Going for the Right Kind of Raciness
Just a few miles away from this college campus, horses in peak condition are arriving from all over the country. Racing season is about to begin here in Saratoga Springs, as it does every July. Downtown, you can feel the excitement building each day. Once again, both the appealing and the unsavory aspects of the “sport” will be laid out for us to consider, if we choose to do so. It’s all got me thinking about the double-edged nature of … Read More
Something About a Field
What music to my ears it was last week, on a hot and humid day, to hear the whirring of the bush hog in our new back pasture. A transformation was going on, and while it may not have been exactly righteous, it was at least very good. Our wish to do some tending of the field had been stymied by two key factors since moving in: first, not having the right equipment and second, the constant soggy state of … Read More
It’s a Matter of Life and Death
If there’s such a thing as a “Gap Year” for teenagers after high school graduation, and people usually think it’s a swell idea, it seems reasonable to ask for something like a “Gap Bunch of Weeks for Just Moved Blogger.” Funny how that word, abracadabra, turns from a noun into an adjective. It’s hard enough in regular times to give oneself license to turn away from pressing matters and sit down and write; when one is surrounded by packing boxes … Read More
Time to Go
Years ago, my mother liked to tell the story about a teenage neighbor of ours who needed to give her handicapped mother quite a lot of help. Once when her mother was learning to drive a specially equipped car, she instructed her daughter not to do anything for her, saying, “Pretend you’re not even here.” A few minutes later, though, the mother got into difficulty and was really struggling. From the back seat the daughter finally piped up with “So am … Read More
Ah, the Blossoms and the Barbs of May!
The thing about life in mid-May is that just when you’re letting yourself be taken in by the beauty of the blossoms, the quills might come flying out and re-arrange your whole evening. At least they did for me –- or rather my dog — just last night. Since Rocky is pretty closely connected to me, and vice versa, I felt as if I almost had a mouth full of pain, too. And then, of course, there was the vet … Read More
Go Ahead, Retreat…Oh Wait, Don’t
If I didn’t know better, I might think that just about the whole town where I live (for a few more weeks, anyway) has become virulently non-religious. Why? Because there are signs popping up all over the place with this exhortation: “STOP the Retreat!” A pastor’s wife needs to add a whole slew of new words to the household lexicon – at least I did – and “retreat” is right up there with Most Commonly Heard Episcopal Life Terms (OK, … Read More
Cracked but not Shattered
There I was, driving down the road minding my own business, and – BAM! Suddenly a huge turkey was right in front of me, on my windshield. I’m not kidding. It was gone almost as quickly as it arrived, perhaps surviving the crash. But the glass in front of me was transformed, and not in a good way. I could barely see through it, and some small shards were now scattered in the car. And yet, the windshield held together, … Read More
Which Way the N.C.A.A.?
Now that the mid-April Sports Illustrated has arrived, filled with N.C.A.A. Championship coverage, it’s a good time to reflect back on March Madness. This year more than others, the experience had me going hard to my left, suddenly switching right before cutting back left again. That would be true, I mean, if I could do some actual ball handling on the court rather than just all the thinking/watching/reading about the game that I actually pull off. I was born fifth … Read More
The Same As It Ever Was….Kind Of
It’s funny how the ancient rituals find a way to stay in step with the times. In a way, what’s old keeps its head up and stays proudly old; but the tried and true can also go through a kind of makeover when it needs to walk side by side with the new. Last Monday, my husband joined a group of Episcopal clergy and laypeople who went to Washington D.C. to participate in something called “Holy Week Witness: Challenging a … Read More
March in Limbo
Houses have a stay-in-one-place, rooted quality to them. Life, on the other hand, is mostly made up of transitions, mood changes, shifts large and small. Or at least this is how it looks to me from my current perspective. And my current perspective is no doubt only enhanced by the particular season we’re in now. Has there ever been a better example of a limbo time than the whole month of March? Yesterday, the poem of the day on “The … Read More