the afternoon, at which point, we will work…
I didn’t believe that I would fit in another free-hike this year because of weather and a host of other reasons, but with weather being the prime deterrent. Today was a sunny day though the temperature was anything but promising. The forecast high was for 13 Celsius with a brisk breeze of 25 km/h. Once I had eaten lunch, I risked a writing break in the backyard. I saw sunshine in the corner by the shed and wondered if it…
I woke up early this morning. It was darker than dark. I sat in the darkness in my living room, staring out the window where a street light seemed to accent the darkness. I knew that in another two hours, the sky would begin shifting to daylight. Knowing that the light was making its way to where I sat while staring out the window, I was able to sip my coffee in comfort. The darkness became calming, almost restful despite…