MOST RECENT ESSAY (November 20, 2024) Reflecting at water’s edge is an age-old human activity. Water bodies are after all nature’s original mirror. My most recent essay offers reflections on how a visit to Walden Pond with a friend to paint Autumn’s fading palette of reds and golds “en plein air” resulted in an abundance of reflection, introspection, connection and balance.
Through the Looking Glass: Nature's Restorative Mirror
On The Importance of Essays
In 2024, I hit the age of 50. Leading up to that birthday, I found myself needing more than my journal to understand my personal experience of approaching and hitting a milestone. The 1,000 Words of Summer challenge, hosted by Jami Attenberg of CraftTalk sent me on a journey of writing not only essays but short stories.
My first essay, was an inquiry into why I was obsessed with art. Why did I feel compelled to do it? Why did I need to do it? Why does anyone spend hours on art? This led me to the psychology of art and storytelling.
It wasn’t long before I changed my Substack name to Spaghetti Twisted Thoughts having written a short piece that expressed how I feel on most days, twisted up inside.
In that short piece, I wrote: “My most cogent, straightforward articulations of my spaghetti-twisted thoughts and feelings come when I'm least capable of writing them down and most susceptible to twisting an ankle.” Three days later I published it because I am terrible at waiting.
I then delved into the land of fiction and storytelling, culminating in November 2024 with my first experience writing a novel with NaNoWriMo. I met the 50,000 word goal but put it on the backburner to simmer for a bit.
More and More Essays!
I continue to write essays infused with questions about why I am the way I am and why I do what I do.
