This post has been kind of falling together for a few days. How fitting that it's ready to hit the interwebs on Mother's Day... Anne Lamott wrote this letter to her Grandson Jax at 4 months old: "Dear Jax: Yesterday was your first Thanksgiving, and it is time for me to impart to you the secret... Continue Reading →
Pony up
I was working through one of those loud and chaotic inner conversations with myself yesterday about how I want things to go. You know, in life. Do you have these? Well, this one got a bit heated, and me, myself, and I all had to take separate corners for a while there. In the end--when... Continue Reading →
Book Review: Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son’s First Year
All these years--there have been so many--I've been writing book reviews in Goodreads, and then copying and pasting things over here to m'blog, and maybe adding in a little bit more flavor as a sort of prelude. Apparently I think the followers of the blog are in it for something different than the Good People... Continue Reading →
M’Tribe
I haven’t been writing much lately. Not enough time. Not enough brain space. Sometimes one has to withdraw from the writing to engage in the life. Let’s call it a Lenten switchup. I’ll be back after Pascha, I’m sure. But I have had great occasion recently to wonder with fear and trembling at the tremendous... Continue Reading →
Life and death and life again
"Within the heart are unfathomable depths. It is not a small vessel: and yet dragons and lions live there, and there are poisonous creatures and all the treasures of wickedness; rough, uneven paths are there, and gaping chasms. There, likewise, is God, there are the angels, there life and the Kingdom, there light and the... Continue Reading →
A romp through the back alleys of m’noggin
"Is it possible to practice noticing? I think so. But I also think it requires a suspension of yearning And a pause in the desire to be pouring something out of yourself. Noticing is about letting yourself out into the world, Rather than siphoning the world into yourself in order to transmute it into words.... Continue Reading →
Visitors, welcome and not
We had ten male cardinals at the feeder yesterday. Six females hanging out in the wings. We don't usually get that many. Not at once. Beautiful! The blue jays were missing yesterday, too, like we were part of some neighborhood bird exchange program. Hmm... We did get another foot (and then some) of snow this... Continue Reading →
Book Review: The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich My rating: 5 of 5 stars I think that The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse has been on my to-read shelf for almost a decade. Back in the days when my super-reader-friends were just introducing me to good... Continue Reading →
Book Review: Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine
I set my Goodreads 2019 Reading Goal at 30 books. I think I was one book shy of the same for 2018. At this rate, I'll hit 50. But who are we kidding, I never maintain this pace for more than a few weeks. 30 it is, and 30 it shall remain. Up at #3... Continue Reading →
Book Review: Almost Everything: Notes on Hope
From my Goodreads review: Almost Everything: Notes on Hope by Anne LamottMy rating: 5 of 5 starsAh, Anne Lamott. I love her so. Almost Everything is classic Lamott, witty, comical, heart-wrenching, and honest to the point of breaking. Her very first words tell the whole story: "I am stockpiling antibiotics for the apocalypse, even as... Continue Reading →
Milk and miracles and fairy godmothers
I had to make a clandestine run for breast milk this morning. One of the kiddos, who shall remain nameless, appears to have contracted pinkeye over the weekend, and for those who don't know, breast milk is the single best cure for pinkeye. Scoff if you must, but don't cry to me about your goop.... Continue Reading →
Focus
First sun of 2019. Well, there we are. One year up in flames, and another just kindling on the hearth. I've been thinking about my word for the year. For my first year or so it was Empathy, which never really gets old, at least not when you're me. But still, in the spirit of one... Continue Reading →
