Two stories to begin the new year: When I was young and sometimes cruel, I played a trick on my little sister. I tracked her down in the neighborhood and told her that our father had been looking all over for her and was really, really mad that she wasn’t home. What got me […]
MoreI’ll be slowing down on the blogging for the next few weeks (which sounds a little like Lady Gaga saying she’s going to put more effort into her costumes), but I wanted to share my new favorite song. Here’s Jamie Lidell with “Another Day.” (I’m not crazy about the video—best to hear and not see.) […]
MoreLast Friday night my youngest daughter went to her first high school dance. Her date was a boy whose mother died when he was three, a fact which partly explains his unusual attire. All the other boys wore prep-school navy blue blazers, khakis and loafers; he sported an ill-fitting tuxedo, black skater sneakers and a […]
MoreGreat news today in the New York Times: astronomers announced there may be at least three times as many stars as previously estimated. One astronomer with the knock-knock-joke-ready name of Pieter van Dokkum (this is a challenge I throw out to my husband) says this finding is “problematic,” calling into question current theories about how big […]
MorePoem in Praise of Menstruation by Lucille Clifton if there is a river more beautiful than this bright as the blood red edge of the moon if there is a river more faithful than this returning each month to the same delta if there is a river braver than this coming and coming in […]
MoreA short break from the cooking frenzy in my kitchen to complain and give thanks. My complaint is with food manufacturers. Every year more food items seem to be downsized. What was 16 oz. is now 14 oz. Besides feeling irritated at having to pay more for less, I’m wondering what’s going to happen […]
MoreToday I spoke with someone in deep distress. The voice on the other end of the phone droned on in a monotone occasionally punctuated with a choking sound. Hearing pain on the other end of the phone and being unable to offer physical comfort, I was left with a constipated kind of feeling. “Time heals, […]
MorePraying by Mary Oliver It doesn’t have to be the blue iris, it could be weeds in a vacant lot, or a few small stones; just pay attention, then patch a few words together and don’t try to make them elaborate, this isn’t a contest but the doorway into thanks, and a silence in which […]
MoreA few weeks ago in a post on Parrot and Olivier in America, I mentioned my childhood friend Pippi from Australia. Calling her up from memory prompted me to track her down on Facebook. Say what you will about the time-wasting, social-chastening, death-hastening, life-sucking, mind-flucking (not a much of a cusser here) nature of Facebook, […]
MoreJust wanted to share a collage my daughter made using a picture she had taken for her photography class and a paraphrase of a favorite passage of mine. The paraphrase is taken from Life of the Beloved, by Henri J. M. Nouwen, a Catholic priest who died in 1996. Nouwen wrote the book following a […]
More