All posts by witchyrichy@gmail.com

Saving My Sanity

creativity, Meditation, tinkering,

Turning and turning in the widening gyre   
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst   
Are full of passionate intensity.

William Butler Yeats

I don’t have to tell you that the world has descended into chaos. We are well beyond dumpster fire, sailing into uncharted territory where there are most certainly large dragons dwelling.

I understand that it can be challenging to find any kind of peace in the midst of this nightmare. One practice that has helped me to quiet the external and internal noise is crafting. It may seem frivolous to suggest that something as simple as doodling a cat or crocheting a washcloth can ease the tension, but it works for me. I lose myself in the process of creation, a kind of meditation.

I know it works for others as well as I participate in two monthly craft groups. Some months, we work together on a specific project. Other months, we bring our own works in progress. There is food and fellowship, with a focus on the personal rather than the political. These groups spur my creativity and sense of community, giving me courage to try new things without having to be perfect.

March is National Craft Month and a great excuse to add a bit of crafting to your life, whether you pursue your lifelong passion or decide to learn how to do something new. Hoopla, a digital service provider for libraries, is celebrating with a curated collection of resources from books to television shows. You can access the list even without an account; check with your public library to see if they offer access to Hoopla. Your library may also have crafting kitso check out as part of their Library of Things. My library hosts monthly crafting sessions.

I make crafting a daily part of my day. I share a bit on social media but mostly just among friends. Online groups are not always as kind as they might be. (See The Craft Police.) Here’s a sample: I used washi tape to create a collage.

Washi Tape Collage

Reviving the Art of Letter Writing

Old Media, writing, , , , ,
Version 1.0.0

One of my favorite books in high school was The Lazlo Letters: The amazing, real-life correspondence of Lazlo Toth, American! I still have my original, well-worn copy. Written by Don Novello, better known as Father Guido Sarducci and a fixture on Saturday Night Live in its early days, the book is a compilation of the letters written and received by the fictional character Lazlo Toth. Like Stephen Colbert in The Colbert Report, Novello adopts a conservative persona that was funny at the time, but now seems almost commonplace and maybe not so funny.

The Halifax Examiner, in its celebration of the upcoming 50th anniversary of the book, provides a sample of letters Toth wrote to everyone from Richard Nixon about how badly the media mistreated him to the CEO of RJ Reynolds on their shared disdain for the anti-smoking lobby. He received earnest replies that were often funnier than the original letter. Benjamin Errett at Get Wit Quick provides more background on Toth’s work, calling it “epistolary trolling.” On the Media recorded a fun interview with Novello on the 30th anniversary of the first volume. You can borrow the original book with a free Internet Archive subscription.

Letter writing, in general, is coming back in fashion. The Sunday Letter Writing Project, begun by a British stationary shop in 2023, encourages the practice, suggesting generally quiet Sunday afternoons as the perfect time to pen a missive to a friend. If you don’t have a ready correspondent, they provide a list of pen pals.

I was an avid letter writer in my early days. I loved the whole ritual: pouring a beverage, putting on music, pulling out the good stationary and the fountain pens and settling in to talk with my friends and family via the written word. We exchanged letters so I would also have their most recent correspondence and always started by responding to what they had written, answering questions and commenting on their news. I continue the practice to some extent, sending handmade cards for holidays, usually with a short note to the recipient. Not quite the same as a letter but at least a foundation for a larger practice.

My book group recently read The Correspondent, Virginia Evans’ debut epistolary novel that features Sybil, an elderly woman who has spent her life writing letters to friends, family and luminaries. It was a wonderful story but also an homage to what was considered a dying art. One woman in the group shared that she still writes letters, even exchanging notes with her neighbor down the street. When I got home from the meeting, I knew I would write her a letter. I received a lovely reply and plan to send her another note soon. I have written to a young friend who recently relocated to another state. I am hoping to continue, starting with my former correspondents. We text and email and message in social media Words with Friends, but I imagine they would welcome a letter, both for the news and the nostalgia.

It’s Not That Simple

Media, Media Literacy, thinking out loud, ,

My book group discussed Mad Honey on Tuesday. Jodi Picoult is the master of nuance and boundary bending, refusing to let us get comfortable with our own prejudices. In Mad Honey, she lays bare the complexities of transsexuality. At one point, when an older trans woman is approached for advice, she comments that once you’ve met one trans person, you’ve met one trans person. The book is powerful and highly reccommended.

The line stuck with me as the group discussion unfolded. A new member of the group made an impassioned statement about how “we” are wasting our lives looking at screens. “We” could be visiting shut ins or doing other things. I couldn’t help but wondering if she included herself in that “we” but used that pronoun to make it seem less judgmental? I cannot say and do not wish to judge myself.

Here’s the more important thing for me: I don’t include myself in that “we”. Yes, I spend lots of time on screens and some of it includes surfing cat and dog videos as a break from the chaos. But I don’t worry so much. When I was younger, screen time was all about television, and there were efforts to curb viewing time. Somehow, my supposedly television-addicted peers and I grew up to become mostly productive citizens.

I did a quick inventory of what I do on my screens, primarily my phone but also my laptop, which I prefer when drafting blog posts, commenting on LibraryThing and accessing Canvas. I categorized the activities:

Digital Replaces Analog:

Digital access, especially through my library, has expanded the selection of materials available to me with the potential of connecting with a variety of perspectives.

