Shortly after my fiftieth birthday, I finally sat down to finish reading a book I’d started a few weeks before. The book? Brené Brown’s Imperfect. In the aftermath of my trip to the ER two weeks ago, Brown’s book hit a nerve. Actually, it dug out the demons and gremlins I’ve been battling most of my adult life: self-doubt, perfectionism, and worthlessness. And just to twist the knife a little deeper, it had me thinking about—obsessively, and not in a good way—if I, and by extension my life, mattered. [Read more…] about Perfectionism: It’s Not a Prize
writing life
The Wanderer
Generally speaking, we tend to group writers into two camps: plotters and pansters. Plotters write an outline of their entire book before they sit down to write, hence the nickname. Pansters, as you can imagine, fly by the seat of their pants. They have an idea and they sit down and write—no idea where the writing will go, but they let the words ‘lead’ them. I’m a panster. I like taking a flicker of an idea and developing it as I type. But lately, I’ve become another type of writer: a wanderer. [Read more…] about The Wanderer
50 Years of Learning
With my fiftieth birthday looming (it’s tomorrow), I’ve been quietly reflecting on my life’s journey so far. Since I’ve always believed that age is a state of mind, I’ve never had—and am not having now—one of those ‘crisis moments’ that some people have when they hit certain milestone ages. But in my fifty years on this planet, I like to think that I’ve gathered a little wisdom. And today, I’d like to share a few of the lessons (in no particular order as I believe they’re equally important) that life has taught me, beginning with… [Read more…] about 50 Years of Learning
When Providence Moves
When I walked out of the office on 28 June 2023, I had no idea what I was going to do in the days that followed. Rest? Absolutely. Write? Of course. Run? You betcha. Immediately look for another job? Meh. I recognized that I needed time to ‘detox’ and to get my bearings. The thing is, we never know when providence will move.
Listen to Your Body
Leaving my job just ahead of the Canada Day long weekend, I had a bit of a plan formulated in my head: take a few days, maybe a week, to rest and then ‘begin’ the job search. (Oh, the lies we tell ourselves!) What I didn’t count on was the level of exhaustion that tackled me and pinned me down. To train for the marathon and write before work, I’d been getting up around 2:30 am for months. That made for longs days. Was it any wonder I felt like someone had parked a GMC Sierra on my chest? [Read more…] about When Providence Moves
How Running Changed My Life
When I stepped into those jeans—a size 38 waist—I was horrified that they fit. The other times my then partner tried to hand them down to me they were too big. Now I was shocked into action. I had to do something, but there was just one itsy-bitsy problem. Too self-conscious about my own body, the odds of me joining a gym were a million to one. I never had a six-pack or anything close to it. I did everything to avoid changing in public locker rooms. Take my shirt off? Pfft. But I had to lose weight, so I did the only thing that seemed ‘doable’: I started running. [Read more…] about How Running Changed My Life