“There are good ships and wood ships, ships that sail the sea, but the best ships are friendships, may they always be!” — Irish Proverb So, I’ve been going to therapy for nearly a year. One of several ways I've tried to deal with my mother’s death. I’m not going to talk about any of… Continue reading Ideal Chit-Chat
The smell of moist earth and lilacs hung in the air like wisps of the past and hints of the future. (Margaret Millar) Ahhhhhhh…the melodious scent of lilacs is practically enough to put me into a trance. I can’t really think of another more distinctly memorable essence with such direct links to my childhood.… Continue reading “Sweet Dreams, Lilac”
Time strode with the swiftness of spring blossoms. — Terri Guillemets It's been almost eight months since I've written a blog post. There are several reasons for that, but I'm not going to make excuses. I've missed it though. Even if it's just a small project of mine, it is mine and I'm attached to it.… Continue reading April…Come She Will
I mean no disrespect to those who also find these debates complicated, charged and even bewildering, but I wish that I could understand why so many people are threatened by the #BlackLivesMatter movement. And I’m not talking about the extremists, although they are out there, they are out everywhere, in every group; religion, politics,… Continue reading She Implored Me to Speak Up
Dear Mom, Today is your birthday. It’s always been such a special and important day for me, because you have always been so special and important to me. I’ve been thinking about this day all week. It’s not easy to know you’re not here to celebrate it, and to accept that I can’t call you or Skype with you. I can’t hear your voice outside my head...
You, dear soul, are doing fine. You have been finding your way through the struggle, and the muck and mire. You’ve had a lot to contend with over this past year. But you’ve done it every single day. Every night you’ve gone to bed, and every morning you’ve gotten up and faced the day. That’s… Continue reading A Letter from My Inner Wise Self
“…nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.” ― Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times Often lately I find myself asking my conscience or my inner voice what all this past year has taught me? I really plead with her to answer me. What have I learned that I needed to know, I ask. Have I even learned it, because some things seem to be holding on so tightly? Almost a year ago now I can pretty much pinpoint precisely when things started snowballing around me, and I felt myself losing the tenuous control that I thought I had had on my life...
Almost exactly three weeks after we lost my mother, my father and I were grabbing lunch one day, just the two of us. We'd decided to eat at a lovely little cafe not too far from where we'd been staying every night for these past few weeks; my grandmother's house, overlooking the beach and the… Continue reading The Lunch
When my son was a child, we said some variation of this to each other every day and every night, "I love you a hundred, million worlds." I'm not exactly sure of the origins of our saying it, but I know that my heart had never before felt the way that it did about him,… Continue reading A Hundred, Million Worlds
Practice Compassion for All Beings; (Including Yourself) I don't get crazy-upset very often, at least not in public. But quite honestly I don't often have reason to? I am not very aggressive, unless it's called for; as in taking a chance to get ahead or through, like when I have to drive on a busy,… Continue reading Practice Compassion for All Beings; (Including Yourself)
My apologies, I haven’t posted in three months, I just haven’t been able to, but I’ve been working on a piece. This however is a reblog of my second-ever post, about my beautiful & fierce mother. When I wrote it I truly would have believed she’d be here with us forever. I post this through my tears today, in her memory, on this day when we are remembering so many people already. Loss is so hard. But love is so worth it. Re-reading her “comment” at the end was exceptionally bittersweet and difficult, yet heartrendingly poignant today. I love you so much, Mom. I hope to share my next piece soon. Thank you
A mother’s love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity. It dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path.
― Agatha Christie
On Mother’s Day two weekends ago we discovered that robins had built a nest containing three beautiful wee eggs on our rose trellis. This discovery on this particular date seemed so apropos. It was very exciting.
Triplets were going to hatch right there at our home, almost as if they were human and not wild. It was the miracle of life right under our collective noses.
