Sarah Lolley
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Cryptic in Translation

7/28/2015

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The first time I saw this sign, which is painted on the side of a building by my old home, I did a double-take. The juxtaposition was so strange. What did it mean?
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Was it a message of despair? A comment on the futility of a creative life? Was a hopeless artist asking, through graffiti, “what’s the point of all this, anyway?”

Or was it whispered supplication? Was it a reminder to spend our too-few days thoughtfully? Was it a two-word echo of Henry David Thoreau’s reasoning for going to the woods: “
to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life”?

All of this passed through my mind in a split-second. Then, I realized I was looking incorrectly.



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Done is Better Than Perfect

5/9/2014

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I was only a few days from my due date when my editor at ELLE Canada learned that I was expecting and gave me a fantastic opportunity: to write an essay for the May issue (to coincide with Mother's Day) about entering motherhood.
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I have been publishing with ELLE Canada for years but in the past, I would write an essay on spec and then submit it for consideration. This meant that I had weeks (sometimes months) to perfect the piece, really thinking through every metaphor and turn of phrase, and ensuring that the writing was smooth and concise. I always ran the essays past my writer's group for their input and the writing was always stronger for it.

With this assignment, there wasn't time for any of the distance and reflection that perfecting requires. In fact, I only found the thread of the essay on what turned out to be the day I went into labour, and wound up writing the piece two days later, in the throes of post-partum emotion and delirious with lack of sleep.


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    About Sarah

    I'm a writer, adventurer, amateur setter of cryptic crosswords, lover of "ah-ha!" moments, and exhausted mom.

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