March 20 - First Day of Spring

"Truth is, one day I planted a flower. As the flower grew I began to feel something come alive in my own skin.  I would go out at weird hours of the day and night, just to fuss over the flower. I dug in the dirt to let the flower breathe. I planted more flowers to give the flower friends." 

- Terry Hershey

Terry Hershey discovered that life is a garden. He would tell his flowers stories, laugh out loud into twilight. He wrote, "A strange grin spread over my face as I realized what was happening. I felt at home."

As Hershey continued to plant more flowers, vegetables, and trees, he brought friends over. He watched their smiles. As the garden grew he felt joy, "I came face to face with a part of myself that had been missing and I liked what I saw."

Celebrate March 20, first day of spring.

Plant seeds in the garden and in containers inside your home.

Observe how they grow. It takes time for a seed to break its case. Seedlings show strength and push upward to the light and downward to develop a foundation.  Provide nurture with water and nutrients.

Once the leaves spring their green, feel the leaf texture.

Always smile.










The scent of a flower may appear in time.

Find a new approach to life by discovering what a seedling's success suggests for you.

Work Your Worries

Tibetans have a saying,  "If there's something you can do about it, why worry?  If there's nothing you can do about it, why worry?"

Birds Never Worry. They just do what needs doing. 

If you're a habitual worrier, put those worries to work.

Find a container you can close with a lid.  

For a week, keep a notepad with you. Write each worry that trespasses or rages through your mind.Put each in the container, close it and then let the worry go.

In a week, before looking into the container, write about the worries you have placed inside. 

Can you even remember all of them?  Open the container and read the notes. 

How many of your worries happened?  How did you deal with the worries that did occur?

Revisit the worries to discover the creativity they will generate for you. Write these worries into a story or poem. 

Worries keep our minds moving in aimless directions. We need to harness them as workhorses for our writing. Consider the writing possibilities they will generate.

Take charge of your worries in this way and you'll always have writing material.

Alter your Senses

Do you depend on one sense in your writing and forget to use a variety of sights, sounds, and scents to enrich the text?

Select paragraphs from your favorite writer or a piece of your own writing.  Notice what sense prevails. What if you remove it and replace it with another?

Observe the use of adjectives and adverbs. Replace them with a metaphor or action verb to expand meaning.

How would you:

Describe a sunset without the use of color?

Reveal music without sound?

Comment on a meal without 
describing its taste?

Show the scent of a rose in metaphor?





Challenge your writing by adding sensations you do not usually consider.