pneu·ma/ˈno͞omə/noun Philosophynoun: pneuma; plural noun: pneumas (in Stoic thought) the vital spirit, soul, or creative force of a person.OriginGreek, literally ‘that which is breathed or blown’. I have given birth to a new soul on this earth. My heart is filled with boundless joy and wonder for this tiny infant girl. My daughter was born…
One of my recent favorite classical music suites is Liebesfreud (Love's Joy), Liebesleid (Love's Sorrow), and Schön Rosmarin (Lovely Rosemary) by Fritz Kriesler. Specifically, I love the piano version of Liebesleid. I discovered the song while watching the anime, Your Lie in April, a Japanese romantic drama series that follows a young pianist named Kо̄sei…
Sitting down to write at the end of this year has been nearly impossible. There's a loss of motivation, a loss of confidence, increased anxiety, and preparation for life changes to come next year. The ending of 2023 and the oncoming of 2024 feels like the Major Arcana tarot card, Death. Upright Death represents endings,…
Every session where I sit down to write is a different. I bring some new form of thought, idea, and feeling from my experiences of the day that excite me to push further into my story. Some days I'm grinding against the keys of my laptop and wondering why I bother. Each sentence is like…
It's a serendipitous moment when the universe brings together recurring themes. Similar to a recurring dream that you have, I believe that there is a higher purpose and meaning being served when ideas, books, movies, places, and people all resonate together. While the world seems divisive and hostile, there is beauty and kindness in every…
Spring is here! Bird song and daylight savings time have returned, whether we like it or not. I wanted to write a post about spring traditions that I follow, and I realized that I don't have any! There's always spring cleaning which isn't necessarily so much a tradition as a necessity. It feels good to do a…
Refulgence is an elegant word, one that I learned from Final Fantasy XIV. It means shining brightly; radiant; gleaming; a resplendent quality or state. I love the meaning. I've mentioned before that I play Final Fantasy XIV. Throughout all the Final Fantasy game series, you play a character called the Warrior of Light, the hero…
I'm over a week late with this post! It's been crazy since the end of September and there are so many errands to run and people to see. We're HALF A MONTH out from our wedding! I can't believe it's almost here. It's been a long year since we started planning, but now time is…
For the past couple weeks, I've been re-watching an old anime from the 90s, Yu Yu Hakusho. A Redditor perfectly describes, in this discussion thread, how I feel about the show and why it's such a good anime: "There's a scene at the beginning of the Chapter Black Saga, when Yusuke is first told about…
As of today, I am proud to have submitted seventeen queries to literary agents for The Tower. It's a giant leap across the canyon that separates having actually completed the book and pushing the book out into the universe. With each book I read from my yearly list, I find myself comparing my work to other authors and…
Lily K Borak 