Feeling drab, I set out to find the character I want to spend the rest of my life with. — A couple of friends made cracks about my hair. Didn’t I want to brighten up the dull gray? Didn’t I want the cute pixie cut I sported pre-Covid? A look in the mirror revealed my sagging eyes. Had I let myself go? I took some selfies. I still had my…

Dear one, Years ago, I spent months working on a master chart depicting an Artist’s Adventure. I mashed together my understanding of Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey (descent and return) and a popularized view of Tantric Buddhism (ascending and descending chakras), and the old B-school Reflect-Understand-Plan-Do cycle (diagram below). Don’t worry…

Tiny marvels, mysticism, and make-believe — Dear one, I’m looking around our great room. Every table is crowded with tool kits or supply boxes — clay-shaping, needle-felting, hand-sewing, doll-stuffing; clay, wool, cord, buttons, fabric scraps, reclaimed woolens from the thrift store. Really, I just meant to wrap up a doll project I started last summer. Everyone…

The evolution of ideas is no quick process, but worth the time — December 27, 2011. The Price family gathered at John D. McGurk’s Irish pub in south St. Louis for our annual Christmas party. This year I brought a special gift for my sisters, my nieces, and my many girl cousins and their daughters: copies of Tribe of the Breakaway Beads: Book…

Why can’t adults take candy from strangers? — Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Friday, August 7, 1992. The small man turned in his chair toward us. “Why don’t you come with me to Kabul?” His words struck me like lightning. Kabul? Afghanistan? The U.S. State Department had issued stern warnings against venturing anywhere near Afghanistan. It was our second morning in…

Fresh air for the midlife doldrums — A revelation: I stood browsing in the fiction section of the library. My eye caught something new. What was this? A shelf packed with books on how to write mystery and crime novels? I began looking at them, a treasure trove of instructions about plot, character, theme, and setting. It…

Why go to the effort of self-publishing a book in my seventies? — On an April morning in 2020 (grieving for my mom, isolated by Covid), I sat down to see if I could write a scene between my great-grandparents Moses Flanagan and Maggie Keville, hoping to dramatize my grandmother’s life story. …

A reflection after the Dobbs decision — At the age of 35, I chose to have a bilateral tubal ligation (BTL) — tubes tied. Sterilization —it’s a hard-edged word for a door deliberately bricked over. The year was 1983. I was divorced, childless, and happy. The decision had been worked out in my twenties, while I was…

Nothing is as it seems — Nothing like a winter meditation on art and history, a deep dive into the mysteries of the world around me. As snow settles across the landscape, I look around our cabin's great room. The walls are covered with African masks. What can I learn about their magic? In the 1990s…