i was six when they married memories of that and more potato salad and apple pie summer under the backyard tree winter crowded in the house the farmhouse held us all so long ago once we were five I wrote when the first of my brothers died on the airplane to the funeral said good-bye […]
When Christmas Hurts
A huge hurt builds inside me. My father died on Christmas Day 1986. It is a familiar, old hurt. This year it is freshly layered with new hurts and loss. Five months ago the my last living brother died. He was the eldest of my siblings. 13 months ago my brother who was closest to […]
Some Thoughts on Death and Mourning
My brother passed away last weekend. Roger left us forever at five minutes after midnight on Sunday November 9th, 2014. I was on my way to the All Soul’s Procession, a wonderful contemporary community sharing of celebration of people’s lives and supportive public sharing of grief when I got the news via text on Sunday night. […]
A Milan Kundera Day
Today I am struggling with being and nothingness. My mind travels from the bleak, drenching, 21st Century Arizona rain to artful black and white photos my mother never snapped of pans filled with shelled peas my brother and I had spent hours extricating from pods on an Indiana, summer afternoon. Creativity allows me to examine an imaginary […]
The Horrific Cost of Stupid – Guns
Corporate Financed Terrorism Today I listen to yet another day of media coverage of yet another mass shooting. 13 dead. Around 300 people are shot every day in the U.S. by guns. For a crowd-sourced data site that lists the basic statistics for named gun deaths in the US starting with the Newtown massacre go […]
Perspective Brought Home: Mourning on My Birthday
It had not been a great week leading up to my beautiful, silly dog, Mr. Worf, dying from an attack by Africanized bees the day before my 55th birthday. I suffered from medical abuse as a child and interaction with my family can dredge up lots of stress and sadness. With every passing year I […]