throwing rocks
A week ago I lay flat on the floor. My back had gone out and my chiropractor appointment was several hours away. What did I… Read More »throwing rocks
A week ago I lay flat on the floor. My back had gone out and my chiropractor appointment was several hours away. What did I… Read More »throwing rocks
I walk through the dizzying array of autumn splendor and I feel a lump in my throat. It’s a small fist of anxiety, stubbornly wedged… Read More »autumn anxiety
Today I looked back over the past five years, and I wrote down two versions of each year. For example, this is what I was… Read More »the stories I tell
The time of the Queen Anne’s lace is over. Summer is ending fast. Riding my bike, I watch the leaves begin to change. A single… Read More »flashes of color
I spent the weekend at beautiful Rowe Camp & Conference Center for a workshop. All weekend I saw swallowtail butterflies, yellow like embodied sunlight. Butterflies… Read More »black butterfly
I sit in the sun and wait for the shift to happen. The lilacs are nearly blooming. Their heart-shaped leaves flutter nonchalantly in the breeze,… Read More »shift
The sunlight gleams on the dirt-streaked bus window. The vinyl seat across the aisle glows. We flash past the snow and cattails. The fields and… Read More »winter bus ride
Let’s say my time is fabric. Sometimes I am the scarf draped over the small altar where I sit for centering prayer. The scarf is… Read More »fabric of my days
Today I listen to Yo-Yo Ma play Bach’s cello suites and I dance around the kitchen. I have lived most of my hours aiming to… Read More »adventures in uselessness
Today the sky is an apt metaphor. There is plenty of light to see, but clouds have covered over the blue. I look up and… Read More »clouds and wind
I woke very early and eased my body out of bed. The attic floorboards creaked beneath my careful feet. David slept soundly in the imperfect silence. The darkness of morning usually… Read More »candle or no candle
I woke with a dozen tasks on my radar: curtains to hang, the office to organize, photo enlargements to order. We host our family next weekend,… Read More »the willow and me
The blue jay spread wide his wings and restored me to myself. The spare room is too cold for yoga, and the cat had spent the night… Read More »window
As I walked from the bike shop to the Atomic Café, it occurred to me: I am carrying too much. I’d filled my backpack with enough… Read More »a walk
A year ago a group of beloved friends spirited me away for a lakeside bachelorette weekend. Food, drink, sublime surroundings, and dancing in the kitchen . .… Read More »the duck thief
Inconvenience is an invitation into the present moment. Some days I need to be invited repeatedly. The first time I took the laundry into the elevator on… Read More »the inconvenient day
Vespa came to me in my dreams last night, wanting a walk. She wagged her tail and moaned her emphatic morning song, and off we… Read More »walk, linger, love
I cracked the car’s bumper last week. I was pulling out of an unusual spot in our parking garage and hit a railing. The unappetizing… Read More »meditations on a dented sedan
High time I fess up: my plan for the year failed. I came here with the dream of investing time in my writing: submitting essays,… Read More »conditions for joy
It started with the Wyoming Santa. A brief, typed note and two gift cards from a postal box in Gillette. We looked at each other… Read More »Wyoming Santa
Ah, not to be cut off, not through the slightest partition shut out from the law of the stars. The inner — what is it?… Read More »the winds of homecoming
My friend Ralph Eckhardt sent this picture the other day. He wrote, “I had just been thinking about your latest Breathe Deep and praying for… Read More »tree roots and laundry
It’s a rainy morning in Wichita. Most of the colored leaves in the courtyard below our apartment still cling to their branches. The flags whip… Read More »Wichitastic
Two weeks ago I rode against the wind to teach my second yoga class at Truesdell Middle School. News flash, Toto: sometimes in Kansas, the… Read More »not yet
I haven’t skinned my knee in years, so when I stumbled over the extra-high curb at Mark and Cheryl’s three weeks ago, I knew it… Read More »skinned knees, fresh cantaloupe, Basic Principles
Dear Quentin, Happy August! I miss your songs and stories. Remember how we used to find luminous, common things on the playground at recess? I… Read More »dear Quentin
I woke early Sunday morning, wearied by the ludicrous night visions only a bride-to-be must endure. A shower rinsed off the outermost layer of fretfulness.… Read More »the Sun and the shower
Tuesday morning I found a dead field mouse. It was in the shed where I keep my bike. My breath caught on the sharp edge… Read More »something to bury
Driving home from the Grub Street conference last Sunday, I worked my camera with my right hand and the steering wheel with my left. The… Read More »70 miles per hour
Last Monday morning I planned to write about Vespa the dog. While my friends the Worsfolds take their customary April trip, I inhabit their home… Read More »the Monday after
Looking back, you’ll want to be able to say that you walked in all kinds of weather. You’ll want to know that you caught the… Read More »looking back
Blessed be the first bite of birthday cake. Hallowed be that moment, long before the gears of memory began to turn, when I learned that… Read More »in praise of all things sweet
On my walk to the beach I snap pictures of other people’s yards. Winter and spring coexist right now, and for all my talk… Read More »the momentous in-between
My hips slide out of place for the second week in a row. “It’s been very mild both these times,” says my chiropractor after I… Read More »the definition of darkness
On the train home to Boston yesterday I gazed out the window at the new fallen snow. Celebrating my birthday with my family in Philadelphia… Read More »new and not-so-new
Lately my heart has felt near to splitting its seams. It’s partly because this is my first Christmas far from my family. It’s also the… Read More »if this isn’t nice, i don’t know what is
Okay, sulky self. You woke up still sick, but you might as well get out of bed. Put on your sneakers and your hat. The… Read More »profusion
A few years back, I started walking the labyrinth at my school. In the midst of a bustling teaching day, taking ten minutes to walk… Read More »trees, sparrows & jackhammers
The cure for unwanted weather is immersion. You envisioned a scenic drive to New Hampshire but woke to interminable drizzle? Snap pictures from the driver’s… Read More »the cure for unwanted weather