Tag: Writer

Done Questioning

Posted on by Erin of the Hills

Do not let what you think they think of you make you stop and question everything you are.

Carrie Fisher

I’m not sure what your opinion on the late, great Carrie Fisher is. Despite having found her tweets incredibly confounding, what long-form writing of hers I was exposed to really stayed with me. Postcards from the Edge might be the first book I’ve ever read where the author’s voice truly struck me as unique.

Now…this may say more about where I was in my reading journey and life overall at the time than being any kind of disparaging comment on anything I had read previously but…I digress.

The point is, whether she meant this or not, in reading that book I truly felt as if Ms. Fisher herself was speaking to me – trying to explain something about who she was and what her seemingly glamorous life was or had been like. It went beyond memoir or autobiography, despite being fiction. Like cracking open a soul.

Her book confirmed what I had already surmised: I wanted to write and I wanted to write in my own voice – not one that was prescribed to me.

Continue reading “Done Questioning” →

A Glimpse

Posted on by Erin of the Hills

For years I functioned fairly well in the world, but I had an underlying sense that I was fooling people, and I was driven to achieve in order to counter that suspicion. And when I was with other people, would avoid dropping my guard out of fear that they would glimpse the real me and blow my whole act to pieces. – No Bad Parts, Richard C. Schwartz PhD.

Have you ever read something so heart wrenchingly personal that you immediately feel the writer was actually addressing you? It’s happened to me before but never as intensely as when I read that quote above. I’m still a little shaken by it, to be honest. It could have been written by me.

Continue reading “A Glimpse” →

Resolving 2024

Posted on by Erin of the Hills

Dawn. A cool, clear dawn, with strands of coral cloud parting like old wool to allow the sun to rise through them.

Morgan Llywelyn, Bard

Holy moly we only have two more weeks left to go until 2024. Is anyone else in shock? Anyone else think it’s still actually September because there is no way it’s December 17th? No? Just me? Cool, cool.

It has been a hell of a Fall and beginning of Winter for our household. I think I’m on cold number 4 since September, as are my husband and the kids. For all the amazing moments we get with young kids, the constant illness is definitely a drain on the system.

So, I’m giving myself the gift of the last two weeks of December off from work and writing commitments. Now, that doesn’t mean I can’t schedule some blog posts for the new year if I feel like it but I’m not going to stress myself out trying to post one every Sunday (or beat myself up when some weeks aren’t possible). Merry Christmas to me!

I couldn’t go out without posting my annual Resolution post though. So here it is. May it serve, if nothing else, as a reminder that resolutions are wonderful but not required. If your year turns out to look differently than you planned in a flurry of productivity at the beginning…that’s OK! I think the point is to commit to growing every year, even if we end up growing in ways which are unforeseen.

Continue reading “Resolving 2024” →

How do I know I’m a Writer?

Posted on by Erin of the Hills

A writer is a world trapped in a person

Victor Hugo

I’ve decided that one post a month is going to be dedicated to something writerly. So, with a Solidarity Sunday, Reading Roundup, Travelogue and this that would be 4 posts a month which is admirable…no? At least until the kids start school in earnest, I think this is the most I can commit to.

So, for my first dedicated writerly post (though I’ve written about the importance of writing in my life before) I decided I would answer the eternal question: how do I know I’m a writer when I’ve never been traditionally published?

Well, strap in dear reader. Because I have some thoughts.

Continue reading “How do I know I’m a Writer?” →

A Childhood Wish

Posted on by Erin of the Hills

Childhood fears and childhood wishes never lost their power. At the moment you were certain they’d been set aside, they rose up unexpectedly and took you just as strongly as they had before, as though reminding you that no one ever truly left the past behind.

Susanna Kearsley, Bellewether

Interestingly, this post could just have easily been titled “A Childhood Fear” as more often than not, one is the reason the other is put aside. If your childhood wish is to travel the world, your fear of flying must be pushed through to achieve this. Conversely, if your childhood fear is public speaking, your childhood wish to become Prime Minister (or President) may be forgotten.

But this doesn’t mean the one pushed aside is gone forever. Severe turbulence on your way to visit Thailand may bring back all those nightmares of plummeting from 35,000 feet high while toastmasters combined with a particularly disappointing performance by an elected leader may reignite the desire to do your part to change the world through public office.

You just never know where life may take you.

Where am I going with all this, you might ask? Well, grab yourself a hot drink and a cozy blanket (or a cold drink and a hammock if you’re living anywhere near me) because we have a lot of catching up to do.

Continue reading “A Childhood Wish” →

Resolving 2023

Posted on by Erin of the Hills

Embrace the glorious mess that you are

Elizabeth Gilbert

So, it’s 2023. It’s 2023! Where did 2022 go? Anyone else feeling a bit discombobulated on this, the first day of the new year?

It has been 11 months since I last posted something here. Eleven whole months. When I spoke that out loud to my husband this morning I could hardly believe it. And yet, here we are.

When I was trying to think of why I hadn’t sat down to write in so long (despite my usual New Year’s resolution to do so every single day…or, at least more often) it only took one quick glance to my left at the peacefully snoring little one there to remind me why.

I didn’t write much at all last year because, well, I wasn’t feeling up to it. Why, you might ask? Well…because most of my energy was necessarily taken up in the act of growing the newest member of our family. Eleanor Rita Roberta Gurski Savoie was born two weeks early on October 14th, 2022, coming swiftly into this world after a mere 5 hours of labour. Of course, we are over the moon (as is her big sister Aria) but as pregnancies are not easy for me, the worthy cause of giving her life was pretty much all I could handle for 10 months. Well, that and making sure her older sister also had all the food, sleep, fun and love she needs and deserves every single day.

