Can you trace your journey? Look back into the blue sky and catch a glimpse of your tendrils, instead of choking on the contrail of the ones up ahead? I don’t want to forget the exhilaration of stepping off solid ground, the day I hit Submit to sign up for my first writing class. The […]
Tag: Gratitude
Ready…set…cliff dive!
Going to Mendocino—taking my first screenwriting class, reading my work in front of 100+ people, hearing my novel first page blind critiqued by an industry panel, yup—terrifying and frigging exhilarating!
Love from the land of smiles-Thailand and Mangpo
My Magical Mystery Tour to Thailand is done and my son is a married man. I’m overwhelmed. How do you process the spectacular? The extraordinary? Asia, Thailand, Bangkok, Phitsanoluk, a mind-bending five senses assault of thai-spiced food, epic heat and humidity, the olfactory experience of canals from the last century, the madness of loud tuk-tuks […]
We, the people. Xmas 2016
I crave the comfort of a holiday season that never was. I want the thrill of a perfect present surpassing all my wildest expectations, happy family gathered smiling, house lit with heirloom decorations and filled with glorious song. (Oh, and while we’re dreamin’: sleigh bells ringing, those powdered almond cookies, caroling neighbors, ice skating on the pond, crackling fire with no leftover ashes.)
Kidney Cancer: Ten years Grateful
August 2006: 6cm tumor. Renal Clear Cell Carcinoma. The memory of that phone call is still profoundly shocking: sitting at my desk, pen tracing over and over on the yellow post it: 6cm 6cm 6cm, struggling to make sense of what the doctor was saying. How does a 40-something woman with no risk factors contract […]
Ano Nuevo-My New (scary) Year!
I had the map, I had the motivation, then why was I suddenly scared? We started out together–David, my daughter Elise, and I–on a gloriously perfect North California day. Docents strategically located, good signage, even a well-marked path. Ano Nuevo, the park off Route 1 on the rocky coast, home to the famous Elephant Seals […]
44 years later, love.
Man, oh, man: his blue velvet dinner jacket, my pink dotted-swiss, my tightly clasped hands, we were such innocents on the plaid couch in his parent’s downstairs rec room. One day I’ll tell you the real story behind that day. For today, our 36th wedding anniversary, 40th year living together as a couple, 44th year […]
Get ready, set…Fail!
I love me some comfort: the sensibility of routine, my favorite worn-in sheets, the predictability of the sunset and the tides outside my window. And especially now, the particular feel of the keyboard, the sticky space bar and silent clicks; the opening up of the document and return to my characters; the way my uber […]
Waiting Mode
You know that feeling when you’re waiting for it to begin? Waiting for the holiday, or waiting for an arrival (or departure) or a new start or a new adventure? Kind of a shivery excited, maybe no small amount of obsessing—imagining and scripting the scenarios or the place—a little nervous even if you’ve done it […]
Gratitude and the Holidays-bah!humbug! be gone…
Christmas! The “holidays!” New (and better!) Year! There’s a forced cheeriness about this time of year that has always inspired the opposite for me…my writer angsty side sees dead forest trees shedding needles in protest of being propped in water in living rooms with crap unearthed from the attic boxes winded onto it’s weary arms…yeah, […]
Gail Ansel 