Annette Gendler's Blog, page 11

Are You Creating Assets?

Once in a while, one of Seth Godin’s daily missives sticks in my mind, such as his idea of focusing on creating assets. That’s how I understood his post The Daily.

He focused on encouraging a daily habit of creating an asset, but I zeroed in on the very idea of creating assets. Godin published it on September 28, when I was still very much in the throes of recovering from hip surgery. I had to be very judicious how I spent the little time I could be up and doing something. Not that we shouldn...

A Vintage Children’s Book Illuminates a Visit to Plymouth Plantation

On our recent trip to Boston, we visited Plimouth Plantation.

As often happens when traveling, you go out to see one thing and discover another.

Plimouth Plantation hadn’t been the main destination that day, a cranberry farm had been. But since it was on the way, we stopped by on our drive back. Turns out the historical village was the more interesting attraction. It recreates the settlement of the Plymouth Colony established in 1620 by the Pilgrims, English colonists who came to the new wor...

Eyewitness Accounts for Today’s 80th Anniversary of Kristallnacht

The destruction of the synagogue in Reichenberg (Liberec), November 9-10, 1938

Last year I wrote about Remembering Kristallnacht in Liberec, which is featured in my book Jumping Over Shadows. I didn’t want today’s 80th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom go by without honoring it. Especially since I’ve made a new friend, thanks to my book, who grew up Jewish in Liberec (formerly Reichenberg), and who kindly forwarded me the above image.

I also feel that, in light of the recent shocking a...

Creative Nonfiction and Memoir: What’s the Difference?

A new student asked me to explain the difference between creative nonfiction and memoir, and so I thought I’d clarify this here today. If one person asks, I figure, more are probably wondering. The answer is really quite simple:

Memoir is a form of creative nonfiction.

Let’s define creative nonfiction. I actually dislike the term, as do many writers in this genre, because it causes confusion. I would prefer “literary nonfiction,” but alas, creative nonfiction has largely stuck.

Creative nonf...

Recipe for a Perfect Day in Solitude

“…when [you] remember feeling joyfully bound to the whole earth or even universe — [those moments] are most likely to be associated with being alone, and often alone outside.”

found on p. 109 under “Explore Reverie” in How to Be Alone by Sara Maitland

How true, how true. I stumbled across this observation recently reading Sara Maitland’s How to Be Alone. This book was indeed more of a “how to” on exactly what it promises rather than the memoir I expected extolling the virtues of the author l...

Writing Postcards – A Tradition Continues

Postcard carousel in the colonnade at Mariánské Lázně, Czech Republic (September 2016)

Whenever I travel, I send postcards to my brother and sister.

They do the same. This summer I was grounded because of my hip surgery, but the side table by my writing spot displays postcards from my brother’s trip to Scotland and my sister’s excursion to King Ludwig’s castle Herrenchiemsee with a cousin.

The three of us live in three different countries so we could write to each other more often (and we use...

The Rainy Day File

One evening last summer, my brother and I lingered by the camp fire after the rest of the family had gone to bed. As the flames died down, we looked up at the night sky, taking in its twinkling endlessness. Suddenly, there they were: Two falling stars, their contrails briefly lighting up the inky firmament.

“Did you see that?”

We hugged each other, happy to witness this rare heavenly spectacle.

Whenever I see a falling star, this song comes to mind:

“Catch a falling star and put it in your p...

Place Can Help Restore Your Sense of Self

Yesterday I went for a walk around Promontory Point for the first time since my surgery, and I realized: a place can help restore our sense of self. Three months after the surgery, I was taking this walk that I have taken so many times before, and:

I felt that I was reclaiming a part of myself.

Making the round of this peninsula that struts out into Lake Michigan allowed me to slip into my old skin, to feel like myself again, even if it was a stretch for me to walk for 20 minutes. It let me...

Summer Apples

This is the time of year when I used to go apple picking with my kids. Alas, they’ve all flown the nest, and the one day my daughter and I could have gone, I was simply in too much pain. I simply love everything about the County Line Orchard where we always go–the apples, the beekeeping shack, the petting zoo, the pumpkin patch, the “hayrides,” the bright red tractors…

But I stumbled across the apple poem below today, and I thought I’d share that as today’s post and a celebration of the bo...

Knitting or How Creativity Connects

I always knit when I’m on a plane, or crochet. In fact, if I have a flight coming up, and I don’t have a knitting project going, I frantically cast about for one, often shopping for yarn at the last minute. Knitting hats is ideal as they’re not a bulky project to carry around. However, I can finish knitting a hat on a transatlantic flight and then what about the return trip?

I used to only knit easy stuff where I didn’t have to mind the pattern. Then I discovered that sitting on an airplane...