by AnnSheybani | Sep 7, 2017 | Life, Writing
When I was young, I had no idea what I thought, felt, or wanted. Pressed for my opinion, I’d make an evasive or sarcastic comment instead of deciding what it was that I thought. I didn’t want to say anything that could be construed the wrong way, or held against me...
by AnnSheybani | Aug 26, 2017 | Life
On Friday, we sold our home in Connecticut. At least I’m hoping that’s how things pan out. As I write, I’m on a Norwegian Air flight somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean imagining all of the nasty surprises that could prevent us from closing—the sudden death of the...
by AnnSheybani | Aug 20, 2017 | Life, Writing
What if uncertainty and tension and confrontation were good things? How might your life improve if you used them as tools? If you stopped running away from them and recognized them as fantabulous forces for change? I was giving a creative writing lecture last month...
by AnnSheybani | Aug 1, 2017 | Life, Reading
I had lunch sometime back with an old friend I hadn’t seen in years. Both oddballs in high school, we’d dreamed of baking bread together when we graduated, raising sheep, and starting a commune in rural Vermont. She’d do the wool spinning and...
by AnnSheybani | Jul 16, 2017 | Life, Reading
Walt and I are up in New Hampshire getting certified in Wilderness First Responder Medicine, WFR, for short. That way if one of us breaks a leg or develops a pneumothorax (note: this is me showing off) when we’re off the grid, we’ll have a reasonable...
by AnnSheybani | Jun 27, 2017 | Life, Reading
Like a junkie with a 14-gauge needle, my mother used books to blot out reality. Curled up in her chair, immersed in a novel, she ceased to be aware of anyone or anything around her. When she put her book down, exposed herself to the rage and tension that contaminated...
