Musings

Alan lit the end of a curled up piece of newspaper and held it inside the stove for a moment. The flame wavered and then caught hold, and the thin layer of smoke swirled up the chimney. He set it down on the cast iron grate and carefully arranged a few scraps of wood around it and closed the door. We quietly watched in anticipation.

[Read more…] about Focus: Fire

I did something nostalgic recently. I made grape juice. My mom’s recipe, straight from my childhood. It’s easy enough to make, if you’re into that sort of thing. Grapes, a pinch of sugar in a quart jar, then fill with boiling water and can.

[Read more…] about Hindsight 2020

I decided to try something new this week. Skip the fretting about things beyond my control. Stop binge-reading the news. Cement myself fully in the real world – the analog one.

[Read more…] about Unwind

This past weekend we went for a walk through what we call our orchard – mostly it’s where we want our orchard to be. There are a few fruit trees, but none mature enough to bear fruit. But we visit every so often to hope and wonder how much longer it will be.

[Read more…] about A Change Will Come

I received the nicest rejection letter the other day. In part because I wasn’t expecting one. I hadn’t applied to anything, and wasn’t sitting on pins and needles waiting for a response. It simply appeared.

That is, it appeared because someone else submitted my work for consideration to something. Which was both incredibly thoughtful and completely unexpected. So instead of emotionally registering as the outcome of some sort of high-stakes poker game, rejection felt like a sweet surprise.

[Read more…] about Allies and Advocacy

I’ve been getting a lot of messages from the Universe lately. Little ones, but deceptively important. Meghan Brondos’s nudge to find stillness. A random social media post admonishing everyone to stop pretending everything is okay. We’re in that groggy space after getting up in the morning but before we’re fully awake. The days after an illness when we’re no longer sick, but not fully well, either. The in between when we try to do too much, push too hard, return to normal too quickly.

[Read more…] about The Lingering