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Being Human - Blessings - Childhood - Darkness - Difficulty - Family - Fear - Hope - Light - Loss - Uncategorized
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The first time I saw Cirque du Soleil was in Los Angeles, 1987. When the first notes of the clarinet began and the lights came up, the performers were wearing masks of lovely ancient people with innocent faces, reddened noses, jowls, double chins and glasses. They had exaggerated bellies and bottoms–and waddled about doing what ordinary people do: riding their broken shaky bicycles, struggling under sacks of potatoes; collecting milk and bread . . .and breath. They were modest, sad, hardworking and beautiful. Awkward, ugly, shattered by life and yet still walking forward. I was so moved by their broken…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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 —…
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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…
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Well you see, I bought a dress online. It seemed like a good idea at the time. It looked nice! …Black field, curving chains… I don’t know what I was thinking. When the dress arrived — to say it was unsuitable would be an understatement. With all the chains I looked as though I was a prisoner on a pirate ship. I looked like I was about the walk the plank. I looked like Harry Houdini jumping into a tank of water. The dress was just plain wrong. When I tried to return the dress, my computer screen showed —…
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When we lived in St. Louis I taught kindergarten sunday school. At the beginning of class, as in many sunday schools, first we took attendance and then we collected a little something for charity. On one particular day we passed the small donation envelope around the room. Quarters fell in, dimes, on top of one another, ‘clink, clink . . . clink.’ It was little Lauren’s turn. She had found a twenty-dollar bill at a store earlier that week and had turned it in to the store’s ‘lost and found’. After a few days the store called her parents to…
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“The world, you see, is happier after the terror of the storm. You have noticed that truth comes into this world with two faces – one that is sad with suffering and the other laughs. But it is the same face – laughing or weeping – as lightning illuminates the dark…” — Black Elk In the epic story of creation, it is said that on the first day the Divine separated light from dark. Such a beautiful image – but when you consider that the sun, moon and stars were not yet created until the fourth day – then which…
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Finer Points: Linking to Heaven: I had a patient come into my office today in terrible shape. His thirty-seven year old son died suddenly four days ago. I was amazed that he came for his appointment…but also knew that because he was there that I could help him. Of course, there was no way that I could bring his son back…but I could help him to deal with the grief from his loss. I was not surprised that he had just come down with a cold…because grief damages the Lungs. Ah, the Lungs, the Lungs. Our link to heaven. They…
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When I was a little girl living near Chicago, I imagined that the worst thing that could happen would be if a tornado hit my school. Several times during the school year our principal would get on the loudspeaker and announced “Operation Ajax” — which meant that we would line up at the door and proceed into the hallway where there were no windows — sitting against the walls with our heads between our knees — our arms protecting our necks against potential flying glass. As it happened, my school was never actually hit by a tornado. A few years…