Light of the World An unexpected loss plunges her into a dark world. So she writes, pulling from time and experience, every twig of hope she can find. She places them, by hand, in a small brown notebo...Read More
A New Year It is a quiet day, much like any other, except for the awareness that a page, all used up, every line and margin filled, has turned. The emptiness of this new page gives a moment of silent ...Read More
Other People Of course, the big lessons came from family members, teachers, the major players in your life. But there were other, less obvious people, too. You know who they were- a neighbor whose kid...Read More
Early It is early, early and I am still half asleep, still a blank and fragile open book. The fact is, most mornings lately, even before consciousness the pages fill with the scribblings of the loudes...Read More
Pace Imagine the sound of a cloud moving leisurely across the sky, a pine tree’s imperceptible growth compelled by its longing for light, a gentle rain’s slow slide down the pane, the sigh alignin...Read More
Written six years ago. Still adding the numbers. Numbers My father died at fifty-nine, the age that I am now. My mother lived on another thirty-six years, which happens to be the number that I have be...Read More
How They Saved Me My prayers of desperation were almost always centered around my children. Please. I beg You. Bargaining, even though I don’t believe in that sort of thing. I would have given my li...Read More
Questions About Place Can you ever really know a place? You show up, dwell in it for a short time or long, but you never know its whole history. What happened here before- a day ago, a decade, a centu...Read More
I Want to Learn Instead of rushing to resolution, insisting on an instant fix, I want to learn to clear a space for the difficult questions. I would sweep away the debris around it, the panic and proj...Read More
Still Small Voice I don’t need to tell you all that I am anxious about. Just watch the news, look at social media. There are a thousand voices screaming it out. I cannot add anything to this hurting...Read More
Generosity It took most of a lifetime for her to understand that it wasn’t so much gifts or kind deeds as it was something much simpler and more challenging. It was a willingness to enter another pe...Read More
Season And now, leaves are just beginning to droop, elderberries, overripe, are dropping, tomatoes have taken on their late season tang, and there are apples, so many apples. We are between. It is no ...Read More
Living Within The Mystery The older I get, the less I seem to “know”, the more I realize that we humans look for answers more than the truth because answers, even if not quite right, help to quell...Read More
This Train That Is My Life “The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.” Hans Hofman I wouldn’t say that it is speeding by, but it is moving at a ...Read More
A Tree Falls in the Forest Sitting here on the cabin porch, all of a sudden in the distance, a loud crack, a whoosh, and a monumental thud. Then a reverential silence. A great giant has fallen. A sing...Read More
Home I like to be the first one home in the afternoon, to find the house silently waiting. The books rest on the shelf, leaning gently to the left. The table holds the candlestick benevolently in its ...Read More
Thank you, Dear Body Thank you, dear body, for embracing my spirit so steadfastly, for the unfaltering rhythm of breath and heartbeat all these many years. Thank you, dear body, for drawing all you ne...Read More
Learning Time I remember childhood’s summer, hot days flowing into cooler cicada evenings, unmarked by names of days or even months. Just ‘wadda ya wanna do now?’ My brother and I ride our bikes...Read More
Retrospect Sure. Looking back, you tell yourself, you would have done things differently. You should have tried harder, been more patient. You could have done more. But retrospect is an observation to...Read More
Solitude On a blessedly quiet morning after an overstimulating yesterday, I am thinking about my yearning for solitude. Not just an hour here or there to “recharge the battery” so I can get up and...Read More
Foremothers’ Solace Late afternoon, waning sunlight streaming in, the familiar, repetitive work of keeping a household afloat finished for the day, I rest. It occurs to me how hard my foremothers mu...Read More