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	<title>Melissa A. Bartell</title>
	<link>http://www.melissabartell.com</link>
	<description>Writerly Stuff</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Mon, 03 Aug 2009 05:23:17 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>On Writing: Writing as Meditation</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Written for and presented at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Oak Cliff, Dallas, TX, 19 July 2009.
True confession: I&#8217;m a failure at sitting meditation. Whenever I&#8217;ve tried it, I&#8217;ve either fallen asleep, or ended up with a mind so full of ideas that I had to stop right then and find a notebook and pen, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.melissabartell.com/2009/07/on-writing-writing-as-meditation/</link>
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		<title>On Stepfathers: Ode to Ira</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Written for and presented at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Oak Cliff, Dallas, TX, 21 June 2009.
* * * * *
While they are depicted in literature and media with far less frequency than stepmothers, the sad reality is that when stepfathers appear, they tend to be dark, murky, or just plain dangerous. Examples of evil [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.melissabartell.com/2009/06/on-stepfathers-ode-to-ira/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>No More Tears?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Without the daily dip in our community&#8217;s over-chlorinated pool providing cleansing and astringent services, my eight-year-old head was subjected to just-as-frequent applications of Johnson&#8217;s baby shampoo followed by grueling sessions involving my mother wielding a wide-tooth comb in one hand and a bottle of de-tangler in the other
Let me make one thing clear: those tag [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.melissabartell.com/2009/05/no-more-tears/</link>
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		<title>Wanted: One Muse</title>
		<description><![CDATA[You should keep a regular schedule, not visit with your pouch of creative glitter at three in the morning, and then spend a week sipping margaritas on some tropical shore while I stab pens through paper in fruitless attempts to find coherence. 
You should be funny, but laughing only with me and never at me. [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.melissabartell.com/2005/09/wanted-one-muse/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Aqueous</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Sunday afternoon found me jumping into the deep end of the pool rather than mincing into the water, step by step from the shallows. Cool liquid enveloped me,  and I was suddenly a mermaid, splashing and frolicking with innocent delight. 
Green and blue foam “noodles,” the aquatic colors matching the stripes in my swimsuit, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.melissabartell.com/2005/09/aqueous/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Argiope</title>
		<description><![CDATA[She arrived about a month ago, and set up home between two trees, near the fence. At first, she frightened me, but then I grew to appreciate her presence. What more appropriate back yard guest for a writer, than a writing spider?
Yesterday, she&#8217;d moved her web away from the shelter of the trees, perhaps to [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.melissabartell.com/2005/09/argiope/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Watermelon</title>
		<description><![CDATA[He liked to watch her doing ordinary things. 
If they were watching a movie, he would watch her face, cataloguing each expression as it passed across her face – interest, amusement, frustration, satisfaction. Even if it was a film he had no interest in seeing, watching it with her was an experience not to be [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.melissabartell.com/2005/05/watermelon/</link>
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