“It happens this way” are the opening words from a poem of mine called “A Few Words on Inspiration.” They signal that this blog will share what inspires me to stand up – like poet Galway Kinnell – and say “with as little concealment as possible, what it is for [me] to be on earth at this moment.”
Welcome to the journey!
Challenges for a Non-Pet Person
It happens this way … My local friends are probably tired hearing about the anxiety I’ve been feeling — not about important issues like the virus or riots — but ...
Read More
Read More
Anything Is Possible at 75
It happens this way … I’ve been in love with the dancer/choreographer Twyla Tharp ever since I read her book The Creative Habit, Learn it and Use It for Life ...
Read More
Read More
Around the corner
It happens this way … One of the minor disappointments during this time of quarantine is not being able to make my annual pilgrimage to the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden ...
Read More
Read More
A Sunday Thought
It happens this way … Last Sunday at 8:00 a.m. I was standing on a long line of folks waiting to get into Home Depot. Masked and unmasked, we were ...
Read More
Read More
An Easter Sunday Memory
It happens this way … In 1970 I was a Sister of Mercy and an English teacher at Camden Catholic High School in Cherry Hill, NJ. When Easter Sunday arrived ...
Read More
Read More
Welcome to my new blog site
It happens this way … Why use two sites when one will do? In the name of simplicity and frugality — and with the help of Shawn Aveningo-Sanders, my favorite ...
Read More
Read More
Ode to Toilet Paper
It happens this way … Sometimes levity is the best reaction to today’s news. Here’s the lightest of light verse. Ode to Toilet Paper Oh, what enticing names: Angel Soft, ...
Read More
Read More
Sharing Sight with Monet
It happens this way … Thanks to Jacinta, Petra, and Aimee for publishing “Eye-minded” in the Spring 2020 issue of their glorious magazine. Snapdragon: a journal of art and healing ...
Read More
Read More
Poetry in English and Arabic
It happens this way … Next Saturday, March 7, from 2-4 p.m. the Ledding Library in Milwaukie, Oregon, will host its annual bilingual poetry reading. The event is a collaboration ...
Read More
Read More
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
It happens this way … I just finished reading Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb. Gottlieb is a therapist who not only shares her experiences with challenging patients, ...
Read More
Read More
Turn every day into a Valentine!
It happens this way … When little irritations get in the way, I try to remember what I wrote in this poem. Happy Valentine’s Day –– and may you all ...
Read More
Read More
What I Learned from the Presbyterians
It happens this way … On the evening of January 15, while my students and I gathered in our local library for another meeting of the Happy Valley Poetry Society, ...
Read More
Read More
The Best 15:54 Minutes You’ll Spend This Year
It happens this way … I’ve taken a break from blogging for a few weeks during this holiday season, not because I was very busy (the holidays were kind and ...
Read More
Read More
Away in a manger ten days before Christmas …
It happens this way … One of my goals as a young poet was to rewrite the Bible from a woman’s point of view. Over the years, I’ve slowly accumulated poems ...
Read More
Read More
Sunday Evening with Buddha
It happens this way … While doing some research on the Buddha for a poem, I came across a series of his quotations tonight. I thought I’d share some of ...
Read More
Read More
What I Just Learned from High School Students
It happens this way … During the past week, Kathy and I had the pleasure of going to Reynolds High School in Troutdale and to David Douglas High School in ...
Read More
Read More
Breaking with Charity
It happens this way … By some strange You-Tube happenstance, I came across the conversation Tara Westhover, the author of Educated, had with Jeffrey Goldberg, Editor-in-Chief of The Atlantic, at the ...
Read More
Read More
To All Dog Lovers Out There
It happens this way … A friend just emailed me to say she put down her dog this morning. It was a compassionate thing to do since her sweet pet ...
Read More
Read More
SMITTEN: How do we identify ourselves?
It happens this way … There’s a new anthology coming out in a few weeks called SMITTEN: This Is What Love Looks Like from Indie Blu(e) Publishing. It features 120 women, ages ...
Read More
Read More
In Memory of 9/11
It happens this way … Here, a Holding On for New York City October 1, 2001 Twenty days of barricades and twos and threes pause on Chambers Street – ...
Read More
Read More
The Theology of Not-Yet
It happens this way … I just finished reading Nine Essential Things I’ve Learned About Life by Harold S. Kushner, the author of Why Bad Things Happen to Good People ...
Read More
Read More
Beware of staring ducks
It happens this way … Yesterday I received my paperback copy of the summer issue of QU, a literary magazine published by Queens University of Charlotte, NC. I knew they had ...
Read More
Read More
To the last days of August …
It happens this way … Notes from an August Gardener In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. – Albert Camus Sunday ...
Read More
Read More
Make More Mistakes
It happens this way … Last week’s post about my lying to cover up mistakes uncovered a distant memory. It was 1980 and I was standing at the kitchen sink ...
Read More
Read More
Oh! What A Tangled Web We Weave …
It happens this way … Rarely does a book so captivate me that I stay up late and get up early to finish it. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarity was ...
Read More
Read More
In Praise of Left Hands
It happens this way … It only took minor minor-surgery to make me realize how important a left hand is. (For all the lefties out there, read “right hand.”) The ...
Read More
Read More
Changing the Hospital Narrative
It happens this way … I used to hate hospitals. When I was in sixth grade, I fractured an ankle while ice skating on Woodbridge pond on New Year’s Eve ...
Read More
Read More
The East Coast Diaries, Part VIII
It happens this way … July 5: We left Philly for a final visit with my mom and a delightful lunch with my Mount student Ampy Pikarsky (’72) and her ...
Read More
Read More
The East Coast Diaries, Part VII
It happens this way … The 4th of July in Philadelphia where it all started! My Mount student Rhonda Fabian (’75) and her husband Jerry met us for front row seats ...
Read More
Read More
