The Faery Woods

I love to hike in the woods. Before Cait was born, Kiera-1 and I’d take off and be gone the whole day– I’d pack a lunch, bring a book to read, carry some water, and we’d be set — just her and me in the middle of nature. There was nothing I loved more.

The first time I tried to take Cait hiking with me, she was just four. It was an abysmal failure. I’d made the mistake of forcing her to come even after she’d refused several times. The only thing it accomplished was to make Cait afraid of bears, though we saw no wildlife to speak of.

I had to do a lot of back-peddling just to get back to […]

By |2016-10-24T09:57:00-04:00November 30th, 2006|.Cait and Me, .My Favorites, Nature|9 Comments
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Counting by Halves

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 remember.

The other time when we count by halves is after a loved one has died. Time slows back down to a crawl, as the days stretch on into weeks, and then into months. It feels as though that first year’s […]

By |2020-12-29T15:00:55-05:00November 27th, 2006|.My Favorites, Life, spirituality|4 Comments
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Buffalo Girls

One of the last books I read just before Caitlin was born, almost eleven years ago now, was Larry McMurtry’s Buffalo Girls . How do I know that for certain? Because in that book is the chorus to the song, Buffalo Girls. It goes:

Buf-falo Girls won’t you come out to-night,

come out to-night, come out tonight,

Buf-falo Girls won’t you come out to-night,

and dance by the light of the moon.

And why would that chorus be memorable to me? Because in those early sleep-deprived days, when Cait’s idea of a long nap was 10 minutes, that was the only song, of all the songs I sang to her, that […]