Take a deep breath and let go of your consonants

January 12, 2019.Reading time 8 minutes.

“Breath is the percussion of language…” The tall, willowy yoga instructor said this to the class in a lilt that hinted at her formal actor’s training and enviable diaphragmatic control. At my age, with quadriceps straining to sustain my squatted “goddess” pose, I was just happy to control my bladder. The morning class was the […]

Staying resilient, slaying parasites

August 16, 2018.Reading time 9 minutes.

The man made a beeline for me.

I, and a few authors, had just finished leading a discussion about the importance of the voices of “midlife” writers.

This particular writer, who had been in the audience, almost seem dazed–eyes glassy, lips parted as if what he needed to verbalize hadn’t fully formed yet and was resting between them.

Then…

From Here to Hear

July 21, 2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep This is a rare morning of solitude. Sitting in the gray light, I feel the damp air sift through the screen door behind me as the smell of rain lays itself across the skin of my bare neck and right shoulder. I’m listening. …in between the clicking of my too–long–for–typing–quickly fingernails […]

Keep Pedaling: the slow and steady climb to writer

May 8, 2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

I struggle with the “that’s it” part. I want to race myself and win. I want to master the incline like I have the writer thighs of Ernest Hemingway.