This feels like the “after all is said and done” day at the end of a month that … I don’t even know what to say about it. You may have noticed that I haven’t been writing. There are so many words out there already. I feel like everything that could be said has been said. Continue reading
It helps to be out of the country.
It helps to get the news in one fierce shock rather than watching it unfold over hours like a slow-motion train wreck.
It helps to get the news in the morning rather than in the middle of the night.
It helps to get the news in hot sun rather than cold rain. Continue reading
Ooof. There is such a thing as emotional multitasking when your attention is pulled in wildly different, significant directions. Not a rollercoaster, with highs and lows, but rapid shifts between different realities.
I realized this when I sat this morning for a full hour and a half, alone in a quiet house, with my brand-new grandson, and was flooded with such huge hit of love that it shook tears from my eyes. Continue reading
I am in full grandma mode these days. Nearly every week for a period of two months my husband and I are making the 3-hour trip to the other end of the state to help with our daughter’s family while her mother-in-law, who usually is on call nearby, is out of the country. We spend two nights and the better part of three days. It is a privilege and lots of work. The six-year-old is mostly in school but a very dynamic presence when she is home. We spend most of our time with Ethan, who is going on 19 months. Continue reading
I had a dream recently about being inhabited by a fictional character, a poor, troubled young woman. I was able to reel off her sad story in great detail. I loved the experience and realized that I suddenly understood what it would take to write fiction. Unfortunately, when I woke up the character was no longer with me. Continue reading
Watching the Olympics makes me think about superpowers. Not the global kind but the personal kind. You can’t help believing in superpowers when you watch gymnast Simone Biles fling herself high in the air, backwards and twisting, and land on her feet. How’d she do that? More than hard work and practice is involved. Some magic is happening, on the order of leaping tall buildings in a single bound.
I wasn’t going to write about politics at all but here I go again. My last three posts got a little back-and-forth going with two cousins who are on the other side of the seemingly intractable political divide, one evidently more strongly than the other. This was no anonymous internet-commenter free-for-all. It was family. Continue reading
I have watched the Democratic National Convention every single night so far. I usually find political conventions boring but this one has kept me entertained. Watching has made me 95% proud to be a Democrat even though I’ve usually shunned party identification. If speeches are any gauge, this is the party of community, compassion, intelligence, humor, hope, and love. Continue reading
After my last post a commenter on Facebook asked if I was just anti-Trump or whether I actually support Hillary Clinton. The commenter implied that neither is an acceptable choice for president.
It’s a good question. Continue reading
I forced myself to watch Donald Trump’s acceptance speech last night. Well, the first hour of it, anyhow. It was the longest in recent history. I have nothing to say about it, or him, that hasn’t been said. My small words cannot shed light on the darkness he preaches and embodies. It’s yuuuge. Continue reading
the practical mystic 