Years ago, I spent a morning babysitting my 2½ year old grandson, Walker. His mother had suggested plenty of possible activities. We could use Play-Doh. We could read books or draw. We could go outside. I opted to let Walker decide. I would have no plan. I would go with what he chose and then […]

Years ago, my 4-year-old granddaughter picked a 10-by-10-inch colorful book from her overflowing bookshelf. She jumped with it, cuddled up to me and we snuggled together. We studied the smiling boy on the cover of “If I Built a House” by Maine author and illustrator Chris Van Dusen. I asked, “See the face of the […]

On my daily walk along Portland’s Eastern Promenade, I see people running with their dogs on East End Beach, throwing sticks in the water or across the sand for the frisky pups to chase and retrieve. I pass other walkers, runners, bikers, photographers, men, women and children enjoying the wide-open view, each other and the […]

I pick up the phone on what my Florida friends say is a miserable, cold, Maine winter day. My good friend, my age, says, “I’m in the ER with my husband. He woke up with no memory of anything that happened last month. The doctors suspect a stroke.” I say, “I am so sorry. I […]

This week I reread holiday cards and saw in many of them, “Here’s hoping for an easier 2022. Let’s hope for an end to all this darkness.” Packing up hope messages, I remembered a lecture I gave years ago in South Carolina. I stood ready to speak, the “mindfulness woman” there to teach “some things […]

Sometimes we don’t know or want to know big, worldly truths. International politics. Fast-moving viruses. The Earth’s climate crises. And there are smaller personal truths that we also cannot or do not want to see. I acknowledge one here: I am forgetting things. Names. Words. It’s as if “my friend’s name is Grace” or “that […]

Flakes falling. Fires aglow. Baking. “It’s the most wonderful time of the year.” Not for all of us. Or, “Tis the season to be jolly.” Not always. At dawn recently, skies had already spit rain, sleet, then snow. I, not with my usual jump-out-of-bed smile, drove to a coffee shop “to get out of the […]

I trained to talk. The oldest of seven children, I bantered as a toddler, hobnobbing with grown-ups. I helped the younger ones form vocabulary, first words like Momma, Dadda, look, no, up. In school we learned, “You’ll be graded on class participation.” No problem for me, an extrovert. I knew how to speak up, how […]