Yesterday was the Winter Solstice: the first day of winter and the return of the light. The days grow longer and the nights grow shorter. Like Oliver’s bird, I grow ever more restless. I have an idea–ideas–unfolding from under my wings. Also like the white-eyed bird, I want to go to sleep. … More In Winter, We Rest
I have always loved libraries. All libraries–public, university, school, special collections, archives, personal–are sacred places to me. Some of my earliest memories involve my small hometown library. It opened when I was in elementary school and quickly became a haven for me. The librarian, Marjorie Osborne, was a kind person who allowed me to check … More A Girl and Her Library
April is National Poetry Month. … More Mary Oliver: How I Go to the Woods
Here it is March 12, nearly Spring, and it is snowing in North Carolina. I’m just fine being stuck inside because I am happily lost deep within the pages of a captivating book: Lee Smith’s ‘Dimestore.’ … More Snowy Day Reading: Lee Smith’s ‘Dimestore’
Originally posted on Giving Voice to My Astonishment:
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” George Santayana Warning: I’m currently re-reading W.G. Sebald’s The Rings of Saturn. This post may cause melancholy, circuitous thinking, excessive thinking, and/or general confusion. Or, perhaps, it will make you think. Read at your own risk. I’ve…
Call of the Cats: What I learned about Life and Love from a Feral Colony by Andrew Bloomfield (I need to preface this review with an admission: I am a cat lover. I admit it: I love cats. I have four former ferals of my own. Or more accurately, I am owned by four former ferals.) … More Call of the Cats: What I Learned about Life and Love from a Feral Colony
“‘The only constant in life is change,’ and if we want to be fully engaged in any moment, we need to embrace this simple statement,” writes Thomas M. Sterner in Fully Engaged: Using the Practicing Mind in Daily Life. But what exactly does it mean to be fully engaged? And how many of us … More Fully Engaged: A Book Review
Life, as most of us experience it, often consists of challenge and conflict. So begins Roger Housden’s book, Dropping the Struggle: Seven Ways to Love the Life You Have. That statement calls to mind the Buddha’s First Noble Truth, the truth of suffering. As humans, suffering and struggle are two of our least favorite words, … More Dropping the Struggle: Book Review
And Then All That Has Divided Us Will Merge. I’ve written in previous posts about the power of poetry to console, heal, connect, and explain the unexplainable. This poem, ‘The Merger Poem,’ by Judy Chicago does exactly that. Plus, it gives me hope for a more just, equitable, and harmonious future. The refrain, And then, seems … More And Then All That Has Divided Us Will Merge
“It’s odd: there are moments when books beckon to you and the words you find in them are the ones you need then and there.”~~Marie Chaix I enjoy reading French literature, translated to English, of course. One of my favorite French authors is Marie Chaix. I could tell you why that is so, write an … More The Beckoning of French Literature
Giving Voice to My Astonishment 
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