If today were a child of mine, I would send it outside to play. Don’t come back in until dinnertime. There’s nothing wrong. No misbehavior to account for my negative spin. Nevertheless, today is getting on my nerves and I want it to stop. I keep reminding myself that I’m not entitled to explanations for […]
Vizzini: Inconceivable! Inigo: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. —from The Princess Bride I’m not personally in the throes of this difficulty right now, though it crops up sufficiently often that the quote is on my mental speed-dial. Instead I realized (a) that I was […]
Three weeks ago, I re-folded a scrap of a note left on my bathroom counter and scratched “velveteen rabbit” on it just before I went to bed. Or maybe that was four weeks ago; I’ve been looking at it every day since, so time has blurred. Today, I’ve re-ordered things so that I can color […]
The bellows blow fiercely, the lead is consumed by the fire; in vain the refining goes on, for the wicked are not removed. (from the New Standard Revised Version [NRSV]) Nota bene: “The melting point of lead—at 327.5 °C (621.5 °F)—is very low compared to most metals. Its boiling point of 1749 °C (3180 °F) […]
This week’s contemplation — I have still been meditating — has been trying. Trying as in the way toddlers can be; trying as in I remind myself to continue to persist. Sticking with my contemplative phrase has been this week’s especial trial. I feel like I’m sitting on sticker-burrs to be taking the time at […]
Today I’m resting on my generative laurels of 22-and-some years ago rather than generating something new. You should take a line cook to lunch. They’re lots of fun.
First it was everything due the week before midterm break. Then it was the bustly week of Dublin travel over break. Then it was everything due the week after midterm break, plus jet-lag, plus my inner exhaustion from having taken no meditation or writing time in Dublin. After that, it’s been… well… what has it […]
It’s All Hallows’ Eve. A few days ago I got to explain to a classmate — he’s from South Africa — “what the big deal is” with Halloween in the US. Fresh from my visit to Dublin, I noted that Anglo-Irish-Scots folk planted on the eastern seaboard from our earliest nation-years have shaped a lot […]
(written for a spiritual formation exercise, APTS, Fall 2018) I’m standing at our worktable, cool air wreathing my ankles. The sliding doors are open; the mild September day is now a chilly evening, and my husband and I are taking advantage. Idly, I hear a first-responder’s siren. We don’t live far from the highway, after […]
(submitted to Th.204, APTS, Fall 2018) Our news continues to bring forward stories of the increasing difficulty immigrants of color have in gaining — and sustaining — access to the US. The hashtag #BlackLivesMatter might have faded, but is far from forgotten. In media, US inhabitants are steadily confronted with the statistics of our increasing […]
