The Kavanah Life

Amy Ritchart — journalist, columnist, essayist, photographer & blogger

[kavanahlife-blog]

Short travels on our first snow day this 2016-2017 winter. Writing residency day No. 1.

[kavanahlife-blog]

Created with VSCO®

[kavanahlife-blog]

A huge mazel tov to all the students who graduated from #APSU this December. #APSUcommgrads #wintercommencement2016

[moonwhispers]

I feel like a time traveler: June, July, August. Summer dissolves in my mouth and I can’t remember what it tasted like.

Zoë Lianne, “Erasure” (via moonwhispers)

#farewelltosummer

[nanowrimo]

6 Tips to Add to Your Writing Cheat Sheet

As we dive into the NaNo Prep season, we’ve asked NaNoWriMo participants who’ve published their NaNo-novels for their writing tips on everything from inspiration to avoiding plot holes. Today, J. C. Lane, author of Tag, You’re Dead, shares six things she wished she knew when she first started writing:

As with most things in life, it’s hard to know what to expect from a writing career until you’re in the midst of it. Here are a few things I’ve learned along the way that would have been helpful to know from the start! I hope they answer some of those questions you didn’t know you had…

Writer’s block is not really a thing. 

Keep reading

[kavanahlife-blog]

Tip sheet/writing journal. Potato potaahhdo.

[instagram]

Globe-Trotting Advice from Travel Photographer Farhad Rahman

To see more of Farhad’s photography, follow @md_farhad_rahman on Instagram.

Farhad Rahman’s (@md_farhad_rahman) work lives at the intersection of travel and photography, but that doesn’t mean he’s churning out simple photographic souvenirs. “Tourists always have preconceptions about places, which definitely detracts from actual experiences,” the 31-year-old says. “I missed many things upon first visiting new places because I was driven by preconceptions and didn’t experiment.” Farhad’s images focus on lesser-explored territories.

Aside from his travel photography, which encompasses the US, Cambodia, Singapore, India and beyond, he captures his home country of Bangladesh with incredible warmth and intimacy. “If you ask anyone living in the West about Bangladesh, you’ll find that they think of poverty, and natural and manmade disasters, because that’s how it’s been represented,” he says. “But as a local, I’m always amazed by the natural beauty of the rivers, forests, mountains and the sea. I avoid popular touristic spaces so I can better connect with such natural beauty, as well as with the locals, who are amazing and very friendly.”

[explore-blog]

Jennifer Egan, born on this day in 1962, on writing, the trap of approval, and the most important discipline for aspiring writers. 

[explore-blog]

Truth is the force that guides us to where we need to be in life, but love is the power that heals us once we arrive there.

Elizabeth Gilbert, brave and brilliant as ever, on falling in love with her best friend – the ultimate, most intimate embodiment of her ethos of nurturing “the courage to bring forth the treasures that are hidden within you.” (via explore-blog)

[explore-blog]

Exercising is a good analogy for writing. If you’re not used to exercising you want to avoid it forever. If you’re used to it, it feels uncomfortable and strange not to. No matter where you are in your writing career, the same is true for writing.

Jennifer Egan, born on this day in 1962, on writing – advice that applies to just about every creative craft.  (via explore-blog)

Need more exercise.

[photography-cnl]

There is beauty, heartbreaking beauty, everywhere.

Edward Abbey  (via landscape-photo-graphy)

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Part of what makes a story beautiful is the fact that you’re dying to tell it.

Terrific, immensely insightful and rewarding Longform conversation with Pulitzer-winning writer Kathryn Schulz, one of the finest journalists of our time. 

Longform is one of these nine wonderful podcasts for a fuller life. 

Complement with celebrated writers’ collected wisdom on the craft. 

(via explore-blog)

#livewritingly

[nanowrimo]

Maybe you’ve hit a wall and can’t figure out what happens next, or maybe you’re just bored by what’s happening now; either way, you’ve found a rut and now it’s time to find your way out.   Here’s a tip: what is the next thing that excites you about your story? Now, how quickly can you get there? It’s possible your rut is due to too much distance between here and there. Can you cut out a step? Do it.

Natalie C. Parker is the author of Beware the Wild and Behold the Bones, as well as the editor of the forthcoming young adult anthology, Triangles: The Points of Love.

Writer’s Care Packages from Camp NaNoWriMo and We Need Diverse Books.

(via nanowrimo)

#motivation

[explore-blog]

Whenever I liked, I could swim out from the Brownsville shore to that calm and sunlit sea beyond where great friends came up from the deep. Every book I read re-stocked my mind with those great friends who lived out of Brownsville. They came into my life proud and compassionate, recognizing me by a secret sign, whispering through subterranean channels of sympathy.

The great Jewish-American writer and literary critic Alfred Kazin on loneliness, the immigrant experience, and how reading liberated him from a small and suffocating destiny.  (via explore-blog)

[kavanahlife-blog]

A day for everything: #nationalnotebookday

I have confessed on many occasions: I love office supplies - particularly pens and notebooks. So I was surprised to find out it's National Notebook Day and I didn't know it. 

Really - it's a thing. 

