Current events

Fifteen years ago this week, I was lying in a Manhattan hospital recovering from a back surgery that almost killed me. Yes, the brilliant doctor who straightened my crooked spine and changed my life was white. But the people who got me through the day-to-day did not speak English as their first language. And to a one, they were superb. Julio, was my very own ICU recovery nurse who brought me ice chips and spoke words of comfort and reassurance when I woke up intubated and wit

Last week, on the way to a wedding in Ohio, we stopped at the Flight 93 Memorial near Stoysville, Pennsylvania. It is a somber place in the middle of nowhere. The weather was crisp and cool with brilliant blue skies, similar to the weather on September 11, 2001. A large boulder placed in a field marks the exact spot of the crash. At the visitor’s center, a number of interactive displays detail the tragic events that occurred that day, forever changing a rural part of our stat

I just read a blog post entitled Singing Through the Apocalypse. Yes, I can relate. And I also write little stories and shoot them out into the world, like casting a fishing line into the ocean. I seldom get a bite, but when I do, it’s satisfying to know someone read my story and thought it worthy of attention. Lately I’ve been doing more writing and taking more chances on getting my work published, because, well, I just have to. And, like the older person I am, I go to churc

As I watched the Queen’s funeral ceremonies this morning, my eyes were drawn to Prince George and Princess Charlotte. Beautifully dressed, right down to Charlotte’s precious little black hat, they stood quietly beside their parents. They didn’t squirm or fidget or need a video game to keep them occupied. They were being taught that there are times when we need to put up with a little discomfort and set aside our own agendas and things we’d rather be doing in order to show re

Memorial Day weekend is a little different for us this year. We’re on day four of our Covid isolation. No dragging the chairs out of the basement for the long-awaited first trip to the outdoor pool. No picnic for friends and family. My husband will not leave early tomorrow morning for a parade and solemn cemetery performance with his drum corps. Instead, there were frantic phone calls and emails yesterday to plan parade logistics, since several leaders of the corps are also C

The images are too pervasive, and I can’t get away from them, much as I’d like to. The woman standing in front of the pancake mixes and bottles of syrup in the local grocery store announcing, “Well, now, we can’t even have Aunt Jemima anymore. It has to be ‘Pearl Milling Company’ because someone had to throw a tantrum and pound their fists on the floor because Aunt Jemima hurt their widdy-biddy feelings.” She said it with a sneer in her voice and loudly enough that anyone wi

I grew up in a family of backyard bird-watchers. My grandfather hung feeders on poles high off the ground that aligned with the windows of what he called his den—the room with the old-fashioned typewriter and a worn green leather recliner smelling faintly of Old Spice after-shave. He’d crank the casement windows open, and I would help him fill different kinds of seed feeders and dab peanut butter into logs with holes drilled into them. He taught me to identify chickadees and

I wrote about what I learned from quarantine way back in the spring and thought I’d revisit, now that we’re closing the books on 2020. I am incredibly grateful for my health. I never dreamed the new reading chair I bought in fall of 2019 would get so much use. Our twenty-three-year-old, no-repairs-ever-and-still-going-strong dishwasher should be in the appliance hall of fame. I don’t know if it’s a result of the pandemic or my age or having endured a year of the gha

Quiet Sunday, as most of them are these days. No rushing off to church and choir practice or drum corps rehearsal. A lot to process as we trim back bushes and shrubs and clean up pots of fading annuals which have given it their all since May. As the hibiscus and mandevilla continue to push out a few token blooms in the seventy-degree weather, it’s hard to believe we’ll be hanging Christmas lights in a few short weeks. Recent days brought stress and shock and relief and joy al

I sat in a meeting recently where a consultant told us to “examine our own prejudices,” before interviewing candidates for a job opening. That how each of us personally feels about an individual’s age, gender, sexual orientation, or ethnicity could affect our perception of his or her ability to do the job. No matter how vehemently we deny it or how politically correct we see ourselves, we all harbor prejudice of some kind. It's part of the human condition. The tough part is k