Just before the trick-or-treaters head out, I have a non-spooky question. How do you define what your neighborhood is, and how much does it matter? Can you draw it on a map or is it more of a concept in your mind? Getting More Colorful Close to Home, Even as October Ends I’ve been wondering about this recently, as I experience a noticeable uptick in my own appreciation of the particular area, with a radius of about a mile, where … Read More
Private spaces, public spaces — we need both kinds in our lives. While most of us invite people into our homes at least occasionally, we also appreciate knowing that we can take refuge there, spending time just with our family members…or maybe even completely alone. While we may refrain from putting up “No Trespassing” signs, we don’t want just anybody wandering down our driveways and coming into our kitchens. And many of us also belong to organizations or clubs or … Read More
When two people marry, they form a new union. And in so doing, they also create an far-reaching set of relationships between two families who were previously unconnected. A wedding ceremony, with that exchange of vows as the centerpiece, brings its own kind of alchemy. Cel-e-bration! We — my husband and kids — recently attended one such joyous occasion. Actually, it was an event that stretched over five fun-filled days in my hometown, along with my brothers and their families. … Read More
Sometimes a merely middling writer knows when the time is right to defer to—get out of the way of — a Knock You Out Writer, the expert kind. That’s my plan for this blog. I’ll offer just a bit of preamble, context first. Here’s hoping you had a lovely 4th of July, free of heavy tanks rolling down your street. The weather around here sure has been magnificent, if on the hot side. This is when New England ponds and … Read More
“We were so glad to be invited!” the woman I’d just met told me. “When we moved in, I wasn’t sure if we’d be part of a neighborhood or not, since our house is on the main road.” I knew what she meant; five years ago, when we began settling onto this street that ends in a cul-de-sac, I hoped it held a promise of new and genuine connections, but I couldn’t be sure. The fact is, when you’ve ever … Read More
On Super Bowl Sunday, or on any other day for that matter, do you prefer to keep politics, religion and sports separate — like food items not touching on a plate—or do you like the mélange of tastes that comes when they’re all swirling around together? Seems to me that there are really good kinds of soups, the broth-based ones with wholesome ingredients that bring comfort on cold days; and then the other kind that could, with the right ingredients … Read More
It is against the backdrop of unpredictable, terrible acts of violence in different parts of the world that I appreciate anew the peacefulness and splendor of haying in June. The two have nothing to do with one another, of course, and that’s just the point. Over the past half a century, a whole lot has changed—the way we live, the way we communicate with one another and also sometimes isolate ourselves, and the threats we either experience or imagine someone … Read More
For a girl who grew up without the regular back and forth to any house of worship, I sure do have a pretty good knack for getting really close to churches in my adult life. And the strange thing is, I haven’t even tried. It’s almost as if they found me. I’ve just started a new chapter of proximity, and this time around I’m struck by how the very different elements of tremendous weight and airy spirituality combine in the religious … Read More
It’s not every day your husband brings home a raspberry crumble. Mine did, a couple of Sundays ago, when he returned from a visitation at a church where there’s apparently a woman who remembered how much he liked the raspberry crumble she made the last time he came there. Now that’s service, don’t you think? And it’s especially heartwarming, I might add, that she made a WHOLE raspberry crumble, for him to take home (to be shared, say, with … Read More
Some weeks —well, in my case, maybe even most weeks—things get all jumbled up. In the past patch of recent days, a steady dose of daily news about the sorry state of the NFL has been accompanied by the mesmerizing nightly drama of The Roosevelts: An Intimate History. Strange bedfellows, indeed. Try as I might, I can’t keep them apart, like peas and potatoes resisting the directive to stay in their distinct locations on my plate. In my dreams, I think … Read More