Category Archives: July, 2020

Gifts of root and wing

I’m sitting in this little house in the woods month after everlasting month growing fat sturdy roots into the earth.  Down, down, down, go my roots.  Past the fading couch, past the basement with its wood stove, past the clay … Continue reading

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Friday morning psalm of your grandma’s gingerbread cake and sweet Joe-Pye Weed

We’ll start this Friday morning psalm with a fleeting memory of your grandma’s gingerbread cake, or that strawberry rhubarb pie, or those sugar cookies she served you with a cold glass of milk. While you lick the crumbs of memory … Continue reading

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Birthday seashells and blessings (like friends, electricity and raspberry crumble)

Today is my birthday. Sixty three years old, or so the birth certificate says. My mom agrees–back in 1957 she gave birth to her first little baby some time just after 1 a.m. She doesn’t remember the exact time, and … Continue reading

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When the brakes fail…and you buy a new car…

Last Wednesday we loaded up the 2015 maroon Chevy Malibu with 79,950 miles with boxes and bags of recycling and returnables. Off we drove toward Houghton for our weekly shopping excursion. Less than eight miles from home a warning sign … Continue reading

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What will count on your deathbed?

Here is an assignment–should you choose to accept it. Pretend you’re on your deathbed.  It’s the end of this life.  Goodbye moon.  Goodbye songbirds.  Goodbye everything awful and beautiful. What advice might your dying almost-gone self give to your current … Continue reading

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Abduction, Siege, Stroke–and the magic of perspective

It’s been the quietest of weeks in the woods.  No sightings of bear, moose or rabbits.  No splitting and stacking firewood. Just sweet birdsong, whirring fans, cool early morning breezes, stifling hot 90 degree afternoons. You might hear the sprinkling … Continue reading

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