Tanara McCauley

Culturally Imagined Stories

Tag: inspiration

  • A Writer’s Labyrinth

    Not too long ago my father-in-law presented me with a challenge. I placed all of my fingers together at the tips except the middle fingers, which touched at the knuckles: Easy enough, right? Then I had to tap each pair of fingers together on command, all without moving the middle fingers. First the pinkies, then…

  • Falling Off the Writing Wagon

    “Find a job you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” ~ Confucious Quite an inspiring declaration. Too bad “inspiring” is not synonymous with “truth.” I love to write. The process of weeding out an idea, then turning that idea into hundreds of pages, is beyond rewarding. But make no mistake about…

  • Mercy Despised

    Not too long ago I had a wrestling match with my youngest daughter, something we do quite often. This particular day I had to cut our bout short. I trapped her legs between mine, clamped her arms to her sides and her back to my chest in a one-armed hug, and applied enough pressure so…

  • With Eyes Set Ahead

    Writing is…well…hard. The temptation to quit lurks at the crosswalk of every failure, around the corner of any rejection, and along the alleys of each hard-to-write story. It’s not when the temptation confronts me, but when I actually entertain it, that I’m given a way out of the temptation with a message that speaks exactly to what…

  • Today

    Be grateful for today and don’t worry about tomorrow. We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

  • Risky Embrace

    I saved a life today. Not intentionally, and not of the most precious variety, but a valuable life all the same: that of a fat, feisty lizard. He lives in my backyard. And our relationship is…uh…complicated. (A vague adjective, missing all the negative connotations applicable to our feeble ties, but I’ll go with it.) See, I…

  • Walk it Out

    El interés tiene pies. It’s a Spanish phrase that often comes back to haunt me when I find myself making excuses not to do something. The literal translation? Interest has feet. “Who has What?!?” you ask. Stay with me, the meaning is a bit more profound. Many of us have approached a prospect or task…

  • Dare to Live the Dream

    Every dream has a starting point. My love of reading, and the eventual desire to write, began in the pages of two childhood classics. Where the Red Fern Grows is the first book to ever make me weep. Not cry. Weep. Hysterically. As if my house had just gone up in flames and every family…

  • Too Fat to Fly

    But those who wait on the Lord…they shall mount up with wings like eagles. The other morning I pulled up to my driveway and encountered the fattest pigeon I’ve ever laid eyes on. After the initial shock of seeing its size, I wanted to see it move out of my parking spot. I approached, fully expecting…

  • Promised

    Life–if we’re honest–is hard. That’s not to say it isn’t good. Laughter, the arms of a child thrown around your neck, kisses from the one you love–these are all precious tidbits of the countless things that keep us striving to lengthen our days. But life does throw many a curve ball. And these unexpected hurls…