I believe in taking time to open and close tubes of lipstick with my mother-in-law, Annie, while going through things to close up her apartment.  I knew that this singular moment would stay with me until I’m closing up my own life.  My husband’s mother was 89 at the time and she’d fallen after her… Continue Reading Taking Time

My friend Helen Burke, a great poet whom I’ve known for almost ten years, sent me her poem, “Cutting Up Suits.” Here are the opening lines: We sense she is tad upset when We get back from the pub And find she is cutting up his suits. Also, his record collection of 30 years Smashed… Continue Reading It will be alright

As a girl growing up in a neighborhood of Quincy, Massachusetts called Squantum, my mother watched her grandfather, Thomas ‘Grampie’ Murch, sew up a hole in his galoshes. This was pretty much impossible to do, she said, as the overshoes were made of thick rubber. Still, her very frugal grandparent “made do” by repairing rather… Continue Reading Make it do. Do without.

The longest-lasting rainbow was recorded in Taipei, Taiwan on November 30, 2017.  Scientific observers tracked it for 9 hours.  The previous record, I believe was for 3 hours in Wales.  Hmm.  But if a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it?  There are probably longer lasting rainbow – just unobserved. Here’s what… Continue Reading Attitude opens the aperture

Horrifying… revenge.  The epigraph to ‘Anna Karenina’ – a book I read every few years – is biblical and equally unnerving:  Vengeance is mine, I will repay. (Romans 12:19)   Revenge is so intimate.  Think of the bully whose face you see in your nightmare – up close and reprehensible.  Fear, loathing and, of course,… Continue Reading Racoon revenge

Happy New Year. My daily diary is a perpetual kind simply titled Spiritual Diary.  Each day provides an inspirational quote primarily from Paramahansa Yogananda’s writings.  For many years (decades in some cases) I’ve made cryptic entries along with noting the year, day of the week and location of my entry.  Throw open the portals was… Continue Reading Throw open the portals!

On Twitter we can (and do) encounter many things – banal, outrageous, bland, horrifying and uplifting.  I am not into the first four categories but the uplifting ones ride high on my horizon.  Here’s one by a Jake Parker: “My boy Calvin taught us all a lesson here in the Parker home: In our narrow… Continue Reading “You are in my way so I will hug you.”