Category: On My Mind

  • There

    There

    The back of my head touched shoulder blades as I squinted into the sun, up the ladder rungs to the sky. One, two, three, four, five, six — nope, too high, back down again — five, four, three, two, one. I wanted to get to the top of the shiny metal slide, but not if…

  • Safe

    Safe

    During savasana, there is meditation, tonight “loving kindness.” First, we were prompted to generate a sensation of safety in our bodies. The teacher urged us to picture someone or some place where we feel secure and say to ourselves, in brains and in cells, “May I feel safe.” After that, we worked through “May I…

  • Melted

    Melted

    The light changes. A cover has opened, slit of sun beaming into the darkness, a ha-ha neiner-neiner taunt transmitted from the world of wind and spit. In the quick second between dandelion shaft blinking back to onyx, a gentle violence occurs, crinkling followed by thump. A book has been returned. *** With that thump, the…

  • Covid Diaries: Mice

    Covid Diaries: Mice

    May 19th Out walking this afternoon, I received a message from my sister that made me cry. As an Early Childhood teacher, she’s been missing her wee students these past months, despairing over any meaningful education happening through technology: So, I had to go close down my classroom the other day. I was so afraid…

  • Is That All?

    Is That All?

    What was that, there on the sidewalk? I was finishing my daily constitutional when I spotted a heap of oddities mounded on the cement in front of our house. Bending close for a good peer, I realized it was a wadded-up pair of latex gloves and a couple crumpled bills. Had a neighborhood kid dropped…

  • Covid Diaries: Tea Party

    Covid Diaries: Tea Party

    May 12th My right eyelid has been twitching for four days. May 12th Apparently Allegra’s never heard of flying squirrels before? When Byron asks me which point of the latest Sawbones podcast had me snorting when we were hiking the other day, he wonders, “Was it when Justin was going off on flying squirrels?” “FLYING…

  • Covid Diaries: Giant Gay Love Story

    Covid Diaries: Giant Gay Love Story

    May 5th During one pose in yoga tonight, Ellen told us about a book she has read several times before and is now listening to: The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander. I love it when she tells us stuff while we are letting our fascia relax; if my brain is…

  • Covid Diaries: Bad Lighting

    Covid Diaries: Bad Lighting

    April 28th My biggest take-away from the Zoom board meeting today is that people are completely unaware of the power of good lighting. On the other hand, I can say a few folks’ hair is actually looking better due to these lax times. Important moral: less upkeep can result in a more natural, accessible look.…

  • Covid Diaries: Of Libraries and Naps

    Covid Diaries: Of Libraries and Naps

    April 21st As Paco squeezed three tablespoons of grape jelly onto the peanut butter coating his wake-up toast sandwich, he told me, “I had a moment with my sister last night.” Apparently, having heard the sniffles that have developed to accompany the deep chesty cough that’s been plaguing him, she went into his room to…

  • Covid Diaries: Unclear What to Do Next

    Covid Diaries: Unclear What to Do Next

    April 13th I appreciated the moment in yin yoga when Ellen asked cat lovers to imagine a basket of kitties, dog lovers to imagine a basket of puppies, and those who don’t love either to imagine something that inspires in them a feeling of tenderness – “Pop tarts, maybe.” April 14th My mood was flat.…