Letter to My Younger Self

Dear Younger Barb,

Keep your diary. You'll be a writer eventually and you'll regret throwing it away.

Your father is wrong about the Beatles, but he is right about almost everything else.

You can do math despite your grades. You just find it boring.

Even the worst experience and the meanest people can be writing material.

Travel as much as you can while you still have your health.

Take more photos of your family and friends. Keep printed photos. Don't put important memories exclusively onto technology that will disappear.

Keep paper copies of all your writing. One day floppy disks will be unusable.

You'll go on a lot of blind dates. Most will be okay, a few good, one horrid-but-hilarious (good material!), and you'll hit the jackpot with one.

The blind date experience is also good practice for writing query letters. Keep submitting.

Keep up your fitness routine. But avoid the high-impact stuff (jogging, skipping, step aerobics) and protect your knees.

Love,

Barb

Happy Lunar New Year!

The Year of the Rat begins on January 24.

According to the Chinese New Year horoscope for my sign, I will be travelling a lot this year. Unfortunately, no, this isn't true. But I do enjoy looking at travel photos, both my own and other people's. It also says I will have good health this year. And that is the best news, because if you have health you have everything you need. M's horoscope also says he'll have good health, so we're all set.

A live artist installation painting in my local mall. 

The two artists aren't credited.

Looking Back, Looking Forward: Happy 2020!

For the first time in many years, we had a quiet New Year's Eve at home.

Our friends didn't have their usual party. That's okay. Schlepping out in potentially dicey weather on slippery sidewalks isn't for us anymore. So we ordered pizza (a new tradition) and had my chocolate pots de creme (our old tradition).

2020 starts a new decade (although there are people who think it starts next year).



Here are some things I accomplished in the past decade.

- sold our house

- moved to a condo and decorated it

- sold a piano after much angst, and got a poem out of the experience

- gave away too many books before moving

- rebought a lot of those books

- turned a closet into a hidden bookcase

- helped Echo live his senior doggy years waggingly in a one-level home before he passed away in 2016

- attended two writing workshops and learned lots

- wrote and self-published a poetry book, which involved hiring a proofreader, choosing a logo, choosing a cover design, learning how to format, and starting a business

- moderated a writers' forum (Verla Kay/SCBWI)

- had nine wonderful healthy years with my husband

- went to Holland with him to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary

- spent one year supporting him through some health challenges

- had a humorous article published in The Toronto Star

- improved my fitness (bought a Fitbit which motivated me to exercise regularly, eat better and lose some weight)


Wishing you a Happy, Healthy New Year!

Rhyming Poetry Challenge

A friend wished me
Happy Hanukkah
and joked that the reason
there are so few Hanukkah songs
is that nothing rhymes with "menorah."

She's right. But I couldn't resist the challenge.


Hanukkah means bupkas
A blip in the Torah.

If it weren't for Christmas
We might just ignorah.

So spin that dreidel
Light that menorah.

Eat latkas and chocolate
And dance the horah.

Rules for Snow

You are a snowflake, thinking of visiting my city.

Here are The Rules for Snow.

1. No significant snow before December 24.

2. Light flaking that melts on contact is permissible.

3. Snow may fall from December 24 to December 26 only. This is your big opportunity. Have at it.

4. All snow must melt by December 27.

5. For the new year, see Rule #1.

Recipe for Octo-BOO!

Combine a little leaf magic

one magic leaf dog

and a little spooky stuff

Signs of the Times

Happy Equinox!

A nearby synagogue often catches my eye


with its witty billboards.




Back in January 2015 the sign read

Je Suis Charlie

Ani Charlie

During our rainy July it read

I'll change the sign

as soon as it

stops raining

Now just before Jewish New Year it reads

Rosh Hoshana will start soon.

What will you have to SHOFAR it?

Now that's effective advertising!


***






Stevie Wonder sings in "As"

 "the seasons know exactly when to change."




The temperatures may still be summery (not that I'm complaining)


but this tree is showing its true colours


exactly on schedule.