Re-emergence: Do It Your Way
“Making plans for after lockdown?” a friend asked recently, in an email. For a moment, I froze, in a kind of panic. That was so completely not what I was doing. Suddenly I imagined that I was woefully out of…
He Still Wants to Have a Ball
My husband and I used to care for three children; now it’s down to one senior dog. Curiously, though, the senior dog — with new patches of white fur around his tall ears, and trepidation when faced with another ascent…
Breaking Down or Blowing Up in Lent
Not to be heavy or anything, but how close do you think life and death really are? Sometimes, and especially in certain seasons, like Lent right now, the difference seems to be just a whisper. The two states of being,…
Some Falls are More Comfy Than Others
It’s February 14th — about the only day in the whole year when taking a fall, or the memory of having taken one, can be considered a good thing. Why is it, anyway, that we talk about “falling in love”?…
Proximity
Do you know how sometimes in your mind things, events, people do a kind of pile-up? They’re completely separate, in a way, but they have a habit of congealing in clumps and then you just have to say, “Huh, that…
C’mon, Lighten Up
My younger son, wise beyond his years, saw me striving to get a bunch of cards ready for the mail the other day. They weren’t the batch of New Year’s cards that we generally send — by late January. No,…
In Phones We Don’t Necessarily Trust
As we approach the time in the calendar when thoughts among the youngest of us turn to preparations underway up at the North Pole – and thank goodness for that — many of the rest of us are still grappling…
Not Exactly Dancing in the Dark
I haven’t seen one of them in a while, but didn’t there used to be bumper stickers that said something like, “I found The Way?” or maybe “Jesus Is The Way”? Well, about a week ago, in the dark, I…
Anniversary Day
Over the past six months of the pandemic, we’ve heard the term “Alone Together” over and over again– for good reason, too. The whole time has brought such a weird mix of elements to our lives, and we need to…
Virtual Camp Takes Valiant Counselors
Camp on the computer? Come on, you gotta be kidding. The concept seems to defy the very definition of what this summer institution is all about. Without the playing outdoors, the eating in the dining hall, the jumping off the…