Gum on My Shoe

And there were times I’d take my pen And feel obliged to start again. — Orange Juice. “Rip it Up.” I think I just decided to scrap the blog post I’ve been writing as a guest piece for Sophie’s blog. I’ve been working on it almost every day for two weeks. It’s not writer’s block. I’ve written more than enough words. Most of the individual paragraphs are ok in themselves but the piece as a whole simply doesn’t work. Sigh. I remember writing those words. It was July 15 this year and I was sitting at the slightly wobbly table on the balcony of the cottage I’d rented at Windermere Marina Village in the Lake District. I’d settled in with a coffee and my little writing setup — my Android tablet on its stand and the larger of my two Bluetooth keyboards — hoping to find some creative clarity. I’d had such high hopes for that blog post. A title I was happy with. A great photo sourced from Unsplash. A solid lead into the piece, inspired by something my friend and fellow blogger Soph...

Find something you’re passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it. — Julia Child This post was inspired by two recent conversations in coffee shops. The first took place one Monday morning in Starbucks at Newcastle Airport. I was enjoying a little me time after returning the car I’d rented the previous week. My blogging EDC (everyday carry) kit was set out in front of me on the little table. My Moleskine diary and the Traveler’s Notebook that serves as a memory journal. My new Filofax Clipbook planner, a gift from a friend. My Lihit Lab pen case, my phone on its folding stand, and the larger of my two Bluetooth keyboards. I was working on my end of year blog post, drafting entries for January and February. I’m pretty much in a world of my own when I’m writing but at a certain point I became aware of someone standing just to my right. I looked up to find a young man waiting patiently for me to notice him. We shook hands and introduced ourselves. Moses was fascinated ...

I’m not going to lie, my favourite knitting jokes are just the explanations for how frogging and tinking got their names. — nnaoam on Reddit This post was inspired by a video I came across on social media. Lateral with Tom Scott is a comedy quiz podcast in which three people attempt to unravel a cryptic question or challenge posed by the fourth member of the team. In this episode the question was as follows. Sarah is spending a relaxing evening at home. After a while, she sighs, and decides she needs to tink. After tinking for a while, she sighs again and decides she needs to frog. What is causing her to tink and frog? If you’d like to watch the episode before I let the frog out of the bag, you’ll find the video here . Assuming you’re ready to proceed, I can reveal that tinking and frogging are terms used in knitting. The description that follows is from an article by Pam MacKenzie at My Central Jersey. (Disappointingly, My Central Jersey is a news outlet serving Centra...

Very few writers treat writing [...] as an instrument for living, not as an aim in itself. — Colin Wilson ( The Outsider ) I met John earlier this year at the bar of the Wateredge Inn in Ambleside. Our ten minute encounter inspired two blog posts: One Must Imagine Marty and John Happy: Two Strangers Discuss the Absurd in an Ambleside Pub and Miserable Places: My Welsh Nightmare . In the course of our conversation John recommended a book to me. Colin Wilson’s The Outsider isn’t an easy read but several passages resonated with me. In one, the author relates the story of the Duke of Ch’i and his wheelwright. The message is that the legacy we leave behind cannot capture or convey the essence of our skills and knowledge. The essence of who we are. This is highly relevant to articles I’ve written about end of life planning, especially How Much Do You Want to Know Me? Preparing to Write My Obituary . It’s a topic I’m likely to explore further in the future. For now, I can admit th...

Every grey hair is a badge. Every wrinkle, a receipt for the life I’ve lived. — Holly Hatam This article was inspired by an Instagram post by best-selling children’s book author and illustrator, animator, and self-confessed daydreamer Holly Hatam. Her post challenges us to think about the lives we’ve lived and are living, from the perspective of our later selves. It’s a gentle challenge. As Holly notes, “[...] this isn’t a list of regrets.” It’s a wish list. A compass for the rest of my life. Because I want to be 80 and say: I lived. Fully. Unapologetically. The post closes with a “before it’s too late” invitation complete with fifteen prompts. “Write or draw the things you don’t want to leave unsaid, undone, or unclaimed and what you’ve been waiting to do, say, or finally make space for.” The prompts align with work I’ve done over the past year or so concerning end of life planning and my thoughts on reaching the age of sixty-four . I knew immediately that I’d take ...

TW: Mention of suicide and suicidal thinking.

Dear friends. This letter is written to the readers of this blog, especially those of you with lived experience other than my own. Chronic mental or physical health conditions. Disability. Trauma. Abuse. Rape. Self-harm. Suicidality. Debilitating fatigue, pain, or insomnia. These are things I’ve never known and cannot pretend to speak to or understand. Such awareness as I have is second-hand, shared by those willing to open their lives and selves to me. Friends. Family. Colleagues. Strangers. I will always be grateful for the trust implied by such deep sharing. We write best about what we know personally. With respect to this blog, that’s my experience as a supportive friend to Fran and others. Fran and I wrote our book High Tide Low Tide: The Caring Friend’s Guide to Bipolar Disorder on exactly that premise. It’s a perspective that’s valuable and arguably under-represented. Last year I was invited to write about being there for a friend who has survived rape and abuse . It tu...

I rarely share my creative writing here on Gum on My Shoe. Our blog is primarily focused on mental health and supportive friendships. On occasion, however, Fran and I give ourselves permission to explore other topics. This is one of those occasions. Writing has always been an important part of my life. I’ve kept a daily diary for over fifty years . During that time I’ve written poetry, articles, short stories, a novella, two books, and a great many blog posts. I’ve not written creative fiction for a while, but in We Are All Made of Stories I shared something of my past experiences in that genre. I recently came across a short story of mine while looking for something else. “The Hundred Stories” was originally published in September 2001 in Reunion , the quarterly journal of Middle-earth Reunion (MeR). Founded in 1996 as a local group of the Tolkien Society, MeR parted company with the Tolkien Society in 2001. The final issue of Reunion was published in December 2005. “The Hu...

In this post I’ll explore how daily creativity can benefit our mental health, self-confidence, and sense of connection to others. I’ll focus on the work of four photographers (Clark James Mishler, Brandon Stanton, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, and Ellis Ducharme) and one artist (Devon Rodriguez). I’ll also draw on my experiences with daily photography and writing. Engagement This post was inspired by a recent conversation with Fran in which she mentioned a photographer in Alaska who took one photograph a day. The photographer is Clark James Mishler , a documentary portrait photographer based in Calistoga, California. He relocated to Anchorage in the early 1980s where he spent four decades as Alaska’s premier environmental portrait photographer. There’s a fascinating behind-the-scenes video of Mishler at work on the Frontier Scientists YouTube channel. His approach to street portraiture (“Would you guys mind participating in a photo shoot?”) impresses and terrifies me — the lat...