• Being Human - Blessings - Darkness - Difficulty - Family - Fear - Hope - Light - Loss - Safety - This really happened.

    The Fire and the Roses

    September 14, 2017 - By 

    Eleven years ago we were getting ready to leave the house for the first seder at Jane’s house. Russ was just finishing the mowing of the lawn, our table was set with china and crystal for the next evening at our house. I heard a crackling sound coming from the kitchen. I knew that I wasn’t cooking that evening…so as I entered the kitchen I saw about a foot of smoke undulating at the ceiling above the door to the garage. I went outside and found the wall between the house and the garage aflame. Quick-thinker that I am, I…

  • Blessings - Childhood - Family - Hope - Light - Loss - Safety

    The Gathering and The Safety of the Burrito

    May 9, 2015 - By 

    I woke to a dream where I was on the street in twilight. With my little child.   A son or a daughter, perhaps. The sky was losing light. The day had been long. It was much too late to be out with such a baby – it was time to be home. But this one had their arms up in the air and was crying, “book, book”. “up, up.” We were outside the library. Its doors closed to the day. “Book, book”. They cried. There was the memory and allure of story time – a part of a perfect morning…

  • Being Human - Blessings - For fun. - Hope - This really happened.

    On inspiration’s expiration’s inspiration.

    May 5, 2015 - By 

      I recently read a piece from Maya Angelou: she said that although she had a large house, she retained a hotel room in town.   On the desk of the room she had only a deck of cards, crossword puzzles and a pad of paper—and a pen.   She would take herself out of her comfort and her distractions and would sit and pretend to play solitaire – to trick herself into writing. Reading this was an enormous comfort to me. Here I am thinking that once I stake my flag in the sand saying that I will always be brilliant…

  • Being Human - Blessings - Darkness - Difficulty - Hope - Light - Safety - This really happened. - Travelling

    The Lost Mariners and Almost Missing Maui

    April 26, 2015 - By 

    I heard the most amazing story. There was a cruise ship – and a Greek captain – and two mariners. And some passengers. But I think the star of this story is a thing that is not on any map. More on that later. There is a cruise ship – and it is sailing North towards Hawaii. One morning one passenger gets up early, as he loves to do on these trips. He gets up at five – and consults the map.   He finds that the ship is not headed North at all. It has done an about-face…..it is heading South.…

  • Childhood - Hope - Light - Loss

    Gleaming gone.

    January 7, 2015 - By 

    When my son was very, very small, there was a book we used to read to him. This book told the story of a mother and her a little boy who walked to a beach, across the dunes to the resting of the waves. They looked for starfish; they had a picnic of sandwiches and pink lemonade. Lying on their blanket, they had a nap. At the end of that afternoon they walked home. And on the way, the book said, they saw the sun low in the sky, gleaming, a huge orange ball. Then it was gone. When we…

  • Being Human - Food - Hope - Uncategorized

    “Everything is pretty”.

    January 7, 2015 - By 

    Once someone came to my dinner table and pronounced “everything is pretty”. I suppose that they might have been referring to candles or food or plates or napkins or setting sun or warmth or, or…. Any one of many things which might seem pretty to one or not-quite-noticed by another. Everything was pretty. Apparently. I cannot for the life of me get those words out of my head.  Now a few years later I think ‘everything is pretty, everything is pretty’.  It is not pretty in my world because I need to make everything pretty but because it is just…

  • Being Human - Blessings - Hope - Light - Travelling

    Singers at Siesta

    November 1, 2014 - By 

    It was on the first day at the park when we saw him playing the guitar, sitting between statues. He had put his empty red canvas case on the ground — so as to collect euros. His voice was lovely and although we were walking, we stopped and sat. When he sang – and when he sang – we were moved. Such a low and sweet and quiet tone. Dulce. We listened to one song and then another…and another. Beautiful, really. I sent her over with a coin and to ask him if it was his own music – her…

  • Being Human - Blessings - Darkness - Difficulty - Family - Fear - Hope - Light - Loss - Safety

    Chaos, Kindness & The Flood of Garlic.

