by Marijke McCandless | May 26, 2022 | Listen
A poem about grief and love… “Say Yes! to life” It’s one of my highest aspirations But how do I say Yes to an 18-year-old shooter killing elementary school kids? How do I say Yes to heedless, needless death? How do I say Yes to polarization and righteous action?...
by Marijke McCandless | May 23, 2022 | Write
The below is a piece I published in Illumination on Medium a couple years ago. Some of the references are out of date. (I no longer work as a program manager, for instance.) The theme, however, has come up a couple times in the last week and I thought I would...
by Marijke McCandless | May 19, 2022 | Listen
One of the things I love about rock climbing is it proves to me, “I can do hard things.” I’m 60, and I am astounded that I’m still getting out there on the rock, climbing up vertical faces. Rock-climbing is so engaging and the community so supportive that I am...
by Marijke McCandless | May 8, 2022 | Listen
“You’ve got to flake the rope!” Meditation has played a key role in my life for more than twenty-five years. I appreciate that meditation is a gentle but disciplined training for the excitable puppy that is my brain — teaching me to focus, to...
by Marijke McCandless | May 7, 2022 | Write
Recently I led a workshop for the National Association of Memoir Writers, called “Exposing the Poetry of Presence in Memoir: Naked writing as a juicy practice for getting present.” Despite technical difficulties at the start–my computer completely...
