I write a lot about to reasons to write, but I don’t give enough attention to what we get from reading. And since we are reading less and skimming more, I’m concerned.

It takes an outside force for us to make things.

Are we artists if we aren’t generating new material?

I collect sentences and phrases like other people collect shells on the beach.

Writing is a craft and honing it takes time and practice. But breaking it down into small bits, and naming the parts, helps makes the process a little less frightening and, perhaps, a little less bitter.

Was it part of the gallery? An artist’s work in progress? Just a rusty old car?

Because I admire these tools of my trade, I spent this month hunting for powerful examples of what words can do for us… To honor them and shine a light on how hard they work.

Gathering in public places asks something different of us now.

We know the places we know sensorally - what they feel-smell-sound-look-and taste like. Place imprints on us and is a part of making us, us. For the places we ache for, we may have a sense that they could transform us into who we want to be.

We all mess up and have either apologized or wished we had. And we all have either asked for forgiveness, or needed to and didn’t.

I’m big on anniversaries and this month marks a very significant one. It’s been 50 years since the auto accident that set my memoir’s storyline into action.