Monna McDiarmid

{Please pay attention to what gets lit up inside you…}

LOVES
I adore stories of all kinds.
They help us understand
ourselves and others.
I love to watch
the blue-green sparkles
of the ocean
and the red-orange shivers
in a wood stove.
Waves and flames,
the two channels
of Luddite television.
I’m obsessed
with recording life
through photography,
creating beautiful homes,
not so wild about the ironing.
I appreciate cheese, bread & chocolate
in all their forms,
poems by Naomi Shihab Nye,
and Andrea Gibson,
books about time travel,
red-headed girls
and robots in the wild,
golden hour in St. John’s, Newfoundland,
writing in cafes,
every single dog on the planet
and my lovely partner DP.
(It’s worth saying here
that loving gets easier
when you know how
to be kind to yourself.)

FROM
A Canadian,
I’ve lived in six countries
on four continents:
Canada
Colombia
Mexico
Spain
Thailand
and then eleven years in Japan
which is as much my home
as Canada.

I wonder if borders
aren’t breaking
our hearts.

WRITING
I’ve always been a writer.
My first novel
The 38 Impossible Loves of Naoko Nishizawa
took nine years to write
and was published in my fifties.
Takeaway: The books we love
were published by authors
who refused to give up.

COACHING
You’re not broken.
I believe in your ability
to accept what is,
grieve what’s gone,
and build something new.
It’s what makes you magical
and also human.

LEARN WITH ME
I believe that creative acts
make us healthier and happier
so I offer courses
that help you heal,
embrace your creativity,
and reclaim your glorious
self.

WELCOME!
I’m so happy you’re here.