For several days I have been listening to and singing theKyrieas performed by Les Troubadours du Roi Baudouin, arranged by Father Guido Haazen. You may remember it from the end of the movie The Singing Nunstaring Sally Field. I’ve posted it on Facebook and Twitter. Kyrie eleison, a pre-Christian plea, is part of the Catholic Mass. Continue Reading »

Resolution #5:  Here I go again, aspiring for better health and a thinner body in January.  Check out this special challenge: “Ten weeks to HEALTHY in 2010″ at www.recipegirl.com. You get to design your own challenge with help from Recipe Girl’s site, and then get the support of all the other folks signed on to Ten  in 2010.  Recipe Girl will blog about the challenge on Saturdays only. Her blog is not about weight loss, but about cooking, so you might find some temptation on her site the other days of the week.

I’m going to combine Recipe Girl’s motivational support with The Abs Diet for Women by David Zinczenko. Sure we all want those rock hard abs, but I’m really about erasing belly fat that ‘s spelling heart disease and other health heartaches in bold letters in my future if I don’t make some changes. This diet book is getting good reviews because it’s based on common sense. The diet is designed to be self regulating. You have three meals and three snacks. Each include at least two of the 12 power foods: nuts, beans/legumes, greens, low-fat and fat-free dairy, oatmeal, eggs, lean Continue Reading »

It’s a blue moon new year’s eve, folks, as one of my dearest friends and writer, Patti Meredith, reminded me on Twitter and Facebook today!  Patti’s life is full of music.  She grew up in Galax, VA and learned to play and sing with her daddy and sister. I love going to visit Patti, or riding somewhere in her car, and hearing what she’s listing to on the stereo or the radio or the laptop. I love to hear her sing. She was the first person I knew who had satellite radio! Thank you Patti for the gift of Nanci Griffith singing “Once in a Very Blue Moon.” Find it here at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3uURS1iIVo&feature=related Continue Reading »

When I conjure up my ideal teacher, that teacher I strive to be, it’s a combination of Lee Smith and Dr. Lucinda MacKethan. As teachers, they determine a student’s strengths and interests and bring their extensive resources to the table to help that student achieve and succeed in, and beyond, their classrooms.  

 I met MacKethan socially through Lee; they have been friends since college. I really got to know MacKethan when she became my advisor and teacher at North Carolina State University, where I received my MA in English and Creative Writing in 2000. When I think of Dr. MacKethan—university professor, I think of movement, long strides back and Continue Reading »

I’m borrowing a little on this title from a coal mining protest song that asked a hard and bloody question. Today’s subject matter can be hard and bloody for some. 

Last week I touched on support: who supports the writer and who doesn’t. It is a difficult thing, marring a writer, or giving birth to a writer, or having a writer for a parent or a sibling. Loving a writer often requires sacrifice of some kind. To be a writer’s helpmate, one must give up something—a piece of the writer. Let’s look at it from the nonwriter’s side of the equation.  Continue Reading »