Urban Foraging. My Sacrifices for Art. As I extract the weeds still stuck to my clammy palm, beads of my sweat drip onto the other greenery I’ve just plopped onto the table. I stand in admiration of my plunder, the bounty of another urban foraging escapade. …

Lessons in Letting Go (or Not) — Today, I had it out with my garden hose. I’m not proud of it, but I’m in a confessional mood. I’d like to say I won, but that would be like saying I beat myself in a fist fight. With myself. Because didn’t I create the whole altercation? I mean…

Enduring the Heat of Stressful Times — Rivers pour off me, as if I’m in the shower, but my own pores fuel this particular deluge. My lungs strain to wring oxygen from acrid air thick with sweat and smoke. My eyes squint to discern the faintest outline of my many companions. My folded limbs ache, constrained in…

Dealing with My Digital Addictions — Say what you will about my digital addictions because it’s all true. I give my phone more attention than my appearance. I troll Twitter instead of taking those “mini meditation moments” I’m always recommending. Interrupt me when I’m solving my daily New York Time crossword puzzle — on my device…

“I hate you.” I’m a people pleaser, from way back. So concerned about being a bother, so very Midwestern, I’d rather risk all my toes, my feet being severed at the ankle, than ask for help rearranging the heavy living room furniture. The nonstop inner dialog wonders how I might…

Keeping Creative Work Fun — “Make a zine,” they said. “It’ll be fun,” they said. I like fun as much as anyone, so I leapt, head first, into that ever-beguiling “work can be FUN” pool. It sounded so simple (a zine is shorter than a book), so daring (who, me, an artist?), and such a…

I Get Around To It Eventually… Behold my Ode to Bread, a testament to my love of bread, my worship of bread — but only the chewy kinds, the stuff requiring two incisors to gnaw off a bite and all your molars to grind, giving your jaws purpose again now…

Beautifully stated. I'm still learning to navigate the half-empty nest which opens so many portals, I can't even begin to name them all...let alone decide which to walk through. I wish you all the best on this journey, dear sister!

WHAT YOU’LL NEED: One jigsaw puzzle of any design or shape (but less than a thousand pieces recommended) Baking sheet (optional) Whatever shreds of patience you can muster STEPS Dig out your largest baking sheet from the kitchen cabinet — unless it sits in the sink covered in grease, then…