Sounds like a fine dream to settle in Sedona. I love how you embrace life in all its myriad paths. I think that one reason I fell in love with books is I could choose my own path, choose the stories I wanted to read. At times in my life I felt that I didn't have many options and that I had to go down a certain path. But with books I could always choose and it afforded me a freedom not always found in my daily life. Thanks as always Don.
Matthew, that is an enlightening perspective on the motivation for reading. I think I was in the same position as you. I also felt didn’t have many choices (oh, if only we knew how free we were at that age!). In books I could go anywhere, be anyone. I really lived in books!
My husband and I just built a library/writer's nook for both of us on our property in the wintry woods of Northern Michigan. Far from Sedona, but heaven for us. Thanks as always for a delightful read despite the bonk to the head.
There's a beautiful symmetry in your dual identity as a carpenter and a writer. Both are acts of creation, shaping raw materials into something meaningful. The carpenter's hands build structures that shelter and protect, while the writer's words construct worlds that inspire and illuminate. 🩵
Beautifully said, Alexander, and thank you for honoring both. I was really hoping I didn’t misrepresent my resistance as dislike for carpentry. I am actually proud of my ability to build; both wood structures (including houses, guitars, and canoes!) and narratives.
Such is life. I hope the warm place and the writer’s cabin eventuates. At least it’s now in writing. Things often seem to build momentum once written and shared. Good luck! 😉
That’s true, Beth. And wouldn’t you know, the night I scheduled this for publication, my sister, by pure chance, texted to say a friend of hers is about to put her Sedona house up for sale. She didn’t know about this writing, just that I like Sedona (but I like many other places, too!)
Great essay Don! Yeah I’ve hit my head and a lot of other body parts for that matter doing construction projects!!! Funny how life is always working us towards why we came to earth whether we are aware of it or not! Just think how much writing material you have as a result of all those years of carpentry ❤️. Best wishes on your retirement writing cabin! I hope you visit my little bit of Adirondack Heaven before you go🙏. Blessings my friend!
Amazing how when you begin an essay with I, the reader immediately moves onto self reflection. So here you will find an ‘I’ response 😉 after I say I hope you have recovered ok from the nail in thumb and crack to your head! Concussions can sneak up on you.
My grandfather was a carpenter as well! As a result I know how to use the tools. Seem to be collecting carpenters here in the comments.
I also was given a free pass for a whole grade school year because I wrote so well. It shows us that certain kinds of environments breed certain kinds of intellect that can be recognized for what it is with similar results: I am a jack(ie) of many trades, master of none, looking for a steady income 😁 Maybe it’s just our generation?
Beautiful Sedona! It’s closer for you than you think 🪄✨
I’ve come to this one late so I hope your head is better now, Don! I don’t think I could ever live in a landscape like Sedona but I have dreamed of visiting ever since I learned that the Surrealists Dorothea Tanning and Max Ernst lived and made art there for a while after WWII. Various other Surrealists visited them there and Lee Miller (subject of the biopic Lee that came out recently) took the pictures that made me want to go. To be honest, I probably *shouldn’t* go because part of me will be disappointed to discover they are no longer there 😂 But I think it’s a very appropriate place to dream of being an artist in!
You’re right about not reading Goodreads reviews, Kate!
As far as ratings go, I have learned that most of my favorite books earn around 3.5 stars on Goodreads. And many National Book Award winners are the same. Most of the readers on Goodreads, I think, seem to have a certain taste that I don’t share. I don’t even bother with Goodreads end of the year book awards.
I’m so thrilled and happy for you that you just finished your first draft of your next book! That deserves congratulations! 🎉🥳👏
I'll admit I had to google these artists. Fascinating work, and MIller's photographs are wild!
It's unlikely I'll ever be living in Sedona; that dream popped up as I was writing the essay. Yes, I was once hiking in Sedona and was overcome with the beauty and a great desire to live there, but I have had these feelings elsewhere as well, including Taos, New Mexico home of another school of artists. I've also very much dreamed of a cabin in the hills of western Massachusetts. We shall see where we all end up!
