On this 25th anniversary of 9-11, I share a post and a poem, both written 10 years after 9-11. May the memories of all those lost -- that day or months or years afterwards because of that day -- be a blessing. “Those god-awful towers,” my father said in disgust. He wasn’t alone: we all thought they were wicked ugly, too big, and besides, they would and did block the light from our neck of the woods, three blocks away, never mind that we were underground. Down the steps to the

What a year, just about everyone I know is saying. Here's some of mine in 14 blog posts spanning the seasons. Thanks for being here as part of my community. I wish you all your own everyday magic. Kat on her birthday one year Loving Kat -- January 3: " Grief is like a giant sack filled with large, angular rocks and also ripped up piles of feather pillows. It’s impossible to get hold of and carry somewhere that makes sense. It’s a mess for the nervous system too as well as a

Mary in front of her home, photobombing the peonies one spring day in the pandemic When our friend Mary died less than a week ago, her...

Hanging out in real time with some of my tribe at Kat's memorial celebration At the tail-end of a bad bout of the flu I realized what...

Friends walking in our field In the very long year that was January, Cindy, my acupuncturist, told me a story: another client of hers,...

One of my favorite pictures of Kat being Kat Determination, kindness, curiosity, and presence. That was Kat, so it was no wonder that,...

"You'll be happy to hear we didn't kill a dear," my son Daniel's friend Dan told me two weeks ago when the two Daniels hauled their bright..

“You’re an interesting species. An interesting mix. You’re capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares. You feel so...

Right before I was hired to teach at Goddard College in 1996, the then-president, who many believed was set to shut down the college,...

Within weeks of my terrifying eye cancer diagnosis in 2019, my friend Harriet brought me this hand-set-type print of my favorite quote...

This morning, after waking once again at 5 a.m. freaked out about the state of the world, Gaza and Israel specifically, I eventually gave...

I am an American Jew in love with the beauty of the world. I am a human in anguish over what others of my species are doing to one...

Just before Kris told me at lunch she couldn’t wait for a good thunderstorm, Denise texted Judy and me, “On the way to the hospital. Not...

This year on Memorial Day, my 33-year-old son asked all of our family local to meet at the cemetery to decorate the graves, speak to our...

Juxtapositions — putting like with non-like — add zip, surprise, sometimes anxiety, and often uncertainty to our lives. They’re also at...

“I’m not going to leave a message,” my sister Lauren said when she left a message Friday. I was standing in the corner of an ebullient...

Walking to the edge of the deck this early morning to take this photo of the fog burning off the brome field and the prairie, I felt...

I left because it was making me sick, the “it” being the job I had loved fiercely and believed Iwould give my heart and time to until I...

“Vaughn keeps talking about the house down the road,” Julie, his wife, told me just a few days before he died. I listened on the other...

An hour ago, a mourning dove crashed so hard against our living room window that Ken and I both jumped. The dove attacked his reflection...