As I get older I have difficulty remembering names and dates. That said, there are some dates I don’t forget — birth dates of my mother, daughter, myself, even my father who is gone six years now. I was in NYC visiting my daughter on Sept. 11, after she first moved there in 2001. … Continue reading Remembering Robin Williams…
Forty-two years ago I was introduced to Cuba and Chile in one week. Forty-two years later, on July 20, 2015, (fifty-four years after the US broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba), diplomatic relations were re-established between the two countries. Thank you President Obama. That same week, several Chilean military officers were indicted for the 1973 … Continue reading When news feels personal…
Your children are not your children. They are the sons and the daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but they are not from you, And though they are with you yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts For they have their own … Continue reading Life’s longing for itself…
In the Phoenix summertime, without sunscreen (it didn’t exist back then) I would tan “brown as a berry”, 1950s-style version of good health. I was six, eight, then ten. I loved moving close to the earth, somersaults & cartwheels, and I loved being airborne when I danced and did arabesques or grand jete’s. Or those … Continue reading Not feeling morbid, but still musing on “this pesky attachment to life” *
I’ve always known I had one natural talent. It only impresses people who don’t have an iota of it. What? I have a great sense of direction. Mostly it has to do with driving, or walking somewhere. If you’re with me, you won’t get lost; I’m like a homing pigeon. In the course of life, … Continue reading All things subterranean and soaring…
Beyond childhood, I learned most of what I know about life through experiences like living in Cuba, being a mother, working as a nurse, making lots of mistakes, gaining humility (a good thing) and self-doubt (not a good thing). A few years ago I started to understand just how important it is to complement learning … Continue reading Reading, part two… Lidia, Franz, and me.
I’m a slow reader. It’s one of my personal challenges. As a child, I could read easily, but I didn’t take to it naturally like a fish to water. Instead, I took to water. It was Phoenix and over 110 degrees. I thought why find out about life from books, when you can have first … Continue reading (instead of) Reading….
I have been weaving my cloth for a long time. Sometimes intentionally, sometimes on automatic pilot. It’s one of those things we humans do. The errors in my weave are monumental. But, still, the cloth holds. Being able to see so much beauty in the cloth of others, I know there is a particular beauty in … Continue reading Weaving my cloth… “You know what everybody needs? You want to put it in a single word? Everybody needs to be understood.” Sherwin Nuland
Sixty-eight women writers and Cheryl Strayed in Maui, in March. Heaven. I met Rita Kampen in Maui. In March. Her liveliness, curiosity, and compassion were evident. Her ease and warmth, graciousness available to all. I overheard her talking about Jubilee. I had never heard of a Jubilee. As I had already promised myself a year … Continue reading Jubilee year…
There are wounds, historical and societal, racist in nature, that seem too big to talk about, to heal, something like banks being too big to fail. Only they’re not. Neither the banks, nor the yet-to-be-healed wounds of racism. At some point we have to talk about them, or else remain at the mercy of a … Continue reading for Charleston… and for my father, who was the first to teach me that inequality and injustice are wrong…
Gayle Markow: As I am... 