If I Could Tell You Just One Thing If I could tell you just one thing, it would be this- beneath the daily disappointments, beneath the layers of frustration, anger, sadness, beneath even your despair...Read More
This one is dedicated to my mom, who would have been 100 years old yesterday. How I Want To Remember Us We were all there, the whole family, sitting on a blanket together. Waiting. An entire history o...Read More
Spring Let’s fall in love again. We’ll unlock this closed house, Open the windows, And sweep complacency From the corners. We’ll step out Into this familiar garden. It’s been asleep, Silen...Read More
I know it doesn’t always go this way. But I believe it can. Resilience We humans- we were made to adapt. Our very survival depends on it. Sure, we’d rather not. We resist, we deny, we shake our fi...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
Letting Go There was so much you had to let go of to get to this place, this intersection of what you do and who you are- dreams that weren’t really your own, worn out beliefs, old habits of thought...Read More
Book Review The main character has kept me company for a while now on quiet afternoons, has coaxed me back to sleep on anxious nights. Against the backdrop of a particular moment in history in a parti...Read More
On Watching Mr. Rogers Bury a Dead Fish My grandchildren and I sat mesmerized, as he quietly, carefully, netted the little silver body, wrapped it reverently in a paper towel shroud, troweled a hole i...Read More
Mid-February Look at the tree. Just by growing, by reaching toward the Light, it provides so much- breath and beauty, shade and haven, nourishment. It doesn’t punish itself, but endures what must be...Read More
When Sadness Comes to Visit Against all instinct, Don’t run away. Try not to fix anything. Don’t get busy Cleaning the house Or running errands. Just sit down with it. Offer it a cup of te...Read More
Heaven Maybe it’s a place like I see sometimes in my dreams. We are all children about four years old and we are playing the way children this age do- with total abandon in the moment. Running, clim...Read More
A Vision I see myself an old woman, Lying, one morning, On my deathbed. It would be so clear then. The painful things- Wasted wanting, worries, Time spent following some anxious call, Dark roads of fe...Read More
A Blessing As you set out on the path ahead, may the difficulties of the past be transformed into strength and compassion. May your fears be channeled into alert determination. May self-doubt recede s...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
Sense of Well-Being Such a luxurious beginning, the way I climb out of this soft, warm bed and have everything I need- a bathrobe and slippers, a toothbrush and paste, a toilet that flushes, ample cof...Read More
Hiking Companions Anxiety starts off strong, picking up stones along the path to rub their sharp edges, but wears out quickly. Melancholy quietly places those stones in a sack and slings it over his s...Read More
Your Gift In this cold, bleak season, the cover of green long gone, all kinds of messiness is exposed. The world looks stark, turning thoughts to gray. Then, one, small, lovely thing breaks through th...Read More
Each Morning, Daughters In these quiet early hours, before the day begins, my heart finds its way to each of you, my grown daughters. I float back and back to our deepest beginnings, when I had the sa...Read More
Happy Sunday morning! This week marks forty years since my father died. It seems like at least two lifetimes ago. I wrote this poem twenty years ago. I am glad that I did. It helps to remind me who he...Read More
Bullies Twin brothers, bullies Shame and Guilt, often block my way on the sidewalk of Life. Shame aims for the heart, whispering menacingly, “You’re no good.” Guilt goes straight for the gut, re...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