This is a night I want to remember. It started like this: It was light and warm, the sun still out. We were all out walking our dogs, all the neighbors, and walking our legs, and getting some fresh air, tired of being inside, weighted down. Then walking led to sitting on a porch, just … Continue reading A night to remember.
Once upon a time, a long time ago, three oak trees grew in front of our house. The trees (saplings, surely) were planted in the strip between street and sidewalk in the early 1900s, when forest became suburb and our neighborhood was built, three whole miles from the downtown city center. By the time we … Continue reading Green is for the growing time.
I had such a funny story to share with you, and I was so pleased with myself to have a funny story to share before sharing the not-funny story that has been on my mind in recent weeks. It was all there, the funny story, in my head, in the morning, while I was making … Continue reading A few things: August 2019
[Sunday afternoon, in the kitchen] B: What are you so agitated about? J: It’s the guns. It’s the fucking guns. B: Jennifer, it’s not the guns. I know you want it to be the guns, but it’s not the guns. J: Actually, it IS the guns. Because when you take out every other controllable variable … Continue reading An actual conversation, in our house, about guns.
I cooked (beans and a ham hock), peeled peaches, sliced figs. I sewed - three dresses in one weekend. I went to church, read Ecclesiastes: "I, the Teacher, when king over Israel in Jerusalem, applied my mind to see and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven; it is an unhappy … Continue reading It’s the guns.
We drove home from dinner, a cozy evening with a few friends, and changed into our nightclothes to wait. It was early, and it was cold, and we were winter-tired, feet moving to the rhythm of a primal hibernation call. Our children were nestled under covers, watching Netflix and avoiding homework. It had the normal … Continue reading Slivers of infinite happiness.
When I was small and days were most often spent with just the two of us, my mother and me, filling time as we pleased, I spent countless hours in parks and museums, wandering aimlessly and looking at trees, art, and artifacts. Our most frequent haunt was the Brooks Museum, where my mother liked to … Continue reading How art might save the world.
It's thankfulness season, time for the annual spilling of gratitude that began mid-month and will end when a wave of resolutions takes over, as if gratitude must be bound by beginning and end points. I don't mean to sound cynical. Certainly I have many things to be thankful for. Among my many blessings - beyond … Continue reading The way we were.
