Category: About Me
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Write One Line…
In my morning writing group, one writer encouraged another who was slogging through a dry patch by suggesting she just write one line. That’s all. One line. It loosens things, gets the gears going and sets more lines in motion. I don’t often get blocked when writing (too many words is more often the issue…
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Ranting ANTs…
ANTs…Automatic Negative Thoughts. You have them, right? No? Are you sure? They are automatic, after all. In “Change Your Brain, Change Your Life,” Dr. Daniel Amen illustrates how thoughts change our brain chemistry. Our emotional state responds with feelings of tension or relaxation*. This system can get out of whack when we listen to ANTs.…
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The Rhythm of Rest…
I hope you are deeply involved in a project that floats your boat, with excitement coursing through your veins as you anticipate the unknown steps on your chosen path. I am fortunate to have writing friends virtually join me in the ongoing quest to release written words into the reading world. We share encouragement, helpful…
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Temporary Tempo…
Consider ebbs and flows, waxing and waning, growth and fallow times. I know they are necessary phases. Yet when slow times come, I need reminding that my lento tempo will soon return to moderato or even presto. Can you tell I’m listening to Chopin as I write this? Music employs lilts and pick-ups to make…
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Play/Money…
Creatives live to play but there is a flipside: money. It may be sharp edges rubbing against the roundness, but commerce is necessary to share our gifts with the wider world. Otherwise, what’s the point? Picture toppling towers of handmade and thrown pots, each one a thing of sacred beauty, closed to the world for…
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Funky Flunkdom…
Sometimes I feel like the dullest tack in the drawer, or the greenest member of the group. Such doubts are deeply internalized even though I don’t flounder at the bottom of the sea of smarts. I live on the curve and seek new growth activities, so multiple areas of interest chop given hours into bits…
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The Good in Goodbye…
Our daughter and her family are visiting from their home overseas and soon my sister will join in the happy reunion. The inevitability of goodbye pulls my human tendency toward sadness. Two things keep me from turning into a blubbering bag of tears when that time comes: knowing I will see them again and focusing…
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Settling In…
I heard recently that we are meant to be unsettled. That seems counterintuitive to the conventional aim of peaceful balance or equilibrium. Only a few times have I felt all types of serenity; mental and emotional and physical, at once. I’m not meant to be still or quiet, at least not for long. I am…
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Off I Go!…
Do you have those mornings when it seems a slow go? Maybe it is tempting to lounge in your reading chair for half a day. While I don’t engage in the time-sucking vortex of social surfing, some word puzzles can call to me like a Siren to Odysseus. What stops me from giving in? Maybe…
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Reach…
Today and on and on down the writing road, I am reaching for a lofty goal: finish draft one of novel two, while doing the heavy lifting of pushing novel one out of the nest. I’ll have to spend double time on both projects, lest one be remaindered to the bottom drawer of the desk…
Patty Mayeux Blog 