Last week my grandmother died. My mother’s mother was 96, and the matriarch of a large extended family centered in Delaware. She was an important presence in the lives of her children and grandchildren right up until the end, and we will all miss her very much. At the funeral on Friday my mother delivered the eulogy, and it was just right. We all felt she captured Grandma’s spirit and the reasons we will miss her. I wanted to include an excerpt from the address here in the blog. . . . → Read More: Goodbye, Grandma
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There is no word in English to describe the feeling of mingled joy and sadness at the beauty of fleeting experience. The Japanese have the concept of “mono no aware,” or the sadness of things. It’s very much connected to a Buddhist sense of the brevity of life and the transience of beauty, summed up in the old Japanese phrase “swirling petals, falling leaves.” . . . → Read More: Another Gift from the Mulberry Tree So I finally got some time to update the blog. Actually I was forced into it by my mutinous body. Mind was sailing along on its usual routine, getting things done and planning ahead. Body put an abrupt stop to all that by succumbing to an acute cold, one of the worst I’ve ever had. I spent the week of the Thanksgiving holiday lying on the couch with an ever-accumulating pile of crumpled tissues and endless cups of tea, whispering pathetically to my long-suffering husband since my voice had vanished. . . . → Read More: Sniff, Sniff Months ago, I booked myself for a weeklong yoga intensive with a well-respected Iyengar-style teacher. For weeks before I was beefing up my home practice to try to be prepared, since the man leading the seminar has a reputation as a precise and demanding instructor. Sadly, the course had to be cancelled when our teacher suffered a serious injury the very evening before the course was supposed to begin. So there I was last Monday morning, all dressed up in my yoga clothes and nowhere to go. When you’ve spent that long building up to something it takes a while to switch gears. . . . → Read More: Switching Gears After living here so many years, I know fairly precisely when the migratory birds of summer will be back. The wrens arrived just a bit late because of our cold weather, and have now been here a week. Since their arrival they’ve been busy setting up in the little bird house that hangs from one of my dogwood trees. The hole in the wren house is carefully sized to allow the passage of only the tiniest birds. The wrens fit nicely, as they’re only 4 1/2 inches long. That small entrance hole is a source of immense frustration to the larger, fatter sparrows, who try incessantly to squeeze themselves in. . . . → Read More: Wren and Catbird Are Back Tuesday our high here was 83 warm and glorious degrees. At the house we had the windows open wide, and the breezes were wafting through the house stirring up dust bunnies from under the furniture all day. Dust bunnies are a small price to pay for the soft spring air, but it was a . . . → Read More: Signs of Spring I’m never up late enough to watch David Letterman, much less Craig Ferguson who comes on after him. I found this clip via another blog, Dooce.com, and thought it was worth watching. Long, but worth it. In this clip he talks about why he won’t be making fun of Britney Spears. It’s so rare . . . → Read More: Kind Hearts Are Worth More than Coronets I got into a discussion with my husband the other day about why I’ve stopped listening to virtually all television and radio news. I used to feel that the news was almost a civic duty, part of being an adult citizen. But after years of dutifully watching and listening, I realized that most often . . . → Read More: Are You Worried? |
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