Category Archives: Heart

Gift Books Across the Sea

February 20, 2020 by Mara Purl
There’s a person, now, whose love of books inspired me, and who I’ve been able to encourage in turn with a simple gesture. She had collected books to enjoy and to share. Who knows, now, how far and wide her own sharing will reach? I know I touched her heart, and she touched mine.
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Untangling Our Strings

December 31, 2019 by Mara Purl
Maybe there’s a knot of resentment that we could untangle with a bit of patience and forgiveness. Perhaps there’s an interlocking loop of mistaken communications that could be smoothed with a phone call or a note. Or it could be that a few moments of stillness—a walk in the woods, down a street, or along a beach—would allow us to relax the tension on those strings and let them disentangle and unfurl like strands of kelp in a gentle tide.
Posted in Acting, Art and Entertainment, Audio Drama, authors and entertainment world, Creativity, Family, family history and genealogy, Family values, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, head and heart connection, Heart and head connection in books, heart of an artist, Integrating lifes purpose through art, life's purpose, Mara Purl, mission and core purpose in life, musician-singer-songwriter, Opening up to New Worlds, screenwriting and acting, Uncategorized, voice performance | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Dolls’ Christmas

December 21, 2019 by Mara Purl
This year we have special visitors who seem to have taken over the den and the guest room. I wouldn't be surprised if they've been tiptoeing around while I'm not looking, arraying themselves throughout the house. This just might be the dolls' Christmas.
Posted in Books, familial history, Family, family history and genealogy, Family values, Gifts, Gratitude, Heart, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

My Box of Dollies

December 6, 2019 by Mara Purl
I hope, when I get to doll heaven, these dolls will be waiting for me once again. They were, and always will be, among my most trusted and trustworthy companions.
Posted in Baby Boomers, familial history, Family, family history and genealogy, Gifts, Gratitude, Head & Heart, Heart, Japan, Mara Purl, womens literature | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Irritating Characters – Nemesis “Mrs. Lime” Debuts

May 29, 2018 by Mara Purl
Comic relief . . . dramatic tension . . . extreme contrast . . . she serves all those purposes. She had me laughing, then my editor laughed out loud, and soon my readers decided she was a “contrarian favorite”. See what you think of “Mrs. Lime.”
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Writer at Work, Otters at Play

February 14, 2018 by Mara Purl
So here was this cute, inventive, self-sufficient creature who was an “index species”—that is, one whose presence was a key to the ecological well-being of its own region. I was liking these furry, sweet-faced critters even more than I thought I would.
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If It’s Not One Thing It’s Your Mother

May 29, 2017 by Mara Purl
I could have chosen to believe I had a mean-spirited mother who’d rather hurt than help her daughter. Yet, when I scratched the surface of the complex relationship with my mother, I never failed to discover her heart of gold. Her only motive in saying anything critical was to help me, improve my life, remove an obstacle, deliver me to my best opportunities. Read more
Posted in Family, Family values, Gratitude, Head & Heart, Heart, Mara Purl, Mothers & Daughters, self-growth | 5 Comments

January Handsel

January 3, 2014 by Mara Purl
Handsel: a gift given at the beginning of something, especially a new year. Though it’s hard not to keep thinking to myself “this time last year, Mom was here,” what I try to do when these thoughts recur is shift from grief to celebration, from loss to gratitude, from past to present. This is a new year, a perfect opportunity for new beginnings. Perhaps I can let the universe help me move forward, instead of tackling the forward momentum all on my own. Read more
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The After Days

August 19, 2013 by Mara Purl
Projects have always been a way of life for the Purls. Sometimes a bane, sometimes a boon, projects define our time and express our various core purposes. That’s what I’ll miss the most, I think—that I won’t get to do the next project with Mom.
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A Year for Mom: The Big Day

July 14, 2013 by Mara Purl
The Purl Family “A Year for Mom” are posts written the year of my mother’s illness and her passing. It had started as one of Mom’s bright ideas. Though she and Pere had been unable to fly to California to see my sister Linda perform the remarkable one-woman show The Year of Magical Thinking, she imagined that, somehow, the show could come to her. Read more
Posted in Acting, Art and Entertainment, authors and entertainment world, Family, family history and genealogy, Family values, Heart, Integrating lifes purpose through art, involvement in issues near and dear to heart, life's purpose, Magical moments, Mara Purl, Mara Purl, mission and core purpose in life, Nurturing the soul, Personal Essays, Public Speaking, Transformation, Women authors | Leave a comment