Tag: Writer Zen Garden

  • Q is for Queer (Sci Fi)

    Contributed by J. Scott Coatsworth, author, publisher, and community organizer.

    When ACatherine Noon asked me to write something for the Writer Zen Garden, I had no idea what I should write about. And she was no help whatsoever, giving me only the letter Q as a prompt.

    Fortunately the word “queer” came to the rescue.

    Queer has a long history in Western Culture. Probably coming from the German word “quer,” it meant something odd or perverse. It wasn’t until the 1900s that it became attached to sexual orientation, specifically gay men, and by the 1950’s it was a fairly widespread slur for men who preferred the company of other men.

    As such, it became a source of great pain for gay men who grew up in that era, and who heard it sneered at them by straight men, often accompanied with threats of violence, or worse.

    I was born in 1968, and grew up after the word queer had fallen out of general use as a slur in most places. The word faggot took its place for my generation, and I still have a hard time even writing that vile word. So it gives me a window into how the word “queer” makes the baby boomer generation feel even now.

    In the 1980’s the gay and lesbian community (later the GLB, GLBT, LGBT, LGBTQ, and LGBTIQA, but that’s a whole ‘nuther conversation about evolution and inclusivity) decided it wanted to reclaim the word, and began using it themselves to remove the sting. Even so, it’s still fraught for many folks to this day.

    Marissa Higgins at “Bustle” describes the inherent difficulties in the use of the word well:

    “As I remarked before, whether or not someone identifies with and uses the word “queer” is an intensely personal decision. For myself personally, the word ‘queer’ is one I use comfortably when it comes to academic discourse and discussing the ‘community.’ I avoid using it as a way of describing others, and generally avoid using it as a way to describe my own orientation, as I prefer a more specific label. Admittedly, as a woman of the Millennial generation who grew up in a relatively liberal area, I never experienced ‘queer’ as a slur, so I have fewer negative feelings attached to it than many of my peers, especially those in the older generation.”

    When I created Queer Sci Fi in 2014, I was looking for a word that would encompass the entire community. I chose “queer” because “rainbow” and “lavender” were so overdone, LGBT seemed insufficient for inclusivity, and LGBTIQA was such a mouthful.

    But the generational divide over the word is real and persistent. I’ve had some of the older folks in the community take great offense at the use of the word “queer” in the Queer Sci Fi moniker. It hasn’t happened in a while, but a discussion in 2018 about which words we should use as a community showed that there was still a fair amount of disgust with the word “queer” among our elders.

    I am a big fan of reclamation, and also of inclusion. “Queer” serves both those purposes, and so It works for Queer Sci Fi and QueeRomance Ink.

    But we must always be mindful of the history of it, and the harm it once did to our community.

    We still have a lot of work to do.

  • P Is For… Poetry! … Or Is It?

    Contributed by Jessica Lea.

    P is for poetry, my current passion. But, of course, P also stands for PANDEMIC. Which I don’t want to write about…but how can it be avoided? Worlds turned upside down – or inside (not out).

    Everywhere I turn, there it is. An infestation tainting art, music, poetry. News. I am just so tired and want to escape, read my books about the fae and dream about hiding in a forest wearing these incredible handcrafted shoes I can order from Australia that look like leaves.

    My seven-year-old daughter and I are roommates now because she can’t fall asleep, stay asleep, or have a good night’s sleep without waking with nightmares. I am in an alternative universe – the separation of work and home gone replaced by four furry co-workers and two students. Everything is in slow motion. And I don’t have extra time on my hands – just extra responsibilities. And anxiety.

    Former in person meetings and classes are now on Zoom. All screens flash with free art and writing classes, museum and zoo tours, authors reading their work. Expectations that we artists should be (even more) productive proportionate to the increase in free time due to being “stuck” at home. So many options to spend this elusive increase in time being creative that it is completely overwhelming.

