The final game of the 2022 World Cup and the annual Christmas pageant at church both kicked off at ten o’clock this morning. Since I was only able to record one of them, I saw the pageant in person. As is the case in many churches, the drama is designed as a retelling, or a…
hippo, hooray I’ve done my share of writing about the weight of the world but here are a few weightless words of joy for a day spent walking talking eating laughing building memories in a town where none of us lives yet we created a space of belonging for one another because that’s what friends…
Ginger and I have spent the last couple of days working to get packages in the mail for our family, who are scattered about the country. Yesterday afternoon while Ginger was at work, I was home baking cookies to pack and send (and let Rachel have a few), which meant I got to pick the…
weather report when I was in high school dad told me to be a weatherman “you can be wrong everyday and you never get fired” I walked to coffee this morning in cold sunshine said the sky looked like snow this afternoon and sent the schnauzers out in the rain tonight who could see that…
I drove someone in town to their doctor’s appointment in North Haven today. Last week, Ginger became aware that someone in town needed a ride to their chemotherapy appointment and other family issues meant he didn’t have one. My flexible schedule made it easy for me to play chauffeur. It was their second treatment and…
I have struggled to write tonight. I have been sitting at the screen for a couple of hours and have three or four beginnings to poems that should not be finished. Somewhere in my search for something, I remembered a poem I wrote many years ago–when I was teaching high school–and it has remained important…
Today was my birthday, so I’m am finding my way to the keyboard in the waning moments to say I am glad to be alive and aging. Birthdays at our house are intentionally surprises. The person being celebrated is given information about the day on a need to know basis. For me, that meant leaving…
One of the highlights of our time in Durham was the monthly gathering at Fullsteam Brewery for “Beer and Hymns.” Jesse DeConto and his bandmates led us in singalongs, both sacred and secular. One of those Sunday nights was the first time I ever heard “Canticle of the Turning.” my soul cries out with a…
a shared table It is not news to say I love to cook for people. I have told the story of our Thursday Night Dinners many times. As I have tried to negotiate life without a regular income, two friends from church, Gus and Mike, suggested we host ticketed dinners where I cooked and people…
zoom before the word was a way to talk across the pandemic or sent kids around the room Zoom was the nickname of one who captivated my country with the way he played football I was a child in Zambia kicking soccer balls in the backyard and chanting his name as we sat in the…