Tag Archives: Activism

The Tale of Two Quilts

“What goes around comes around.” — The basic definition of how karma, the law of cause and effect, works.

“And in the end, the love you make is equal to the love you take.” — Lyrics from the Beatles song, The End, composed by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon-McCartney. It was the last song recorded collectively by all four Beatles from the album, Abbey Road.

This is a tale of two quilts, two long-term relationships, two sisters and two lessons about karma.   Continue reading

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Back to Blue: Restoring Progressive Roots

As a poet and memoirist I typically write about remembered experiences, the people and events from my life, and the accompanying feelings. I often examine the meaning of those memories and how the people, places and things can inform my choices and help determine the direction of my path moving forward. I look back and reflect, and I practice mindfulness when I’m able (a challenge some days) and I visualize my future.

I’m also a novice activist-writer. I sometimes comment on issues that I hold close to my heart and reflect my personal values: LGBTQ and gender identity, feminism, civil rights, spiritual freedom, economic, gender, and class parity, gun control, substance abuse recovery, domestic violence and the protection and support of vulnerable populations including the mentally ill, homeless, children and the aged. Critically important is the intersectionality of these issues.

Occasionally I venture into and comment on mainstream politics which always seems like a minefield. This post is about the current political climate in my home state of Wisconsin. I enter the fray with trepidation. Continue reading

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The Legacy of a Life

“Let your very existence be your song, your poem, your story.
Let your very identity be your book.
Let the way people say your name sound like the sweetest melody.”
 ― Charlotte Eriksson*

The end of the year draws close. For some of us it’s a time to take inventory, to review the past year and look ahead to the new one. For others it’s marked a passage, an ending, hopefully to be followed by a new beginning. From Wikipedia:

In ancient Roman religion and mythJanus is the god of beginnings and transitions, and thereby of gates, doors, doorways, passages and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces, since he looks to the future and to the past. It is conventionally thought that the month of January is named for Janus.” Continue reading

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Fed Up & Hungry for Change

“There is a public menace that threatens the children, threatens the future prosperity of the country and threatens you”Robert Cameron Fowler, Indiewire

Today I saw the documentary film, Fed Up. From the film’s website, “Everything we’ve been told about food and exercise for the past 30 years is dead wrong. FED UP is the film the food industry doesn’t want you to see. From Katie Couric, Laurie David (Oscar winning producer of AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH) and director Stephanie Soechtig, FED UP will change the way you eat forever.”

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Musings on a Year of Writing

“I’ve learned that by the practice of writing with intention, discipline, and passion, I became a writer.”

This past week marks a year, the anniversary, the birthday of this blog. I’ve been writing as an avocation for over 35 years, beginning with poetry, followed by recovery journals, stand-up comedy and monologue scripts, memoir writing, and finally as an activist-essayist.  Since starting this blog and maintaining a practice of writing at least weekly, I’ve become the thing I’ve been doing. I’m a writer. Continue reading

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Third Act

“There’s a moment when people know — whatever their skills are at denial — that they have passed from what they can delude themselves into thinking is middle age to something that you could call the third act.”  Nora Ephron

First, let me say denial is powerful. It can both serve us and hurt us, but in the end it must be faced and addressed. Though I am living the sixth decade of my life, a thirty-something still resides inside, a youthful, progressive-thinking woman trying to figure what she wants to be when she grows up. I am always surprised when I look in the mirror and see my sixty-something self. Continue reading

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