Taking time to listen to the wind
When I was a little girl, my family lived across the street from a large wooded lot where hundreds, maybe thousands, of old pine trees grew wild. The lot was a stoneās throw from...
Murphy Writes Blog
Forget the Regret!
Ā (source) āNobody gets to live life backward. Look ahead, that is where your future lies. ā ~ Ann Landers This past year I read a very touching news story about the biggest life...
Just be who you are!
Back in 2007, the New York Times hired me as a freelance writer to cover the resignation of staunch Republican Idaho senator Larry Craig, who had been arrested in a Minnesota menās...
Fulfilling a wish and a goal
A couple of years ago when I started working on my first book, “Mother Knows Best – Wit and Wisdom from Idaho Moms,” one of my main goals was to be able to donate...
Letting the universe work for us
Have you ever had the amazing experience of everything falling into place, unexpectedly, just the way it was supposed to? When it happens, we are filled with gratefulness. Because we never know when weāll...
What crazy things did your mom used to say?
āIf you swallow your gum your butt cheeks will stick together.ā ~ A mom in Boise, Idaho NOTE: This book was published in 2013. I am putting together my second book of āmomisms,ā to...
Rescuing your dreams from the “place that never was”
(source) I recently read a delightful book called āThe Travelerās Gift,āby Andy Andrews. It is about David Ponder, a former executive in a Fortune 500 company who now works a part-time minimum wage job...
Building a story? It’s like laying beautiful stones
(photo credit) If you visit this blog at all you know I’ve been absent for a while. I took several weeks off from blogging to turn my attention to creating something totally different ā...
Are you a leader? Do you know it?
āIf your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.ā Ā ~ John Quincy Adams Ā Do you consider yourself a leader? Leaders donāt necessarily have...
Bird by Bird…
(source) Ā What is your day like as a writer? Some writers get up at Oh-dark-thirty, grab a cuppaā Joe and sit in front of their computer screen or notepad and write for hours ā...
Hitting the bottom of the inspirational well
There are times when the well of creativity seems to dry up and, as hard as you try, you donāt know how to get it all kick started again. You search for advice on...
Lessons from a dad on Father’s Day
In honor of Fatherās Day, Iād like to share some of the ādadismsā from my father, Pat Murphy, a journalist, writer, political commentator and one of the most interesting people Iāve ever known. Throughout...
Puppies, mentors and learning from others
I recently dog-sat my sisterās new puppy, a high energy, hard- headed, assertive little herding dog who is adorable but misdirected. At only a couple months old, he had not spent any significant time...
The enduring power of the written word
The written word is really a miracle. Except for some style and grammatical changes over the generations, it remains constant and allows us to carry knowledge, thoughts and history through time. Speech is limited, and memories of the mind only last so long. But through the written word, we can preserve information and ideas, and share them for all time.
5 thoughts on winning from an Olympic Gold Medalist
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Olympic Gold winning cyclist Kristin Armstrong for a magazine article. Armstrong lives in my home town of Boise, Idaho, and has been called Americaās most decorated professional...
Quotes about the art of writing – from writers who’ve been there, done that
One of the books I came across when going through my dad’s library after he passed away was a delightful little book called, W.O.W. ā Writers on Writing, by John Winokur, a virtual quote-collecting...
5 meditations to soothe the unemployed
Losing a job can be a grief-filled experience, rating high on the list of stress producers. The emotions you feel may be crazy as you pick your way through each unemployed moment of...
What’s a Real Writer? Is it me? Is it you?
When I was a kid I used to say that I wanted to be a āreal writer.ā A real writer, to me, wrote books and films and then someone would publish their work and...
Keeping Butt In Chair
(graphic from) I think all writers have gone through times when weāve wondered, āWhat the hell am I doing? I canāt seem to string more than a few words together and even they...
