• Winter Wonderland: Cold December

    This December has been one of the coldest of my life. I’ve been in Utah for 14 years, but as Utah has been in a drought for just as long. My first winter in the Rockies was filled with ice and snow, but each consecutive year the snow came later and later. Many years we…

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  • Learning to Love Winter

    Learning to Love Winter

    I have never been a fan of the cold. Growing up in Southeast Texas, cold wasn’t something I encountered very often. The few occasions when the thermometer dropped below freezing were rare and therefore exciting. The fantasy of building snowmen or having a “white Christmas” were just that, fantasies. Until I moved to Utah and…

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  • Releasing Who I Was: crying for who I was, am, and could be

    Sometimes, out of no where, I want to cry. Not because I’m sad or because anything is wrong. Not because I’m so happy that I’m overcome, but just because it feels like something is building up inside and needs to be released. In those moments, which occur in calm moments, the tears don’t come. Though…

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  • The Sound of Winter

    The Sound of Winter

    Silence. Muffled, echoing voices singing yuletide songs. Silence. Smothered, trodding footsteps in the light crunch of snow. Silence. Dimmed, crackling flickers of a soft grated flame. Silence. Measured, rhythmic turning of a well worn page. Silence. Hushed, intimate whispers of a loved one’s voice. Silence. Stilled, passing time in the winter frozen world.

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  • Skipping Past the Good Part

    Skipping Past the Good Part

    I saw a post on pintrest the other day that talked living for the future. The post was copied from Twitter and read: “I feel like I’m constantly worrying about the next part of my life without realizing that I’m right in the middle of what I used to look forward to.” It’s been making…

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  • October Writing Check: am I failing NaNo before it’s even begun?

    We had snow last week, a sure sign that November is closing in. As November approaches, so too does the yearly writing challenge known as NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. Year autumn writers from around the country attempt to writing a full 50,000 novel in just 30 days. Every year, I attempt some sort…

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  • Poetic Struggle

    Poetic Struggle

    There’s so many thoughts I cannot put into words. Sometimes the struggle is in finding an original way to express thoughts already spoken: the happiness of a bright sunflower in the summer, the melancholy of toy in the rain, the butterflies in the stomach and heart in your throat for nerves. We know what to…

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  • Writing Buzz: Living the Writing Life

    I’m a connoisseur of coffee shops. I’ve issues myself a challenge to write at a new coffee shop every week until I’ve tried every single cafe in the valley. If I attempted this challenge 10 years ago, I would be done in a month. But, Coffee has become surprisingly popular in this Mormon stronghold. Now,…

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  • Spinning the Yarn

    Spinning the Yarn

    Can you capture a person in a handful of stories? Summarize a life in a few anecdotes? If our experiences are the threads that weave our lives, and tell tales turns back wheel of time, Do we continue to exist when the yarn is spun?

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  • What’s In the Past

    What’s In the Past

    I remember my past like scenes in a movie. As if it all happened to someone else, in a different reality, separate from the one I currently reside in. I say “I” and “me” when recounting the sordid tales, but feels like a lie. Despite all evidence and witnesses that confirm their truth, I cannot…

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