http://www.carolynflynn.com AUTHOR + JOURNALIST + WRITING COACH & CRITIQUER + WORKSHOP LEADER Tue, 17 Aug 2010 05:35:40 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en AUTHOR + JOURNALIST + WRITING COACH & CRITIQUER + WORKSHOP LEADER + BOOK EDITOR AND DESIGNER carolyn@carolynflynn.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ... http://www.carolynflynn.com/?p=209 One of my 9-year-old twins is an early riser. Paul is up the minute the sun pulses over the mountain. Grace, on the other hand, likes to sleep until the last possible moment. It takes some doing to wake her up. But you wouldn't know she's a groggy-head in the ... http://www.carolynflynn.com/?p=147 Rob and I were as different as night and day. He was East Coast traditional, I was West Coast, not-quite conquered territory, looking another direction. I was fond of reminding him that 100 years ago, my side of the country didn’t belong to his, and was still not quite have-able, ... http://www.carolynflynn.com/?p=56 During the sermon, I try to decide what it is about Mom that Dad doesn’t like anymore. Mom is still beautiful in her floral sundresses and white sandals, I think. But she doesn’t seem to be the same person in the old photographs Dad took before I was born, where ... http://www.carolynflynn.com/?p=54 It was hard not to see my sister’s fling with the singer at the martini bar as some sort of family experiment to see if she could summon someone to intervene. She was like that. Last year she had threatened to join the Marines. The year before, she dropped out ... http://www.carolynflynn.com/?p=52 You watch the fire chew through the ashes at the tip of the cigarette. They watch you watch the ashes. Vermilion-hot ashes, perforated, like your brain, riddled with holes of memories they stole from you. Your mother doesn’t say it, but she wants forgiveness for bringing you here. You heard her ... http://www.carolynflynn.com/?p=50 AN EXCERPT Chris and I have been going out for a month. It’s as if I have no past. Chris doesn’t ask. I haven’t told any of my old stories, the significant events of my life. We wipe the dust off the silver glass of our lives and pretend it’s insight. ... http://www.carolynflynn.com/?p=48 INNER PEACE FOR TURBULENT TIMES Mindfulness: A real-world technique for living in the present moment “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Mindfulness” by Anne Ihnen, M.A., and Carolyn Flynn Mindfulness is living in harmony with your life. I say this because we so often exist in a state of dissonance with our own thoughts. ... http://www.carolynflynn.com/?p=46 JOLLY GOOD At Minerva Graphics, which is just off Old Bond Street in Bath, England, I bought a sketch journal and a folio. An elderly couple were watching me as I fumbled with my umbrella and my backpack, fishing for pounds in the pocket. When I spoke, they nodded in recognition, ... http://www.carolynflynn.com/?p=21 STONES THAT SPEAK The stones speak to me. I knew they would. It’s in my line. I’m Celtic, and I was born on Winter Solstice, the day they mark at Stonehenge as the sun sets, when the winter sun sets in the sky, the shortest day of the year. On this ... http://www.carolynflynn.com/?p=22