Removing My Website

 LOGO surrounded by GHOSTWRITING | BUSINESS | SOUNDSCAPE | LIGHTSCRIBE Overlaid on a lightscribe image Menu: home | latest | blog | Guatemala* | Writer's Glass Penthouse * submenu: Stay in My Writer's Penthouse | Ingrid Helps | Friends & Family Trader Ingrid Writes With Words Ghostwriting | Business Writing Communications | Strategy Nonprofit Editorial Services Light Photography | Light-Writing Art (You'll see some on "writings and prompts.".) Sound Songwriter | Composer | Arranger (Former profession--but stay "tuned"!) Hello! I am Ingrid Skarstad Williams About Ingrid: I am a traveling ghostwriter and comm pro who has philanthropic and entrepreneurial adventures on the side. Where have I been? I have an eclectic background in the arts, marketing, public relations, and photography that has brought me around the world. My first love was music, and I performed, wrote, and traveled from 1986 to 2004 when I became a single mom. Communications rose throug...

Bury the Ashes. Honor the Life. North Dakota is under my skin. It's near my heart in a way no other territory could ever be. Technically it is my origin and that of my parents. I met the world in Fargo, ND, after my mom and dad were sent home from the Peace Corps. The island doctors could not guarantee my mother's survival nor mine in childbirth. Yesterday, my mother and I drove through ND as survivors.  We buried the ashes of my brother's body in the plot next to my father's grave. It wasn't designed to be a ceremony or a gathering--just a quiet moment for Mom to express her goodbyes.  ♡ Yet family came. ♡ Stories were shared. Farewell letters, after fluttering away in the wind, were gathered and added to the grave. A purple and gold bouquet (Minnesota Vikings, my brother's team) awaited its part in the goodbyes, becoming windswept as well, while the sound of a storm approached. I watched my dear cousin kiss a tulip and place it in the dirt. I wept.  My aunt kn...

Enjoy the best first! (Actually, just enjoy the best. The rest isn't for you.) The privileges of flight this week held stony vistas. I remember the days when I snuck my "real" camera out of hiding to take photos from the airplane window. In those days, it was like computers now--stowed during takeoff and landing. Today? Cell phones! On one of the many flights in the last week (7 in total), the familiar script caught my attention:   "In the event of an emergency, leave all personal items and proceed to the nearest exit." It sounds like the rapture to me. It also sounds a little like my life. I diverted my attention so I wouldn't have to divert tears momentarily. Lesson 1: Leave and Proceed or Peacekeeping vs. Peacemaking My knee-jerk reaction went to the current situation with my house.   Leave all personal items and proceed to the nearest exit.   Yep. That's what I had to do. Even now, my body responds with a flush of adrenaline--I think it's adrenal...

  Good news has arrived ... the piano can be saved! Monday, September 25, 2023, the text came: "What's the status of the Kulsethmoe piano?" My uncle's question sank into me--deep. It came back up to my throat with my heart in a stranglehold, and I chewed the cud of it. The imagination of the precious musical wood and the intricate mechanics infested to the point of destruction wrung tears out of my being. My dad, my family, all of us are connected to this piano. I didn't want to lose one more thing--especially something from my dad, who passed away in very recent years. I texted, "It's possible it may be saved," while I wept. I explained that the person quoting the options to me was also a pianist and knew the importance of instruments. He had rescued other pianos. Fast forward to today--Tuesday, October 17, 2023--three weeks (and a day) later. This text came from the project manager: "The piano can be saved" (to which I replied my ultimate...

  I saw this post on Facebook, and the answers I read shocked me. I opened Facebook. It was still in my writer profile/page mode, and a related group had a post that hundreds of people had responded to over the last 22 hours. What you see above is a screenshot of the post. "Hatred" popped into my mind. So I commented. A recent comment shocked me: "Me, myself, and I" Wait. Delete? Delete yourself? Yes. That person was not alone. In fact, there were replies to it. The next was a meme of Mary Poppins with her umbrella, ready to rise and be off, with the words: "So done." It was followed by, "Me too." I wanted to pop a care emoji at the very least and possibly express some hopeful or encouraging sentiment. I noticed the group name--something to do with introverts. So maybe this was funny? No. I started scrolling. The "me" answer came up in an overwhelming ratio to all other answers. Now there were some like me who voiced a response like ...

  Set them up. Tear them down. What? What are modern-day memorials? Have we lost the power of altars? Are we accidentally helping or hurting ourselves? Is there more to tap into if we bring it into the spotlight? I've been fascinated by a very recent appearance of an ancient subject: memorials and altars. I'll leave this post live for now because I want it to be present on my mind as I go into Memorial Day this weekend. BUT ... I also do not yet understand enough to have anything significant to say! So this may be an evolving post with additional content as I think to be here and update it.