Rea Nolan Martin's Blog, page 3

Everybody’s Got a Story. Is Yours Dragging You Around?

As a teacher of writing, I’ve had graduate students who wrote repeatedly about the same subject, usually a significant trauma that occurred earlier in their lives. The trauma could be the death of a close friend or family member, a miscarriage, addiction, abortion, rape, natural disaster, illness, or more. It was as if someone or [...]

Ah, the Good Old Bad Days of Publishing

In some ways, it was easier to get published back in the day.  Not self-published, obviously, but published in the traditional manner, or what used to be the traditional manner before self-publishing dominated the market 10-1.  Before the onslaught of technology and social media with all its opportunities, freedoms and demands, a talented writer could [...]

Falling For Twitter

I’m teetering on the edge of the twitterverse, about to fall. After years of avoiding it, I finally accept that it’s not merely a distracting stretch of passing scenery on the human journey. After all, what’s on our minds is the journey, is it not? All action is a result of preceding thought, deliberate or [...]

WHY WRITERS WRITE

I live and work in an inspiring place overlooking a dynamic river combusting with life.  Sailboats, tugs, kayaks, tour boats, and ferries connect me across swirling tidal pools of fresh water and ocean brine to the silver monoliths of Manhattan.  I’m stimulated by every muse of man and nature I could ever want, and yet [...]

How to feed the body, mind, and spirit: 3 tips

Feed the spirit. Faith is not a product of the mind, but of the spirit. In fact, the mind interferes in the process of faith more than it contributes to it. In order for the spirit to triumph over the mind, it must be involved in some regular form of spiritual practice or ritual.  Prayer, [...]

What would you have done differently in 2010?

As we near the end of the year, I find myself contemplating the words of the renowned author, psychiatrist, philosopher and Holocaust survivor, Viktor Frankl, in his 1959 classic, Man’s Search for Meaning: “Live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly [...]

God doesn’t laugh at our plans

I see and hear this line everywhere—in church, on the mouths of well-meaning friends and neighbors, as well as on the little pearls of internet wisdom that travel mindlessly around. Years ago, in the midst of a monstrous catastrophe, I was at the receiving end of this comment countless times. It was usually delivered with [...]

Stop chasing happiness

Anyone who has ever felt true happiness at any given point in her life knows what a rare and special gift it is. Extensive studies have shown that money can contribute to happiness up to a point, but only the point at which it buys us the basics and a few discretionary dollars. People with [...]