I couldn’t decide on a color. I could say it’s a blue day. I woke up in the pitch black to drive my godmother to the airport. Her sister, my ‘aunt’ just died. On the way back the sun was coming up but the sky was mostly gray. The air hummed to the frequency of pain and hurting. We’re not all tuned in at the same times but it’s a pitch everyone knows. Read more
overheard walking the dog down Benton 8 min @ the dining room table Mara hasn’t been here long. She hasn’t been anywhere long recently. She was only on earth three hours. Still it counts as a life. Each life is called a ‘catskin’ and they’re filed and tallied not long after the transition. First they’re hung up much like laundry on a clothesline. Miles and miles of iridescent sheaths, they don’t look morbid because they’re Read more
Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman There’s been a bit of fuss over this book. I love distinct voices and the Ghanian-Brit argot of a pre-teen sounded like something more to love. Game on. There are few books I start and do not finish. I feel an almost moral obligation to not leave a book to languish. But I almost put this book down. Little man’s voice was getting tedious and maybe I was too daft to Read more
Daring Greatly by Brene Brown 8 min @ the desk Bribery. I’m not proud of it. He’s playing with the orange pencil covered in brown basketballs. He’s not doing tricks or anything, just twirling it and staring at it as it moves between his six-i’m-going-to-be-seven-next-week fingers. Five sentences. He’s written three. This has taken half and hour. He rattled off six sentences when we sat down to do the homework, but the ruled paper Read more
I’ve written in the past about being a lover of lists. Not necessarily lists of Bests and Worsts, they can be too simplistic. But I love that lists can make order out of chaos simply by lining up data. I have piles of books and notebooks full of quotes, aphorisms, and koans – so many words to live by! I reflected on my own experiences and put the thoughts into my own words. Here is Read more
I am sitting at the dining table from my childhood. It is at my sister’s house, which is much bigger than the house we grew up in. It is a dull gray day and I am looking out the window, contemplating the meaning of ‘home’. It is one month since I officially returned to my hometown. Well not officially because when I crossed the border at midnight I was too exhausted and reluctant to register my Read more
W.B. YeatsThe Oxford Dictionary of Quotations 8 min @ the rooster cafe His cheeks were red and chapped from too much sun. The satin red shirt was an unfortunate wardrobe choice. But Saturdays were for romance and romance was best performed in red. Anders’ grandfather had been a great heartthrob back in the small mountain town of the old country and Anders quoted him often in affairs of the heart. The history of his war Read more
Every day, we make choices. Life is full of choices. There are big-ticket decisions like where to go on vacation and everyday options like mustard or mayo. I talk a lot about conscious choices. I think that means more than making ethical choices about the food I eat or the cosmetics I use. Being fully conscious means having consistency between my big-ticket choices and my everyday choices. At least that’s the goal. I babysat the Read more