“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!
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 ...
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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, ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 – ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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The East Coast Diaries, Part VI
It happens this way … We continued July 3 with a visit to the magnificent National Constitution Center. Outside, re-enacters roamed the mall with their tents, costumes, and stories told ...
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The East Coast Diaries, Part V
It happens this way … July 3rd started a block away from our hotel with a celebration with the Philadelphia Fire Department. Since Benjamin Franklin founded the first department, his ...
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The East Coast Diaries, Part IV
It happens this way … Tuesday, July 2: My dear sister/friend, Bernadette Pape who works for the Jesuits in Merion, Pennsylvania, came into town for a stroll and breakfast at ...
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The East Coast Diaries, Part III
It happens this way … If you thought we were finished on Monday, July 1, you would be so wrong! We discovered that the new Museum of the American Revolution ...
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The East Coast Diaries, Part II
It happens this way … Monday, July 1: First full day of Philadelphia sightseeing. We started with the Liberty Bell and met a delightful couple from Limerick, Ireland: Patricia and ...
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The East Coast Diaries, Part I
It happens this way … The second trip of 2019 took us to New Jersey and Philadelphia. We spent June 28-June 30 at the Mt. St. Mary House of Prayer, a ...
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A Sunday Thought
It happens this way … It’s taken me decades to understand that when my poems are rejected by a publication, I shouldn’t take it personally. I’ve learned to breathe deeply, ...
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The Maui Diaries, Part 7
It happens this way … Hula and ukulele: can you get more Hawaiian than that? Over the years, Kathy has enjoyed taking hula lessons from one of the premier kumu ...
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The Maui Diaries, Part 6
It happens this way … May 21, 2019 Ranked one of the ten best aquariums in the country, the Maui Ocean Center in Ma’alaea is a well-planned, well-laid-out ocean-lover’s delight ...
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The Maui Diaries, Part 5
It happens this way … May 20, 2019 On Maui, openness and flexibility are required to keep the Aloha spirit alive. Almost every time we planned a day of site-seeing ...
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The Maui Diaries, Part 4
It happens this way … May 19, 2019 To the south of Kihei is an exclusive area known as Wailea. Country clubs with their expansive golf courses, multi-million dollar houses ...
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