I have not been consistent with my blogs-nothing new there-having settled in Alexandria, I love playing tourist-the history here is simply amazing, and there is much to see everywhere you turn, and as a result I have not focused on my writing. Recently I have had readers actually ask when A Hotel in Venice will be out, and that was my impetus to get back to work and plan my days. I’m a writer I actually need to write.
Until I find a place to live, whether a condo or a boat, I have settled in a one bedroom apartment, talk about downsizing-I had to think twice about buying toilet paper at Costco because there is so little storage in the apartment. What I do have is a big walk-in closet, and guess where the toilet paper went. I call it my little ‘black hole’ everything goes in there.
I absolutely love it. Alexandria is at once urban and suburban. Filled with history, a quaint and charming old town packed with restaurants, boutiques, antique shops, historical buildings and tourists, a gorgeous water front, easy access to DC, just hop on the Metro and you’re there in 15 minutes, or take a water taxi and 20 minutes later you’re at the National Harbor, MD. The Alexandria Harbor also boasts a converted torpedo factory that now houses about 24 artists, their studios/galleries are open to the public free of charge. It is heavenly.
I thought I’d miss the suburban life, I spent many years raising my daughters in the ‘burbs’- now I find the vitality of urban life, the sound of cars and sirens, the Metro going by, construction- all exhilarating and life affirming. There is soul pulsing in this city.
The National Science Foundation is building its headquarters here, along with NSF, new condos and apartment buildings are rising fast to accommodate the influx of new blood.
In the meantime this last week progress has been made in my writing, and I’m actively looking for a place to live on a more permanent basis. That being said, I have a trip planned to Annapolis on Tuesday. I have read that it is quite a beautiful place to visit, and only about 45 minutes from here.
I’ll post a few pictures from the area, and you can see for yourself what a wondrous place it is.
Cheers,
Margot Justes
Blood Art
A Fire Within
A Hotel in Paris
A Hotel in Bath
Hot Crimes Cool Chicks
www.mjustes.com
One week from now, I'll officially be one year older than I am this very second. No pride in that. Just a fact.
But here is something I
will boast about: I have finally learned, after far too many years, a few things about life and myself. I won't bore you with all the details. Today I'm simply sharing this: I'm in the process of teaching myself how to sleep. To get more than the three or four hours each night that I got since the day my child was born.
There was always so much to do, you know? (You know; you've been there; I'm hardly alone.) Being a full-time mom, while trying to make an honest freelancer's wage, while trying to work on that writing hobby of mine, while painting the woodwork and making the dinners and writing the bills. Who could fit all of that into a mere sixteen hours a day? I'm not that smart, I'm not that fast, I needed time. Sleep is what I sacrificed. Sleep—until a temporary choice became a locked-in pattern became an insomnia I could not wrestle down.
Until the insomnia nearly consumed me.
This insomnia cannot consume us. This insomnia is dangerous—not just in temporary, wow, why-do-I-keep-bumping-into-tables-and-forgetting-her-name fashion. "Extended wakefulness," as a new Penn Medicine study published in
The Journal of Neuroscience reveals, "can result in neuronal injury." From the
news release:PHILADELPHIA — Most people appreciate that not getting enough sleep impairs cognitive performance. For the chronically sleep-deprived such as shift workers, students, or truckers, a common strategy is simply to catch up on missed slumber on the weekends. According to common wisdom, catch up sleep repays one's "sleep debt," with no lasting effects. But a new Penn Medicine study shows disturbing evidence that chronic sleep loss may be more serious than previously thought and may even lead to irreversible physical damage to and loss of brain cells. The research is published today in The Journal of Neuroscience.
Sure, the early science here is built upon a mouse model of chronic sleep loss. Sure, more work needs to be done. Still, read these words, and then ask yourself if you are sleeping enough, if you can give yourself a break, if you can find a way to lengthen your dreaming hours:
The team also plans to examine shift workers post-mortem for evidence of increased LC neuron loss and signs of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, since some previous mouse models have shown that lesions or injury to LC neurons can accelerate the course of those diseases. While not directly causing theses diseases, "injuring LC neurons due to sleep loss could potentially facilitate or accelerate neurodegeneration in individuals who already have these disorders," Veasey says.
While more research will be needed to settle these questions, the present study provides another confirmation of a rapidly growing scientific consensus: sleep is more important than was previously believed. In the past, Veasey observes, "No one really thought that the brain could be irreversibly injured from sleep loss." It's now clear that it can be.
Me? I have stopped jumping up the second my eyes flutter open to get some work done. I have allowed myself mid-day naps. I have stopped chasing so many deadlines. I have acknowledged all those things that make me anxious—reviews of my work, inequalities I can't change, broken things around the house—and I have dealt with them, in one way or the other—avoiding the reviews, fixing what is broken, not obsessing over the irreversible.
I'm just trying to save my brain. I want you to save yours.
Words From A Clear Inner Voice by Irene Cohen, MD In 2009 I undertook a one year course of study with two teachers who created a program called the Voice for Love. This program teaches one how to hear her clear inner voice. The program consisted of meditation, writing, speaking from this voice and learning spiritual counseling. As a psychiatrist I had been interested in the connection between mind and spiritual practices for many years and found this program illuminating.
I didn’t start out to write a book. As a long-time meditator, I prefer to sit in the early morning before the day begins. This practice has always set the course of the day for me and creates the sense of peace and concentrated focus which I bring with me no matter what occurs. Although I did not start out to write a book, I found that during my meditations, when I was quiet and empty of thoughts, words began to come to me with the prompt to write them down. So I started to meditate with my netbook in my lap, sitting on a cushion. Without asking any questions or thinking of any particular subject, messages and contemplative pieces came forth. Through a melding of my mind and my own unique abilities, something greater than myself emerged. The information I wrote down was not channeled, but it was a part of me, a greater and vast part, a larger Self. In this process, during which I am fully conscious and aware, words come forth effortlessly and in a sharper, clearer way than if I were to try to explain them myself.
When my book of 100 short meditative passages was finished, I also edited it from the place of my higher self. Getting myself out of the way, with my ego’s doubts and fears, made the editing and rewriting process much easier. If I am editing from that space of higher knowing, I can think with more clarity about what I am trying to convey and in doing so, create more of what was meant to be.
But isn’t the creative process always so? We write from another place within us which feels compelled to express itself. Artists and writers have often called it inspiration. It is a blossoming of who we truly are. If we gain clarity from a quiet mind, which for me means a regular, daily meditation practice, we can all write with less effort and more ease, knowing that what we mean to say will be distinctly in our voice.
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Irene A. Cohen, MD is a psychiatrist, acupuncturist and interfaith minister who has maintained an integrative practice for almost 30 years. Hay House / Balboa Press just released her first book, Soul Journey to Love: 100 Days to Inner Peace . Visit Dr. Cohen on Facebook, follow her on Twitter, and blog with her at www.drirenecohen.authorsxpress.com. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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