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: pay attention
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
simple
I find a scrap piece of paper in my desk drawer with this quote scribbled on it: All that I hope to say in books, all that I ever hope to say, is that I love the world. (E.B. White) I read it and my heart explodes… no, not explodes… rather, expands, opens very very wide, fluffs its feathers … Continue reading simple
climb inside
The pace has been quick, a pace I’ve maintained well enough though it’s quicker and fuller than I’d be able to sustain forever, and thank goodness nothing is forever, thank goodness life moves in waves, thank goodness it ebbs and flows, thank goodness the quick will slow and the fullness will wane, thank goodness thank … Continue reading climb inside
sometimes
Sometimes… what’s there to say? A week like any other week, except we know that isn’t true, it isn’t true that this week was really like last week or the week before, or even the week before that, we know that each week is shiny and new, occasionally tarnished, and maybe somewhere in between. Sometimes there's still … Continue reading sometimes
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
micromovements
Is it because I’m getting older that the weeks go by quicker and quicker? When I was twenty-one, a week took seven long days. At fifty-one, a week passes in seven blinks of an eye. How is this so? There are days with sunshine and days with clouds. Mostly it’s humid, still, but the temperatures have dipped a bit … Continue reading micromovements