I read Buechner first thing and, as usual, I’m enchanted with the way he dances with words. I’ll never be able to write like him, but that’s okay. I was never meant to. According to developmental psychologist Erik Erikson’s stages of human psychological developmental, I’m in late adulthood. I found it jarring, and somehow hard to
In late-August the leaves on the trees in my neighborhood started to show the first signs of turning color. It was easy to miss the subtle change, and I did for many years. Now I’m in the autumn of my life and sense a kinship in the shift. The intensity of summer and the almost
Monday, you are fresh and full of promise. Even now when, save for Sunday, the days look much the same, there is something about you that says anticipation. In my first thoughts of the day I survey the busy week ahead and find, not the routine I hunger for, but a smattering of good things I
The biggest, most beautiful and terrible storm of the year blows through. Thunder booms and lightning flashes and our little dog trembles. Gerry holds her on the sofa wrapped in a blanket. “I’m going to try to record some of it,” I say as I grab my phone and head out to the deck. I
I’m drawn out to the deck by splendour in the morning sky. I lean against the railing, hands cupped around a warm cup of coffee, and worship as I look to the east. My whispered prayers mingle with the sounds of day beginning in the valley below. In the distance, from the valley, comes the
Gerry’s away and I’m awakened by Maya. I sleep through disturbances most of the time but when I’m alone, I wake quickly and easily at my pup’s restlessness. The body knows when it is the one on duty, like when my children were babies and their slightest stirring would bring me immediately to wakefulness. I
I spend a good part of the day on the sofa in the den, heating pad on high, surrounded by books. I can’t even muster the strength to go to the garden, so I send Gerry to water and harvest tomatoes and Swiss chard for supper. It feels like a wasted day. Countless things, indoors