But here I am, again. I will always return to writing, no matter what life throws at me. Writing is a part of me, a big part, and something I miss terribly when I’m not doing it. However, as a wise friend recently reminded me, there are seasons for everything in life and perhaps being a mother of two young ones is not the season in which I will do the most writing. And that is OK.

Continue reading “Resolving 2023” →

Reading Roundup: May 2021

Posted on by Erin of the Hills

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.

Joseph Addison

I truly believe that reading is something that should be done daily. Even if you only read a page, or perhaps naught but a few sentences, it is such a good workout for your brain.

Don’t feel you have time to open a physical book? Try an audiobook, I tend to listen to mine while I’m cooking dinner or doing the dishes! It makes the work go faster and helps me get through my massive “To Read” pile faster.

Since becoming a Mom, I find I need to schedule reading into my day, much as I pencil in time to exercise. This way, I am sure to exercise both my mind and my body consistently. Otherwise it is much too easy to get stuck in the mindless scrolling or binge-watching loops that don’t bring me nearly as much joy as reading does.

And, on that note, here are the best things I read this month!

Continue reading “Reading Roundup: May 2021” →

Reading Roundup: April 2021

Posted on by Erin of the Hills

Nostalgia in reverse, the longing for yet another strange land, grew especially strong in the spring

Vladimir Nobokov, Mary

Perhaps it is because it is springtime, or because this latest lockdown truly does feel as if it may be one of the last, but I found that Nobokov’s concept of nostalgia in reverse greatly influenced what kinds of articles and blogs resonated with me this month.

Whether it was a longing for a lifestyle I have never perfected (fitting writing into my daily routine); an urge to continue traveling the world…heck, even browse a bookshop at my leisure; or the deep desire to use my inherent privilege to help make a positive and notable difference in this world for those who have been marginalized for too long.

There truly is a theme here.

So, without further ado, enjoy!

Continue reading “Reading Roundup: April 2021” →

Solidarity Sunday #4: Coping – Part One

Posted on by Erin of the Hills

“…patience and perseverance generally enable mankind to overcome things which, at first sight, appear impossible. Indeed, what is there above man’s exertions?”

– George Borrow, Lavengro

How is everybody doing? Hanging in there OK? Can anyone believe we have been in the grips of this pandemic, at least here in Canada, for half a year already?

As I’ve written in previous posts, the last six months have been hard. I recognize fully that my Covid experience has been incredibly privileged compared to the vast majority of humanity. To start, I have a roof over my head. I’m warm, dry, fed, healthy, safe and am able to bubble up with at least part of our family. Both my husband and I have been able to keep bringing in paychecks and we have only one dependent who is an infant and therefore does not need to be homeschooled (I’m not supposed to be schooling an 8-month-old…right?). So, yes, all things considered, my situation could be much MUCH worse.

However, none of these privileges can fully combat the fact that we are living through a global pandemic, and one that looks on track to last a while longer (PSA: Wear your masks, people!). Not only is the isolation and fear crushing some days but learning to parent while not having access to our much-beloved support networks has been much harder than I could have possibly imagined. Yes, now we have at least one set of grandparents and a few uncles and aunts in our bubble able to help but that leaves two sets of grandparents, many uncles and aunts, and the rest of our extended family largely out of our daughter’s life for the time being. And this alone is, well, heartbreaking. As I wrote in a previous post, this is not in any way, shape, or form what I envisioned for the first year of Aria’s life. Not by a long shot.

Don’t worry, though, dear reader! This post is not meant to be all doom and gloom. I am actually going to offer below some coping mechanisms that seemed to have worked to largely bring me back to a place of calm and positivity in the midst of so much chaos and negativity. I hope they will help someone, anyone, to find even just a little bit of light in the darkness but, remember, it is still OK to not be OK. Take a deep breath. We will get through this, together.

Continue reading “Solidarity Sunday #4: Coping – Part One” →

Solidarity Sunday #3 – Mental Health

Posted on by Erin of the Hills

“Moments like this act as magical interludes placing our hearts at the edge of our souls: fleetingly, yet intensely, a fragment of eternity has come to enrich time. Elsewhere the world may be blustering or sleeping, wars are fought, people live and die, some nations disintegrate, while others are born, soon to be swallowed up in turn – and in all this sound and fury, amidst eruptions and undertows, while the world goes its merry way, bursts into flames, tears itself apart and is reborn: human life continues to throb.” – Muriel Barbery, The Elegance of the Hedgehog

How is everyone doing?

We are now, let’s see, 6 months into COVID-19 self-isolation measures. Half. A. Year. How is this possible? How can it possibly feel like no time at all has passed while also simultaneously seeming like we’ve been in isolation forever? Is this how hermits feel all the time? The mind boggles.

Like many others, I have struggled during this time to keep on top of the many productive tasks I set out to consistently chip away at despite having what appears at first blush to be an unlimited stretch of time laid out before me each morning.

Wait, scratch that, who am I kidding? I have a 6.5-month-old daughter…I wake up before the sun and by the time I catch a moment to take a deep breath that same sun is somehow on its way down again. I wonder if the days feel as unreasonably short to a baby as well.

Motherhood aside, as this is not what I wished to post about tonight, I can summarize the last few months in one single word: Rough.

Continue reading “Solidarity Sunday #3 – Mental Health” →