Before I start I want to wish a Happy Birthday to my beloved son-in-law who begins a new year today. First: If you have not read last Wednesday’s blog, please click through here and read it [Harvesting (sometimes elusive) Courage] I don’t want anyone wondering what happened! Second: If you think you have signed up …
I didn’t write a blog for 5 August when we were traveling; this is for both weeks. (I don’t want you to think you missed anything.) Last Wednesday, my husband and I returned to our home in Denver almost four months to the day after we left for his sabbatical. The same wonderful friend who …
This morning, I woke to the smell of the ocean and the gentle shhuuush of waves lapping against rocks. In the soft grey pre-dawn, I am enfolded in the fog and mist of the coast of Maine. We are spending a few days with my in-laws, drinking in the last bit of seashore for awhile. …
…and time. When emergency medical technicians or paramedics respond to the scene of an accident, one of the first things they do with the accident victims is to ask them a series of questions to ascertain whether they are still in touch with reality. The term that is used is “oriented times three.” A person …
As I am collecting our far-flung possessions to pack for the antepenultimate time (how often do you get a chance to use that word?) — for the trip from Edinburgh to London, I am trying to collect my thoughts, as well. As I indicated in a recent blog, I have not – so far, at …
In past years, when I was actually tending a sizable (physical) garden, I would spend weeks carefully selecting what I wanted to grow. I would place my orders and eagerly start my seed flats. I would get a jump on the season by turning over the soil, turning under the winter compost. Then I would …
Beltane, the summer quarter, is about fire and sunlight and warmth, about sweat and bare arms and hats that shade our eyes from the intense light. Except when it isn’t. Because whatever we may want, not every day of every Beltane is bright. Not every sky is blue. Not every day is warm enough to …
In the Christian church, Lent began on Ash Wednesday (February 18). Although penitence and penance (words most of us have come to hate without really understanding what they mean) have long been associated with Lent, it would be less emotionally laden to describe this season as one of intentional metanoia: a season about turning toward …
I have been saved from sinking beneath a rising tsunami of meaningful mementos, and (seemingly) important papers, and from terminal despair at the impossibility of ever being organized, by a delightful and challenging little book called The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by a young Japanese woman, Marie Kondo. Before you stop reading this to …
A couple of days ago, when I started writing this, if I had stepped outside, I would have been standing up to my armpits in snow with more falling by the minute (I am in Massachusetts, not Colorado)…so the idea of preparing the ground for planting literal seeds from which I expect to reap kale …