Six Word Photo Story: Freestyle — Faerie lurks in bright spring petals. I was gathering fallen flowers to photograph for the “nature art” challenge, and I remembered this antique china doll I’d tucked away with other family hand-me-downs. …

A Stream-of-Consciousness Writing — It’s Mother’s Day. I am no one’s mother (other than a couple of fur babies) and my mother died in 2015. Yet Mother’s Day seems somehow an important day to mark. Particularly after this week when Roe vs. Wade is on the minds of people on both sides of the…

Did you notice that From the Messy Desk didn’t appear in your inbox in March? I have been on an extended vacation. Well, it started as vacation, segued into a nasty sinus infection with a layer of more-than-usual back pain, and then I had to catch up on my day…

Feeling more, doing less — Allow me to introduce you to Rocky. He — and, yes, the energy is definitely masculine — sits behind my breastbone, scowling at the world. He’s been there for a few months, unnamed and ignored, growing and becoming more angry. Yesterday, my physical therapist noticed him. She said she couldn’t…

The joys and perils of binge-worthy book series — There’s something special about a series of books. I love returning to the worlds and characters that I have met and enjoyed in other novels. But as I finished the most recent J.D. Robb installment, Abandoned in Death, I was vaguely dissatisfied. That got me thinking about why I return…

February Messy Desk Newsletter — It can get uncomfortably crowded in my head. -Emily PG Erickson I use a lot of metaphors to describe how my brain works and how it’s possible to turn the creativity and brilliance of a Messy brain into productivity and success. Usually, I use metaphors of hamsters or squirrels —…