Years ago I had a student named Joseph who was deaf and mute and on the autism spectrum. He was 9 years-old, with big brown eyes, and sandy hair. I loved him and I knew he trusted me. When it was time to come in from the playground, he could not hear the bell, so … Continue reading Wagons
September 11th, 2001, was a big emotional punch to the gut to all of us, everywhere. Most particularly to those on the east coast of course, but we were all blindsided by it. It’s one of those days we remember and tell stories about like JFK’s assassination, the Moon Landing, John Lennon’s death: #WhatIWasDoingWhenIHeardTheNews One thing I remember … Continue reading September 11th
It was pointed out to me in recent years that the Catholic Church has seven sacraments for men but only six for women. I already knew that, but I had never thought it about it in quite that way before. For all you non-Catholics out there, sacraments are sacred rituals to mark initiations, milestones, and … Continue reading Ordination
Written with my Thursday night group with the prompts: 47 shades of lipsticks, kaleidoscope of emotion, near the edge, she explained it to her mother, picking peaches, with your feet in the ocean, where to? taciturn moon, this was the sensitive man she was waiting for, chocolate chip cookies Miranda painted her face with … Continue reading The Sensitive Man and The Chocolate Chip Cookies
I had something else laid out and ready to go this week, but coming up on the Independence Day Holiday, I felt a need to say something more. When friends ask how I am lately, I say cheerfully that I have my ups and downs. But this past week, after news of the Russians … Continue reading Pray For Our Country
Written with my Thursday night writing group (now meeting on Zoom!) with the prompts: one red shoe and oh, dear. Madelaine wore one red shoe and one green shoe because it was Christmas and she was in a wild holiday mood. She wondered, do cats see color?—because it was only the cats who would see … Continue reading How Madelaine Survives Quarantine
Greetings! If you’re a regular reader, you know the past two weeks I’ve suggested some prayers that I’ve found helpful, and I continue to encourage everyone to write prayers and affirmations too. It’s funny, because almost as soon as the first post went up, I began to feel kind of down. And so I felt … Continue reading Continued Sheltering, part three
This week I want to share a prayer my late friend Craig taught me. It’s very simple: “Release into Essence.” Essence was Craig's word for Divine Energy or God. It’s a versatile prayer, appropriate to multiple situations, and adaptable to your own circumstances and beliefs. You may wish to insert your name for God--be it … Continue reading A Prayer for Trying Times
April is National Poetry Month, so I'll be posting a few poems this season. Currently I spend more time writing prose stories instead of poems, so it's been fun for me to look back at poems I wrote in past decades. This poem is from a period when I was experimenting with classic forms. … Continue reading The Bear, a sestina
I want to wish everyone a peaceful Holy Week, and a Blessed Easter. I wrote this poem a few months ago. I'd seen another praise poem, written like this, designed so the reader would read the first column from top to bottom, and then come back up and read the second column. I thought it … Continue reading Praise Poem
