All in Personal Reflections
Over the past year—with the intention of bringing Eight Septembers: Woman on Wall Street into the public sphere—I have completed a number of manuscript assessments and professional edits designed to elevate my memoir to publishing standards. In the process, I have learned that the business of book publishing is much different than the craft of book writing. Here is some of what I discovered…
This weekend at the 125th anniversary celebration of the founding of Simmons University, I was awarded the first Florence Peggy Saslow Alumnae/i service award acknowledging my fifteen years as a Trustee. I joined the board in 2010 shortly after I retired from J.P. Morgan…
In memory of my father, J.W.A. “Doc” Buyers 7/17/28-5/20/06
It was like this:
He lay emaciated on the bed
What happened to my body?
I fed him ice chips…
Sunrise is the best time for greeting the day
although I rarely see it…
For a good part of my life, I was dependent on external validation for my self worth. This put me at the mercy of others’ opinions, words, and judgments. It often left me trying to please people to gain their favor, at the expense of my own needs and desires…
When I was ten years old, I came home from school to find dead kittens strewn across the lawn…
People have been talking with me recently about the joys and challenges of parenting adult children. It requires a different approach from when they were younger. However, it’s not completely dissimilar, if our goal is to help them be confident, independent and self-sufficient…
In a recent writing class, our prompt was to experiment with different ways of telling a story by altering perspectives and tenses to play with distance between the writer and the reader. We were given specific voices and tenses to use. I had fun retelling this event from my childhood. Enjoy!…
In the case of my memoir, it means I need to approach all of my characters and situations from a standpoint of love and compassion. It also means to love the process of writing, uncovering, discovering. Love doesn’t always mean enjoy, it can mean accepting people and things as they are/where they are…
I am a writer….
Well, not professionally.
I am a writer….
Not really, I’m a former banker writing a memoir.
I am a writer…
It’s true, I love to write and always have. I’ve written poetry, essays, papers all my life, and now scenes, dialogue and characters.
I am a writer…
A million stars live beneath my eyelids
Dancing in microscopic colors
Joyously erratic
Oblivious to being seen or unseen
Simply alive and
Intent on moving
Imagine having such confidence that we could listen to an alternative point of view without having to interrupt or correct
Imagine having such confidence that we could trust our own assessment of a situation and not wait for someone else’s validation
Imagine having such confidence that we could share our difficult feelings without harming the one causing those feelings
From isolation to celebration:
Postponed weddings joyfully
Wedged between Delta and Omicron.
Fortunate to have
Family and friends—
Love begets love.
This way forward, say the Wise Ones, beckoning. Love that wounded child and embrace her with compassion, non judgment and forgiveness... that is how you will find your own wisdom and learn to care for the world….
If only I had had an instruction manual,
I might not have tobogganed into that split rail fence on a cold snowy day,
Forgetting to duck and hurting my eyes
If only I had had an instruction manual,
I might not have jumped that fence at dusk on a warm summer evening,
Scaring the dogs and getting bitten…
Sometimes in the night
I am frightened
My old friend
The Monitor
Returns…
