The vows were exchanged under a fruit filled apple tree, alongside a small creek. The bride wore a silk sheath gown with a white rose behind her ear. Draped in a shawl, she was escorted by her father, who had arrived the day before from Spain. They walked past the gardens and the pottery studio, […]
He brought me a pineapple and told me I looked like Pocahontas. Last month it was Mary Poppins that I looked like. I helped him pick tomatoes from my garden, verbally directing him or guiding his hand because he’s legally blind and developmentally disabled. I put tomato in the bologna sandwich that I made for […]
There’s a mad rush in June to get married, graduate, go to a prom, or on a summer vacation. In my own life, I attended my son’s fiancé’s graduation from nursing school in June. It was a large class in a big auditorium. To keep my mind busy during the hour and a half of […]
On Friday morning, I drove two hours to have an unlikely picnic with my husband, Joe. We drove past Grayson Highland State Park where we had hiked and picnicked before, past the Creeper Trail in Damascus, Virginia, where camped and biked two years ago. I’m not big on driving. He usually does it. But this […]
AKA: Morning Conversations My husband, Joe, and I were lounging around in bed this morning. He, who has much more morning energy than I do, had just taken 3 phone calls, was in the middle of enthusiastically recounting the Chinese Medicine workshop he attended the day before, and giving me a foot rub all at […]
My girlfriend, Juniper, called me from her cell phone on her way to the airport. She was headed for “The City of Love,” San Francisco, to visit one of her sons and was wearing a poppy flower in her hair for the occasion. I can always tell that it’s Juniper when I pick up the […]
I flew a kite! It was Josh’s friend Rachel’s birthday and we were up in the field on Dogwood hill just before sunset to celebrate. I spotted it in the sky while walking up to crest carrying a basket full of snacks and extra warm clothes. “A kite!” I blurted out to Josh and Joe […]
“You couldn’t fool your mother on the foolingest day of your life even if you had an electrified fooling machine.” — Homer Simpson I’m a fool who loves fooling but can’t keep a straight face while doing it. I prefer to be the fooler rather than the foolee, but I feel a certain pressure […]
I used to think something was wrong with me, but now I just accept it. I’m not your hostess type. Burning pots on the stove and letting the housework go while being distracted by poetry is something I’ve always been upfront about and even confessed to in my wedding vows when my husband and I […]
There was a blizzard of writing on the Love-Link, the family email group I belong to that was started before my brother Danny died and while he was in the hospital. Words like “projectile vomiting” were flying around, along with recipes for chicken soup and updates on how many inches of snow were falling in […]
Sipping tea on the couch while looking out my window, I can just barely see the footprints made yesterday when my husband and I went out walking in the snow. They look like craters on the surface of the moon. The morning sun across the stretch of yard where my sons used to play soccer […]
I’ve got a notion…I might as well be closer to your heart…It’s out in the open…I might as well be closer to your heart… ~ song by Clannad ~ While walking hand in hand to the mailbox recently with my husband, I asked him, “Can you remember the exact moment you fell in love with […]
