15 Jan 2024

Mid-January, and Settling Into Epiphany

8

Just while I’m getting a “Snow Squall Warning” on my phone — an insistent alarm even — seems like a excellent time to appreciate the often surprising revelations that this season brings. While seeing a new truth (or an old truth, newly perceived) brings a kind of light, sometimes the nature of that truth can be painful to absorb. We want to be “enlightened” in an uplifting way, but new discoveries are not always kind. Two Calendars Let’s start in … Read More
29 Oct 2023

Hither and Yon: Neighbors Near and Far

1

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
12 Oct 2022

This Time, I Went With Him

6

Is it possible to have a holiday do double duty — say, wholeheartedly embrace Indigenous People’s Day while not spurning absolutely everything related to Columbus Day; or perhaps ditching the Columbus (who never stepped foot in the US mainland) part and thinking of that second Monday in October as primarily Indigenous People’s Day, because it’s about time, but making some room for Italian Heritage Day; or maybe, with full enthusiasm for the new designation, looking elsewhere in the calendar for … Read More
21 Aug 2022

One Canterbury Tale

4

We’ve been back from England a week, and I still feel like one of those contraptions — a computer screen, mostly — that shows a spinning wheel and a message saying, “Still processing.” What a lot there was to take in, on many levels. And I sense there won’t be a moment anytime soon when I pronounce the operation fully complete. Trying to integrate what I experienced with what I already know about life in general and my life in … Read More
29 Jul 2022

It Happens Every 10 Years, or Maybe 14

0

When you get an invitation of any kind, you need to decide whether to accept or to decline. Sometimes these decisions are easy — “Yipppee!” or “No way I’m going to that!” — and sometimes they’re not. Every summer stretching back maybe fifteen years, I get an envelope with the same woman’s handwriting and address in the upper left corner. She even managed to find me after our move to New Hampshire, nine years ago. Inside is a one-page invitation … Read More
14 Apr 2021

Re-emergence: Do It Your Way

1

“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
7 Mar 2021

Breaking Down or Blowing Up in Lent

0

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
21 Apr 2020

No Place Like Gnome

0

Even, or maybe especially, during strange and doleful times, the whimsical comes into its own. Yes, we have our daily work, our responsibilities. A book of class lists here, a book of hymns there. As the late afternoon shadows fall, we know what the evening news will say, how the numbers are mounting up; we watch it anyway, feeling ineffective on our sofas in comparison to those on the front lines, battling it out. We may not be the ones … Read More
18 Mar 2020

Borderlines

0

Way back when I started this blog, almost a decade (!?!?) ago, I shared a photo of a wall painted one color and a ceiling painted another, to illustrate my interest in side-by-side contrasts, the kind that draw in the eye or the spirit. Things that melt together, merge, have their own kind of charm; but things (or plants, or animals, or people) that retain their distinct qualities while attaining an often astonishing closeness have fascinated me ever since I … Read More
8 Dec 2019

We Can’t All Go to Angola

2

I once had a college professor who, perhaps in reaction to a student who was clearly unprepared for class, leaned back in his chair and mused that he’d always yearned for the opportunity to teach a course called, “Great Books I’ve Never Read.” This is close to the way I feel about my husband’s almost-over trip to Angola. Some months ago, when this was on the horizon, we both thought it might be possible for me to accompany him on … Read More

1 2 3 4