Creative Vagabond-Writing & Digital Services

Artists use their senses. Everything is a playground for the muse. The way the light hits water can lead to a brilliant piece of art or an interesting story.  A friend and I discussed the insanity of our senses. How we can be over-stimulated, fractured by the sounds, the shapes, and the colors surrounding us. We are in a state of wonder about this heightened awareness and where we take it. As I write I am listenig to Irish music on a public radio station. Outside my closed door, I can hear the fan as it oscillates in my living room. Out of this mass of sound, one thing can catch my ear. It could be the sound of a baby crying or the distant wail of a fire truck. As a child, I could hear fog horns of the East River. I knew from stories my mother told me that the river was a dangerous place. The sound made me think of a lone ship lost on the water searching for its way out of the darkness. Many years later that sound still haunts me. What do we hear? Angels singing while listening to ...

Photo by  Daniil Kuželev How do our senses influence our creativity? We use our available senses all the time. We touch, taste, feel, smell, and listen. Our creative selves swim in a sea of senses. The question is, can we use this to be our better selves? Let’s start and become keen observers and writers. At the beginning of the year, we imagine what that year will bring. According to the dictionary vision “is a special sense by which the qualities of an object (as color, luminosity, shape, and size) constituting its appearance are perceived and which is mediated by the eye.” What if using this special sense, we look at our lives in a novel way? My eyesight is not the best. When I bought new glasses the world came back into view. I didn’t know what I had been missing. Not that everything sparkled; I couldn’t help but notice that I needed to revisit cleaning my apartment. But the fuzziness I had been living with disappeared, and the edges came back into focus. I rediscovered a new s...

I hate to tell you this--- if you have your photos on Facebook or any other social media site people will look at them, judge them, talk about them and even mention they saw them to you. Duh. We are curious creatures, prone to stick our noses into things, get a taste of the grass, the lay of the land. We like to look. There I said it. If you post things about yourself- people will read it. They may respond and they may share it. It is the nature of the beast. If you are a bit skittish. Don’t like personal stuff shared around the world? I suggest you stick to showing people the family vacation pics via your old slide projector. I am not being mean. You will be happy. Your friends won’t be happy- because, you know, slides. But you won’t feel intruded on at all. So let me tell you this- one of my roles in life is social media management. I can scan your account and tell a lot about you. I know what you are doing wrong if you are business, or what your favorite food is by perusing yo...

“People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar” ~Thich Nhat Hanh People stay in dead-end jobs, loveless marriages never leaving the boundaries of their hometowns. Why is it so hard to let go of things that no longer work? The devil you know is better than the one you don’t know. People are willing to live a mediocre life for the safety it provides. But what if you were guaranteed a positive outcome how would you live your life differently? What kind of choices would you make knowing each one would turn out OK? If you can imagine this different life then envision another life where you are still free to make choices but are unsure of the outcome. Except now you accept the consequences of your choices knowing they could be either bad or good. In this life, you feel fear but take chances anyway. Every day we make a choice. You want to lose weight but eat ice cream. You buy a new sweater knowing the money could...

We plan each day. We start with coffee, a shower, or maybe exercise. We go to work or school from Monday to Friday. Saturday is for shopping and errands. Sunday’s, we wake up late; go to brunch or a church service. Maybe you get up and create art or work nights. A routine affords us the comfort to stretch emotionally and physically without distraction. Routines fail us. Tragedy strikes. We go to work and lose our job. A serious illness strikes a relative. Or we look in the mirror and realize this is not the life we had planned on living. A Crucial Point Decisions are normal. We wear blue instead of red. We drop an umbrella in our bag at the last moment. Do you want paper or plastic? Others require more thought. What school we attend. Do we leave a marriage? Should I establish my career before having a child? Situations force us to decide. The longed-for dream house is no longer affordable. We have to decide about a loved one’s healthcare. At this crucial point in life’s journey, the ...

  “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” ~ Douglas Noel Adams, English humorist, and science fiction novelist   It has taken me forty minutes to begin writing this column. I had to find the right music to play. There were the writing books to look through. After all, the experts have all done it before me so I can learn from them. I needed water, chocolate, my hair had to be pinned off my face. I checked outside to see if it was raining. I positioned the fan just right since the air conditioner is still sitting on the floor in front of the window. I have a deadline to keep. I am like a runner before a race, pacing nervously, stretching drinking water, getting ready for the starting shot to set me off to the finish line. Let me tell you right off that I hate deadlines. They make me itch, I get cranky and all my bad behavior and methods of procrastination begin to overtake me. I whine.  “ I am an artist I can't create by schedule ” ! It is ...

G etting It: Who doesn’t want to feel powerful walking down the street or into a room full of strangers? What is personal power? By its simplest definition, power is the capacity to perform or act effectively. Personal would mean pertaining to or coming from a particular person. So personal power is the ability of a person to act effectively. That is easy enough. I know lots of effective people. I know when I am good at something it is very satisfying. The ability to produce a result makes you a more desirable person. The salesperson that brings in the most business. An effective government can make its citizenry content and more supportive of that government. When you can achieve things you are a happier person. Knowing action brings results makes you more willing to take chances. You may not be one of the lucky people born with an innate knowledge of their power and gifts. If you are not now effective how you can turn that around? It is the cumulative effect of trial and error that ...

We talked about things, the book. I told you I could not understand what  the fuss was all about. I d i dn’t really like her writing anyway. How about the other one? The one who people think is so smart. I said she is nice and all. But I had a roommate who was getting her PhD who could not boil an egg or iron a shirt. I taught her all that. It’s not the PhD that impresses me, it is the ability to love. I said all these things, stupid things to keep talking, to keep my brain alive. I’ve got wild beasts caught in my throat you know. I have to keep talking to let them out. Ever wondered why all those old people talk all the time? Man, we must keep moving our mouths… move those beasties aside. I told you before when I go on and on about some petty thing the conversation I am having is not the conversation I am having. I am trying to get to something caught deep inside. If I told you all of it, I would have to start screaming. I would scream so loud and so long. I would throw my head ba...