The big oak tree in my garden is bullying me. Every time I rake up the leaves, I turn around to put them in the compost, and boom! New heap. To add insult to injury, it sometimes dumps leaves on my head while I clear away the old ones. And every time I can hear it laugh like a maniac. It keeps coming up with new...

Last spring I gave myself a spring writing challenge, and now I think it’s high time for an autumn challenge! Feel free to join me! For this challenge I’ve created the following prompts: leaves clouds rain storm cardigan pumpkin coffee You can use these words as prompts for short stories, short memoir pieces,...

I was bemoaning a jigsaw puzzle I’m doing, earlier today. It’s really cute and when it’s done it will be perfect but the pattern is way too busy for me to handle and I keep staring at pieces, thinking they could go anywhere and then set them aside, frustrated. I briefly considered putting the puzzle back in the box,...

I realised something when I woke up in a panic last night about my hospital visit today (update: the results were perfect): fear only works in absolutes. You either die right away of the disease or you live. Fear doesn’t do in between, and boy, it’s good at doom scenarios. Every time I walk out of the hospital after...

Right now there are countless machines spewing out countless perfect texts. All the language has correct spelling and is perfectly comprehensible. It’s so boring. I prefer things people make, write, doodle, craft. I rather look at your stream of consciousness, your blotchy doodle, your crappy handlettering, your...

My medication makes me feel constantly fatigued. It’s super annoying and something that I fight to counteract. The fatigue makes me want to lay in bed all day and do nothing, especially on days when my asthma is triggered. Yesterday I was DONE with that. We went thrifting, something I always love to do. It was a...

I’ve started knitting fingerless gloves again. I love knitting these things, they are quick little projects and I want a stack in a lot of colours as I wear them throughout the colder months. They keep my hands warm while I work. I just finished the first of a new set of gloves, in a pink/white/green pastel...

This is the sixth post in my 'hitting the digital brakes'-series. These are the previous posts in this series: the joys of imperfection Do we really need the latest tech My e-reader made me a worse reader Not everything needs to be in the cloud Anti AI? Be Pro Human! I have a highly curated feed on Instagram, and...

Dear Creative Soul, I have a shelf in my library that contains all the books that inspire me to be creative. I can consult it every time I need inspiration, every time I’m stuck, every time I feel like I have nothing to create. It never fails to inspire me. If you created such a shelf, what books would be in it?...

Last week I happened upon a video about Nålebinding, an ancient Norse way of creating fabric with wool yarn. I immediately felt the pull to create something with this technique. I grabbed some yarn that was 75 percent wool and it obviously wasn’t suitable. You have to felt yarn for it and felting only really works...

A week from today I have the big quarterly checkup at the hospital again, and that had me really nervous this morning. I don’t like to dwell on those feelings. Thankfully, I’ve learned to deal with them: follow my two step plan to free myself of those jitters. Step 1 - find calm I just got up, walked to the...

I wrote a poem this morning, a poem filled with longing to write poetry. It’s one of many. This is the poem: I seek quietbetween these linessolace within breathcalm withinthe hum of wordsfalling into placethe confident energyof a poem, written You see, after my diagnosis and healing journey after, poetry doesn’t...