I am immersed in the re-write of my book, finally figured out what to do with it. Spending too much time at the computer and I have the back and shoulders to prove it. But my mind is also swimming around in blogland (something like wetland), so I have to clear it. Well it's about mind, mindfulness.

Mindfulness: "a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique." I was surprised to find it in the online dictionary, because it's a hot word these days being tossed around by writers and thinkers. It makes me think of Henry James. He said "be one on whom nothing is wasted," reminding himself as a writer not to fritter away his time or his mind.

I had a minister's wife, one of my best friends when I was a teenager, whom I admired very much because she was the first writer I knew, writing against all odds - the odds being a demanding husband and two scoffing sons who never took her seriously, even after she had published two books to their surprise. She sent me a collection of aphorisms and recipes after I was married and in honour of my first pregnancy. Her advice was to "cherish the moments."

That's all-purpose. Bear it in mind.