    It’s National Poetry Month and I had a very serious goal to write at least one poem. Every. Single. Day. Newsflash: goals may not reflect reality despite the encouragement and good intentions of books, blogs, social media, email lists, and meditation apps. I am not helping to pave that road.

    So, I have done some things. Maybe not as much as I expected or pressured myself to. I am enough. I am going to go at my own pace – and this is your permission to go at yours.

  • O Is For… Out of the Box!

    Contributed by Suzie Brown.

    I grew grew up very much in the box, many of them actually. The Christian box. The perfect daughter box. The A student box. The best friend sister box. As I grew older, it seems, I grew more boxes too. The perfect mom and wife box. The nurse box. The martyr for everyone box.

    There were always little cracks in these boxes and I worked hard to hide them, to fix them. I had premarital sex, bad. I hated housekeeping and cooking, so bad. I cheated on my husband, practically evil.

    Until one day my boxes just exploded. I left my husband in a spur of the moment decision. My kids stayed with their dad and I was no longer behind any walls. I started drinking, doing drugs, and sleeping around, a lot. I was so far out of the boxes of my past that I got totally lost.

    After about a year Walter and I found each other. I truly believe we saved each other. With Walter and I there are no more boxes. I feel free to do and study whatever I want. I’m free to re-invent myself and my world however I want. I’m now the wife, the mom, the nurse, and the spiritual being I’ve always wanted to be. I’m doing, learning, and believing many things that those still in their boxes don’t understand.

    The best thing about about being out of the box is that I don’t care what anyone else thinks. I’m free to be me without walls and I can honestly say I’ve never been happier. So if you, too, are peeking out of the little cracks in your box, trying to find the real you, I hope you find the strength and courage to explore the world outside your box. If you do or don’t know that I will love you just as you are.

    Peace!!

  • N Is For… Needs, Noodles and Nowhere…Living in the time of COVID-19

    Contributed by Piper Strick.

    First, let me tell you who I am and what I do for a living. That will set the stage for what’s to follow. At my core, I’m a helper! I try to help people see new perspectives, try new behaviors, examine their thinking, be more effective…essentially become a better version of themselves. My job requires this of me as I’m responsible for talent management and development. Even some of my friends and family have come to rely on me for these skills. What’s been interesting recently is the need to learn to help MYSELF. For some reason, that’s harder…much harder. So I’ve employed a journal and some guided exercises from the experts. Here are some of my lessons from working in a world with Coronavirus over the past several weeks.

    Needs

    At the start of all this, five weeks or so ago, I found myself whining a bit. My mental monologue included statements of fact like, “But I NEED to be with people!” “I need to wear all the cute shoes in my closet.” “I need to be somewhere other than my house.” Pretty quickly I found that my perspective was quite negative. And upon examination, I realized these weren’t actually needs but wants. From then on, when I feel like I’m missing out on something I ask myself, “Is this a need to have or a nice to have?” If it’s merely a nice to have, I put it on a list to keep track of it for when I can do that thing or have that thing again. If it’s a need to have, I ask the next question. “Do I need this now, or in the near future?” If now, I figure out a way to get it, or at least something close to it. These questions have allowed me to let go of the expectations that aren’t realistic during a time of crisis and stay at home orders.

    Noodles

    I’ve found food to be important for my mental health as well so with NO guilt, I’m eating what makes me feel good (in moderation). What can I say? Noodles are delicious and make me happy. So do nachos, nectarines, and nuts. I make sure to get the healthy stuff in my diet regularly, too, of course. Recognizing how the foods I eat affect my mood and my body has been quite helpful. When I know I feel better after eating a salad than I do after eating a toaster strudel, I make a better, more conscious choice. But, don’t get me wrong, noodles are necessary!

    Nowhere

    Often these days I feel like I’m going nowhere. I’m sequestered and feel that my freedom has been taken away. What has helped with this is taking a few minutes at the end of each day to write about what I’m grateful for in my journal. It helps me realize that I DO have choice, over many things. And whenever I feel stuck I go outside because nature is beautiful. Soak it in. Recognize it. Revel in the wonder of a night sky. I hope this post has given you something to noodle about (see what I did there?).