I finished your book yesterday. I loved it, Kate! I'll admit I was braced for some kind of outrageously disappointing epilogue because of several Goodreads reviews I read. I'm left wondering what on earth those reviewers were talking about. The epilogue made perfect sense to me. I have to repeat; I'm floored by your skill. I hope you're writing another! 💚💚💚
Ah I'm so glad to hear it! To tell you the truth there was actually no epilogue in the first draft at all - I added it at the editorial stage because my agent thought an 'enigmatic epilogue' would improve the ending. Then when I read the reactions on Goodreads I thought maybe I shouldn't have listened... But then I reread it months later and I stand by it. I still haven't quite worked out what it was about it that inspired such vitriol! Maybe people didn't want to read about the pandemic. Or maybe they were bummed that the romance didn't end tied up nicely in a bow. I think the lesson is probably just not to look at Goodreads! But I'm super glad you thought it made sense. And as it happens, I finished the first draft of novel #2 about three days ago...
And I know exactly what you mean about fantasising about living in different places... I feel the same about the Lake District here in the UK, and Scotland, and various parts of France...
Kate, if I responded to your comment twice, I suspect it’s because I responded on the re-stack, rather than here, then this morning saw nothing here and thought my response never got sent. I just did the same thing with someone else!
You’re right about not reading Goodreads reviews, Kate!
I have found that most of my favorite books earn around 3.5 stars on Goodreads, even National Book Award winners. I think maybe the readers on there are a certain kind of reader that I don’t resonate with. I don’t even bother to look at Goodreads end-of-year book awards. They’re generally not books I’m really interested in. But I like to use the site to keep track of my reading.
How amazing that you just finished your draft of your second book. I’m thrilled and happy for you! That deserves congratulations! 🎉🥳
One of my colleagues did the opposite - got bored with academia in middle age and became a joiner. Had to work some crap jobs until he built a reputation, but he's doing food ne now. We are sold this idea that you need to pick one field early on and achieve great though bfs in it, because our lives are supposed to follow some Campbellluan Hero's Journey storyline. But seeing life as a journey is just that - one way of seeing it, or in other words a metaphor.
That’s very courageous of your friend. It can’t be easy to make such a change in middle-age. But you’re sure right; I never wanted to be stuck doing only one thing for the rest of my life!
Sorry about the head bump! I too have always imagined living in a small cottage somewhere in nature, writing, reading, thinking, walking. I couldn't build myself one though. You have a definite advantage!
Really, Emily, I have to say that your comment just basically embodies my essence; “living in a small cottage somewhere in nature, writing, reading, thinking, walking.” I think we are soul sibs!
All I know is this: You'll make the best of whatever evolves. Your greatest gift, to yourself and others as far as I can tell, is the practice of accepting what is, and of finding beauty there. Just right there.
Thank you very much, Elizabeth. I really like this response because you’re seeing the larger me, not just the one knocked on the head and temporarily dissatisfied with his lot. Sedona in this case represents something inside, a freedom that is already mine and is slowly manifesting itself in my physical world.
Always such a pleasure to hear from you, Elizabeth!
My good friend is a carpenter. Before I retired from interior design work, we had been a team. Not a project went by where his forehead was free from a fresh or healing gash! I don’t see him as often, but when I do, I know work has been full for him by the presence of the wound! Stories can be shared from every rock - a client’s garden or Sedona. You’ve managed to achieve a great dream without an AZ zip code.
I wonder how your friend is doing now? You described the life of a carpenter accurately. My body has been punctured, slashed, bruised, and banged up for so many years. I’m proud of my skill, and I truly enjoy using tools and working with wood. I’ll never stop doing that on my own house, in my wood shop, perhaps for some friends. It’s just time to relax the contracting part a bit.
Doesn’t have to be AZ at all. My mother-in-law lived in Flagstaff until she died a few weeks ago so my wife and I have grown fond of the beauty there, but it’s a big beautiful world, including where I live now.
I talked with Scott about a month ago. He is hoping to build a furniture design/build business - perhaps a bit tamer and more creative than general construction. He is an amazing tile artist as well - tough on the knees!
Sounds like a fine dream to settle in Sedona. I love how you embrace life in all its myriad paths. I think that one reason I fell in love with books is I could choose my own path, choose the stories I wanted to read. At times in my life I felt that I didn't have many options and that I had to go down a certain path. But with books I could always choose and it afforded me a freedom not always found in my daily life. Thanks as always Don.
Matthew, that is an enlightening perspective on the motivation for reading. I think I was in the same position as you. I also felt didn’t have many choices (oh, if only we knew how free we were at that age!). In books I could go anywhere, be anyone. I really lived in books!
My husband and I just built a library/writer's nook for both of us on our property in the wintry woods of Northern Michigan. Far from Sedona, but heaven for us. Thanks as always for a delightful read despite the bonk to the head.
