I love an end of the year reflection post. I also love a song lyric that feels so relevant to a moment in time it’s as if the lyricist wrote it just for me (thank you Jack Johnson, circa 2005). So, here I am at the end of 2024—sitting, waiting, wishing only good things for…
Tag: Culture
Garden Party
Hosting is a skill that I feel I have tried to cultivate over the years after observing the masterful care that others have demonstrated in welcoming me to their spaces. To host someone well doesn’t mean that you meet every condition that Miss Manners expounded upon. A full set of silverware isn’t necessary, nor is…
Book Review: The Wednesday Wars
I have been listing The Wednesday Wars as a comparative title when I query literary agents for my own novel for the past year. However, until recently, I had not actually read the book. I was just going off of the recommendations of my mom, who taught the book as a middle grade gifted teacher….
Musing No. 2
When you lay under a treeAnd look up,What do you focus on?Is it the sky, the clouds, the branches, the leaves?Do you position yourselfIn such a wayTo see or to be hidden?Do the sun’s rays catch your faceOr do the shadows grace your cheek?Do you notice the air aboveOr the ground below?Are the bumps in…
Post Scripts
Last fall, I looked around my room and thought: wow, I really have a lot of completed works of art. There were canvases standing against almost every available wall; double and triple layered in some places. My notebook was full of finished sketches of places I had traveled. Oil paintings were carefully drying out on…
Paris, France | 2021-22
In the middle of the pandemic, when travel restrictions were fairly light, my parents took an international trip to the Caribbean. During a post-trip debrief over pizza, we collectively wondered aloud “what if we took a family trip over the Christmas holiday?” Mind you, this was mid-November. So, that didn’t leave us much time to…
Book Review: Bite by Bite
I was enamored with Aimee Nezhukumatathil ‘s book of essays World of Wonders a few years ago when I was gifted a copy, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants style. I was encouraged to read the book, then write a little note in the front cover and pass it on to someone who I thought would…
Book Review: The Art Thief
My primary career goal lately has been to maintain my status as a non-starving artist. I keep telling people (why does everyone keep asking what I’m “up to” lately??) that I am a full-time creative with multiple part-time gigs. This is basically what my entire post-graduation career has looked like, I just now know how…
L.M.Beatty 