A virtual writers’ group I belong to, has a set check-in at the top of each studio hour we share. Its protocols include a welcome question posed to the writers, directors and managers of mostly film and theatre projects. We beam in from all over North America and sometimes Europe. 
Today, the ask in the last hour block was, “What is your favourite pastime?”
It’s Sunday. December 28. A lull between the manic, joyful madness of making Christmas merry and the tightening of New Year’s noose of celebration mixed with expectation. Yep… so much preparation and anticipation. Then, it dissipates in hours.
Lists. We make ’em before the events. To do. To buy. And then we construct a kind of Fantasy Football League of lists of what not to do going forward, in the annual rush to improve our lives in whatever way is important to each of us in 2026. Yet again.
So, I do feel lists qualify as one form of writing. Bullet points, words next to boxes to check off, and full sentences. Start on a page big enough, and it’ll end up as a journal entry. I used to kind of poo poo ‘journaling’ as not real writing. It wasn’t generally paid, published or impactful on others’ lives. I was wrong. Turns out I have many boxes of archived pages and short-form scribbles. Writer, teacher and big-time meditator, Natalie Goldberg once advised a participant who confessed in our online masterclass to having journals from 10 years ago.
“Oh, just throw those notes out. You don’t need them.” I recoiled in horror. DECADES, I have kept my notes. There are pretty journals, nostalgic covers or businessy books, started and abandoned after a couple or a score of gripping pages. Scrapbooks with notes written LARGE in coloured pens so my deteriorating penmanship could still be deciphered and perhaps seen in a new perspective on the different colours or sizes of paper. I’ve been a closet journaler for years, not even admitting it to myself, apparently.
Below is an email from Kash Khan, whose health posts, DNA testing and theories I have followed for a while. This is taken from his UNCENSORED email, as it is titled, where he is free to say what he deems necessary. It is a complete piece about the science of the power of expression on our very health. Enjoy. I’m going back to slowly decluttering, the semi-legible brilliance I have hoarded all these years, as my holiday project.
It is 64 days to Christmas as I write this late on a Sunday night in the Pacific Northwest. Vancouver, BC to be precise. I begin my anticipatory ruminations of the holiday season ahead, early, in one of the locations where Hallmark shoots the more than 40 Christmas movies it releases each and every year. It’s not Hallmark Media’s fault that I voluntarily dial up one of their movies and torment myself early by reminding myself (I know I am not alone in this) of what lies ahead in holiday land. Nor can I blame the older catalog of films produced under the former Crown Media for showing me the scenes of Christmases past that immerse me in the highs and lows of the holiday season.
This was written in time for the Labour Day weekend. But, maybe you can relate… I didn’t hit send. I didn’t pull the trigger. I didn’t close the loop and publish. I procrastinated. I am a professional writer, a copywriter, a content editor, and a curator of content created by any number of means, including materials provided by clients. So, you see, I am a black belt level, master procrastinator.
I am now going to submit this, just 2 days ahead of the October-long weekend. It will be Canadian Thanksgiving and I can then be free to get up-to-date with my sloth and slow progress to fully delay my next blog.
Iran, Jews and deadly decrees are commemorated in an upbeat way this week. Coming early at us in this Jewish Year of 5782, Purim arrives the night of March 16 and lasts with laughter and celebration well into March 17.
Even as tensions continue in the Middle East and are heightened now with what is war in Europe and renewed nuclear concerns, we dip into, for the sake of my story for you today, into the once awesome Persian empire of the 4th century BCE. It extended over 127 lands and is the site on which the Purim story unfolds. Purim is undeniably the most joyous holiday tradition on the Jewish calendar. And, it’s HERE again!! Here’s your Purim primer according to Kaufman…..
Writing to you with something useful and interesting and perhaps even entertaining is on my mind a lot these days.
What have the past hundreds upon hundreds of blogs I’ve birthed into the world had in common? No matter the topic or the source of the publishing impetus, they were written with a specific teaching or marketing purpose in mind. I sketched an outline, usually with a clear objective. Sometimes I just went at it. I knew the pattern I taught my college level business writing students would kick in to bring my ideas to completion and then to publication:
Social media posts had that edge of spontaneity. They’re more often in the moment and often stimulated by the instant influence of others’ posts, or the news on the radio as I worked.
Today, Day 5 of the Fab 45 fuses the planned and the just popped up! I’ve decided to respond to something remarkable in my day as the jumping off point. I can’t help but write in some more valued by also sharing some archived wisdom and maybe some point form tips. Today: Intersections
Do you, as a writer or other creative get your inspiration from the outside world? Swaths of colour in your path. Sound vibrations familiar and foreign. Aromas. Snippets of conversation overheard repurposed first in your mind and then your studio?
Me too.
Is it now a case of too little cash too late in the controversy for Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s (SGK) contrite plea to Congress?
SGK founder Nancy Brinker’s letter of apology to members of Congress may not be able to make up for the massive mistakes in messaging during the rift between the fundraiser behemoth and one of its grant recipients, Planned Parenthood, earlier this year.
You will have an opinion, likely a strong one, no matter where you stand on the recent brouhaha that saw Susan G. Komen Foundation (SGK) defund Planned Parenthood for providing mammograms to poor women. That’s about $700,000 a year in lost support.
Talia Tiramisu’s joy of performing in burlesque began in 2009, captivated by the self-expression, humor and costuming the art form offered. “It’s an embracing of everyone no matter who they are, in burlesque,” said Tiramisu in a recent interview.