Swimming against the grain
I work for a big fancy university. The powers that be there conveniently provide a shuttle from the thoroughfare at the end of my road straight to my office. It’s a very lucky thing and saves me untold mental strain and dollars during hustling rush hour commutes. But because it’s on the busiest street in … Continue reading
Summer creeps and leaps to life all out of order. And never quite what I expect. Yesterday was summer because I could see the residual flush of a long sunny walk the day before in my skin. Today is summer because I bite into leftover corn on the cob straight from the fridge, with its … Continue reading
Simplify
things are manic this fall. I’m teaching a night class; Beanie’s seeing evening clients; I’m traveling a bunch, especially right at the end of my talk tour season. We can go whole weeks without an evening at home. So normal nesting routines of slow roasted squash and seasonal charm will be seized in small moments … Continue reading
In the last few years I’ve trained myself to snatch small windows of quiet. I need to recharge my batteries at least a couple times a day, and have learned to make the most of the moments I have instead of waiting for the hours I don’t. So tonight, with 10 minutes between my regular … Continue reading
Iowa
Imagine for a second the state of Iowa. Probably you see farms. Perhaps a church. Almost definitely wide open land and big skies. Even if you have never seen the endless fields of the American breadbasket, the region’s reputation precedes it, and by a wide margin. My own Iowa memories center on my great-grandmother’s attic … Continue reading
Bus
Friday morning: Been away; work-traveling. Weekend of more work ahead. Dull, misty skies. Mouse in the kitchen. Clothed wrinkly, cupboards bare. Late. Groggy. Frizzy hair, make-up streaks. Almost miss the bus. RUN to make it, last one of forty to pile in, the front half full to standing. Push through. And there, right in the … Continue reading
Let there be light!
Be still, my heart: it is February 9th and I leave my office in very overcast yet decidedly daylight. How quickly it has come! I hardly think winter’s been at all in these parts. Apparently somewhere else is bearing the brunt of it this year, for in England there are daffodils and here there is … Continue reading
bigger things
After a long bout of illness, my mind is regaining some of its pep. Predictably, there is a magnetic draw back to things undone and promises made. But there is this liminal space before I’m quite back up to full speed where bigger, wilder aspirations peep from my horizon. Where things I want to be … Continue reading
Winter has come
Winter has finally arrived. While later than usual, I still welcome the stillness such wild weather brings. Slipping on seasonal habits and familiar sensations like clothes brought of out storage. My daily walks by Lake Michigan are now deeply solitary, most folk avoiding the icy sea spray and blistering burn of thighs chaffed by frozen … Continue reading
A smattering of autumn
I am a creature of beginnings. Of mornings and hello!s and fresh starts. Of new places and new combinations. The excitement of fresh projects and somedays always outweighs the pedantry of proofreading, don’t they? But in the final sigh of summer, in a year with a great deal of New already, I’m calling time out. … Continue reading
Que Sera Sara? 