‘…if you are writing without zest, without gusto, without love, without fun, you are only half a writer.’ Ray Bradbury I’ve had to reinvent myself many times over the years, sometimes in a way of my own choosing, sometimes it was forced upon me. However it happened, these transitions have always evolved into positive change,Continue reading “Feeling the fear of reinvention”
Category Archives: memoir
…on tradition
68. Tradition is just peer pressure from the dead The dead are powerful. The dead are invisible but their imprint is everywhere, tendrils of belief that curl and hook into sight and sound, winding their way into darkened rooms and open spaces, into minds still soft from birth. Tradition wants you to be Mr/Mrs/Ms andContinue reading “…on tradition”
…out of hand
67. What the hand does the mind remembersMaria Montessori Your hands are more familiar to you than your own face. Every crease and freckle, the corner of your thumb that cracks in winter, the sweeping lines of your palms. You are fascinated by other people’s hands too, how deeply intimate it feels to look atContinue reading “…out of hand”
…a history of classrooms
66.The first classroom you remember has a high ceiling, high windows, a plastic trough where you play with water. There are books that are read to you while you sit cross-legged on the floor, your feet tingling with pins and needles. You sit at your desk pondering over workbooks that have puzzles and questions, theContinue reading “…a history of classrooms”
…things you have lost
64.You have lost the tattooed lemon that lived in your freezer for many years. The lemon was illustrated by your daughter during her apprenticeship, the waxy yellow skin bearing a swallow in vivid blue and yellow and red. It was one of the most precious things you owned, and was lost during a busy fewContinue reading “…things you have lost”
…in praise of dreamers
62.Sometimes, when the rain comes, you take it as a sign to let the days arrange themselves. You and your lover wake up late, drink coffee in bed, listen to the pigeons skittering against the window. You eat breakfast after noon, tear olive bread and pour red wine, you read poetry and watch old films. Continue reading “…in praise of dreamers”
…birth of a story
61.Twenty-one years ago a new story was born. It is a classic story of birth and death, and the coming together of unexpected events. It begins with the news report that Air France Concorde flight 4590 has crashed in Paris, killing all 109 people on board. Your husband is a newspaper photographer so a fewContinue reading “…birth of a story”
…on road trips
53. Some of the best road trips are long-planned and desired, whereas others are best done impulsively, such as driving to the beach on a hot day, or going out looking for one thing and finding another. But always the best trips are when the unexpected happens. An unexpected place, an unexpected person, an unexpectedContinue reading “…on road trips”
…on cars
52. The car is a fragile thing. If it hits another car its bonnet will buckle, its windscreen will shatter, the dashboard will crumble and fall around your legs where you sit in the passenger seat, and you are trapped. There will be miniscule shards of glass in your hair, scattered like gems across yourContinue reading “…on cars”
…books in formation: 6 to 10
6. Winter Journal, by Paul Auster Auster writes his journal in the second person. He is the you of his own story, but the reader is also the you of his experience, living with him and inside his mind. And so my own you is born, a you who is both me and not me,Continue reading “…books in formation: 6 to 10”
Sally Gander 