Today is the first day of the Lunar New Year – Year of the Dragon. I am one quarter Chinese, probably more than half black but there’s a world of bloodlines in my family – including Scottish, Portuguese and Jewish, so all the measurements are suspect. It’s always been easiest Read more…
He’s shuffling down the street with that side to side list kids get when they ‘re cocooned in down – snow pants, parka and heavy soled water proof boots. And he’s bawling. The nylon snow pants keep up the swish swish rhythm under his open mouth sobs. I’m walking nephew Read more…
I hate feeling stuck – stuck in traffic, stuck in the check out line that doesn’t move, or stuck in the subway between stations. The worst is feeling stuck in your own life. It sucks. I particularly hate the ‘you suck’ voice that becomes the interior soundtrack of my stuck Read more…
I’m no statistician but for each death there is a birth. That has been my experience. Within six months of my mother’s death my sister gave birth to nephew No.2. That sounds like pretty limited experience but there are other examples, the most recent ones striking a cord. Last week Read more…
Brevity is not my strong suit. If it can be said in ten words or less I will masterfully find a way to express it in forty. It’s a gift. But there is one arena where I am skillfully succinct – sharing my condolences. It is easy to express myself Read more…
My bank offered me a line of credit last week. There was a small questionnaire that’s usually a minor formality but because I answer yes that someone in my family had been diagnosed with cancer before the age of sixty a follow-up interview was necessary. And so we begin. Last Doctor’s visit? A Read more…
I figured out eventually that it’s not the death and dying, its the absence of the living. Absence being the key. The death and dying part are but a moment, it’s the after part that throws your world upside down and inside out. The absence of that person, once so Read more…
‘Stating the Obvious’ alert. Obviously it’s a challenge to keep my posts regular. This blogging business is harder than I thought. But that’s obviously true for much of life, you just don’t know until you know. And you can’t know until you try. So I’m going to give this another Read more…