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July 26, 2014 By Quinn McDonald 33 Comments

Journal Words That Trip You Up

Writing in a journal, especially when you write by hand, leaves you open to making mistakes. One word sounds a lot like another. And before you know it, you've said the wrong thing. Here is a list of words I've seen misused frequently (not just in journals, but in newspapers, on TV, and spoken by people who should know better.) Simplistic. Doesn't mean easy or simple. It means oversimplifying by leaving out important factors. Use "simple" … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Business Writing, Journaling, Language and words, The Writing Life, Writing training Tagged With: confusing words, mispronounced words

July 22, 2014 By Quinn McDonald 18 Comments

Writing Sympathy Notes

Sooner than we want, we need to write sympathy cards. Not all cards available at the drug store work well. It's far kinder to write your own note. Nothing is more comforting than a hand-written note to a friend in mourning. Knee-jerk reaction reaches for "I am sorry for your loss," and while there is nothing wrong with the thought, it's been overused so much that it's a threadbare hand-me-down from your heart. Other things not to put in a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Language and words, The Writing Life, Writing projects, Writing training Tagged With: sympathy cards, what not to say in a sympathy card, what to say in sympathy

July 21, 2014 By Quinn McDonald 35 Comments

Alone Is Not a Four-Letter Word

Neither literally  nor figuratively. "Alone" is an experience fast disappearing from our culture.  For an entire generation who grew up in sports teams, group after-school activities, study clubs, and went from that to living in college dorms, parties and more sports teams, there is a big surprise. When you have graduated, when you are done with work, you'll find yourself alone. I know that people now have roommates instead of a studio apartment, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Coaching, Know yourself, Living life awake, Managing your career, Recovering perfectionists Tagged With: alone is not lonely, alone restores

July 16, 2014 By Quinn McDonald 12 Comments

The art of Lorem Ipsum

Unless you are a typesetter or graphic designer, the phrase "lorem ipsum" is Greek to you. In fact, that's what it's called---greeking. Lorem Ipsum is placeholder type, used to fill in for real words in ad design, book layout, magazine dummies and new websites. Because it mimics the length of English words and sentences,  it looks genuine, but because it has no meaning and isn't repetitive, it doesn't call attention to itself as clients look … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Life as Metaphor, The Writing Life Tagged With: greeking, lorem ipsum, spaceholder type

May 30, 2014 By Quinn McDonald 7 Comments

Poetry and Your Life

Sometimes poems say everything that needs to be said.  Most of what I do today didn't exist when I was in school.  What I still use today is the problem solving I learned. How to think, not what to think. And, of course, that art is the heartbeat of a culture. Everything I learned was by feeling my way along in the dark.   You and Art Your exact errors make a music that nobody hears. Your straying feet find the great … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Creativity and Innovation, Language and words, Poetry, The Writing Life Tagged With: life as art, poetry

May 22, 2014 By Quinn McDonald 6 Comments

Know Your Limits

"Plant in full sun," the tag on the plant said. It added that I could trellis it, but keep the trellis in the sun. The plant was a Manzanita, purchased it at a local big-box hardware store two years ago. Because it was its first year, I didn't plant it in full sun. I planted the Manzanita in a big pot with a small trellis and put it where it got the morning sun and was shaded from the harsher sun of the afternoon. During May and early June, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Business Writing, Coaching, Journaling, Managing your career, Training tips Tagged With: know your limits, thriving, too much of a good thing

November 26, 2013 By Quinn McDonald 27 Comments

Don’t Make Your Worries Archival

When I was a child, my problems were child-size, which means as big as I was. But with two older brothers and parents who had their own problems, sharing mine didn't seem like a good solution. So I would write my worries on strips of blue-lined, rough, tablet paper, tear them up and "hide" them--bury them under a tree. I learned that paper is plant material and rots. I was fascinated at the decomposition of the paper--and, I was sure, my worries. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Coaching, Life as Metaphor, Living life awake Tagged With: anger, creativity coaching, don't preserve your worries, grudges

November 3, 2013 By Quinn McDonald 22 Comments

The Tricky Part of Forgiveness

Forgiveness is a slippery slope that confuses almost everybody. (OK, maybe just me). What makes it slippery? Because forgiving is often confused with "I accept your apology and now we can pretend that never happened." That might work in some cases, but not in others. Another difficult logic hill to climb, "Thanks for saying you are sorry. But your saying you are sorry does not obligate me to make you feel better. Or to let you continue … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, In My Life Tagged With: acceptance, forgiveness, moving on with life.

November 16, 2012 By Quinn McDonald 10 Comments

What We See Is . . . Well, it Depends

We had just moved into our Phoenix house and I was busy re-potting plants that had been shipped in the moving van. Six days in the dark, in a closed in moving van in August, and I was delighted that all the plants had made it. As I looked around the backyard, I was pleased to recognize a fig and two palo verdes, an orange and. . . another tree that hadn't fared well lately. It was pretty tired looking. The trees hadn't been watered in a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Coaching, Know yourself, Living life awake, Perspective Tagged With: believing what you see, eye witness, perception is reality

January 7, 2009 By Quinn McDonald Leave a Comment

The Hard Edges in Life

My father was always studying, taking notes, learning. So much so, that my predominant memory is of the back of his head, bent over a book. He spent each evening reading, studying, working on projects he brought home from the office. At home, his workspace was also our dining room. We knew to clear the table quickly after dinner, slide the table back into the slot in the wall,  and leave my father to his work. He was neither a tyrant nor a pal. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Coaching, Creativity and Innovation, Managing your career Tagged With: edges, fables, Father's wisdom, problem solving, wisdom, writing

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