At least starting today. 

National Notebook Day 2016 celebrates pen on paper -  and thus the corresponding creative thought that goes into each pen or pencil stroke.

My life is organized by notebook and I've given some thought to adding journaling to my note taking and planning practices. 

As there's no time like the present to begin, here's a short how-to showing you how I got started. I wrote this

post to record a memory and help appreciate living with purpose but you could write about your goals, create a to-do list or celebrate counting down to something you're looking forward to.

1.  Consider a moment that honors your efforts to live every moment with purpose. 

2.  Write about it in your head. 

3.  Spread out your supplies. I have my planner, Bic felt liners and Papermate Inkjoys. 

4.  Write.  

5.  Add pics.

Sit back and admire your work.

Consider sharing with a friend or on Instagram (@amyritchart) using the hashtag #nationalnotebookday.

For a list of companies celebrating #nationalnotebookday click this link:  http://www.nationalnotebookday.com/#home. For a look at my favorite planner click this link: http://www.passionplanner.com/.

Amy is grateful for the sun, her friends and a 17-year-old daughter and her bff who think enough of her to invite her on their #feelinlikeferris adventure.

[kavanahlife-blog]

A day for everything: #nationalnotebookday

I have confessed on many occasions: I love office supplies - particularly pens and notebooks. So I was surprised to find out it's National Notebook Day and I didn't know it. 

Really - it's a thing. 

At least starting today. 

National Notebook Day 2016 celebrates pen on paper -  and thus the corresponding creative thought that goes into each pen or pencil stroke.

My life is organized by notebook and I've given some thought to adding journaling to my note taking and planning practices. 

As there's no time like the present to begin, here's a short how-to showing you how I got started. I wrote this

post to record a memory and help appreciate living with purpose but you could write about your goals, create a to-do list or celebrate counting down to something you're looking forward to.

1.  Consider a moment that honors your efforts to live every moment with purpose. 

2.  Write about it in your head. 

3.  Spread out your supplies. I have my planner, Bic felt liners and Papermate Inkjoys. 

4.  Write.  

5.  Add pics. 

Sit back and admire your work. Consider sharing with a friend or on Instagram #nationalnotebookday.

For a list of companies celebrating #nationalnotebookday click this link:  http://www.nationalnotebookday.com/#home. For a look at my favorite planner click this link: http://www.passionplanner.com/.

Amy is grateful for the sun, her friends and a 17-year-old daughter and her bff who think enough of her to invite her on their #feelinlikeferris adventure.

[kavanahlife-blog]

A day for everything: #nationalnotebookday

I have confessed on many occasions: I love office supplies - particularly pens and notebooks. So I was surprised to find out it's National Notebook Day and I didn't know it. 

Really - it's a thing. 

At least starting today. 

National Notebook Day 2016 celebrates pen on paper -  and thus the corresponding creative thought that goes into each pen or pencil stroke.

My life is organized by notebook and I've given some thought to adding journaling to my note taking and planning practices. 

As there's no time like the present to begin, here's a short how-to showing you how I got started. I wrote this

post to record a memory and help appreciate living with purpose but you could write about your goals, create a to-do list or celebrate counting down to something you're looking forward to.

1.  Consider a moment that honors your efforts to live every moment with purpose. 

2.  Write about it in your head. 

3.  Spread out your supplies. I have my planner, Bic felt liners and Papermate Inkjoys. 

4.  Write.  

5.  Add pics. 

Sit back and admire your work. Consider sharing with a friend or on Instagram #nationalnotebookday.

For a list of companies celebrating #nationalnotebookday click this link:  http://www.nationalnotebookday.com/#home. For a look at my favorite planner click this link: http://www.passionplanner.com/.

Amy is grateful for the sun, her friends and a 17-year-old daughter and her bff who think enough of her to invite her on their #feelinlikeferris adventure.

[kavanahlife-blog]

A day for everything: #nationalnotebookday

I have confessed I many occasions: I love office supplies - particularly pens and notebooks. So I was surprised to find out it's National Notebook Day and I didn't know it. 

Really - it's a thing. 

At least starting today. 

National Notebook Day 2016 celebrates pen on paper -  and thus the corresponding creative thought that goes into each pen or pencil stroke.

My life is organized by notebook and I've given some thought to adding journaling to my note taking and planning practices. 

As there's no time like the present to begin, here's a short how-to and picture showing you how I got started. I wrote this

post to record a memory and help appreciate living with purpose but you could write about your goals, create a to-do list or celebrate counting down to something you're looking forward to.

1.  Consider a moment that honors your efforts to live every moment with purpose. 

2.  Write about it in your head. 

3.  Spread out your supplies. I have my planner, Bic felt liners and Papermate Inkjoys. 

4.  Write.  

5.  Add pics. 

Sit back and admire your work. Consider sharing with a friend or on Instagram #nationalnotebookday.

For a list of companies celebrating #nationalnotebookday click this link: . For a look at my favorite planner click this link: .

Amy is grateful for the sun, her friends and a 17-year-old daughter and her bff who think enough of her to invite her on their #feelinlikeferris adventure.