    October 25, 2014 - By 

    To write this, I wrote it five times — and then a sixth.  It was still a mess. I printed it out and with my green pen. I scratched out everything. Well, almost everything — so I could start again. I haven’t been able to think straight – too much on my mind.  I needed a little something. Then I woke this morning thinking of garlic. If you use a little garlic it is amazing.  It adds that special something to everything you eat.  It is almost magical the way it transforms a dish. For some, garlic is their favorite…

  • Being Human - Hope - Light - Travelling

    On the Sixteenth.

    October 16, 2014 - By 

    We wanted to see Picasso’s Guernica one more time so we headed out early, after breakfast, to the Museo Reina Sofia. But, alas, it was closed.   We sat a bit in the sun, watching other tourists who, like us, didn’t pay attention to the museum hours, react — and then regroup — as they decided what to do next. After a bit we began to walk up Santa Isabel — a happy accident. We passed little bookstores — some markets — and we went in. NOTE TO SELF:  When traveling, find the groceries first — before eating out —…

  • Being Human - Fear - Hope

    I am not afraid of Hell.

    October 3, 2014 - By 

    If the worst thing we can be is to not be ourselves; If our greatest sin is despair… If Dante could describe two souls in Purgatory as doves — then he has not yet decided that they are guilty. If beauty can move us to tears… If we are, none of us, perfect — and we all understand that none of us are… Then we are, ultimately, all together. And as for the fire and brimstone….I, for one, will be okay. Because I have marshmallows.

  • Being Human - Darkness - Family - Fear - Hope - Light - Loss

    Fishing & The Hospital Bed

    September 20, 2014 - By 

    Yesterday they brought a hospital bed into my father’s house Of course, in the past few weeks he has been declining and now he doesn’t have the strength to get up. But he did try, anyway. And of course, he fell. Dad has always been so independent…wanted to do things his way….so now he is being offered containment. With high rails on the sides, it is his worst nightmare:: a hospital bed. The guys from hospice took apart his own bed–the same one that I crawled into when I was young and had nightmares. The same bed where I slept…

  • Being Human - Blessings - Differences - Difficulty - Hope

    Spam & Pomegranates

    September 15, 2014 - By 

    Today I take off on a flight of fancy. So…. Spam, you know, is more than just unwanted email. At one time, and still – and forevermore, it was and is Mystery Meat, arriving as a gift in a blue tin package. And so it was on the same radio show where Martha Stewart talked about pomegranates that she also explained a great way to prepare Spam. Martha Stewart was, as you may or may not know, raised in a family of six children. So, she said, she knows a lot about Spam. First, she suggested, find some really, really…

  • Being Human - Family - Hope

    The Way of the Pencil

    September 9, 2014 - By 

    Next to my grandparents’ telephone was a little silver can of little sharp pencils. Very little pencils. As would be a full-sized pencil, now used up and sharpened, all the way down to the eraser. Every part of that pencil used except for the very end…sharpened and ready to begin…just before the end. My grandfather lived during the depression. For him as for many, to cast away anything so precious as a pencil stub was to waste money on another pencil — that could have been used for an apple, a sandwich….a coffee…or flour to make bread for a family.…

  • Childhood - Hope

    Parking-Propelled Panoply Perfection

    September 8, 2014 - By 

    But ah, the exuberance of teenagers. Where I live, when there is a football game, the whole town is transformed. Everywhere you will find exuberance and excitement and the color red. Well yesterday, I was off to my morning thing and passed a local school…all along the road you could see 14 and 15-year old boys (don’t ask me how I know, I just know) holding signs saying “Football Parking, $5". They are jumping up and down. They are beside themselves. They are splendid! I am stopped — four of them rush over to my car — ‘hey, come and…