  • M Is For… Motivation!

    Is there such a thing as self-motivation? Perhaps, but a shared load is halved, right?

    It’s tough enough to stay motivated on a good day; shelter-in-place is making it harder for most of us.

    How do we motivate when our new normal is commuting 20 feet to the home office? Except for a few video conferences most of us are cut off from motivational confabs with the coworkers.

    I know of one executive who is attempting to make a go of it in a more excellent way than just getting through another day. His wife also is working from home and they have small children who need to get schoolwork done. They motivate each other by keeping a routine: wake and sleep times have stayed the same as before with both spouses taking turns keeping the kids moving while the adults work through their day. Easy? Not really, but definitely stimulating.

    I keep a routine as best I can (never have been good at it). My husband and I lavish motivational praise on each other for completing even the most mundane tasks. Keeps us going!

    I also make it a point to share motivational texts with a few besties during the day: quick snappy messages that are joyful and encouraging. Keeping it short can still connect you without being disruptive of your work schedule. You can always have a longer, more relaxed chat after the workday is done.

    So, who can you share a motivational moment with? What positive reinforcement can you gift someone?

    You’ll feel less isolated and more productive by sharing motivational forces with your household loved ones and your remote partners-in-captivity.

    Go on, enjoy sharing some positive motivation, have a delightfully productive day.

    Bio:

    Jonni Lukenbill-Bowles is a Career Counselor and Lifestyle Coach in the midwestern United States. See more about Jonni on sageprairie.net and her blog at sageprairiestudio.com . Write to Jonni at CoachJonni AT CoachJonni DOT com.

  • L Is For… Learning About Tropes; and Theme vs Trope vs Motif, and What About How?

    Contributed by Sela Carsen.

    I’ve been writing romance for… well, let’s just say a long time. A very long time. I write this genre because I love it. For all the ups and downs and ins and outs, the vast variety of stories speaks to me.

    But that doesn’t mean that I’m done learning. Even things that sound simple aren’t always easily understood, so it’s important to constantly study. Just last week, I had an epiphany around a word I thought I knew, until I began to examine it more closely.

    Let’s talk about tropes. But to do that, we’re going to work our way through motifs and themes first.

    Thesis: I’ve come to believe that we typically call a “trope” might be more usefully defined (at least for my own purposes) as a plot motif.

    Theme: What’s the heart-meaning of this story?

    Motif: What symbols, metaphors, or characters can I use to reinforce and illustrate that meaning?

    Trope: What commonly identifiable plot structures can I use to reinforce and illustrate that meaning?

    To take an example that’s commonly misidentified as a trope: “billionaire romance.” This is, in fact, a motif, but it is neither a theme nor a trope.

    “Billionaire romance” hinges on a commonly recurring character, so it’s sort of a motif, but really, it’s little more than a job description that we use as shorthand for a specific type of character. It’s not even a particular archetype of a character, except as “hero,” and then it doesn’t really define which type of hero very well. Is he the hard working and polite hero? The trickster rogue hero? The hero who was born under a lucky star?

    It says nothing about the story itself. It’s just… a guy with money, which isn’t especially heroic, in and of itself, but it’s often touted as a romance trope. How does “guy with money” make the leap to being called a trope?

    It doesn’t. It’s just a character. A character is not a trope, and it’s only a motif inasmuch as the character archetype illustrates the theme of the story.

    By that reasoning, then, we can take away all the “this type of character” elements of romance that we love – biker, geeky heroine, virgin hero, boy next door, kickass heroine – and put them aside as Motifs, Not Tropes.

    So how does a trope compare to a theme? Are they the same thing?

