And what to do about it. An old model guides us to speak out against new (and not-so-new) threats. — WORDS Words are powerful little things. They inspire us, they motivate us, they connect us to one another. They educate, they influence and persuade. They preserve our history and promote social change and progress. They also cut, divide, denigrate and destroy. Prejudicial language, jokes, and images have profound negative effects…

And other loves that have lasted a lifetime. April is U.S. National Poetry Month. I learned this from Emily Stoddard’s piece entitled, “How To Read A Poem.” Distracted by an error message in an internal link, however, my mind went a-wandering. Was it wandering? It was more like showing a…

An (abridged) comment on Kimberly Fosu’s open-hearted pandemic story. — 2020 The pandemic descended as my daughter joined a small OB/GYN practice serving five rural counties. An MD, my baby kept delivering babies and performing surgeries while masks and goggles were storehoused and stolen. Front-line providers could not get protection. They died in droves. When we could, our family all got…

It’s not what happens. It’s what we do with it, right? I prepared for an early evening. That was waylaid by my son’s unusual text during his late shift at the restaurant. “Will you stay up till I get home? …

We’ve come a long way from Muzak in the grocery store. I never go to Trader Joe’s. Too much hype. Never could find what I needed. But it is nestled between and next door to Whole Foods and the Kroger store, a mile and a half from where I live…

Crows Feet Prompt #24: Surprises with aging When I wondered what the haze was that kept me from reading signs in the mall and realized with a shock that I needed glasses, someone quoted Bette Davis. “Getting old ain’t for sissies,” she said. I knew aging took courage. The surprise…

Sure, Covid numbers are rising in the holiday season but it’s 2006 that matters to me. — I. 2022 “Do you think you’ll ever stop wearing a mask?” my son asked gently on a recent visit. He, his girlfriend and I were headed into a movie theatre to catch Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. I wore a mask. They did not. …

More reflections from a new grandmother. There will come a point when the adjective “new” does not apply. But not yet. — See earlier reflections here. Reflection IV “The house is so quiet when you are gone,” my mother used to say after visits when my kids were small. My aunt still says it when her grown grandchildren leave. “The house is too quiet,” a friend just told me after her grandbabies went home…

First to the shoe repair shop, then to a reminder about who we are to each other — The tiny stucco building sits back from the street. You sort of have to know where it is to find it. I pulled between and around two other buildings then made the narrow turn into a parking spot in front of Andy’s Shoe Repair. I’d been taking shoes there for…