“In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost. …What a wild, and rough, and stubborn wood this was, which in my thought renews the fear!” ― Dante, The Divine Comedy Many years ago, I was recently graduated, newly married, and…
Oh the weather outside is frightful/but the fire is so delightful/and since there’s no place to go… pick up a good book! We have no choice – reading brings us a world only our own imagination enhances. Open a book and escape into another world. Whether you have another flurry of flakes or a deluge…
Last year’s Ash Wednesday was near the end of February. The weekend after Lent began, we met our friends, Jane and her husband, in Times Square for dinner and a musical. Wow—were we innocent, or naïve? We had begun hearing about a virus, but it still seemed somewhere over there. No qualms about riding in…
This has been an interesting week for me… one of being drawn by the words in several different books; one of enjoying zoom calls, texts, and emails with family and friends; and one that has led me into much reflection about “sisterhood”… I started reading a Jan Karon book Mom gave me years ago that…
Life can change in an instant. In my 20s, I was an Army paratrooper with what seemed like a predictable path ahead. Those assumptions vanished during a nighttime tactical parachute mission. In the afternoon before the jump, I went for a run — an experience seared in memory because of how the day ended —…
My first blog of the year was called 20/20 Foresight. This essay will serve as a concluding bookend, an epitaph for the year that is coming to a close. I’ve now gone back a few times and looked at my 2020 vision book. I wanted to see why we had been blindsided. A vision board…
How about an air hug? A virtual hug? It just doesn’t cut it! Everyone misses sitting around a cozy fire together, eating popcorn and watching holiday movies or singing Christmas carols. Forced to examine our family traditions and find new ways to express our love and gratitude for each other, I now often cozy up…
In mid-November, we took a mini-vacation: riding bikes to to downtown DC. The sunny day and mild temperature contributed to the lovely fall day. We acted like hometown tourists, except for being in the midst of a tumultuous election aftermath and a still surging pandemic. A few weeks earlier, some of the Smithsonian museums had…
In September, we drove to Tennessee where we joined our son and his family for camping at Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains. We hadn’t done much camping in recent years, but we had past experiences to draw on. My husband has fond memories of backpacking trips in the Rockies. We had both experienced…
The weather in New England and the Mid Atlantic States joined the Midwest in below freezing temperatures this week. Holiday decorations are springing up all over town. And advertisements for great holiday gifts are everywhere. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. (cue the choir!) (Triumphant music swells) And today, just in time for…
