Realigning My Plates

A trip to Utah and Colorado gives pause.

Dear Friends,

Summer hit hard in Cincinnati, and it’s only May. Mark and I have returned from a trip through the Red Rocks and Rockies, a little bit of heavenly earth.

As such, I disconnected from my writer self to be myself. At the trip’s end, a little weepiness set in. When Mark asked why, I could hardly make sense of my own response.

“I hope I’ve been as present as one possibly could,” I said.

We had walked mountains and canyons, passed along trails of long-ago passengers and those of modern-day. I wanted to be certain, after posting my previous stack on how our bodies carry place, I left open enough space inside for me to carry this ancient dirt and arid sky home with me.

My upcoming days and writing appointments will prove out if I was successful.

While my next Substack topic perolates like those ancestral, orchestral tectonic plates, here are a few upcoming writing opportunities where we can connect:

• May 12 - Caring for the Caregiver writing experience - Giving Voice Foundation. (virtual).

• May 14 - Grief Expressions writing experience - Hospice of Cincinnati. Stay tuned for more session dates to come.

• May 25 - Anthropocene: Poetry about Environment - poetry reading - 6:30-8:30 pm.

  Studio Kroner, 130 W. Fourth Street, Cincinnati, OH.

• June 5 - Essentials of Memoir - Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati. Conversations about chronicling memoir. In conjunction with Tiny Beautiful Things production.

• Aug 10 - Caring for the Caregiver writing experience - Giving Voice Foundation. (virtual). Morning session.

• Oct 4 - Keynote speaker: Dementia Conference for Caregivers. Pittsburgh.

• Oct 22 - Fotofocus in partnership with Lloyd Library - Indexing Our Time and Place in Words: A Writing Workshop. More details coming soon.

• Nov 9 - Caring for the Caregiver writing experience - Giving Voice Foundation. (virtual).

If you’re a caregiver looking for more inspiration, I’ll Have Some of Yours: What my mother taught me about dementia, cookies, music, the outdoors, and life inside a care home is out in paperback, ebook, and audiobook.

If you want to read more on why the Oregon coast is my soul space, you can check out I’ll Be in the Car, which in hindsight should have been named, I’ll Be at the Coast.

And since the hot and sweaty times are upon us, so is pool time. Better yet, summer reading. Scope out a few, local indie bookshops, like my new favorite on Vine Street, Joy and Matt’s, where they have a wide selection of diverse authors helping to expand my reading repertoire. My other saving grace has been Downbound Books in Northside. The owner’s algorithm must be better than Siri’s or Instagram’s. He always manages to carry the exact book I need.

While summer is a time to sit back, perhaps get a little lazy, I hope you’ll be as present as possible—in your day and on the road.