Feeling the Weight of Time Today I’m feeling the weight of time. I glimpsed myself in the bank’s overhead monitor and saw not an older woman with graying roots and eyebrows in bad need of waxing but a younger version with two dark brown ponytails at a family picnic, remembered trail rides on a summer […]
Rockabye Baby
My two-year-old daughter was missing. I’d been sitting in a lawn chair under the Georgia pines that summer morning while I watched her play in the driveway and must have dozed off again. I ran around the yard and through the house and back outside calling for her—not too loud because I didn’t want to […]
How to Face Winter with Hope
About hope and Haiti and purpose in later years.
There Is No Hurry
There is No Hurry I pour tomatoes and chop sweet onion, snip parsley frills and crush some basil, dash salt, sprinkle sugar. Stir. I race against the clock. Hurry. A tasty sauce takes time to simmer, but hungry stomachs will arrive at six. I rattle glasses, bang the stainless, wash and wipe. Outside a silver needle […]
Are You Growing Up or Becoming Old?
Whoever decided small critters were good for older people? When I bent down to pick up the littlest dog during the morning rush, something in my left lower back went awry. After I’d deposited the oldest grand-girl at the school curb and returned home, I cranked the shower up hotter than hot and let the […]
aging with corn, cars, and snowshoes
Age puzzles me. I thought it was a quiet time. My seventies were interesting and fairly serene, but my eighties are passionate. . . To my own surprise, I burst out with hot conviction. ~Florida Scott-Maxwell as quoted in Mindfulness, p. 93 I’ll call him John. He was a retired minister who lived in the foster […]
when you’re locked and blocked and your memory fails
I’m backed into a grove of trees next to the softball field fence. I usually just hang out here while Grace practices for two hours. I read and write, doze a little, cheer a little, maybe listen to a Tiger’s game. It’s hot today, but I’ve rolled the windows down and a cool breeze […]
31 Days of Coming to Grips with My Age ~ Day 31: Laugh or Die
I did it! Except for getting behind a couple of times and having to quadruple days once, I caught up and completed this series. I’m now 31 days older now, and I don’t care. I’ve learned that living too much in the past gets old and worrying too much about the future steals hope. That […]
31 Days of Coming to Grips with My Age ~ Day 30: When You’re Feeling Weathered and Worn
I saw her for the first time today. She’s sat there for probably 150 years, and I’ve passed her by 150 times–or more. I don’t know what caught my eye on this gray misty day. I don’t know what forced me to halt the Journey half on road, half in ditch and gaze on her […]
31 Days of Coming to Grips with My Age ~ Day 29: Planting and Harvest
This is what is happening in our field (and will continue late into the night) while Hurricane Sandy slams the east coast. We’re expecting her to visit here later after most of her fury is spent. Our world here is all pink and gold and peaceful while the storm rages elsewhere. “Don’t be misled: No […]
