Patti Digh's Blog

I am not interested in political statements or warnings or diatribes on this anniversary of 9/11.

I’m not inclined to write a post about how we’ve lost our way in the years since then, about how the terrorists have won if their goal was to irretrievably break this country apart and allow fundamentalism to take root in the gaps left by horror. No.

Still, all those American flags after 9/11. On cars, doors, houses, mailboxes, buildings, lapels. I don’t see them so much anymore. Our hatred of...

Happy birthday to my mom, who would be 85 today. This is one of my favorite photos of her, from one of the best times we ever had together, in Munich, 1981.

She sold some of her treasured Madame Alexander dolls to afford to fly (for the first time) to see me when I was a student in Munich, navigating airport changes in NYC and customs in Dusseldorf by herself before arriving in Munich in a blizzard. My father had died shortly before, and she was still in shock, I believe. But she made it.

We...

Daddy was a barber. He opened “Modern Barber Shop” in our North Carolina town, and my childhood was spent there; days after school were for sweeping hair and playing school by myself in the cozy, dark little vestibule at the back of the shop. I didn’t know it at the time, but men who came for a haircut and were sitting on the long church pew right outside my “school” could hear me playing both teacher and student. Daddy said they used to come in for haircuts at about the same...

“Sheridan’s gifts as a teacher were as rare as the purity of his passion. Wherein did these gifts lie? In his brilliance? Yes. In his mastery of his subject? Of course. In his capacity for lucid, concrete, and vivid explanation? Again, yes. But there is another factor, one whose roots lie in magic or the supernatural. Sheridan had charm.” –Jonathan Malino, Eulogy for Sheridan Simon, 11 April 1994

This week marks the 23rd anniversary of a death, a death far too young and far too fast and far...

April is National Poetry Month.

I know, I know.

You don’t do poetry. You lost the urge for it when your English teacher made you beat it senseless.

Come back to the word that captures a world.

Each April I feature a poem every day on 37days. It is my way of reentering the rhythm of life through words that slow me down, make me see things I miss, help me understand what is beneath the surface of a thing. Words buoy us and thrill us; they express things we didn’t know could be expressed. They a...

Rebooting my life. from Patti Digh on Vimeo.

I had a heart attack in January 2016. A significant one. The artery they call the “widow-maker” was 90% blocked. I’m very lucky to be here, especially given my doctor’s response to my complaints of chest pain the day before I landed in the ER. My former doctor, I should say.

I left the hospital after a very long week there, and started cardiac rehab weeks later, because I had a complication during the surgery and couldn’t exercise for six weeks. W...

One year ago today my friend, Laurie Foley, died.

She and I were in touch daily, often many times a day, and the void is enormous. I long to call and find out her take on what’s happening in the world, and ask her advice. I long to hear her say, “Let’s talk about that,” when I raise a question. What a superb friend. Never judgmental, never shocked, at anything I told her. For someone in the public eye, that is rare. All too often, people peel away when writers reveal their full humanity. Nev...

Life is a Verb Camp is a place to relax into who you really are. “Come as you are” is our unofficial motto. We gather from around the world once a year to build community, create, learn, and share.

If you’d like to learn more about Life is a Verb Camp, go to our Camp website for information and to register.

Today, I am quietly celebrating the 12th anniversary of beginning this blog.

Starting this blog saved my life, changed my life, changed my relationship with words and with myself. It opened up space for me to dive into language in a way the business books I had previously written did not. It opened up friendships with people around the world whom I have come to love–people I would otherwise have never met. It was the genesis for my last six books, Life is a Verb Camp, and so much more.

It wa...

As always on Christmas Day, a remembrancer of my father whose birthday is Christmas. He would have been 90 today. Happy birthday, Daddy.

“Surviving a loss and letting go is only half of the story. The other half is the secret belief that we will find, in one form or another, what we have lost. And it is that potential, shimmery as a star on a clear night that helps us survive.” – Veronica Chambers

“You can’t make pancakes without breaking eggs.” – Spanish proverb

My f...