REPOSTED FROM 2009 This morning I am sitting on the deck of a sailing ship looking across a turquoise sea to a Caribbean Island. The scene has changed from 1959. Then it was an emotional and spiritual crisis for a Catholic to marry a Protestant. Then it wasn’t common, but neither was it unheard of, […]
Another Powerful Ancestor
December 16, 2020 by 2 Comments
My husband’s grandmother, Jennie, didn’t look like a sweet old woman. Was it the set of her chin? She was kindhearted and I never heard of her being mean but she was a bit (less than 5′ tall) of a family tyrant; quiet, unobtrusive, but iron-willed. And somehow she made that will known. I always […]
Are you out there? Anybody? Anybody?
October 1, 2020 by 2 Comments
“Find out who you are and do it on purpose.” ― Dolly Parton I am feeling an urgency. It’s not surprising since all the women in my family have been opinionated. As death seems more imminent I realize I may not have shared each and every opinion or insight on each and every subject that […]
Improving on Yesterday
August 5, 2020 by Leave a Comment
“I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.” Maya Angelou Dearest Child, Maya’s words wash over me in a healing shower of relief. I have been careful in my parenting not to fall back on the phrase, “I did my best”, because I think it is […]
To Infinity and Beyond…
June 6, 2017 by 8 Comments
My son and I were discussing education a few months ago. High school graduations, who was applying where, and whether they had been accepted provided ready conversation as many of our young waited for responses to college applications. Our conversation eventually got around to my short-lived formal education. I don’t remember what the speaker said […]
Peace for Veterans…a Wish
November 11, 2016 by 4 Comments
Today is Veteran’s Day.* The Great War figured largely in stories told to me in my childhood. My father’s middle brother ran away at 15 to fight in World War I. He returned an alcoholic wanderer who dropped in and out of sight until his early death. He was a bit of a legend and […]
Follow Your Own Dreams
March 20, 2016 by 2 Comments
Years ago my granddaughter was what…enamored? in love? in lust? I just re-discovered this letter I wrote to her. Does it work for you and yours? Dear Granddaughter: Thanks for sharing his letter. I know that hearing from him means a lot to you. Are you seeing what I’m seeing in his response to you? […]
There are all sorts of love.
June 24, 2015 by 2 Comments
On my way to a nephew’s wedding celebration today. Thinking of these connections I am reprinting this post from 2009. “And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so? I did. And what did you want? To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth.” Raymond Carver I had a […]
On the Day You Were Born
August 4, 2014 by 5 Comments
On the day you were born the round planet Earth turned toward your morning sky, whirling past darkness, spanning the night into light. On the Day you Were Born, Debra Frasier I can almost transport myself to that day…the anticipation, the pain, the joy, and the instant alarm that never completely obliterated the joy. In […]
Magical Parenting
July 31, 2014 by 4 Comments
To My Dear Children: I don’t think about or analyze it much, but scratch the surface of parenting and I see the ugly underbelly of being a child raising children. You have all made a liar of statistics. Predictions for children born to teenage parents are not encouraging. But let’s look at the positives: 1) […]
