PLANTED IN PENNIES Do you remember the old rhyme “Find a penny pick it up all the day you’ll have good luck”? Does anyone pick up a penny any more? Do most of us dismiss a copper glint on the sidewalk as unworthy of our effort? Seeing a penny and picking it up has always…
Discovering Ourselves in the Time of Pandemic When you live with a chronic illness that keeps you bedridden for days at a time you learn to live life in your mind. You either learn to be comfortable with yourself or you don’t. If you don’t you make yourself and everyone around you miserable. When the…
Yesterday, my book club faced the new reality. We had a phone conference book club meeting. It went surprisingly well. While some chose not to participate, those of us who did found a comfortable space to shelter us. We heard the familiar voices we heard every month. We dove into the story, the messages, the…
My poetry comes from secret messages from nature, from a moment when a sentence, a phrase captures me with its rhythm and the words tumble onto the page. Mostly, my poetry is formed by wild, willful words that seek their own space and way to the page and to the receptive reader. As a member…
What can we ever give to another more sacred and more loving than acceptance of who they are and what they bring to our life. Oh, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person: having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but to pour them out. Just as they are—-chaff and grain…
Meister Eckhart was a German theologian, philosopher and mystic. Among his many inspiring sermons and writings he wrote one entitled, “How all Creatures Share an Equality of Being.” In that sermon he wrote that animals do not love half-halfheartedly. He pointed out that we have a deep level of shared energies, and shared being with…
New Year’s Resolutions Do you make New Year’s resolutions? That deep-felt sincere intention to do something different, something new or stop something not helpful? The mindfulness movement is everywhere these days. It can overwhelm us with its “shoulds”. The message is old and repeated through many approaches and schools of thought. We are commanded to…
A CRUEL MYSTERY “I will tell you not what you want to hear, but what I know to be true because I have lived it. This truth will trouble you, but in the end, you cannot be free without it, because you know it already, your body knows it already.” Arthur Franks, The Wounded…
`It’s raining in my garden. We haven’t had rain in weeks. Sitting here at my computer the sound of the gentle continuous shower nudges my characters’ progress aside as I work on my latest novel. It seems to insist “listen to me, come see, come see.” I rise regretting, for just an instant missing what…
It is a strange feeling for an author, a poet, to send her words out into the deep unknowing. Will they touch the intended heart? The one that was the reason the words needed to be sent out? Will they resonate and leave a trace of affirmation, hope, encouragement? It is a question I must…