“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!
Steeped in Words at the Chinese Garden
It happens this way … Yesterday was a perfect autumn day at the Chinese Garden where we gathered in the Scholars Room to share beauty, camaraderie, and poetry. Thanks to ...
Stunned into understanding
It happens this way … I just finished reading Educated: a memoir by Tara Westover and I can’t remember the last time a book has so unnerved me. It is ...
You can go home again, but …
It happens this way … A few weeks ago I flew to NJ to visit relatives and friends. I hadn’t been back in three years and it was time. My ...
A hug anyone?
It happens this way … One of my fondest high school memories took place at a basketball game. Our girls’ team at St. Mary’s in Perth Amboy, N.J. had a ...
Strategic borrowing
It happens this way … When a writer can’t generate her own words, her best strategy is to borrow from others. Here are some fun quotations that tickle me. I ...
The hardest battle, Part II
It happens this way … Many moons ago I read an article by a psychologist who claimed that little girls begin to lose their True Selves about the age of ...
The hardest battle
To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human ...
Notes from an August Gardener
In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. – Albert Camus Saturday morning and not one bird makes a sound. They’re watching ...
New research suggests evolution might favor ‘survival of the laziest’
It happens this way … Ain’t that a kick in the head! As a child growing up in New Jersey in the ’40s and ’50s, the biggest sin I committed ...
How a Tree Becomes a Bush
Vine maple Sugar maple Rose of Sharon It happens this way … Last fall we cut down a 50-foot-high sugar maple tree, two 12-foot Rose of Sharon trees, one 10-foot ...
In Praise of Boredom
It happens this way … “If my kids ever said, ‘I’m bored,’ I would say, ‘That is great. I’m so glad to hear that. Maybe you’re gonna get creative right ...
Sermons ‘R’ Us
It happens this way … In 1975, Levi Watkins, MD began his career as a pioneering cardiac surgeon at Johns Hopkins, a teaching hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. He spent every ...
In the Bathroom with David Sedaris
It happens this way … I think self-esteem is overrated. I think a certain degree of self-loathing is good. – David Sedaris, “Q&A David Sedaris” by Hugh Delehanty, AARP Bulletin, ...
Notes from the Garden, Part IV
It happens this way … One thing I appreciate about hummingbirds is that they don’t need me to feed them. They love the flowers we’ve planted around the yard, especially ...
Notes from the Garden, Part III
It happens this way … With apologies to birders, I am not one. Of course I enjoy watching them zip around the yard but I’m not happy when they rev up ...
Notes from the Garden, Part II
It happens this way … Six years ago, I planted pink gladiola bulbs and was thrilled when they produced the most delicately colored stalks. Glads usually bloom twice a season ...
Oprah Winfrey and Thích Nhất Hạnh: A Conversation
It happens this way … While the Internet can be maddeningly time-consuming, it can also be surprisingly miraculous. Last Sunday evening as hummingbirds zipped around the yard and the hum ...
Notes from the Garden, Part I
Confessions of a Perennial Gardener Six nurseries ago, I said, I’m through. Colors cozied up in my backyard, five dozen pots brimmed full, and Nature praised, More is less. Anyway, ...
Morning Alert
It happens this way … That old saying about early birds and worms? Our yard must be rich in worm protein since a half-dozen robins visit every day. I enjoy ...
Karma at Work
It happens this way … Back in the early ‘70s when I was a Sister of Mercy teaching English at Mt. St. Mary’s Academy in Watchung, NJ, I met the ...
The gift of being late
It happens this way … Two years ago I made my annual May pilgrimage to Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden a week too late. I missed the height of the rhody ...