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1979. On our way somewhere and not trying to imagine anything ahead. Where it starts is also how it ends, the heat of sitting next to you, the surprise of this joy, still. There is no old age. There is, as there always was, just you. Until one of our bodies seems to disappear, and then (perhaps as now) only consciousness moving. Thank you my love for showing me everything is source. #twoowuv https://www.instagram.com/p/ByVJhGCAU1e/?igshid=19i52kn44z20z

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Last night I dreamed these words. As if someone whispered them in my ear before I awoke. Literata is the feminine form of literatus, Latin for one acquainted with literature, or in use sometimes as literati. Herata means to wake up. To come to life (Finnish)...................... I’m often given words in my dreams and then the sense becomes living into their meaning. It’s not always obvious but something experienced. I grasp this meaning in my body. It’s why I write. https://www.instagram.com/sonya_lea/p/Bu_xvpKnba7/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=wi7kt1xm3ca6

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Paying homage to the great mama. (at Joshua Tree National Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/BsyDkdInvZB/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=5ovuqbmgodtg

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Rest in power, Mary Oliver. https://www.instagram.com/p/BsvqTgfHyQA/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1fws1ozl72t4x

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My wild collaborator @lauriewagner as we create Dismantling The Nice Girl by The Bay. You need a fierce friend. #writers #writersofinstagram #authors #thedaysofniceareover #womenrevolution https://www.instagram.com/p/Bpe0wXMHfJK/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=y7ab47pt00ys

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See the tall waterfall at the bottom? Home is perspective, the kind I get losing myself to giants and the end of time. #canadianrockies #hiking #writingoutside (at Skoki Lakes) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn3zdxhg3xk/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=xgh7f82ad9ja

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Because boulder fields are when everything is whole again. Because sleeping with twelve people in the same room reminds you that you’re an animal. Because morning frost and someone who knows how to light a fire. Because turquoise lakes and waterfalls. Because water drunk straight out of their glacial cold. Because quiet. Because Calleach winds. Because you can sit on a rock and eat lunch with ten glaciers in view. Because elders who made such perfect gorgeous trails around this Little Yoho Valley. Because friends who know the wild and how to laugh. Because the things that startled you in the ordinary world fall away, and you can sense your courage, and your peace. Because you can love while it’s all changing. https://www.instagram.com/p/BnZUSAZgQ6F/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=3gjoqai489ar

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Happy 60th to the gentleman I’ve spent the past 14 years with (and the fierce one I got to be with for three decades.) Thank you for the adventures and the power of your love.

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Join us June 21-24 in Banff National Park for Wild Writing in the Canadian Rockies. #banffnationalpark #writersofinstagram Writing, hiking, power lunches from chef @kathryngilmore, craft talks from Sonya Lea, welcome party and 17 hours of Solstice light each day! (at Banff National Park)

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Happy New Year from the Canadian Rockies. #minus35degrees #weirdosunite #isthatalightsaber (at Banff, Alberta)

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“I wonder if the most political act is to have your own orgasm.” My daughter interviews me on sex, writing sex, and my memoir. Listen to BITCHCONOCLAST on iTunes and Soundcloud. #bitchconoclast #cliteracy #momscansaythat #podcast #podcasting #writing #writersofinstagram

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Thank you to our women veterans. A roomful of donors fell in love with them last night and we raised all we need to send twenty women to summer camp plus a few workshops. Thanks to Erin Brindley and Cafe Nordo for serving us so beautifully. Suzanne Morrison you are dazzling in all that you are, and especially for the great devotion to this work. I love you. (at Cafe Nordo)

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Guests to Cocktails Cuisine Courage get to experience the immersive set for Lost Falls, a Lynchian fantasy in tribute to your favorite special agent. Drinks at 630. Program at 730. Raise The Paddle for our women veterans to heal their invisible wounds through the power of storytelling. Link for tickets in bio and on Facebook #womenveterans #redbadgeproject (at Cafe Nordo)

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Canada Day started with a hike where, at the top, townsfolk back from a long trip sang Oh Canada, then opening ceremonies with delightful @BanffMayor, followed by a parade, cake being offered on nearly every street corner, dinner in the garden with @annielalla and fireworks over the Bow River. No guns except on the buff cowgirls. #mytruenorth (at The Bow River - Banff)

