joy & moxie

a creative life

Solmonath

A poem for you this day. Solmonað is the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of February. It translates to “mud month.” False springs appear in deep winter – a tease of green as the snow falls again. Restless, we count robins – or are they sparrows playing games? We long for buds and blossoms under a Lent-grey sky […]

Faces of Winter

It is not enough for me to say or hear “I hate winter.” Every year, I face the season with the same dogged goal to appreciate Winter. Not to say it’s easy. I could do without the bone-chilling winds and the dry air, wet socks and flavorless vegetables. And clearing off the car and driving […]

Discipline: Finding My Footing

Discipline… it’s such a scary topic for a blog post. But. I can’t be the only writer who struggles with it. In the Fall, I set a goal of writing 4,000 words a week for my novel. This naturally broke into roughly three or four evenings of writing. But I failed to have a clear vision of what […]

Beatrix’s Story

They say cats choose their people, and twice now I’ve received this honor. Last week, I brought home my new feline companion and “creative consultant in charge of moxie”, a little girl named Beatrix. I’d visited her several times at the shelter, and it wasn’t long before she was claiming my lap and growling at […]

Monday Afternoon

There is only one cure for this monotony: Yes, coffee strong enough to balance on the knob of the radiator, while I huddle beside it for warmth. Other afternoons , I’ll venture to fetch myself an Americano, or, if I’m desperate enough, a Coke. Today, I successfully talked myself out of the latter and its sugary carbonation. Right […]