Julie Saffrin

WRITING RETREAT IN MITCHELL, SOUTH DAKOTA

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So easy for me to put writing off and fill time with other things. Hard for me to say yes to shouting down my fears and just type. Really helps to get away and force myself to just write, without little shiny bulbs to distract me. The last weekend of October, my friend, Barbara Majchrzak and I, did just that. We got away on a writing retreat. And it was a time of great concentration, advancing my manuscript, and for Barb, celebrating a finished manuscript. Barb and I go back a long way, like I think at least twenty years.…

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A CARPENTER WHO TAUGHT A GIRL HOW TO WRITE

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For those of you following this blog, you know that July 2016 marks the 15th anniversary of my father’s entering into eternity. Earlier this month, in Summertime Blues in July, I wrote about seeing my father be ushered into glory in 2001 as well as his and my favorite color, blue. Thanks to so many of you who sent me your encouraging words as to that blog. I am profoundly grateful to you, my readers, for your choosing to read this blog and for your kind words. For today’s blog, I’d like to thank Southern Writers Magazine and especially Annette Cole…

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WRITING BEYOND OUR MORTAL COIL

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I read the other day that Prince Charles has painted thousands of watercolors. He’s a prince, first in line to the throne. Why should he do anything other than be princely? His Royal Highness responded, “We walk away and shuffle off our mortal coil, but these things live on.” Ah, a partial quote from a soliloquy spoken by a fictitious Shakespearian prince from Denmark who wrote, “To be or not to be, that is the question.” The Prince of Wales paints so that the beauty of that which he sees will extend beyond his time here. The British heir to the throne…

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Gratitude by the Lake

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A red and white sailboat, moored at its secured buoy, rocks bow to stern. The tour paddleboat leaving the Port of Excelsior just tooted its horn. A man in black sweater, khakis, trilby and white beard checks his dory. It is a beautiful 50–degree day at “my office” in my car at Excelsior Commons in Minnesota. I’ve come today to displace some anxiety. This beautiful setting, of boats and water, is once again working its magic and bringing me to a place where I can both let go of worries and concentrate on what is at hand for me this…

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New Book by Julie Saffrin: “Kissing the Shoreline: Quotes and Reflections to Live By”

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KissingtheShoreline | https://juliesaffrin.com

Two seemingly unrelated things happened in the summer of 2014. 1. My birthday. 2. Being restlessly perturbed. Converging upheavals tend to disturb life’s even keel. I was a year older in June and questioned what I had done to show for it. I did what I always do when upheavals pile up. I go into semi-seclusion and reach for a book. In this case, one of Julia Cameron’s. A random open and two words in I found the reason for my funk. “Finish something.” It comes easy to me to start something. As well, I consider myself an in-process person.…

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