Oh, that sounds awesome! It can be so easy to dream and hard to make into a reality. Good for you two!
Thanks, Nancy!
There's a beautiful symmetry in your dual identity as a carpenter and a writer. Both are acts of creation, shaping raw materials into something meaningful. The carpenter's hands build structures that shelter and protect, while the writer's words construct worlds that inspire and illuminate. 🩵
Beautifully said, Alexander, and thank you for honoring both. I was really hoping I didn’t misrepresent my resistance as dislike for carpentry. I am actually proud of my ability to build; both wood structures (including houses, guitars, and canoes!) and narratives.
Such is life. I hope the warm place and the writer’s cabin eventuates. At least it’s now in writing. Things often seem to build momentum once written and shared. Good luck! 😉
That’s true, Beth. And wouldn’t you know, the night I scheduled this for publication, my sister, by pure chance, texted to say a friend of hers is about to put her Sedona house up for sale. She didn’t know about this writing, just that I like Sedona (but I like many other places, too!)
But yes, the writing…. I can do that anywhere!
Thanks, Beth!
Great essay Don! Yeah I’ve hit my head and a lot of other body parts for that matter doing construction projects!!! Funny how life is always working us towards why we came to earth whether we are aware of it or not! Just think how much writing material you have as a result of all those years of carpentry ❤️. Best wishes on your retirement writing cabin! I hope you visit my little bit of Adirondack Heaven before you go🙏. Blessings my friend!
I’ll be around for a while, Wayne, and I will definitely visit you. I think I’ll wait for warmer weather!
Wonderful reminder Don!
Thank you, Jamal! 🙏💚
Amazing how when you begin an essay with I, the reader immediately moves onto self reflection. So here you will find an ‘I’ response 😉 after I say I hope you have recovered ok from the nail in thumb and crack to your head! Concussions can sneak up on you.
My grandfather was a carpenter as well! As a result I know how to use the tools. Seem to be collecting carpenters here in the comments.
I also was given a free pass for a whole grade school year because I wrote so well. It shows us that certain kinds of environments breed certain kinds of intellect that can be recognized for what it is with similar results: I am a jack(ie) of many trades, master of none, looking for a steady income 😁 Maybe it’s just our generation?
Beautiful Sedona! It’s closer for you than you think 🪄✨
We’re collecting carpenters and grade skippers! There was one other who enjoyed a free pass for their writing. We better start a club haha!
Thanks for reading and commenting, LaMonica! 🙏💚
Maybe a successful life lies in finding the right balance between doing what you love and loving what you do. Writing makes me happy, too.
Yes, I would say a balanced life is a good life! Thanks, Sara. 🙏💚
I’ve come to this one late so I hope your head is better now, Don! I don’t think I could ever live in a landscape like Sedona but I have dreamed of visiting ever since I learned that the Surrealists Dorothea Tanning and Max Ernst lived and made art there for a while after WWII. Various other Surrealists visited them there and Lee Miller (subject of the biopic Lee that came out recently) took the pictures that made me want to go. To be honest, I probably *shouldn’t* go because part of me will be disappointed to discover they are no longer there 😂 But I think it’s a very appropriate place to dream of being an artist in!
You’re right about not reading Goodreads reviews, Kate!
As far as ratings go, I have learned that most of my favorite books earn around 3.5 stars on Goodreads. And many National Book Award winners are the same. Most of the readers on Goodreads, I think, seem to have a certain taste that I don’t share. I don’t even bother with Goodreads end of the year book awards.
I’m so thrilled and happy for you that you just finished your first draft of your next book! That deserves congratulations! 🎉🥳👏
I'll admit I had to google these artists. Fascinating work, and MIller's photographs are wild!
It's unlikely I'll ever be living in Sedona; that dream popped up as I was writing the essay. Yes, I was once hiking in Sedona and was overcome with the beauty and a great desire to live there, but I have had these feelings elsewhere as well, including Taos, New Mexico home of another school of artists. I've also very much dreamed of a cabin in the hills of western Massachusetts. We shall see where we all end up!
