January 11, 2024 Was it Pascal who said “Almost all our misery has come from not being able to remain alone in our rooms”? Baudelaire thought it might have been, but was not sure. ~ Matthew Sweeney, Alone It’s a heartbreakingly beautiful morning. Are other parts of the world as gorgeous as Santa Barbara in […]

January 6, 2024 There was an earthquake At Where-The-Pine-Tree-Stands. The rocks fell; The people had fear. ~Katherine Kennedy, The Earthquake   There are times when something enormous rearranges itself within my psyche / emotional self, and I can only observe with a detached kind of awe. That’s a new thought! There’s a different way to […]

January 4, 2024 The sight of a dolphin is always / a little bit magical… ~ Richie Hofmann, Dolphin  I think there might be something to this notion that we’re un-becoming the old, as Kerry K put it in her recent video. Driving down State Street and over to Garden, taking surface streets to the […]

January 2, 2024 People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them. ~ George Bernard Shaw It’s dawning on me that caring for dependent beings could derail my (admittedly wishy-washy) commitment to hip replacement surgery. I know I need to take elder care into account when planning anything. But […]

December 31, 2023 Some say the world will end in fire… ~ Robert Frost Give yourself a pat on the back, advised a friend. You’ve walked through fire. I hadn’t thought of the last three weeks in those terms, but she’s right. Making medical decisions for another being is trial by fire of a high […]

December 25, 2023 The Knight’s bones are dust, And his good sword rust;— His soul is with the saints, I trust. ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Knight’s Tomb   The last two weeks have been a roller coaster. This morning I sit with our newly diagnosed “diabetic” cat, the smaller, brown and white one, whom I […]

December 19, 2023 It’s like so many other things in life to which you must say no or yes… Sometimes the best thing to do is trust… And sometimes you sense how faithfully your life is delivered, even though you can’t read the address. ~Thomas R. Smith, Trust   I have to wonder, what life […]

December 9, 2023 Our light is never spent. We will blaze forth… Great angels  fly at our behest… ~Rae Armantrout, Eyes   I nibble thoughtfully on a late morning snack of buttered sourdough toast. I contemplate lunch and dinner menus. I gaze around at empty tables and shelves awaiting Christmas decorations, the Fall decor now […]

December 7, 2023 Life is short and the world is at least half terrible… Any decent realtor… chirps on about good bones: This place could be beautiful, right? You could make this place beautiful. ~Maggie Smith, Good Bones   I don’t know if it’s because of the so-called inverted matrix we dwell in on Planet […]

December 2, 2023 We are dreaming of transformations, of walking into the world somebody else. ~Linda Pastan, Beauty Shop   It’s already December 2 and I have yet to put away the Fall decorations. Yesterday I decided to forgo Christmas decorating altogether as causing unnecessary pain, despite discovering last year how much I enjoy it. […]

December 1, 2023 Dear God, I feel my mind slipping… How good to believe her bones will rise like so—do their dance. ~Rennie McQuilkin, Ascension   Funny how my priorities have shifted in the last couple of years. I used to be in half-baked prepper mode, ensuring we were overstocked on food and necessities. Now […]

November 27, 2023 We knew a timeless place beside three trees… I shall put off my grief, my sick despair, Since only joy is silhouetted there. ~Louise Townsend Nicholl, Timelessness   Creativity can seem mysterious, the purview of artists and eccentrics, or geniuses like Einstein and da Vinci. It certainly isn’t me on a crisp […]

November 25, 2023 Thus her beautiful face, the crippled girl’s… The richness of that face!—most generous In what it keeps, giving in its having. …Her beauty saying… That what it is is kept as it is given. ~David Ferry, The Crippled Girl, The Rose   I’ve usually found it easy, even automatic, to be kind […]

November 18, 2023 Dance girl, you carry our joy. Just don’t look down. ~Joy Harjo, Everybody Has a Heartache: A Blues   There’s a luminous quality to joy, when one has been robbed of it for an age and an age. Perhaps particularly so when one has acted as the thief of joy as well […]