Author Archives: Theryn

Different

[W]e need to make a distinction between living alone and being alone, or being isolated, or feeling lonely. These are all different things.

—Eric Klinenberg

Mostly I’m glad for [Daniel] Orozco’s damn good example – of taking your time. Of doing what you do, as very best as you can do it, and shutting out the noise of what everyone else is doing. Of focusing on quality not quantity, which seems an apt, if cliché, mantra for someone who set most of his stories in uninspiring workplace settings. Orozco’s cumulative oeuvre to date, and how it came to be, is itself a resonant narrative, the 10th story of the collection you might say. It speaks to the reader about foraging for a truthful place, a perch of realness, in the midst of and despite the specter of loneliness.

—Sonya Chung

Project 366 – Week 4

22/366
Sunday afternoon
post-run Mad Men marathon
blanket, tea and snacks

23/366
it seems like there must
be an easier way but
maybe there isn’t

24/366
another poem re:
the weather. what can I say?
it’s raining sideways

25/366
must write a haiku
before I crawl into bed
how very meta

26/366 brought to you by Phoebe (mew)
I told you, human
Friskies is so delicious
I eat it all up

27/366
I run like the wind
in my imagination
feet skimming the ground

28/366
dear sidewalk hogs: move.
I am not invisible.
stop being assholes

In which The Globe and Mail notices slow writing…

First there was fast food, then came slow food, followed quickly (!) by every imaginable iteration of the theme: slow cities, slow travel, slow schools, even slow cycling. So it was only a matter of time before slow writing seeped upon the scene.

It happened inconspicuously earlier this month…

—John Barber

insert record screech here

Ahem.

Project 366 – Week 3

15/366
for an elderly
kitty, vet appointments are
very expensive

16/366
(grrr) oh where, oh where
did Toasted Cheese go? oh where
oh where can it be?

17/366
city sidewalks filled
with couch-to-5k clinics
it’s January

18/366
almost killed by blue
minivan running red light
white flakes fall from sky

19/366
snow warning. again.
oh, weather network, you are
the boy who cried snow

20/366
dark skies, freezing rain
should I go for a run or
curl up with a book?

21/366
spring’s in the air and
everything is shiny green
fresh after the rain

Not my only option

The alternative to Facebook and mobile apps is not a pure, ideal world where everything is free and your privacy is always assured. I’m aware that the free platform I’m using to write this blog is owned by an enormous information corporation whose privacy practices are not always stellar. But it’s not my only option. There are alternative applications that serve the exact same purpose, and will produce the same results. This blog is free for anyone, anywhere, on any device. You don’t have to buy a special device, or join Blogger, or register your personal data to access it.

—Laura Kaminker

A form of stillness

[C]ooking is about being in relationship: to the ingredients, to the space I am occupying, to the people I am cooking for, to the life-force that enables this nourishment to happen. When I’m in relationship in this way, I’m also engaged in a form of stillness, … in a state of non-being. Or to put it another way, I’m participating in something deeper and more significant to my life than tending to my ego’s restlessness and dissatisfaction.

—Dana Velden

I love Dana Velden’s Weekend Meditations at The Kitchn.

Project 366 – Week 2

8/366
the camera is
always watching characters
are never alone

9/366
afternoon silence
broken by a buzz. it’s my
Amazon order

10/366
reminder: commit
to a little bit each day
and you will finish

11/366
six thirty a.m.
dark cold shivery morning
too early to wake

12/366 (happy bday, little bro!)
you will always be
4 years, 5 months and 6 days
younger than I am

13/366
weekend obsession:
Kelly Clarkson’s song, Stronger
(what doesn’t kill you)

14/366
in the night, snow. now
cold rain already washes
the wet flakes away