I finished your book yesterday. I loved it, Kate! I'll admit I was braced for some kind of outrageously disappointing epilogue because of several Goodreads reviews I read. I'm left wondering what on earth those reviewers were talking about. The epilogue made perfect sense to me. I have to repeat; I'm floored by your skill. I hope you're writing another! 💚💚💚
Ah I'm so glad to hear it! To tell you the truth there was actually no epilogue in the first draft at all - I added it at the editorial stage because my agent thought an 'enigmatic epilogue' would improve the ending. Then when I read the reactions on Goodreads I thought maybe I shouldn't have listened... But then I reread it months later and I stand by it. I still haven't quite worked out what it was about it that inspired such vitriol! Maybe people didn't want to read about the pandemic. Or maybe they were bummed that the romance didn't end tied up nicely in a bow. I think the lesson is probably just not to look at Goodreads! But I'm super glad you thought it made sense. And as it happens, I finished the first draft of novel #2 about three days ago...
And I know exactly what you mean about fantasising about living in different places... I feel the same about the Lake District here in the UK, and Scotland, and various parts of France...
Kate, if I responded to your comment twice, I suspect it’s because I responded on the re-stack, rather than here, then this morning saw nothing here and thought my response never got sent. I just did the same thing with someone else!
You’re right about not reading Goodreads reviews, Kate!
I have found that most of my favorite books earn around 3.5 stars on Goodreads, even National Book Award winners. I think maybe the readers on there are a certain kind of reader that I don’t resonate with. I don’t even bother to look at Goodreads end-of-year book awards. They’re generally not books I’m really interested in. But I like to use the site to keep track of my reading.
How amazing that you just finished your draft of your second book. I’m thrilled and happy for you! That deserves congratulations! 🎉🥳
One of my colleagues did the opposite - got bored with academia in middle age and became a joiner. Had to work some crap jobs until he built a reputation, but he's doing food ne now. We are sold this idea that you need to pick one field early on and achieve great though bfs in it, because our lives are supposed to follow some Campbellluan Hero's Journey storyline. But seeing life as a journey is just that - one way of seeing it, or in other words a metaphor.
That’s very courageous of your friend. It can’t be easy to make such a change in middle-age. But you’re sure right; I never wanted to be stuck doing only one thing for the rest of my life!
Sorry about the head bump! I too have always imagined living in a small cottage somewhere in nature, writing, reading, thinking, walking. I couldn't build myself one though. You have a definite advantage!
Ah, why am I not surprised you share my dream? 🩷
Yeah, no surprise there!
Really, Emily, I have to say that your comment just basically embodies my essence; “living in a small cottage somewhere in nature, writing, reading, thinking, walking.” I think we are soul sibs!
ha! yes, I absolutely agree with you:)
All I know is this: You'll make the best of whatever evolves. Your greatest gift, to yourself and others as far as I can tell, is the practice of accepting what is, and of finding beauty there. Just right there.
Glad your noggin is okay, and your thumb. Ouch!
Warm wishes, Don.
Thank you very much, Elizabeth. I really like this response because you’re seeing the larger me, not just the one knocked on the head and temporarily dissatisfied with his lot. Sedona in this case represents something inside, a freedom that is already mine and is slowly manifesting itself in my physical world.
Always such a pleasure to hear from you, Elizabeth!
🌅
Beautiful piece. I will see you in Sedona someday, Don. 😊
Sounds good. Thanks, Mike!
So sorry to hear about the head bong, Don!! Love the back story though. Saludos!
Thank you, Jeanine! All in a day work ha ha 😆
A hard one ): glad you’re better.
My good friend is a carpenter. Before I retired from interior design work, we had been a team. Not a project went by where his forehead was free from a fresh or healing gash! I don’t see him as often, but when I do, I know work has been full for him by the presence of the wound! Stories can be shared from every rock - a client’s garden or Sedona. You’ve managed to achieve a great dream without an AZ zip code.
I wonder how your friend is doing now? You described the life of a carpenter accurately. My body has been punctured, slashed, bruised, and banged up for so many years. I’m proud of my skill, and I truly enjoy using tools and working with wood. I’ll never stop doing that on my own house, in my wood shop, perhaps for some friends. It’s just time to relax the contracting part a bit.
Doesn’t have to be AZ at all. My mother-in-law lived in Flagstaff until she died a few weeks ago so my wife and I have grown fond of the beauty there, but it’s a big beautiful world, including where I live now.
Thanks for checking in, Cindy! 🙏💚
I talked with Scott about a month ago. He is hoping to build a furniture design/build business - perhaps a bit tamer and more creative than general construction. He is an amazing tile artist as well - tough on the knees!
Sounds like a very creative guy (with plenty of energy still!). Give him my best! 💚
I understand how you feel, Don, as many others do. I would enjoy residing in a cabin just like that one day.
Thanks, Rod, I really appreciate it! 🙏