    Nope. Theme is more like “what’s the meaning of this story?” Is it trying to teach a lesson, or illustrate an element of human nature, or, to use that high school lit class question, is it man vs man, man vs nature, man vs himself, etc?

    The literary world uses the word “theme” like a 20-lb sledge hammer. “But what does it MEAN?” they ask, as if the question itself has meaning.

    “Is it about how beauty rots from the inside?”

    “Does it boil down to the meaningless nature of life?”

    Oy. Some people need to get over themselves.

    But the sharp stick up the literati’s collective ass doesn’t negate the idea that a lot of romance is based on the central themes of Hope or Redemption or Truth or any number of wonderfully positive ideals.

    But an ideal or a theme doesn’t tell you how the story is going to go. That’s where plot comes in. And that’s where tropes come in. If we take the idea that a trope is really a plot motif that fortifies the theme, let’s work it out with some examples.

    Let’s take the theme of “Truth.”

    One way you could illustrate the theme is by using the trope of “Fake Dating.” It’s usually employed because one or both parties want to pull the wool over someone else’s eyes. They’re lying and the plot hinges on them working their way up to telling the truth – to themselves, to each other, to everyone else.

    You could also illustrate the theme of Truth by using the tropes of “Marriage of Convenience” or “Love Triangle” or “Secret Baby.” Those are the vehicles you use to get to the main idea of Truth.

    Let’s do another one. Say, “Redemption.”

    My favorite Redemption storyline is “Beauty and the Beast.” The Beast can only be redeemed – become human again – by learning self-sacrifice and pure, giving love. So the trope, the storyline, the plot of Beauty and the Beast is one way to illustrate the theme of Redemption.

    Another possible trope/plot motif to illustrate the same theme would be “Second Chance.” One or both of them screwed up earlier and now they have to forgive. They have to redeem their chance to love again.

    So there are many different tools that can be used to illustrate the same theme. A trope is simply the commonly identifiable plot structure you use to get there.

    Bio:  Sela Carsen is an award-winning author of paranormal and sci-fi romance — with or without sex and dead bodies. Your pick. She maintains a permanent nerd-on for fairytales and mythology, and openly hoards reference books about obscure folklore. Born a wanderer, she and her family have finally settled in the Midwest. Until they move again, at least.

  • K Is For… Knowledge, and Other Smart Things!

    Image from airplane window while flying over two snow-capped volcanos in Washington State USA

    Noony here. As I write this, the U.S. passes the half-million mark of those infected with COVID-19 and my state, Washington, is still under a Stay Home, Stay Healthy order until the end of the month at least. It’s hard to overestimate the trauma caused by this situation: to individuals and families, forced to shelter in place; to the millions experiencing job loss; to the small businesses facing stoppages; children not able to attend classes, prom, and sports games; and a host of other things. This doesn’t even mention the families who have lost loved ones or are currently facing illness.

    During a time like this, unprecedented in its scope to us in modern society, it is incumbent upon us to follow the best knowledge that we can. Here are a few ways to do that:

    1. Remember that the media companies are in business and their business means they need your attention.
    2. Constantly focusing on the negative, whether it’s politics or a health crisis or something else, is unhealthy.
    3. If you do want to find out what’s going on, use good data sources:
      1. In the U.S., that means the doctors who specialize in epidemics and viral disease, such as Dr. Anthony Fauci.
      2. The World Health Organization.
      3. John’s Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.
    4. If you want to learn about the disease itself, The Great Courses Plus has some excellent classes available to subscribers. In the U.S., you can access them through Kanopy via your public library’s electronic learning, or you can subscribe directly to the courses (which I enthusiastically recommend).
    5. Beyond that, ignore the news. Stop focusing on it, going bananas about what this or that person is doing or saying.
    6. Make something.
    7. Meditate.
    8. Garden.
    9. Nap.
    10. Take it easy. Trauma is exhausting. That’s meant literally: it makes our bodies physically tired. Get more rest, and if you’re tired, take a nap.

