Signs of the Times, and Signs Just For Fun
On Election Day tomorrow, as you walk into your polling station, you’ll no doubt walk past an array of signs held by smiling individuals—likely some even your neighbors– who are eager to take every last minute for purposes of persuasion. Here’s to the power of the democratic system – with opinions clashing like so many cymbals all around us — and may it work fairly in all corners of our land throughout the day, with all voices heard and perhaps … Read More
Rocky Rising
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
One Color Goes A Long Way
I’ve still not seen Orange is the New Black, and it probably would take a whole column just to digest the meaning of that title, let alone the impact of the show. But what I know for sure is that, every time autumn settles in, I’m conscious of how much just one color can express, all along the continuum between life and death. Nature does this alone, very nicely. Toss in some memories, and the path lights up even more, … Read More
On the Open Road
What with all this he-said-she-said stuff swirling around, maybe it will come as a relief to read something about not much more than the joy of charging down a highway in a convertible with the radio playing loud. After a church service, no less. My hair got all mussed up, but nobody minded. It’s a little late, but this will also be my own personal offering to the Queen of Soul. I was in Philadelphia, not Detroit; riding … Read More
You’re Golden, Baby
“Well, you’re golden with the Parking Division anyway!” Until this conclusion of my transaction with the cheerful woman with blond bangs behind the glass window about a year ago, I had never had cause to think of “golden” and “parking” (more specifically “parking tickets”) as having anything whatsoever to do with one another. She reminded me of it, though, when I had reason to return to that same window on a sweltering day, just after I’d turned down … Read More
A Place for Lace
Sometimes choices are crystal clear; just as often, though, they’re not, and you just take the plunge. It’s a good time of year to use that word, because in midsummer, leaps into even murky bodies of water are rarely regretted. When the optometrist slides those different lenses into the machine and asks you, “Is this one better, or this?” usually it’s easy to say. And even a pleasure, because you anticipate that your choice will result in better … Read More
Ideas About God, and Plain Old Work Too
Just as I enter into a lovely time of not working, I see examples of work everywhere. It must be a sign that this vacation can’t last long. Since I’m not accompanying my husband to the 10-day long, give or take a few hours, Episcopal Convention in Texas, but will be partly with him in spirit, I thought it would be a good time to pull out a book by Karen Armstrong that’s been on my shelf for a while. … Read More
Summer is Becoming, and You Are Too
During this month of graduating seniors, burgeoning plants, and creatures newly born, are you also coming into your own? Are you just the same self you were last year at this time, or do you notice some small but significant differences in your inner landscape? It’s a personal question, I know, and you don’t really have to answer. But I can’t emerge from a year in a Memoir Incubator without asking it, at least of myself. And then, … Read More
Both Done and Not Done
In the kitchen, you can usually be quite sure if something is “done” or “not yet done” or “raw.” In the rest of life, though, telling whether something is where it needs to be, at a jumping off point or place of readiness and fruition, often gets a little more complex. A bit like a cook reaching for a favorite spice, my mother had a way of latching on to particular words and using them over and over, emphatically — … Read More
Going For It Or Not: It’s a Dog’s Life, and Mine Too
With a flurry of new babies being born this spring, and at least one keeping his or her parents waiting past the due date, I’m hoping it’s not all that shameful to arrive late with a mere blog post. This one I dedicate wholeheartedly to my dog Rocky, who, on a daily basis, helps me to clarify my priorities. Specifically, I mean the age-old dilemma of what to run for, what to hold on to, what to deliver, what to … Read More