Category Meditation

Writing has always seemed to me a kind of alchemy.

The old alchemists believed that hidden within common and seemingly worthless substances lay the possibility of transformation. Their work began with the prima materia — dark, unformed matter — and through a long process of purification and refinement sought to reveal gold concealed within it.

Gratitude is not naïveté. It is a way of seeing.

Recently, a professional friend told me she was more of a “glass-half-empty” person than a “glass-half-full” one. She admitted she needed optimistic people around her because otherwise life could begin to feel catastrophic. I suspect many people feel the same way. We are naturally drawn toward those who carry some sense of possibility within them.