contemplative Archives - From the Write Side

Digging Myself Up

No way to sugarcoat this truth, for me personally, it's been a shitty summer. Three rounds of antibiotics for various unusual infections followed by a Mohs procedure (www.skincancer.org/skin-cancer-information/mohs-surgery) for skin cancer that ended up costing me most of my left nostril and resulted in complicated facial reconstruction, which is not over yet. If my last name were Scrooge, I'd scream Bah, humbug! The combination of these events entombed me in a very dark hole. I've been digging myself up ever since. For a flaming [...]

By irvinjgdm|2022-07-31T17:04:33+00:00July 31st, 2022|contemplative, Essays, inspirational, motivational, philosophical|0 Comments

Mayhem

Ukraine means 'country.' Whatever happened to 'make love, not war'? Where do we go when madness rules the earth? And I think about the mothers... There comes a time in every woman's journey when she faces those two converging paths Frost wrote about...to be or not to be a mother. Instinct and societal norms provoke the desire. Individual goals and preferences incite the response. For me, the choice of family or career never arose, for I had selected a course that allowed for both. What [...]

By irvinjgdm|2022-06-22T23:41:23+00:00May 10th, 2022|contemplative, emotive, Essays, inspirational|0 Comments

October Song

A sense of hunkering down settles over the house. Cool mornings cede passage to warm afternoons, the heat rising and falling like the tide. I feel the yawn of summer, the way the earth withdraws beneath the smokescreen wisps above the pond. On the horizon, a large brown heron throttles westward, determined to make land before the sunset drops its carmine and purple veils. The dark comes early, sometimes like a curtain at intermission, sometimes hidden behind clouds that glower sternly as they slip across [...]

By irvinjgdm|2021-09-30T16:22:58+00:00September 30th, 2021|contemplative, emotive, Essays|0 Comments

A World Turned Upside Down

Note: I drafted the following essay before our country erupted in chaos in protest of the police brutality and murder of George Floyd. I felt a need to add an uplifting look at the pandemic-infused world. Now, our nation is even more in need of healing. Next month, I may address this canker at the heart of our society, but for now, I offer you a breather in the midst of uncertainty. Thank you for being there...on the other side of my words. You are [...]

By irvinjgdm|2020-05-31T17:01:37+00:00May 31st, 2020|contemplative, emotive, Essays|0 Comments

How To Survive and Thrive With Uncertainty

If there's one thing we all know, here in May of 2020, it is that the future is more uncertain than ever. A funny little virus with spikes on its belly has infected the world, overwhelmed our hospitals, and thumbed its nose at our efforts to send it away. Life as we know it has changed. We sequester in place, using time in untimely ways. The rush to sports practices and music lessons, to grocery stores and fast-food restaurants has boiled away. We stare from [...]

By irvinjgdm|2020-04-30T13:44:55+00:00April 30th, 2020|contemplative, emotive, Essays, inspirational, philosophical, Uncategorized|0 Comments

Toward An Invincible Spring

“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.” ― Albert Camus April, in the year of our Lord 2020 The map of the world via televised reports grows ever more consumed by red blotches detailing the spread of our newest nightmare - covid-19. Sporting teams cancel seasons and tournaments. Museums, [...]

By irvinjgdm|2020-03-31T13:10:19+00:00March 31st, 2020|contemplative, Essays, inspirational, philosophical|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

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

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