15 Jan 2024

Mid-January, and Settling Into Epiphany

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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
11 Nov 2022

Recovery Is Everywhere

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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
18 Oct 2020

Not Exactly Dancing in the Dark

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I haven’t seen one of them in a while, but didn’t there used to be bumper stickers that said something like, “I found The Way?” or maybe “Jesus Is The Way”? Well, about a week ago, in the dark, I was seriously looking for The Way, but not to Jesus — to home.  My husband helped me, reinforcing my appreciation of marriage as an institution. If home is sometimes described as the place “where they have to take you in” … Read More
18 Mar 2020

Borderlines

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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
17 May 2019

Marriage Thrillers? Maybe Later

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A hospital stay – OK, except for childbirth — is not anything we wish for. Anxiety can run thick and clumpy, unlike all those streamlined IVs. The food, once you can eat, carries an odd smell. (Not the orange Jell-O, which is divine.) And yet, when it comes to clarifying what is most important about life, and love, a few days in post-surgical 6-N has a sharpening effect. Before hauling you in there with me, I want to give some … Read More
15 Oct 2018

Rocky Rising

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You can be up, or you can be down.   And unless we’re talking about a fluctuating mood or perhaps stocks that go one direction and then compensate with a swing the other way, there’s a whopping big difference between the two states— especially if we’re referring to being physically, literally UP on your feet and moving around or DOWN, horizontal, stuck. Whether you’re a two-legged creature or a four-legged one (I can’t vouch for the six-or-eight legged kind) this … Read More
16 Nov 2017

Feeling For the Trees

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Whenever I get tired of tracking my daily ups and downs, which is often, I find it refreshing to pay closer attention to the ups and downs of trees instead. Looking around outside with more vigor takes me out of my own limelight. It works well in November, or any other month for that matter. And that surprising storm we had last month sure did a number on many of our tall, usually very sturdy neighbors. It’s disconcerting when you … Read More
3 Aug 2017

Different Beaches, Different Times, Different Lives

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I’m knocking on the door of a significant birthday, so I’m going to gather my wits and make a modest proclamation. Just when you think you’ve got a few facts down, can recognize a thing or two with certainty, absolutely know how to define particular words…something will probably happen that will cause you to re-shuffle the deck. Not that I put myself in the camp of people playing with a full one or anything. But I venture to say that, … Read More
11 Sep 2016

Mother Teresa, in Sneakers

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Look! Over there! It’s Mother Teresa, white robe flying, sprinting madly to get ahead of her competitors, win the race and claim the trophy. Wait…there must be some kind of mistake. This was a woman whose life work was tending to the poor, not striving to get anything for herself. When she wasn’t helping people directly, she was praying. Know that feeling when you see someone familiar, but out of context, and it jumbles up your brain? Like when you’re … Read More
15 Mar 2014

Let It Go, Sure, but Know When (What) To Hold On Too (To)

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Isn’t it a little weird that the hit song “Let It Go” is from a movie called Frozen? I mean — one is all about fluidity and movement, the other about being stuck in one place. Maybe there’s something here I’m not getting. In any case, the lyrics have got me thinking about all the times I’ve experienced the need to push something aside or watch it evaporate, versus the times I’ve experienced the need to hold on to something … Read More

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