20 Minute Journal
Writing Through Depression
You know what sucks? Depression, that’s what sucks. Each day, even in your brightest moments, there’s a gadfly buzzing around your head. Think about going through your life with every experience tempered just slightly of happiness. It’s an isolating task, and one that ensures you are alone in a crowd with the distinct awareness of…
Read MoreBilly and Jim and You and Me
I’ve been asked on occasion who Billy and Jim are. It’s clear to most that there are elements of myself in both characters, but in my own mind, I am Billy. I’ve always been Billy. Who Jim is remains a mystery to me. I’ve written for years about the both of them, using their beings…
Read MoreAn Introduction, midstream
I’m not sure where to start, so I’ll just jump in. I’m going to try to capture everything, but won’t. My wife and I moved to Canmore, Alberta back in 2001. For over 15 years – although not without our struggles – it was home. We purchased a place to live, built relationships and careers,…
Read MoreA letter to a friend
I wrote this a little while ago, the only thing I’ve written in months. It takes quite a bit of energy to expose my thinking on paper – even when writing fiction it’s most of me that fuels the story – and I’ve been hording every bit of energy I have these days to stay…
Read MoreDreams
I had a dream last night, a room full of people brought together to unite against some common enemy. It was never made clear what the enemy was, but we were representatives of dispersed communities dressed in fur and leather like a scene from the Game of Thrones. The leaders of the group stood at…
Read MoreSubtle
I see the subtlety in things to a disturbing degree. I see the betraying twitch of an eye in conversation or hear a change of inflection. I watch a snowflake falling through the bows of a tree while listening to someone speaking. I pick up on someone tapping their finger once, and I pick up…
Read MoreThe Haunting Tree
There is a tree nearby that haunts me, rooted deeply into the hillside and growing up far into the horizon crooked and crippled, imperfect. And when I look at it, I then look out across the Marron Valley at Parker Mountain, and my eyes follow all of the aberrations of contours, the patterns of trees…
Read MoreThe Undercurrent
Tonight I wandered the property with the dog. It was dark but with a bright cradle of moon, bright enough even through the clouds that it cast light on the sidecut pathway across the hills, and across the valley below dotted with headlights and farm lights. It made shadows out of the tallest sage bushes…
Read MoreMinutiae
I don’t even know what this is, but I like the wording. Sometimes I just write to hear myself talk. 🙂 I’m in bed with the tiny things. Not organization or complex steps and process, but that thing that is a lot more subtle than this, that thing that lies under the finer details. A sideways…
Read MoreIn tight Quarters
What a great and terrifying experience. In the tight quarters of a fifth wheel trailer everything is amplified. Sitting on the couch I am three feet from three furnace exhaust fans blasting heat, and the cold air return. I’m four feet from the kitchen that also serves as dining room with kitty litter box, front…
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