We come home from a trip and one of the first things I do is check on Daphne, my cyclamen. We’ve been gone just long enough that I should have asked my neighbor to water her while she was visiting the pup but I didn’t and poor Daphne is now drooping. Bags down, pup snuggled, I water … Continue reading unnecessary
Tag: noticing
a hundred fold
Two friends send me links to recordings, sound baths. I listen when the kids have gone to the hardware store for the bench they’re building, I listen when they’re off on their own. I sink into the sound, I sink into the moment, I release all doing, I breathe. What if it’s as simple as breathing? Breathing in love, … Continue reading a hundred fold
infusions
These darker days are days that feel light to me, a quality versus some quantity. There are car rides to see Christmas lights and walks after dinner, a blanket of sky dotted with stars and a moon fading to new. Poetry and seasonal essays, tea and twinkle lights. Darkness that is light, a quality richer than any quantity. … Continue reading infusions
multiplication
Though I keep strands of twinkle lights around the house throughout the year, they’re abundant now in this spirited December season. On the piano and mantel, along the banister, outlining bedroom doors, around the kitchen window, along the porch railing, on the Christmas tree. One morning, with trees coated in ice and cold rain falling, I write … Continue reading multiplication
all in
She tells me she has a Norman Rockwell picture in her mind. A picture of family gathered round, everything and everyone cozy, food abundant and delicious, a picture that is perfect. The picture is not her own (it’s Norman Rockwell’s) (it’s one you might see on social media). I tell her our Thanksgiving wasn’t Norman Rockwell either. It was … Continue reading all in
equinox
Just before class, I step outside to gather bits of nature, a last-minute inspiration. Red and orange zinnias, a few yellow birch leaves, wispy sprigs of cosmos. I spritz the clippings, place them in a bag, and to the bag I add a jar of acorn tops, candles, a collection of smooth rose quartz stones. It’s the Autumnal … Continue reading equinox
just quick
I am in the middle of making a list, a list of right now, a list which unfailingly centers me, slows my brain. Except in this fraction of a second, my brain is picking up speed, is attempting to pull me in another direction. Just quick, I think, the urge to do something just quick very real. I note the … Continue reading just quick
lingering
We have visitors. My sister, my brother-in-law, my nephew, which sounds very my-ish, though how else to say? They do not belong to me, are not mine-mine, though they are mine in heart speak, if there is such a thing, and I think that there is. It’s a quick visit, one dinner, one sleep, one breakfast. It’s good to see … Continue reading lingering
museum
The first cherry tomatoes are ready for plucking, eating, admiring and so I pluck, I eat, I admire. There is one tomato that remains in the admiring phase, rests on the kitchen windowsill. I look at it multiple times a day while standing at the sink to wash dishes or hands. I don’t know what it is about … Continue reading museum
skipper
I wake to steady rain and think—no feel, deep inside—ohyes and thank you and please rain all day. The light is dim, soft, quiet, my husband gone to work, the kids still sleeping. It feels a coffee kind of morning and I take the French press from the cupboard, boil water in the kettle, measure grounds, pour, … Continue reading skipper