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) […]
I Remember Joanie(‘s mother)
April 21, 2014 by 4 Comments
I’ve been reading another book by Brenè Brown. The Gifts of Imperfection has encouraged me to examine how I deal with shame. Do you remember the first time you felt real shame? I must have been six or seven, old enough to have comprehended life and death to some degree. Mostly, though, I thought about […]
Growing Up By Trial and Error
November 14, 2013 by 4 Comments
Ah, Dear Children, When I judge someone, it comes back to bite me. Very quickly I will probably do the thing that I was judging, or something similar. This has been especially true with parenting. I’ve had some growing to do. A story… The mid-to-late 1990’s were difficult years for me. My career was all-consuming, […]
Family Ties
October 20, 2013 by 10 Comments
Having just returned from a week visiting family, my priorities are reinforced: the past, the present and the future of family is what matters. It was a pleasure-packed trip. Not only did I get to see where my granddaughter lives during this year of college, I spent hours with some of my siblings. Sisters and […]
Thanksgiving
November 22, 2012 by 8 Comments
So many vignettes pass through my mind of holidays past. I remember walking in the door my first time visiting my future husband’s HUGE family. In my graceless moment of shyness and confusion, I couldn’t distinguish the ones I had met before from those I had never seen. I stammered, stayed silent, and clung tenaciously […]
