I’m the Mom I wasn’t born a mother, like my children think. Once, not long ago, I was a child, too. I hung my head off the couch and looked at the world upside down, lost myself in play, picked at...Read More
Waiting and Watching “Every cry of the heart is attended by light’s own arms.” -St. Francis of Assisi Today, it was the quivering leaves of the oak tree glimmering in the sun and the frayed gray...Read More
Blinded A cardinal landed on the snow covered pine right outside my window. Consumed with thoughts of how someone hurt me, reviewing what I could have said, what I still might say, I looked right thro...Read More
Cradled Lying in bed tonight, waiting for sleep to come, I am reminded of all the years of nights I lay here worrying about one child or another. Asleep in her room, my spirit would go to her, cradle ...Read More
An Unexpected Benefit of Getting Older With many hard learned lessons behind us and a closer view of the finite future ahead, our desire to satisfy external standards of success becomes suddenly less ...Read More
Bringing in the Day A mother wakes before her children To experience silence, To pray for strength. A man stands at the window Each morning, coffee in hand, And watches shadow Turn to light. An old wo...Read More
Writing Poems I want to give you a gift. But all I have are these words. They don’t seem like much against all the terrible things that have happened. Or will happen. I don’t know how to fix all o...Read More
What an Aging Mother Wants Something’s left her. The reserve, The stoicism with which She’s faced her life Have fallen away Like so many Deteriorating bricks. Now she speaks openly, Emotionally, W...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
This I need to remember When I am looking back from the perch of old age, this is what I need to remember: Every morning in the spring, summer and fall, I would get my coffee and notebook and sit on t...Read More
Second Child of My Second Child When your older sister was born, we had no idea how completely her presence would transform everything. Compelled by an astonishing love, we rebuilt our lives and resha...Read More
Missed Boat There was a time when I looked at other people’s expansive homes, their accomplishments, their travels, and I got the sense that we had somehow missed the boat. We hadn’t gotten news t...Read More
A Personal History Of Chores When I first came into the world, my needs were met by others and when they weren’t, I simply screamed. Sadly, I had no appreciation of my privileged status. Soon enough...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
Elegy To My Father I My dreams took years to comprehend your death. Each night they found you Sipping coffee in the hard kitchen chair Lost in a book Children’s chaos somehow tuned out. Your ...Read More
The other night, I decided that I needed a break from Facebook. I finally hit the tipping point and could no longer absorb one more minute of the hatred and vitriol brought out by this election. Every...Read More
Savor So many days I have glimpsed this kind of calm, longed for it, then rushed off to something more frenzied. Today, I live within it. Hidden on this porch, I am surrounded everywhere by green leav...Read More
Morning Minds In the morning, I wake up Mourning doves coo me awake With a list of tasks A new day. Running through my head. I think I will sit I had better get them written down For a while Before th...Read More
The Room When I was a child, I closed all the doors into the hallway to make a new room, dark and empty, the center of everything. I searched closets and attic spaces, looking for somewhere I had neve...Read More
BIG THING I grew up believing That there was some BIG THING That I was supposed to do To make the world A better place. Becoming an adult Was all about figuring out What that BIG THING was. Then, if I...Read More
Saying Goodbye Can one ever really learn To take it as it comes, To savor the moment When what one loves Is so temporary? Just yesterday The trees were green, Bursting with life. But today, They stare...Read More