Today is my anniversary. It was precisely one year ago today that an IV drip began to dose me with the anesthesia that would propel me into a seven-hour surgery. A team composed of two oncology surgeons, an anesthesiologist, and ER nurses worked together to eradicate my breast cancer and put me back together again. […]
“Babci! Can I have a cup of tea?” I skipped into the kitchen and plopped into a chair at the kitchen window. From upstairs, I had watched Dziadzia heading across the lawn to the barn where he would milk the cows.“Yah,” said Babci. She opened the upper cupboard for tea cups and tea bags, then […]
Back story: I’ve been coming to Belize from time to time for 30 years. In 1989, there was no electric power cable under the sea from the mainland to this island. Electricity was supplied by a humongous generator in town that hummed like a sleeping giant. It shook itself awake periodically, knocking out the power, […]
During my childhood, I was allowed to visit a classmate after school precisely two times. Two different classmates. Two different years. Two different reasons why I was never allowed to go there again. In 4th grade, I received an invitation from a classmate named Judy. She had been my kindergarten comrade and confidant, and we […]
The fog is thick this morning, surrounding us in a soft blanket of grey, creeping close and closer still, cloaking the shrubs, disguising the gardens. The fog horn has blown all night long at intervals as regular as breath. In and out, in and out, in and out. I sync my breathing, pull up the […]
I haven’t followed the sport of running in recent years, but this morning’s profile of Eliud Kipchoge in The New York Times caught my eye and I was only too happy to have it interfere with my writing frustrations. Eliud Kipchoge is the greatest marathoner ever. He broke a world record in Berlin this morning. […]
“I’m on my way…” said the Travelocity gnome. And so am I. After a crazy (read: hectic), stressful (read: brutal), downbeat (read: depressing) series of hours, days, weeks, months, I think I’ve finally come out the other side. I’m on my way to a wedding in Hamburg, Germany. Traveling solo—but isn’t that what I’m used […]
I have a friend—a fellow writer—who sold it all, packed up, and moved to a foreign country this year with her nearly blind 90-year-old mother and a little French poodle named Prose. Impressive, right? Alison took it all step-by-step, sharing the ups and downs along the way with her Facebook followers and newsletter subscribers. Mostly “ups” […]
In 1975 I was twenty-three years old and had never traveled beyond the borders of North America. Yet one day, I got it into my head that I wanted to tour Morocco. Long story short, a few months later my new husband and I were singing “Marrakesh Express” at the top of our lungs in […]
Earth Day 2018 Coffee. Walnuts, banana, cheddar cheese. Journal. Coffee. Email. Coffee. Coffee. Feed pets. Gardening trousers, wooly socks, Black Dog t-shirt, 20+year-old Coolibar hat, ancient Merrills. leather gloves. Basket, trowel, hand fork, weeder, wheel barrow, kneeler. Kneel, dig, pull, gather, worm, smile, sun. Move, dig, pull, gather, smile. Greenhouse, bonemeal, potash, pour. Garden, bonemeal, […]
