65th birthday list for Johnny
I know I joke a lot about Johnny Depp. And I write about Johnny Unitas a lot. And Johnny Appleseed. And Johnny Cash. But the fact is that there is only one Johnny. My Johnny, Mr Brilliant, the father of our two amazing children. And today is his 65th birthday. …
Poets help us wish harder
Breathe-in experience,Breathe-out poetry.-Muriel Rukeyser I fervently pledged as a teenager that I would always remember how I felt then, that when I became a parent, I would remember what life was like then, what mattered then, what I worried about and laughed at then, and what I cried over then. …
Heart unlovable people
Love means to love that which is unlovable, or it is no virtue at all. G.K. Chesterton Ah, Valentine’s Day. In the midst of the hearts and doilies and hand-rolled truffles made from rare Bolivian cocoa nibs with hot hot Argentinian chili powder and Australian wood opal rings from the …
What would love do?
Sometimes we get the message we need. Reading zena musings this morning, I found Carla’s link to this: What would love do? It was written for me. And, perhaps, for you? [perhaps a knitted heart is the perfect image for this message, considering the ways in which knitting can ravel, …
Becoming Larger Than Our Skin Allows
And no, that title isn’t a reference to overeating. In the U.S., today is Thanksgiving Day (and my friend Karrie Manson’s birthday, so a shout out to her for being so powerful that the nation stops when she ages). This year, I’m not spending Thanksgiving at a long table full …
Wear a candle on your head
“Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those I love, I can: all of them make me laugh.” -WH Auden, 1907 A few years ago one December, as I prepared to leave for a business trip, my husband John (aka Kurt Vonnegut’s …
Open your hand
“To receive everything, one must open one’s hands and give.” –Taisen Deshimaru “If my hands are fully occupied in holding on to something, I can neither give nor receive.” –Dorothee Solle One of the wisest people I know is a man named Eliav Zakay from Israel, CEO of a national …
Break stride
"We don’t see things as they are. We see things as we are." -Anais Nin Coming home from Chicago two weeks ago, I was struck irretrievably ill in the cab on the way to the airport, that kind of I’ve- eaten- an- alien- food- poisoning- I’m- unable- to- stop- shaking …
Replace “they” with “we” with “I”
We all believe in equality, as long as it is equality with our superiors. What is the tipping point? I’ve long been fascinated by the fact that our Social Contract works—that people stop at four-way stop signs and allow the person to their right to move first, creating a sweet …
Burn those jeans
“A lot of disappointed people have been left standing on the street corner waiting for the bus marked Perfection.” – Donald Kennedy Since leaving Freedom High School on Independence Boulevard with its (subtle) school colors of red, white, and blue and its aptly named football team (The Patriots, of course), …