     

    Knowledge is power, as the saying goes. Read books, write in your journal, and use your mind. It’s easy to become scared in a time like this, particularly if you go online and find so many other scared people. But we need to take a deep breath and remember: we were given a mind for a reason. Use your knowledge. Build your knowledge. Keep calm and carry on.

    It worked for the British during World War II and it can work for us, now.

    Stay well, my friends.

    P.S. Wash your hands.

  • E Is For… Eight Essential Strategies for Optimum Creative Productivity in a World of Pandemonium

    Image of author Becca Howell with words "Stay Home #flattenthecurve"Contributed by Writer Zen Garden Member, Becca Howell.

    Most start the new year out with ideas for where they want their lives to go in the coming year.  Creatives are no different.  “This year, I am going to write that book, record that album, open up a successful photography, jewelry making, or insert your business of choice here.”  Just like with some more common goals of the year, I am going to lose weight, get in shape or eat healthier, creatives can lose their steam after a short time.  Life gets in the way, there are other priorities, or several generations were brought up to view creativity as non-essential and therefore, allow other things to take precedence.  According to US and News Report, about 80% of people will quit their New Year’s resolutions about six weeks into the year.  Even more alarming is that January 17, is designated as the National Ditch Your New Year’s Resolution Day. These statistics also apply to creative individuals wanting to achieve their goals.

    Fast-forward to the year 2020 about 2 1/2 months in: the world is rocked by Covid-19, an infectious disease that has forced many into different levels of quarantine.  Many creatives may have thought, this is an amazing time for me to achieve the goal that I set forth earlier this year and were excited for the extra time they were given to stay home and be creative since lay-offs were at a record high with businesses closing temporarily to avoid the spread of the virus.  As they began to adapt to this new way of life, a few weeks in, some realized, wow, this is easier said that done as people are dealing with new stressors that they never thought they would have to face in life.  Some creatives are struggling to get a stronghold on their zone and get in the flow of starting and finishing the projects that they have dreamed of completing all year long.  Here are eight strategies to help:

    Struggle #1: It is almost impossible to focus on my creativity amidst all that is happening in the world.

    Image of blank canvas.

    Strategy to overcome: Own your mindset.  It’s true that people are dying out there and others are struggling financially as they wait for unemployment to start.  Yes, hospitals are overflowing, and medical professionals are overwrought.  It’s true there are people who ignore the stay at home orders and continue to spread the disease.  Yes, it’s a crazy time.  It is true that you have control over your emotions and how to feel them.  You can choose to wake up each morning and check to see the data: how many new cases, how many fatalities and how close the virus is to you and then remain stuck all day wrought with worry, fear, anxiety, and depression.  Instead, take a moment and close your eyes, breath in your dream and remember the passion you have for what you want to create.  Feel that passion in your heart and whenever you feel the sense of dread, anxiety, fear, depression or panic that you struggle with, repeat that exercise and center yourself knowing you can make a difference with your creation.

    Struggle #2:  With everything going on in the world or in life, my creative juices are blocked.

    Image of art piece with rainbow colored hearts

    Strategy to overcome:  This is my personal favorite.  The daily brain-dump.  I do this in the morning and carry a small notebook throughout the day to add to it.  I take 10 minutes and just jot down anything that comes to mind.  Not everything I add is creative.  I could add something like – where to get toilet paper?  I might make a sketch.  I might write, it makes me very sad that the world is getting to me at this time and I need to pray for so and so’s mom who tested positive yesterday.  At the end of my brain- dump, I go through and highlight anything that may be of any use to a creative project and try to work that in somehow.  This is an exercise that can be done at any time of day, I just find that I am fresh after a night of sleep and brain processing time.

    Struggle #3: I don’t even know what day it is during this crazy time, let alone have any routine to be creative.