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Burning down the house. Lately I’ve had these lyrics searing my mind: Watch out you might get what you’re after. At 23 years old, I was dancing to this song in my living room in Toronto, holding our toddler son, and dreaming of becoming a writer. We were also making plans to metaphorically burn down our house, and move from a too-confining city life to the vast wilderness of Banff, Alberta in the Canadian Rockies. It took me through my twenties and thirties to learn how to do what I want. To become instinctive, to trust my body, and to corral the mayhem that comes from trying to drown one’s sadness in whiskey. In midlife, after friends and family helped me learn how to be myself here, I started writing. I thought my first book would be fiction, but then we discovered that my husband was growing a rare cancer whose treatment accidentally included the loss of his memory and identity, and then I was writing to save my life. At the end of a year in which I’ve placed my first book into the world, I can’t be anything but grateful for all of the help along the way. When readers asked me how long it took to write Wondering, I said that I started writing in the hospital room, about twelve years ago. Then, I didn’t know I was beginning a book. I was tracking details to try and make sense of the chaos of Richard’s cancer treatment, and to find what happened to my marriage that had seemingly disappeared in a cold hospital room. My work as a writer has been a perplexing muddle, with much flailing about, trying to understand how to be unsparing as I remade life on the page. This year has also involved experimenting with how I want the words to feel in my body (and yours) when I read them aloud. In these years of making Wondering Who You Are, I have been raised up by every writer I know. Recently, when friends texted the image from The Week (above) from their date night, I felt like I was living in an alternate universe. Thank you Sherman Alexie, whose works I have loved since I was a drunk, on a road trip to New Orleans, listening to his voice read an audio book. This acclaimed Seattle author has been generous too, answering my questions about performance. Truly, all the writers in the Pacific Northwest, and around North America, have been as kind. Thank you all for an incredible book tour year. And thanks to everyone who read Wondering Who You Are, or gave the book to friends, or took the trouble to write me a letter. These correspondences have turned out to be one of the most fulfilling parts of a book tour because—along with teaching people how to write the tough stuff—they’re about connection in the midst of turmoil, speaking in an uncorrupted voice, the pain and self-discovery that helps us release the judgments of others. Writing a book has taught me to trust that raw, wild voice. That it’s okay to flounder while you’re massively failing at something you desperately need to do. Writing a personal story was tough emotional (and often physical) work, and a decade at it showed me the confidence that comes from endurance. And it has grand effects—like the leap of faith we’re taking (in weeks!) to live in two countries. This summer, we’re planning a return to the Canadian Rockies. We’ve decided to live half the year in the spectacular wilderness of Banff, and half the year in the cultural mecca that is Seattle. I want to see how my writing changes when I allow the mountains to inform my body and my work. This choice had nothing to do with wanting to escape American politics, because I’m devoted to messing up the patriarchy inside a country that's wrestling with its racist, misogynist, xenophobic, authoritarian present. And I’m particularly excited to write about the contrasting worlds of a capitalist USA and a socialist Canada, and what happens when we live cross-culturally. Once we get settled this summer, I’ll be inviting writers to join me for retreats in the mountains, but first I’m finally writing fiction, and looking forward to getting back to my imaginal worlds. On July 9th I’ll be in Seattle to teach women veterans for The Red Badge Project, and on July 16 I'm thrilled to welcome bestselling author SJ Watson for a conversation about memory and identity on the occasion of his new thriller, Second Life. In September, I’m leading a retreat for women veterans with Suzanne Morrison. Also that month, I’ll happily be wandering near the big mama Mt. Rainier while on a fellowship at The Mineral School, then moving from couches to backyard tents at friend’s houses so I can mentor writers. In October, you can find me teaching at The Writer’s Workshoppe in Port Townsend, an amazing place to explore words. This autumn, I’m launching e-courses for writers who need accountability, inspiration, and craft exercises to keep them going. And if you’d like to mentor privately with me, I have a few spaces available for students this autumn. Contact me via my website for more details. In the meantime, burning with love for all you readers & writers. Who gotta match? Sonya Next In Seattle: July 9-16, 2016 September 9 – October 9, 2016 January through June 2017

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"Art and love are the same thing: it's the process of seeing yourself in things that are not you." Chuck Klosterman (at Clinton Hill Neighborhood)

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Pretty sure "Lara's Theme" is running through my mind in this moment. #revolutionarydoctorz (at Spray Lakes, Kananaskis)