  • Books, magazines and newspapers
  • Media
  • Games: I am learning to play MahJongg
  • Teaching: this is the BIG one for me and for many of my students, being able to teach and learn from home

Digital Supports Real Life:

  • Recipes: I often have my phone propped up on my cookbook stand.
  • Patterns and Tutorials: This is a big one for me as I crochet. Access to a wide variety of patterns along with video tutorials for complicated stitches has helped me hone my skills.
  • Art Ideas and Tutorials: From bookbinding to collage to gel printing and more, I have made art of all kinds a priority in my life. Most of my scrolling and viewing involves watching tutorials and browsing examples.
  • Communications: Being able to communicate with my family and friends via text has been wonderful. No more scheduling phone calls or worrying about long distance. If some of those texts include links to the German shopping cart return championships, so be it.

I am not trying to minimize issues related to phone addiction. There are always extremes. But when we assume that every person staring at the phone is wasting their time, we miss the nuance of the positive things digital devices can bring to our lives.

Many years ago, I was in charge of Turn Off the TV Week at my middle school, a movement that encouraged everyone to take a week off from watching what was often called the “boob tube.” The goal was to have families do things together besides just watch TV. My mother was not impressed. She felt like it was taking too much of an extreme approach. Depending on your choices, TV programs could be educational and discussion starters around potentially difficult topics. TV could be entertaining with a family laughing together on the couch. And, for those with limited mobility or community, TV could be their connection to the world. She saw the nuance.

Perhaps rather than suggesting that all screen time is wasted time, we can become more discerning about our use of time. Teach people both young and old how to use their screen time data to tease out how much is productive in some way versus how much is mindless scrolling. Instagram is my social media drug of choice, and I finally turned on the timer so I get 30 minutes a day. I occasionally extend the time as Instagram is also where many of my patterns and art ideas originate. In addition, announcements about upcoming events or challenges are posted there. I post some of my artwork with the community.

Again, there is nuance in how I use the tool. I recently read a draft AI policy for K-12 students that mentions developing the skill of discernment. I think this is the first time I have seen it used as a standard but it goes hand in hand with nuance. Maybe this IS simple: your device offers a wide varieties of experiences, and it is up to you to discern how to use it enrich rather than diminish your life. Everyone’s answer is going to be different. To paraphrase Jodi Picoult, when you’ve seen one person scrolling, you’ve seen one person scrolling.

The Craft Police

adult learning, art, Civil Discourse, creativity,

I grew up doing arts and crafts. It was part of my world. My grandmother taught me to crochet. Counted cross stitch and quilling were popular with my friends. Every Christmas, I completed ornament kits. Fifty years later, I still put them on my tree.

As I move into retirement, I have made arts and crafts a priority. Over the past two years, I have helped create two monthly craft groups. Having a community of supportive crafters has provided motivation for trying new activities and honing my skills in others.

My daily creative work takes places in a hybrid planner/art journal that I have designed over the past year. It is a mash up of bullet-journal style monthly and weekly layouts along with junk journal and collage pages. For 2026, I am using single-month journals with brown covers and dotted pages: literal blank journals where I can design and create the layouts and tracking pages that work for me. I have included a couple examples.

Junk Journal

I have learned a lot about styles and setups for these kinds of journals from various accounts on social media. I joined a couple of Facebook groups devoted to junk journaling specifically. They were full of helpful information and wonderful examples. But, there was a dark side as well. Group leaders felt the need to carefully define the practice. Commenters were not always as diplomatic as they might be. Posters began requesting that people be kind when they shared their efforts. General questions were often seen as critical rather than curious; users were directed to Google to learn more before they dared to engage. Commenters began arguing with each other over the content of their comments.

It is a little funny, really. At its core, junk journaling is about gluing stuff down. Margarete Miller, a crafting blogger, says there are no rules. I have no plans to share my journal with the Facebook groups as I am not interested in critique. I do this for me: it is creative and mindful and fun. I do share with my craft groups. We may do a bit of critiquing, but mostly we enjoy looking at what each of us has created. I get a kick out of looking at past journals myself, remembering where I was, what was going on, when I made any particular page.

Mostly, though, the group dynamics are sad. Many people never try arts or crafts because they don’t think they are artistic. Faced with a blank page and told to be creative, they are paralyzed by their inner critic. Junk journaling should be the perfect beginner practice to combat that fear, as you are, again, gluing stuff down. However, by creating some ideal way to glue stuff down and pressuring people into opening their work to potential public ridicule, these groups end up destroying any potential meditative impacts of the practice. In fact, they add to the anxiety that junk journaling was meant to help alleviate.

I was reminded of a clip from The West Wing that shows these kinds of hostile spaces have been part of the Internet almost since the beginning. The website referenced in the clip was real. Aaron Sorkin, who created and wrote the series, joined the group and almost immediately got into trouble with the message board denizens. As much as things change, people tend to stay the same.

Get ’em out by Friday

human rights, music, politics

The news cycle moves to fast for me these days. But, I can’t let this one go: Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture, announced last week that after thousands of simulations, the government determined that Americans could eat a piece of chicken, a piece of broccoli, a corn tortilla and one other thing as a meal that is inexpensive ($3) and meets the new food pyramid guidelines that were recently released.

I will leave it to others to critique this suggested “meal.” All I could think about is a song from the progressive rock band Genesis that seemed dystopian when it came out in 1972. “Get ‘Em Out By Friday” tells the story of corporate greed and government corruption working against human beings in tragic and drastic ways with greedy landlords leading the way. Set in the present, it ends in 2012 with this vision:

This is an announcement from Genetic Control
It is my sad duty to inform you of a four foot restriction on
Humanoid height

I hear the directors of Genetic Control have been buying all the Properties that have recently been sold, taking risks oh so bold
It’s said now that people will be shorter in height
They can fit twice as many in the same building site
They say it’s alright.

The song features multiple voices as part of the story. Since everyone is quoting George Orwell these days, I thought I would add Genesis to the mix. Dystopian vision or potential reality?