    Image of gold metal necklace

    Strategy to overcome:  Only you know what the optimum time of day always has been for your creativity.  It might be early morning; it might be late at night or anywhere in between.  That time needs to become your protected time.  You might be more creative after you’ve had a nap, or with a glass of wine, or tea, or after listening to some music or pumping some weights.  You know yourself best.  Decide what time of day is the best for you personally and design a ritual around that time to get yourself to the creative flow.  For the days, you just aren’t there, insist anyway.  This is a date with yourself and you can’t stand yourself up.  For me, I am most creative early in the morning after a solid exercise regiment and meditation and my brain-dump.  Atmosphere is also important to me and I tend to light candles as well as use white pixie lights in my area to keep my mind flowing.  Equally crucial, make it fun.  This is a new adventure you are on and it won’t be something you want to do day after day if it is something you dread.

    Struggle #4: With all this extra time on my hands, I should have 100 pages written but I have zilch.

    Image of gold metal necklace with three elephant pendants from baby to adult

    Strategy to overcome:  Give yourself grace.  This most likely is the first time you are experiencing something of this magnitude.  The fact that you have read this far into this article shows that you have intention.  Forgive yourself and scale down your expectations.  Maybe even cross genres.  If you don’t feel like writing that day, instead maybe you feel like painting, coloring, or taking pictures of your surroundings., do it.  No matter what, keep your creative date with yourself and just do something that uses your creative skills in some manner.

    Struggle #5: I don’t know where to start.

    Image of collaged young woman with black hair

    Strategy to overcome: Decide what your main goal is creatively.  Maybe you want to write a successful blog or open a business where you sell your crafts and art. Brainstorm all the different parts of that goal.  What do you need to do?  What do you need to learn?  What creative content do you need to produce?  What is the biggest thing holding you back?  Break it down into bite sized pieces and put deadlines to those pieces.  During your daily creative dates, take a chunk of one of those pieces and chew it carefully with intent and once its swallowed, you can move on to the next piece of your goal.  Sometimes deadlines won’t be met because you realize that your second step has about 3 more steps to it and those take time.  Give yourself grace and just rescale your vision.

    Struggle # 6: I want it to be perfect.

    Image of painting of young blond woman laughing

    Strategy to overcome: Throw perfectionism to the wind!  This is one of the biggest things that hold creatives back.  Yes, we all want our final product to be the best we have to offer, but don’t let that hinder you from even starting.  Keep a challenge log each day of how you deliberately weren’t perfect in your creativity.  Be intentional about it.

    Struggle #7:  I just don’t feel like it because of everything that is going on in the world.

    Image of young man with angel halo and young woman with devil tail and horns

    Strategy to overcome:  Review Struggle #1, breathe in your passion, but dig in deeper here.  Why don’t you feel like it?  Is it because you’ve been stress eating since you’ve been quarantined?  Is it because your gym is closed, and you don’t know where to get your wiggles out and your body isn’t used to being as sedentary as it is?  Is it because you are sleeping a different schedule?  Aren’t getting enough rest or broken rest?  Is it because those who live in your home are driving you mad?  You are cooking 3 full meals a day and cleaning for an hour after each one?  Figure out what is eating at you and how you can creatively overcome it with the constraints of whatever your life looks like with the pandemonium the world has tossed you.  It could be as simple as learning to meditate or going out for a daily walk or getting yourself on a more realistic sleep pattern.

    Struggle #8 I don’t have the knowledge to do what my creative dream is right now.

    Image of black and white painting of two women, one older and one younger

    Strategy to overcome:  With the world of social distancing, there are more and more individuals starting social media groups dedicated to knowledge sharing and helping one another.  More and more businesses are offering reduced class rates and even a plethora of freebies.  Takelessons.com is offering a free trial of their live classes for all sorts of things.  Udemy often offers classes for as low at $10 if you watch for flash sales, and blueprint is offering free classes through April 9, 2020.  See what’s out there, you may be surprised.

