To the Lighthouse

May 22, 2015May 21, 2015 / roughwighting / 60 Comments

My gentle kind yoga teacher suggests to the class that we can be lighthouses of peace to those around us. A lighthouse to our friends, to our community, to the world.

“Breathe in, ‘Om.’ ”

“Breathe out. ‘Shanti (peace).’ ”

In the early evening class, I find myself beaming.

Literally.

Om, breathing in.

Shanti, breathing out.

“Use this in your daily life,” he says. “In traffic. In the dentist’s chair. Be a lighthouse.”

I float out of class, late spring raindrops fall like sugar dust on my airy head, breathing in, breathing…

OUCH. Continue reading →

What’s in a Name? Part II

May 15, 2015August 25, 2016 / roughwighting / 54 Comments

Teaching about writing is an oxymoron.

[Oxymoron – the use of two words that contradict each other, like ‘wise fool.’]

How can I, or anyone, teach another to write?

A rocky oxymoron.

Well, that’s the point. I don’t offer a creative writing class to teach how to write, but to point out the importance of using the right words – to name things correctly – when creating a story. Even more importantly, I offer small (writing) steps that each of us can use to help our pen move.

If the pen moves, we connect.

Brain, pen, soul, body, back to pen, brain, soul equals a story worth telling.

That’s my theory, although others may debunk it. Continue reading →

Don’t Cry for Me…Colonoscopy

May 8, 2015May 7, 2015 / roughwighting / 75 Comments

“Get Your Butt to the Doctor!”
Credit: Katie Couric.

Most would not write about singing and a colon exam in the same short post.

I, however, am a courageous blogger, and my mind happens to be on those two subjects.

Why?

After my move from one coast to the other, I needed to find a new doctor. After hours, and days, and weeks of searching for good doc/ easy accessibility/ insurance acceptance, I found one.

I like the doc. Except she insists it’s time for me to get a colonoscopy.

I agree with her.

In principle. Continue reading →

Come Come My Dears

May 1, 2015April 30, 2015 / roughwighting / 55 Comments

From my window I observe the woman watching the birdfeeder, and I wonder if she is as strange as she seems.

“Come come, my dears, come come,” she croons, like a female Frank Sinatra. The birdfeeder is less than half-full or more than half empty, depending on your perspective, and has been for a week now, much to my dismay.

Oreo, the next-door neighbors’ black and white cat, caught one of the lustrous red cardinals in her mouth, mid-air, a week ago Monday, and the feeder has not been visited since. Continue reading →

Body Part Appreciation Day

April 24, 2015April 23, 2015 / roughwighting / 69 Comments

I’m trying to think of a body part that I like. We women are always told that we’re too critical of our bodies, and in theory, I agree. Each of us is formed the same, and yet so differently. We have the trunk, two legs, two arms, two hands with five fingers on each. Two feet and ten toes, and then, of course, there’s the head.