[I] have complete respect for the days set aside to honor, including Jan. 19, which is also National Popcorn Day. That being said, it occurs to me there is no day set aside to honor the First Americans. Some of us choose not to forget. In so doing, I honor […]
[I] put up my tree recently, and as with many a Christmas tradition, this ritual sent me back — footsteps clearly marked despite the drifting snow of thoughts flurrying in my mind — to trees of the past. Of prickly cedar trees whose feathery branches could barely bear the weight […]
[I]’m not the only soul who feels light-deprived this time of year. Though I love the wee hours of the morning when I’m in the dark, pondering, and feeling as though I have the world to myself, I still find every December to be a race against the dark, from […]
[I]’ve long been intrigued by Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Halloween is my favorite holiday and in its truest respect, it honors the night that is not only the fine dividing line between seasons, but the barrier — at its thinnest — between the living and the […]
[O]ne dark night, a long time ago, I sat down on the couch by myself after a very rough day, probably one of the worst in my life. I’d been handed down some news so devastating that it seemed insurmountable. My life was different from that point on. I no […]
[I] don’t like competition, but like many other beings at times compromised by human nature, I often fall under the spell to compete and compare with others. It’s a losing battle, really. As a very wise friend once told me, comparing yourself to others is “dangerous.†No matter what, if […]
[O]h, give me September and long light and fading days and pungent air. Fiery colors, dropping leaves, the smell of earth as she bakes, then cools. Spiders and squirrels, equally industrious. Give me September’s National Biscuit Month, and I’ll give you…biscuits, no question. A biscuit is mostly considered a bread […]
“[O]n a table cluttered with empty cups stands a small typewriter with a sheet of pink paper stuck in the roller. Although at the moment the page is utterly blank, I am convinced that someday, there will be a message for me there. I am waiting.†— Jean-Dominique Bauby, “The […]
[T]he tomatoes have been long-coming this year. It’s typical in this climate, which tends to be cooler than tomatoes would like. Still, we want our tomatoes. We plant them and wait, and long months later, we begin to see red. With anticipation comes longing. As I waited out my slow-growing […]
[E]ver get a hankering? We all have those moments where a thought of something is not only drool-worthy, but urging enough to send us hunting down said object of our drool. That being, for me occasionally, a hush puppy (more than one, most likely). It is not the cod basket […]