Jill Jepson's Blog
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Jan.10.2013
Each year, the Dramatics Society at the University of Delhi holds a competition. Each of the various colleges at the university put on a play written, directed, and performed by students. Although some of the performances are in Hindi--the most widely spoken of the hundreds of Indian...
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Jan.09.2013
"It's a jumble." That was how one of our students described India after our first day.
We had arrived at our hotel in an enclave of New Delhi at 2:00 a.m. the night before, after 19 hours of travel--15 students, some of whom have never been outside the Midwestern U.S., and two anxious...
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Jan.08.2013
I was one of those girls who got grammar. I racked up A’s in English because the rules made sense to me. Diagramming sentences was my favorite part of school. I loved discovering how the different parts of a sentence fit together in an elegant, efficient arrangement. I completely bought the notion...
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Jan.05.2013
I arrived at the border between India and Pakistan on a sweltering May day in 1977. I had spent the past year traveling through Europe and the Middle East, had wintered in Jordan and made my way across Iran by train. After a month hitchhiking through Afghanistan, I was finally arriving in...
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Jan.03.2013
When I joined Facebook back in 2008, it was with a sense of irony. The whole enterprise seemed ridiculous and adolescent: The kind of thing writers do to avoid their real work, which is writing, and their real life, which is also writing. The only reason I set up an account was that ...
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Jan.01.2013
The Taj MahalPhoto by Muhammad Mahdi Karim
2013 is going to be an exciting year at The Writing as a Sacred Path Blog. The spring is starting off with a bang. Here are some previews of coming attractions:
My Journey to India. Beginning January 5th, I’ll be taking a select group of...
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Dec.31.2012
Things not to concern yourself with in 2013:
Criticism
How well other writers are doing compared to you
How old you are getting
Whether you are fulfilling the promise you showed as a young person
The number of publications you have
The number of books your are selling
The number of...
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Dec.29.2012
When you’re revising a novel, everything else goes to hell. My kitchen is a train wreck. My bed hasn’t been made for a month. The dust bunnies in the living room are having secret meetings, planning to overthrow the current administration. I didn’t send a single Christmas card or even make a batch...
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Dec.27.2012
I admit it: I make resolutions. I’m one of those people who loves the idea of a fresh start. I regularly resolve to change various aspects of my life, not just at New Year’s, but any time I have an excuse: The beginning of a semester, my birthday, summer solstice. Occasionally, I even keep...
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Dec.26.2012
It’s that time of year again: Time every blogger, journalist, and essayist on the planet thinks the rest of the world is just yearning to hear what the top-ten of everything was. The top ten movies. The top ten novels. The top ten fashion faux pas.
Always one to do my part, here is my list. Not a...
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Dec.24.2012
When you are a former believer, Christmas offers a few challenges. I suspect they are very different challenges from the ones experienced by Americans of other faiths—Muslim, Jewish, Hindu—when this massive, inescapable holiday roles around. But they’re enough to inspire quite a few blogs, I...
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Dec.21.2012
It’s hardly surprising, I suppose, that at a gathering of writers, poets, and linguists, the talk would turn to etymology. That’s what happened at my department Christmas party this week. We sipped wine, enjoyed various sweet and savory treats, and talked about word histories.
At one point,...
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Dec.19.2012
This weekend, I bought a big, new suitcase, which is currently standing impatiently in my home office, waiting for me to take it to India in January. This will be my fifth visit to the Subcontinent, and the first in which I bring a group of college students to study and travel for a month....
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Dec.17.2012
I grew up in a devout Roman Catholic household. My childhood was laced with Cathechism classes, Sunday masses, rosaries, novenas, lenten fasts, and a Friday ritual of tuna salad—the only fish dish my family would eat. I often hear lapsed Catholics talk about the church with rage, but my...
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Dec.16.2012
I may be the only person in America who has never seen an episode of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood—I was of the Captain Kangaroo generation myself, and never had children—but a quote by Fred Rogers has been floating around Facebook, and it’s started me thinking:
“When I was a boy and I would see scary...
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About Jill
I have spent a lifetime exploring spiritual traditions throughout the world--from Siberia to Afghanistan, Syria to Japan. I have also spent a lifetime writing. In my work, I weave together those two threads, combining the spiritual and the artistic,...
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Causes Jill Jepson Supports
Humane Society of the United States, Defenders of Wildlife, Interational Society for the Protection of Burros and Mustangs, National Wildlife Federation,...