I write. I wander. I read. I remember.
I started writing my first novel at age eight. It was about a family of pencils that came alive at night and wandered around the classroom having various adventures. I was several chapters in when a well-meaning adult asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.
“I want to be a writer. In fact, I’ve already started writing my first novel,” I told her.
“Oh, that’s so cute. Being a writer is hard work you know. Most people never make it.”
This was news to me. I had assumed the only tough part about writing was plot…
The ocean is my teacher in how to ride it out
There is a heatwave underway in England right now. Temperatures in my area have crept up to a balmy 29º C. That translates to 84º F for you non-decimally types. In other words, an unseasonably cool and pleasant summer day in the Philippines where I spent much of my childhood or the DC area where I have spent many adult years.
In these here parts it is so surprisingly warm we can talk of little else. The Vicar started off his sermon with a dispensation for any who were inclined to nod off. “I’ll assume those of you who somehow…
If I can turn my life around all by myself with no outside help whatsoever, so can you
I earned £1000 while I slept last night. How many of you can say the same?
In my new book, I’ll tell you exactly how you too can completely turn your life around without relying on help from anyone. It’s easy as plum pudding on Christmas Day.
Shhhh, I’m going to let you in on the secret. If you don’t take care of yourself no one is going to swoop in to rescue you. That means manifesting, self-care, and finding the time no matter what to make your dreams a reality.
When I was a boy I used to sit…
Be the spouse you want to be married to.
I just celebrated my 33rd anniversary. Yay me! And also him of course. Our relationship is far from perfect and we will be evolving and learning until the day one of us dies. But I have learned a lesson or two over the years. Here are the top 33.
Kissing habits are a relationship bellwether
When a relationship is new and strong you kiss frequently.
Then comes a day when you realize you don’t bother anymore. They walk in the door and you don’t stop what you are doing to greet them and they don’t come to seek you out. …
Mary Edwards Walker was a gender-bending trailblazer
Wearing a top hat and a suit was so unusual for a woman in the late 19th -early 20th century you might get arrested. Being a decorated military surgeon was even more surprising. Mary Edwards Walker did both. She was a non-conformist in a time when bucking convention was treated harshly.
Abolitionists and free thinkers
Walker’s parents were abolitionists and free thinkers. If their daughter wanted to wear trousers and shirts rather than the fussy dresses of her peers, fine. And Walker did. Bloomers beat corsets any day for running around and doing farm chores.
Educating girls for anything beyond the domestic pursuits of…
You aren’t in charge of the muse and that’s okay
I’ve been trying to write humor lately. It starts out well. I’ve got a funny premise and I’m cracking myself up as I write, always a good sign. Then somehow halfway through the story, it takes a serious turn.
I try to wrestle the piece back into submission. No, no, I say. Yesterday I did “grief”. Today is for “funny”.
Ha! says my brain. It’s so cute when you think you are in charge.
There are days I roll out of bed with a plan. I grab my cup of tea, sit down at the keyboard, and write the story…
Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. You can do amazing things with cardboard.
I’m pretty sure the athletes will be perfectly fine in their cardboard beds no matter what shenanigans they get up to. Cardboard is an incredible product. I just woke up from a nap on my DIY cardboard bed. It is without question the strongest bed in the house.
The theory that Olympic athletes in Tokyo are being given cardboard beds to prevent sex has been thoroughly debunked by now. The first page of my DuckDuckGo search results includes reassurances from a variety of news outlets including Forbes, NBC, Huffington Post, Refinery 29, USA Today, and CNN. …
Railing at the heavens is cathartic
Yelling at God has been one of the most helpful coping mechanisms I’ve ever found for dealing with periods of darkness in my life.
I have screamed my anger from clifftops into the raging wind and crashing surf. I’ve scribbled my complaints on paper with such vehemence I tore pages in the process. I drove alone from Michigan to D.C. after my brother’s funeral yelling at God most of the way.
It probably helps that I believe God exists, is listening, and loves me. Sometimes these facts make me even madder. Why the **** is the world so messed up…
OPEN LETTERS
Other countries do health care so much better than you
Dear Unopened letters,
I hoped you’d get the hint when I didn’t open the first one. Oooh, this looks important with that fancy return address including the hospital logo and a crinkly see-through window showing my name.
I guess I can’t put this in the recycling with all the rest of the junk mail. I’ll set you down here to deal with you later.
I mean, I don’t really need to open you to know what you’re going to say. We’ve been there so many times in the past, haven’t we? …
Results of reading a week’s worth of Open Letters To …
Funny or ranting, open letters are cathartic to write and fun to read. I know because I read everything posted in the publication Open Letters to for the past week as part of my July reading challenge.
If you’ve never stumbled across this excellent little gem edited by Scott Hughey (TheWriteScott), Deborah Weir, and Courtney Burry check it out. As their about me page says:
Open Letters are sent to the world and beyond. Here we say what must be said, whether it is harsh, humorous, or even a teensy bit passive aggressive. …
Mary DeVries
Writing, wondering, and wandering across three continents. Finding the funny everywhere I go. https://tinyurl.com/MaryDeVries
