In Memorium: Laura Jane Carter

Laura Jane Carter (nee Chisholm) Jan 6, 1942 – Nov 17, 2025 My mother died a week ago this past Monday.  It is hard to write these words, harder still to understand what they will mean for my life…  Last night, in my grief, I thought, “I should talk to Mom about this,” and then […]

Goodbye, Mowat (Aug 2012-March 8, 2025)

Mowat Carter-Mills (aka Momo, Mowie, Mo, Mr. Mo, Little Bastard, and sometimes Jerry) died peacefully, with his family by his side, on the afternoon of March 8, 2025. Halfway through his thirteenth year, he shone bright right to the end despite cancer, chronic arthritis, and encroaching health issues. At the vet’s office, he insisted on […]

Barefoot By Choice

Last night I had a dream that I was at the end of a retreat. It was one of my retreats, through Wild Ground Writing. But instead of hugging people, making plans to reconnect over ZOOM, thanking them, being thanked, I was scrambling around under a table, cleaning up a mess of clutter: papers, craft […]

The Power of 10 Minutes

Ten minutes. Start with that. Last month, at our annual invigorating Wild Writing in the Boreal retreat, I found myself suggesting it often. One participant said, Yes, because then you’ll keep going. If you do 10, you’ll do 20, even an hour. Maybe, I replied. But you can also just fill those 10 minutes. It […]

Guest Post: Finding Rest on Retreat

What do we expect from a writing retreat? To get a lot done! To write a new short story! To draft a dozen poems! Maybe. But maybe that’s not what you really need… Here, guest blogger and award-winning writer Anita Allen shares the experience she had at her first writing retreat, what she learned, and […]