Her Good Advice Endures In the mid-1990's we met, and this character's demands, SNAP OUT OF IT, still proves wise counsel in my autumn's garden season of life. Scowling and primly attired; her hands on hip; her command resonated. More than two decades later, Mary...
Outlining a Life
To write a story of every woman, without casting myself as the heroine, or bad apple occupies my imagination, especially when I am out walking. I imagine a few great opening sentences, but then I realize I can’t develop any of them without sounding like I'm...
Feeling Wobbly Today?
Two editorial headlines this morning captured why I often feel so wobbly nowadays: Homeless Encampments No Longer Tolerated and A Wonder to Behold. It’s ironic, isn’t it — what we can do with such precision in space; yet what we have failed to do time and again on...
Coming up with Better Questions
Given the uncertainties of these times, we need to come up with better questions to ask each other. How are you doing? This standard greeting can take a person to depths they don't want to go. We all know how we are doing . . . Fine, just F.I.N.E.! Instead of asking,...
Brace Yourself
You’d better brace yourself, today, I tell myself as I strap on a well-used back brace. Of course, the old back isn’t the only thing that needs a bit of support these days. In an autumn’s garden there’s always an occasion to give myself a pep talk, or ask a cautionary...
Discarding a Few Good Friends Can Save Money
We have begun packing up our books – constant, dear companions of our marriage. For better or worse, we have always had too many books. In each of our moves, we have tried to let go of some – releasing them to the libraries or Salvation Army, or yard sales; or, most...
An Open Window Kind of Day
If I could put weather in a bottle, today’s weather would be a good choice. It was an open window kind of day for sure! The past several days would also be keepers. What startles me is how many of them I can take for granted, and how fast they go. Fast forwarding is a...
Better Than a Session on the Couch
I knew it was time to do a little gardening the other day; I could no longer pretend the spring’s plants were not an eyesore. What was all comely and colorful the beginning of May was so bedraggled and wilted, that I averted my eyes every time I went in and out of the...
Other People’s Wisdom
Cogitating on things this glorious morning in June, enjoying perhaps the last drier day for a spell, I am soaking up other people’s wisdom. For example, I didn’t know if President Lincoln actually declared what I am feeling: “I have been driven many times upon my...
Headlines and Personal Examples
A Personal Headline Of all today’s headlines that upset me, here’s: The Queen missed the opening of Parliament . . . this is was a big headline for me! The U.K.'s Parliament opens for the first time in six decades without the queen Throughout my life she has been a...
Finishing the First Day of the Countdown
So, finishing up the first day of the countdown to a major anniversary, I’ve got to say the day had its ups and downs. Ups included just being able to be together and enjoy our company, seeing some family, sharing meals and splitting a slice hot apple pie with ice...
The Splendid and the Vile, Then and Now
Then Slowly reading The Splendid and the Vile, I recognize an emotion that is similar to the daily feeling gripping WWII Britons: dread. The book is a saga of Churchill, family and defiance during the Blitz. It’s a scary story! Even though I know how the story ends,...
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