seasonal Archives - From the Write Side

In This Giving Season…

It's snowing, and the child in me dances for joy. Being a December birthday girl, my earliest memories remain infused with the delight and wonder of snowfall, the way it covers all the imperfections we humans have created on the earth, the way it prepares us to believe in miracles. I realize this love of cold and snow is one of my eccentricities, but I refuse to surrender it. During my teaching career, this wintry month always created a special spirit in the classroom. Students [...]

By irvinjgdm|2020-11-30T18:10:50+00:00November 30th, 2020|Essays, motivational, seasonal, Upcoming book|0 Comments

The Literary Gardener

The last weeks of summer arrive on a hot wind and a prayer. Birds of unknown origin cluster in the wildflower patch and nestle in the branches of the pine tree. Our newest addition to the backyard scenery -- a tulip tree native to Ohio -- defies a summer planting, the promise of white-orange blossoms in the spring now only a long-distance hope. So much like the chapters springing up on my computer screen, a newly-drafted manuscript that settles now, resting, watered by revisions and [...]

By irvinjgdm|2019-08-04T15:38:32+00:00August 4th, 2019|contemplative, Essays, inspirational, nature, seasonal|0 Comments

An Unsilent Knight

The first snowfall of the season settles over the ground in the late November twilight. I stand at the window, dancing with the snowflakes and thinking about my mother, all those years ago pregnant with me, her due date passing as she, too, gazed out the window, wondering where my father was, if he still lived. World War II had ended, but danger continued to stalk the globe. Around her family's store/home, winter promised to call, as it does today, and I, restless, waited until [...]

By irvinjgdm|2018-11-30T16:58:19+00:00November 30th, 2018|contemplative, emotive, inspirational, philosophical, seasonal|0 Comments

Swimming Upstream

This is the time of year for it...the time when salmon, who spend their early lives in rivers before heading out to sea, return to those same rivers to spawn. Fueled by their ocean feedings, they are fortified for the arduous journey back to their birthplace to begin the cycle all over again. Driven by instinct, clear on where they belong, the fish fight currents, leap obstacles, evade bear claws and anglers as they stretch toward the goal. The marathon touches anyone lucky enough to [...]

By irvinjgdm|2018-10-31T11:57:35+00:00October 31st, 2018|contemplative, emotive, Essays, inspirational, seasonal|0 Comments

The Seasons of Our Lives

Early morning fog wafts across the highway. Dawn, like a fan dancer in nature's club, waves her veils across the land. One more trip to PA to consult with my siblings about our mother's delusional dementia. Earlier in the summer, she was still mostly Irma. Now when I arrive, she is mostly gone, living inside the weird, funny, sad, unbelievable story her brain is crocheting over her memories. These drives are not fun. Along the way, I plug in my iPod and crank up my [...]

By irvinjgdm|2018-08-30T14:22:12+00:00August 30th, 2018|contemplative, Essays, philosophical, seasonal|0 Comments

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

Taking Stock: The Janus Factor

The old year passes. The new one slips into place. The creative mind and the practical one juggle for position on the rim of tomorrow. I stand on the brink of the unknown, contemplating the void before me. Do I step back from the edge or leap forward? My choice balances between what has been and what will be. Unable to resist the pull of temporal gravity, I shuffle closer, breathless, wondering, and stare into the face of the Janus Factor. You remember that ancient [...]

By irvinjgdm|2016-12-29T16:10:26+00:00December 29th, 2016|Essays, inspirational, motivational, seasonal|0 Comments