One night, in the circle of women, I told the story of my grandmother’s hands. The hands that chopped and seasoned and scrubbed and laundered: working hands. The hands that cradled and caressed and stroked and wiped tears away: loving hands. The hands that knit and sewed and crocheted and cross stitched: creative hands. The … Continue reading
What do you do when you need a shot of courage? Well, I’ve been over at the Art Therapy & Happiness Project discovering Chunky Books of Courage. There, I’ve been invited to peel back the layers of courage and explore what’s underneath by making my own chunky little book. The books are made up of … Continue reading
Today, in the space of a few hours, I saw a lot of people looking down. The mother walking in my neighborhood with her very young daughter. The driver in the car next to me, waiting for the light to change. The friends grabbing a quick lunch in the restaurant. The father leaving the zoo … Continue reading
Maybe I have a love-hate relationship with callings. I mean, they’re so wonderfully confusing aren’t they? The tug. The deep yearning. The promise. The daunting truth that sometimes it feels like you’re tracking a wily stranger who’s an expert at disappearing around every corner. Some people, I’ve noticed, receive very clear callings and are propelled … Continue reading
The garden is a meditation practice…In the garden one can see the time coming for both fruition and for dying back. In the garden one is moving with rather than against the inhalations and exhalations of greater wild Nature. Through this meditation we acknowledge that the Life/Death/Life cycle is a natural one. Both live-giving and … Continue reading
Here’s the thing: a lot of us are lonely. Oh, maybe we don’t use the word lonely to describe what we’re feeling. Often that seems too risky, like we’re setting ourselves up to be judged by the dictionary definitions of it: companionless, desolate, bleak. Instead we talk about the absence of (and yearning for) deep … Continue reading
Happy first day of spring! (For those of you in the Northern Hemisphere, of course). I’m still on my self-proclaimed spring break, planting poppies and savoring strawberries. Making art and lingering at an outdoor cafe. Planning a weekend adventure at the beach. In the midst of all this, it occurred to me that you might … Continue reading
It’s official: I have spring fever. I came down with it a couple of weeks ago when this splendiferous weather arrived in Northern California. Where a few months ago I was content with my black and white winter garden, now I’m itching to get my fingers in the soil and bring color and growth back … Continue reading
Want to know what I love about Charlotte Rains Dixon? She’s real. She’s present. She’s fun. She’s right here, right now. Charlotte lives in Portland and wears quite a few hats: Writer. Author. Writing Teacher and Mentor. Writing Coach. Blogger who writes about everything from how to use semicolons to the intersection of creativity and … Continue reading
I was eating a delicious chicken sandwich when I got the idea to write this. Within seconds I was up and had the computer on, barely aware of what I was doing. You know what that means, right? I immediately acted from a place of false urgency even though I am anti-false urgency. False Urgency is … Continue reading
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