Hither and Yon: Neighbors Near and Far

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

Love for Memorial Field

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

Dog Days of Summer

Here in New England, August has served up some glorious weather. Those sweltering days in July — June was no picnic, either — needed to be endured, first. If last week and weekend were basketball, we got nothing but net: swish. Apparently the term “dog days of summer” refers specifically to the period between July 3rd and August 11th. For those of us with actual dogs, though, there’s no time limit, and no requirement on high degrees of heat, either. … Read More

Little Delights and Simple Pleasures

Life sure can wallop us, mercilessly, in a way that says, “Better find a way to deal with this pain, because you can’t wish it away.” Either we’re stinging from that kind of wallop right now, recovering from one we’ve already had, or cognizant that we will be walloped sometime in the future — we just don’t know when or how hard it will be. And yet, every morning brings possibilities for the discovery of new joys. Here in New … Read More

Recovery Is Everywhere

Are you pulling yourself together after the midterms? Doing some bouncing back from any disappointing results, from the onslaught of ads over recent weeks, from fatigue at the whole business? If you’re moving on past something that caused some edginess or worse– real distress, you’re not sorry to see it in the rear-view mirror. Recently, like a bird-watcher, I’ve been spotting examples of “recovery” all over the place. Each brings a fresh reminder that the same word can describe very … Read More

Holy Week, and High School Too

When two people live together as spouses or partners, they converge in certain ways and at certain times. Over the past couple of years, the line on this graph — how much actual time spent in the same domicile — went way, way up. When it comes to managing their respective occupations, however, unless they happen to work together, they may often feel that they’re moving along side-by-side, but separately, like a pair of railroad tracks. Not completely like railroad … Read More

I Need a Fix

No, I haven’t become a drug user, and it’s actually not me exactly who needs the fix. Furthermore, it’s not just one but a couple of fixes that have happened in my life recently. So now you probably think that I’ve walked back (news people use that expression to describe what politicians say and then later, try to retract) the title. No– just taking a little leeway here. The whole reason of bringing up fixes in the first place, though, … Read More

Re-emergence: Do It Your Way

“Making plans for after lockdown?” a friend asked recently, in an email. For a moment, I froze, in a kind of panic. That was so completely not what I was doing. Suddenly I imagined that I was woefully out of synch with everyone else. It was akin to that old feeling that occasionally swept over me (maybe you too) in high school and college: probably I was missing some kind of ultra-fun event, not in the coolest place at the … Read More

He Still Wants to Have a Ball

My husband and I used to care for three children; now it’s down to one senior dog. Curiously, though, the senior dog — with new patches of white fur around his tall ears, and trepidation when faced with another ascent of the stairs — manages to keep the element of play, something we normally associate with youth, alive. Soon he will be downright OLD, and yet much of the time he has a fiery look in his eye that says, … Read More

Breaking Down or Blowing Up in Lent

Not to be heavy or anything, but how close do you think life and death really are? Sometimes, and especially in certain seasons, like Lent right now, the difference seems to be just a whisper. The two states of being, one actually of not being, couldn’t be more opposite. And yet, looked at in a certain light, they are also right next to one another, chock-a-block, and sometimes you might even mistake one for the other. People who are grieving … Read More