This is an updated reprint of a Thanksgiving post from a few years back. The theme is gratitude, and that never gets old. Do you remember that scene in Out of Africa when Meryl Streep, playing Karen Blixin (later known by her nom de plume Isak Dinesen) was hosting Robert Redford and Michael Kitchen on … Continue reading Making Up Stories: my spiritual practice
Resisting Every Inch of the Way Written with my Thursday night group with the prompts: dates with nothing in them, a gun fighter and a bag of gold, resisting every inch of the way, everything will be all right, comfortable being, pipe dream, she wondered about the moment, illegal immigrant, a small squeak, everything is … Continue reading Resisting Every Inch of the Way
I first wrote and published this piece several years ago when Barack Obama was president and John Boehner was speaker of the house, and we were in the midst of a federal government shut-down. It was a time of great anxiety, partisanship and divisiveness. Things being what they are, I decided the beginning of this … Continue reading A New Year Prayer for Healing Division
Written with the prompts: fear seized her, they are leaning out for love, limitation, levitation, lamentation, lemon station, afraid and curious, the boat moved, Dolores was Dolly to everyone else, they were driving her crazy, the loneliness, experience the thrill, fortune, feelings of dissociation, no risk, suffering, cheese and crackers In a small mountain town where … Continue reading Our Lady Dolly
Over this past year and a half of pandemic and lockdown, it was a blessing that so many of my family, friends, and acquaintances remained healthy and free of the virus. No one I know (that I’m aware of) succumbed to COVID 19. However, over the course of this past decade, I have lost four people whom … Continue reading Spirit Animals
I need new glasses. I’ve needed new glasses for several months now, but I didn’t want to go for a vision exam until after I was vaccinated. I finally called to make an appointment in April, and the first opening they had was June 28th. Obviously I was not the only one who had waited. The day … Continue reading Wait
Because it was spring, Marilee decided to do one of her obsessive tears through the house—not a quick surface dust and sweep, but a deep dive, boring down beneath cushions and floor rugs, under tables and chairs, to clear out accumulated dust bunnies, cat toys, stray pens and lost coins. Her compulsion to clean next sent … Continue reading Spring Cleaning
To finish off our National Poetry Month celebration, I offer a more recent creation of mine. Thanks for reading! I made that girl, but is she grateful? No. True, I drove her to the edge of consciousness dumped her on a shore peopled with past failures and traumas, to the lip of a river … Continue reading My Insomnia Gossips About Me Behind My Back
I think I can say without fear of contradiction that this has been a weird year. And hey!--suddenly, it's Easter again. It feels rather surreal. Like many people, I have done very little to celebrate holidays during the pandemic. That's okay; I'm all for downsizing the fuss and nonsense and commercialization. Truth be told, I … Continue reading Easter Greetings/Pandemic Edition
Greetings! This week I've updated a Christmas post from a few years past. It seems more meaningful than ever right now. Long ago, in the pagan cultures of the far north, work and travel were severely limited by cold and snow as days grew shorter. Farmers and their families would remove a wheel from their carts … Continue reading Meditation on an Advent Wreath
