yourpassions.tk

I know the rules about using quotation marks. Capital Community College’s grammar website pulls no punches : In the United States, periods and commas go inside quotation marks regardless of logic. They go on to explain: There are peculiar typographical reasons why the period and comma go inside the quotation mark in the United States. The following explanation comes from the "Frequently Asked Questions" file of alt.english.usage: "In the days when printing used raised bits of metal, "." and "," were the most delicate, and were in danger of damage (the face of the piece of type might break off from the body, or be bent or dented from above) if they had a '"' on one side and a blank space on the other. Hence the convention arose of always using '."' and ',"' rather than '".' and '",', regardless of logic." This seems to be an argument to return to something more logical, but there i...

In an idle moment I sit staring at my finger. Wasn't there a scar on that one? Where a slipping putty knife ... I'll spare you the details. The point is that I had to look long and hard to find a trace of that ugly scar from not all that many years ago. I turn my attention to my knees. One puckery scar from early girlhood is still there, much smaller now than it was fifty some years ago, and the other is gone entirely. Once upon a time I recalled the occasions on which I skinned those knees, even to the perverse pleasure of picking at the scabs until they eventually flaked off to reveal fresh pink skin underneath. I still recall picking at the scabs, and the pain of having the knees scrubbed clean and swabbed with red-orange merthiolate, but the specifics of the wounds are long forgotten. A small scar on my left jaw is an inch away that its original location. That one is the reminder — when I look in my side-view mirror — of the cyst that settled there, the cyst that I passed o...

Last week a friend sent me a link to Belief-O-Matic , a fun quiz on Beliefnet that features twenty multiple choice questions about your concept of God, the afterlife, human nature and related beliefs. It’s programmed to compare your pattern of responses to beliefs of 27 different religions. It generates a report showing how closely your beliefs align with each faith. The e-mail included a report of her top ten matches. To my amazement, her top one was Neo-Pagan . Wow! I thought. She publicly admits to being pagan? Then I stopped to examine my response. It was strong and immediate. And stunned. The word “pagan” carries lots of baggage. *   *   *   *   *   STOP RIGHT HERE Before reading any further, take a few seconds to focus on your reaction to that name/label.   *   *   *   *   * My instant associations include earthy, sensual, orgies, seasonal, Earth worship, Gaia, priestesses and sacrifice as well as more sinister ones: burning at the stake, Satan, ignorance, heathens. Thoughts...

I woke up this morning thinking I wrote a lot yesterday and the day before. I don’t have anything to say today. I can skip it. I don’t have to write everyday. I want to get back to my manuscript. I need to make nametags for the new class today.    In short, I itched to do anything but write in my journal. I’ve been lax about journaling lately. It’s so easy when I’m on fire with a new idea or picking at a knot of understanding. Other days it feels in the way. How easy it would be to fall away from the practice, and I don't want that to happen, because I do believe in the power of Practice.  Journaling is a Practice. Natalie Goldberg writes constantly about the importance of Writing Practice and her Roshi validated it as Natalie's Way. He put it on a par, at least for her, with “sitting” (in meditation). I also find that writing focuses and clarifies my mind. I know from experience that journaling often pays its biggest dividends when my thoughts are whirling and passion is hig...