Sometimes a poem comes out of nowhere and speaks to me. Last night this one from Rilke found me via a podcast I was listening to. The translation here is particularly wonderful. Here it is, from Sonn...
Several years ago, my husband and I found ourselves repeating certain ideas again and again to our daughter, Ada. These weren’t directives like “Eat your green beans,” but more general instructions a...
I’ve been thinking of lines and spaces lately. Every leafy tree invites me to see it two ways: once as an image of the multitude of greens and branches, then once again in negative, seeing only the j...
I woke up last week to see the trees in the yard tinted pink and dusty green, on the very brink of bursting into buds. It literally happened in the space between dusk and dawn, it seemed. Spring alwa...
For much of the winter, the winds here have been fierce and seemingly ever-present. When it's really raging, the wind makes a nearly constant droning sound as it courses through the tops of the trees...
There is an upside to being suggestible. When I think about my suggestibility, I usually don't think about as a positive thing. Rather, I'm stymied by the countless ways I can arouse anxiety in mysel...
Inspired by my friend Irene Latham, last year I chose a single word as a theme for the new year. My word for 2009 was enjoy. It was a great focal word for me, and having chosen it publicly, I thought...
2009 flounced out in a flurry of snow and ice. In its wake, a rush of ideas has been flooding into my mind. I'm welcoming it as much as I'm welcoming the new year.Like the snow, our holidays were sof...
Remembering, always, my dear friend Kim, who died a year ago today.Our family had a lovely few days with her family this past summer. At one point during the visit, D. was looking through one of my f...
For some reason, panna cotta appears to be the next go-to dessert on Bravo's Top Chef lately. A few seasons ago, it was the "scallop," whether actual an mollusk or an imitation made from bananas. But...
It's a time of reflection and thanksgiving, and I remind myself again: it might have been otherwise. I wrote this poem at a time when I was almost consumed with longing and anxiety. Among my desires ...
Spring this year hang on well into the summer, and, in a fitting symmetry, autumn is doing the same thing.That translates to some really beautiful surprises in the garden, like the few handfuls of su...
I started writing this series on influenza because I felt compelled to write about my fears--both the reasonable aspect of them, and the more extreme. My goal for each of these posts is not only to s...
It is the negative definition of flu that concerns me. At its core, influenza is not a simple disease. From an evolutionary standpoint, it's pretty damn elegant and efficient. And complex.There is a ...
Part II: Yet another primer on influenzaI know everyone is inundated with information about influenza these days. Still, a little about the basics makes sense in the context of my post, so here goes....
A multi-part post in which I alternately stand on my soapbox and step down to muse a bit.There was a little birdHer name was Enza.They opened up the window,and in-flew-Enza. --American jump-roping so...
Mermaid, mermaid, blah, blah blah. Anyone who's talked to me in the past month has had their fill of hearing about sewing this costume. Still endnotes are productive for future projects, and for anyo...
It's funny how I can spend over 4 weeks sewing a costume that gets worn for fewer than two hours. And stranger still--I still think it's worth it. For the details of the whole sewing process, see her...
If you've spoken to me in the past two or three weeks, you know my studio is awash in mermaid-like fabric. Here are some peeks at what is happening at the sewing machine:This is a partial view of the...
a wise grownup should not commit to a handmade Halloween costume. Halloween is not a huge holiday around here--that is to say, we don't go all in for the decking out the house all things spooky, and ...
Like every other woman I know, I spend altogether too much time trying to "achieve balance." The fact that that tired phrase includes the word "achieve" is telling. It's held up as a goal for the mod...
I sometimes have insomnia, the kind where you find yourself wide awake at 2 am, mind racing. The river of thoughts that rushes through me at these hours used to be frightening. I would torture myself...
Like so many other people this week, I found myself lost in thoughts of eight years ago, remembering. Indulge me as I take a detour from the tone of my normal postings, and reflect on where I was thi...
I'm learning to focus on what I like to do, and (at least in terms of art/craft), I am going to start delegating the things I don't truly enjoy. With some shame, I admit it: I don't really enjoy quil...
In some of my favorite types of fantasy stories, a person is able to bend the constraints of time and space and communicate to their future or past self. I find this notion endlessly fascinating—what...
As with all summers, this one is flying by faster than I had imagined it would. I've only a moment in between projects, so I'm making this my shortest post ever.I'm still in home improvement mode, wo...
When you choose a lipstick shade, make it one or two shades more intense than your natural lip color. Or, for a more dramatic look, choose a brighter color. If you aren't used to wearing makeup, get ...
1. Rainy weather is good weather. A cool front has settled over our island, and the weather has been extraordinarily cool and rainy for weeks on end. I love it. I'm not in good company, though. Each ...
Because there is not enough space and time, this is a short take. For all the love I have for you, Mom, it would eat the bandwidth of the internet... To my mom:As I write this, the kitchen is filled ...
I am a good cheerleader for myself. When I'm working on a painting, you might hear me talking to myself softly, saying, "Well, he's coming along." The he in question here is Zeus, a lovely dog who be...
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