motivational Archives - From the Write Side

Let’s Dance!

The summer grows hotter. The world roils with the pandemic. I stretch the limits of my housebound sanctuary and, when the mood strikes, I dance. Visiting our grandchildren last weekend, I was struck by the eagerness of my five-year-old grandson to hold a dance party. Cooped inside due to heat and COVID, regular outdoor activities have been curtailed. I understand the need to move, to shake our legs and shake off the anxiety that rides us like a shawl these days. He found his father's [...]

By irvinjgdm|2020-08-01T13:59:52+00:00August 1st, 2020|Essays, inspirational, motivational, philosophical, Uncategorized|0 Comments

A TOAST TO CHANGE

It happens every year...the rehashing of the months gone by, the anticipation of the ones to come. Many of us make resolutions. Many more just keep rolling down life's path, content to face the challenges as they come. Me...I'm a bit of a charge-ahead optimist, plotting stories and events as though each one will move me farther along on the journey I'm making. So, I don't make resolutions so much as set expectations. The end may justify the means, but it is the means that [...]

By irvinjgdm|2020-01-28T20:25:28+00:00January 1st, 2020|contemplative, Essays, inspirational, motivational|0 Comments

Wandering the Classical World

I'm back from my trip to Greece, but my heart remains in the space between the blue sky and the blue-on-blue sea, in the waters that birthed Poseidon, the mountains that hosted Zeus. Wherever you dig, the Greeks say, you uncover another glimpse of the ancient world.The soil coughs up ramparts and pottery, imparting truth and mystery in equal measure. I walked the streets of Athens, immersed in the bustle of city life. I sampled the cuisine at a street-side restaurant and contemplated the adventures [...]

By irvinjgdm|2019-05-31T13:07:19+00:00May 31st, 2019|contemplative, Essays, inspirational, motivational|1 Comment

Lion Or Lamb?

Folk adages suggest that March, that sly, greening mix of Ides and shamrocks, comes in like a lion. Roaring with wind and bluster, the days extend tendrils of promise as spring tints the undergrowth, then settles like a lamb just in time for April to glide in on soggy shoes. Hmmm...reality doesn't always conform to this old saw, but we find comfort in the thought. Weary of wintry blasts, our hearts skip a little thinking about less restless days and milder temperatures. Of course, this [...]

By irvinjgdm|2019-02-28T16:31:09+00:00February 28th, 2019|contemplative, Essays, inspirational, motivational, nature, philosophical|0 Comments

Mother, May I?

When we were kids, playing outside was a required activity. Our mother ordered us to leave the house and 'get some fresh air." Until we were old enough to have chores, that's exactly what we did. We claimed the clovered yards, the dandelioned spaces, the treed empty lots, establishing forts or excavating holes for marble games. We climbed construction equipment, acrobated across the beams of houses under construction, fished in mud puddles. Most of all, we organized games - tag, hide and seek, "Mother, May [...]

By irvinjgdm|2018-05-01T11:25:15+00:00May 1st, 2018|contemplative, Essays, inspirational, motivational|1 Comment

Sharing Space… Literary Citizenship and the era of Me

It's so easy to be caught looking inward. Navel gazing has never been so attractive. The culture of entitlement that surrounds us paves a yellow brick road to the Emerald City of Envy and invites us to pamper ourselves, celebrate our own egos, and neglect that which doesn't touch us. Me, me, me scream the ads. "We're all deserving," suggest the self-help gurus. Mine is better than yours, sniff the armchair critics. Narcissus would be proud. Recently, one of my author friends posted a question [...]

By irvinjgdm|2018-02-01T01:38:06+00:00February 1st, 2018|contemplative, Essays, inspirational, motivational, philosophical|1 Comment

A December Manifesto: 2017

One. I am only one, but I have a voice. As a human being, as a citizen, as a child of the Creator, I must use that voice to speak out for good. Evil cannot be ignored or excused. Not for political gain. Not for corporate greed. Not out of apathy. In this season of peace, when all religions share hope, I must nourish the flame of that hope. More alike than we are different, a cut bleeds red on all our skins. A light [...]

By irvinjgdm|2017-12-03T17:26:03+00:00December 3rd, 2017|contemplative, emotive, Essays, inspirational, motivational, philosophical, seasonal|0 Comments

October…a prose poem in three stanzas

If April is 'the cruelest month,' October is the most seductive. I am thrice bitten...by the whisper and crunch of fallen leaves, the distant call of migrating geese, the yawning fields and garden beds settling into slumber. October crooks a finger and I lean into the wind, eager to grow hobbit feet and slip off among the trees, to follow streams and trails, to sleuth the beauty hiding beyond the next turn. The seasonal sights of orange lanterns strung beneath black spiderwebs, the excited squeals [...]

By irvinjgdm|2017-09-30T12:11:24+00:00September 30th, 2017|contemplative, emotive, Essays, inspirational, motivational, nature, seasonal|0 Comments

Honing the Harvest…

Listen. Do you hear that? The rustling of autumn grasses, the chirring of locust wings, the goodbye calls of flocking birds as the earth turns to bounty and binds itself to a new season. I have spent the summer planting, tending, filling the freezer with vegetable goodies, preparing for the months when the soil slumbers. As I put my garden to bed, the fertile blank spaces of my writing await a different kind of harvest...words, phrases, plots, themes and, above all, hope. This month I [...]

By irvinjgdm|2017-08-30T17:38:04+00:00August 30th, 2017|Essays, gardening, inspirational, motivational, nature, philosophical, seasonal|1 Comment

Finding Your Trail…

Okay, here's the thing. I'm a hiker. Not a biker. Not a runner. Not a motorized vehicle mama. In the water, I paddle. On land, I walk. I like the slow and steady pace of placing one foot in front of the other, the closet rumble of a well-fed stream just out of sight, the chatter of birds annoyed at my intrusion or simply sharing the day through song. I listen for the rustle of wind through the prairie flowers and grasses, the scurry of [...]

By irvinjgdm|2017-05-30T15:30:30+00:00May 30th, 2017|Essays, inspirational, motivational, nature, seasonal|0 Comments