When one door closes another opens but all too often there is a long hallway in between. -Rick Jarow It was a welcome surprise. The unexpected email arrived in my inbox earlier this week, from two former students. I haven’t seen them in well over a year, and in that time they’ve graduated and moved … Continue reading
Meaning Mondays: The Teapot Edition
This is the story of a small, gently used teapot. It came into my life three years ago, a gift from my husband. Claimed from among a ragged family of fiestaware at an antique store. And like the friskiest puppy in the litter, it called out: pick me, pick me! “A real find,” Dave proclaimed, … Continue reading
Old Newsletters and Silt
To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful. -Agnes De Mille This week I’m in clean slate/fresh start mode, purging old files and documents. And in the process of digging through my hard drive I’ve unearthed some old newsletters that I wrote in years past. Yes, back in the day … Continue reading
Introducing Meaning Mondays
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. -Annie Dillard Happy New Year! My holiday was refreshing, but it’s also nice to be back in my cozy blogging cockpit. My engines are revved up and I feel ready to fly into 2010. So. We made it. Another year. Another decade. … Continue reading
Before the New Year
These days, I am far more interested in self-acceptance than in further improvements. Seems to me that a good deal of pop psychology is thinly veiled self-rejection. Of course, I want to continue to discover more about life and myself. I just don’t want to miss the quiet knowing that has always been present. –Jonathan Young … Continue reading
A Cat’s Wisdom
“The smallest feline is a masterpiece.” -Leonardo DaVinci This is Kung Pao. And no, I didn’t give him that name. In fact, I have a habit of naming cats after characters from old movies. So knowing what I do about him now, I’d probably call him Sheridan Whiteside. From The Man Who Came to Dinner. … Continue reading
Coming Home: The Ritual of Return
“There’s no place like home.” Dorothy,The Wizard of Oz. If you’ve been here before, you’ve no doubt noticed I’ve been swimming in the waters of “home” lately. For me, it’s like a lake that’s both warm and bracing, placid and choppy. And for the most part, I enjoy that duality. In fact, over the years … Continue reading
Big Questions
…Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is … Continue reading
Going Home: Retracing My Steps
Thomas Wolfe famously said: “You can’t go home again.” And yet, I have a recurring daydream where not only do I go home again, but I stay for a few months. Three months, to be exact. I don’t know why, but three months seems like the perfect amount of time. I plucked it from the air, … Continue reading
The House of Belonging
What is home? Clearly it’s a place. A spot on the map. The door opening. A warm bed. Somewhere we can retreat to and find sanctuary. For some, of course, home is meant to be left, gotten away from. As soon as possible. A repository of pain and difficult times. But whatever our first experiences … Continue reading
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