Here they are, of course we snapped a photo that night ―
Being that it was Mother’s Day and I am a mother, I felt a rush of warmth thinking about these babies-to-be. This inevitably led me to thinking about my own babies, who are not babies at…
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It’s such a powerful idea when you consider it carefully: Comparison is the thief of joy. I’d say it goes directly towards how often comparing ourselves or what we have to others or what they have, makes us, well, an awful lot of negative shades of our former selves. Negative shades of jealousy, envy, resentfulness,… Continue reading Don’t Just Hand Over Your Joy
This August will mark a major milestone event; our youngest son will be going off to university and moving into residence life. It will be almost exactly one month shy of the twenty-fourth anniversary of the day that I became a mother. In other words it means that I will have had a child living… Continue reading A Mom of a Different Ilk
(by a Forty-Something) Growing up on the East Coast of Canada when I did was pretty great. Since moving to the United States and spending much time getting to know friends down here I’m realizing something that as a kid I’d hadn’t put together – we had available to us most all the same popular… Continue reading Some of the Best Things About Being a Kid
One of the best things in the world must be entering a coffee shop, either to meet up with a friend or to escape life if even for a few minutes. My favorite is the coffee date. Two words that when strung together, completely and utterly appeal to me. In fact it really is one… Continue reading The Lure of the Coffee Date
(“What Is-es” and “What is Nots”) Here is my little compilation of some commonly heard and easily recognizable misdirected, misappropriated and completely farcical fallacies. They are often perpetuated without malice, but once they’re out there they become akin to Urban Legends without the kitschy, horror-movie bent. If we choose to sustain and bolster these mistaken… Continue reading A Few Common Misconceptions
Made it to the first anniversary of this blog life. Feeling very happy about that. Thanks to Wordpress & all you wonderful readers!! I may make some upcoming changes to how things have been, but my goal was 52 weeks of a Tuesday post and I only missed one while I was in another country. It… Continue reading Happy First Anniversary!
Insta…Creation According to my Instagram account I have posted 1911 photos and my very first post was 159 weeks ago. Who knew? For those who aren’t familiar, Instagram is a photo app for smartphones. Wikipedia describes it as follows: “ Instagram is an online mobile photo-sharing, video-sharing and social networking service that enables its users… Continue reading Insta…Creation
So, I've been ill the past few days, and in order to subsist I've been trying to wear something that allows for comfort. It has really got me thinking about some of my favorite articles of clothing that I've owned over the years. And lying here, has of course given me a chance to think,… Continue reading Prêt-à-Porter…Again & Again
o·ver·think ōvərˈTHiNGk/ verb gerund or present participle: overthinking think about (something) too much or for too long. "must you overthink every relationship?" So I woke up with one-half of my face particularly numb today, it's numb every day, but today it is amplified. It's really weird and it's a feeling that I never ever could… Continue reading The Trouble with Overthinking
It has become somewhat painfully apparent that time truly stands still for no one. I had recommended that it slow down. It did not comply. I must accept that life goes on and things change, of course. Yet although it's incredibly exciting, it’s also overwhelming some days. And it's not that I'm in the twilight… Continue reading Reflectionology
(When I Really Needed It) **And so now for a little inspiration… I am a big fan & “Like” her Facebook page, but it has been totally uncanny some days when one of Karen Salmansohn’s illustrated quotes has randomly showed up on my FB newsfeed...and then it’s just the thing, I mean the exact thing… Continue reading Ten Times Karen Salmansohn Resonated Perfectly with Me
From the Booklet on Uneasiness: When I was fifteen I had a mysterious caller. Maybe now he'd be called a stalker. I automatically want to qualify that; I had a bit of a stalker, but then I hesitate because that makes it sound of less importance, and I don’t think that is the case. Well, except at… Continue reading From the Booklet on Uneasiness:
From the Guidebook for Distress: Ringalingaling ringalingaling... Ringalingaling ringalingaling... I'm just barely a teenager, home alone on a weeknight. The house phone is ringing; it’s the eighties after all...so I answer it, "Hello." A male voice comes onto the line, an older male, "Hi, is your father home?" "No," I say. He says, "Is your… Continue reading From the Guidebook for Distress:
A relationship is an absolute ton of work, the magnitude of which vacillates within our daily lives. If I or anyone else has led you to believe that love, romance or marriage are easy, well then I would like to go on record as saying that this is complete rubbish; twaddle, poppycock, bollocks and so forth.… Continue reading Dispelling the Myth
Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same. – Emily Brontë It’s in the little moments. It truly is. And in the scheme of things...these are but a few snippets. “Life is not made up of minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years, but of moments. You must experience each one… Continue reading Snippets & Moments
The final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands. – Anne Frank I find myself noticing my left hand as I leaf through my old pictures from before I lost some of the movement and a lot of the dexterity a couple years ago. Photos from just before, from my childhood and… Continue reading These Hands
Stockholm is surely an urban planner's dream. Everything works. Everything looks good. – Janine di Giovanni Exactly one year ago tomorrow I woke up in a charming boutique hotel in an area of Stockholm, Sweden called Solna. The sun was streaming in through the windows and it was a gorgeous day. I was nearly over… Continue reading Metro-politan Surprise
“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up… Continue reading Across the Great Divide
... I hear you laugh, my heart fills full up ♫♪♪♫♪ Sisters share the scent and smells – the feel of a common childhood. — Pam Brown Our Family Tree: So, my sister is about to celebrate a milestone birthday this week, and I wish that I could be there to celebrate her big day!… Continue reading You Were There with Me, Sister
A Little Then I'm lying in a hospital bed; it's never quiet here during the daytime. I'm lying very still, partly because I'm too tired to move and partly because when I'm perfectly immobile I feel like I might be fine. Even though I’m lying prone, it’s like I could possibly get up and walk… Continue reading I Can’t Control the Wind, But I Can Adjust the Sail
An Open Letter to My Loved Ones Dearly Beloved, Without you, I’m not sure how I could have gotten through the last two years and as the anniversary arrives in just a few days, I don’t want to wait any longer to tell you how much you mean to me. Or to tell you how… Continue reading An Open Letter to My Loved Ones
Valentine’s Blog Disclaimer: Although I personally am pro-Valentine’s Day & this post is pro-romance, I don’t subscribe to the pressures put onto us about Feb 14th, and sadly I can understand why some people have come to resent, avoid & scorn it… The rose is red, the violet's blue, The honey's sweet, and so are… Continue reading Maybe We Can Make This Last a Lifetime
You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own, and you know what you know. And you are the guy who'll decide where to go. — Dr. Seuss Our youngest got his first college acceptance letter – well let… Continue reading Stand Upright and Be Strong
Recently it occurred to me that I too often am not living my life in a very Zen-like way. I hear my inner voice, or my inner critic, chastising me, “That’s not very Zen-like”, it admonishes, but the thing is: I want to be more Zen-like. I want to be more tolerant, more at peace,… Continue reading Everything Zen…I Don’t Think So
My life has spanned the Seventies, the Eighties, the Nineties, Y2K to today. At different times I’ve measured it in different ways; chronologically, in milestones, the "no kids-kids at home-grown kids" years, where I lived, from elementary school to college, before and after marriage, etcetera. This is a first though, measuring it, and I use… Continue reading Let’s Go to the Movies, Annie
I was twenty-one years when I wrote this song. I’m twenty-two now but I won’t be for long Time hurries on. – Paul Simon Dear Twenty-Year-Old Me, You’re two decades into a great life. You’re fortunate; you were born into a loving family. You've had a pretty normal and happy upbringing. You've enjoyed a great… Continue reading The Leaves that are Green Turn to Brown
What makes a fictional character memorable? Or relatable? As a devoted-and-proud diehard fan of the television show Gilmore Girls, it was with great sadness that I took the news of the wonderful character actor and Tony winning Stage aficionado, Edward Herrmann’s passing on New Year’s Eve 2014. He had portrayed the family patriarch Richard Gilmore… Continue reading All You Have to do is Call My Name
It’s almost 2015, tomorrow is New Year’s Eve. I’ve started to notice articles about resolutions online and also shared on Facebook. And I feel that old familiar pull to better myself. Technically, it's really no different than any other day, but beginning a new year can seem like and feel like, at least in our… Continue reading It Seems Like, Yes it Feels Like a Brand New Day
To recap: It begs the question, have you ever wondered just how much the Universe is capable of conspiring to make something happen…to make something come true? To bring two people together… Part Four continued the story of a girl, and her journey to happiness. She’ll again be typed in this color and she’ll be known simply as the girl. As… Continue reading The Story of a Girl (Part Five)
A Stroke of Good Fortune 