    The honest bottom line is that this outbreak is changing the way we have lived for so long and there is a lot of value in that for creatives.  Remember, while many of us come from the generation that creativity is a hobby which holds little value, right now it is those that have creative talents that are entertaining the masses stuck at home.  The world needs beauty, it needs the light, humor, creative distraction, music, television and books. While creativity has been viewed as non-essential for so long, it is swiftly becoming essential at this very moment.  Can you imagine the books, paintings, movies, and digital art that will be quarantine based in the years to come?

    Creative, this is your time to shine.

  • B is For… Beauty!

    Contributed by Tina Holland.

    Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or so the saying goes. I suspect beauty can be found in our hearing, touch and taste as well.

    It can be hard to find the beauty when you are stuck indoors, but have you ever watched tv and laughed, listened to music and danced, tasted food that made you hum. Isn’t there beauty in these things?

    During these times we don’t get to go out much at least not to art galleries, museums, concert halls, zoos, or anyplace else that may grant beauty to our senses. However these venues are ironically more accessible to us like never before. Free online concerts, painting classes, private zoo tours, and so many more.

    I see more people out walking, because they can’t go to the gym. Writers getting together online to write, crafters crafting together. And I myself took up Rosemaling to try and relearn a skill I hadn’t since I was a small child, but something prompted me to try during this time.

    A few weeks ago I was in a class and learned that through some of our greatest illnesses came literature, art and music the likes of which the world had never seen. Here is a link to an article by Alan Cross with more details.

    What will your passion and hope create?

    Whatever it is, I’m sure it will be a thing of Beauty.

  • It’s the A to Z Blog Challenge, and A Is For All of Us, Sheltering At Home

    Photograph of bald eagle, missing one wing, taken at Northwest Trek in Washington State in February 2020

    Welcome to the A to Z Blog Challenge!

    We are all in this together, my friends, during the time of Coronavirus. But it’s also the first day of April, and that means it’s the annual celebration of exuberant blogging, The A to Z Blog Challenge.  And it’s also the Grand Relaunch of the Writer Zen Garden, and ALSO Camp Nanowrimo!

    My lovely fellow above is a Bald Eagle, photographed in February before the shelter in place orders really hit in Washington State. He’s missing one wing but he’s as gorgeous as ever. Fierce and unbowed.

    That’s my wish for all of us, my friends, that we emerge from this fierce and unbowed. Even as I write this, I know with tears in my heart that it’s not possible for many, many people. Families touched by the loss of loved ones, countries devastated by overwhelming losses. And yet, we struggle through and fight to come to grips with the challenges facing us.

    Humanity is, and ever has been, a resilient creature. We have survived enormous hardships from wars and conflicts to natural disasters. And through it all, creators have continued to create: writers write books and poetry, blogs and essays; painters paint oils and acrylics, street art and gallery pieces; dancers dance and design amazing shows that leave us breathless; and on and on through the litany of the arts. What it comes down to is expression.

    And here’s the thing: we are naturally creative. We, as in all of us – you, me, that child over there, that old man living isolated and alone in the upstairs apartment – we are, all of us, creative. And that’s what the A to Z Challenge means to me, at its most distilled: an exuberant outpouring of content creation in the month of April whose only stipulation is that Day 1 is related to A, Day 2 to B, and so on throughout the month with Sundays as rest days. 26 days to correspond to the English language alphabet. One can select a theme, or not, as they choose.

    And thus, we relaunch our website and blog into this atmosphere of unbridled blogging fun and creativity. This year, we have twenty bloggers to share with you: from professional authors and insurance agents, to poets, Reiki masters, life coaches, and a whole lot more besides. Our strength is in our diversity and we welcome you, Dear Reader, to journey through the alphabet with us. We’re glad you’re here. We hope that this provides a small oasis in your life, a place to rest, recover, and recreate within your own heart that solace which we sorely lack during trying times. And if you and yours are touched personally, please know that our hearts go out to you. May we all, collectively, be safe and well.

    Namaste.

    And, happy April!