From the mail bag: K.W. asks: What do you say when someone has asked you to read something they’ve written, and it really stinks? I don’t want to hurt my friend’s feelings, because I know she spent a lot of time on it. She thinks the story she’s written is ready to be sent off to a publisher. I think it’s ready to be sent to the circular file. Help! I’m sure you must get this a lot.
As a … Read More
There are two times in life when we count by halves. One is when we’re under the age of ten, and we’re half way between one birthday and the next. We’re still young enough for it to feel as though a year stretches on forever. So making it a whole six months more is worthy of being marked and counted. “I’m six and a half!” says my friend’s daughter with great pride. I’m excited for my friend’s daughter, because I … Read More
Long ago, I discovered that writing was a way for me to harness, focus, and direct my active imagination. It started out as a way for me to keep myself from worrying about things I couldn’t change. It’s progressed into a form of meditation; a daily practice of contemplation, which is nothing more than the effort to bring the mind to observe the outer physical world and the inner reality of thoughts and emotions.
Another way of expressing this idea … Read More
After a day of play with Graidy, and her evening run, Kiera’s contentedly conked out for the night.… Read More
Cait says from the backseat of the car, “Mom, there’s a tick on your shirt.”
Just having gotten into the car after a family hike through the woods, I get back out, find the tick (it’s a deer tick of course), and pick it off. Climbing back into the car, I say to Andrew, “Can’t blame that tick on the dogs.”
Andrew, who’s just contracted Lyme disease again from a tick he believes he picked up from one of the … Read More
With the holidays coming up, I thought you might enjoy discovering Penzeys. It’s an online herb and spice store that has the best herbs and spices I’ve ever come across. The flavor is superb. If I don’t grow it in my garden, I get it from Penzeys.… Read More
Cait dreamt about my father last night, which she does on occasion. My father and Cait had a thing for each other while he was alive. She often expresses how much she misses him, and how she really wishes that she had a grandfather. (Andrew’s dad died several years ago as well.)
Though my daughter has the most wonderful grandmother, my mother, in her life (and that counts for a lot), I feel badly for her that she doesn’t have … Read More
I came downstairs this morning to find Finnegan having great fun tossing around one of his toys in play. Upon closer inspection, I saw that it was a dead mouse — the forth in as many months. I felt a mixture of sadness and relief. Sadness at the loss of a life. Relief that Finn is cleaning up the place; something we haven’t been able to do with all our have-a-heart traps.
We live in an old farm house. It’s … Read More
