“The new year dawns bright, clear and mysterious. May it be one of inner peace and world peace for all living things.” (from a Unitarian Universalist Service Committee holiday card, saved and savored since the mid-eighties) We welcome January, the gate of the year. This first month refers both to the goddess Jana, the Mother of […]
After a full week of ‘weather,’ we can finally see the sun rising above the bank of grey clouds pushing off to the east. Perhaps now the solar lights can power up enough to stay on beyond the first hour of darkness; perhaps we too will be re-energized with the sun: we’ve […]
The rain won’t stop. In fact, it’s getting worse. We’ve been awake since four in the morning, listening to the sound of water pounding on the skylight and running off the roof. By six Milt is asking if it’s time to build an ark. I shudder while recalling the Old Testament story that […]
This winter begins steeped in gloom: clouds and rain coming in from the Pacific have blocked the sun and the moon. Milt makes sure I get up to view the lunar eclipse anyway. I pull a raincoat on over my pajamas and prepare to sit it out in my lawn chair set up at the […]
“You can have your airplanes, but you miss the wonder of the birds,” my first writing mentor was fond of quoting her Welch coal miner grandfather. I was taking flying lessons at the time, and perhaps her concern was that rational side of my brain would usurp the creative part of my […]
“So, what is it that you like about colored lights?” he asks me this mid-December: we are celebrating our first Christmas together as committed partners, and we’ve just sought out and bought three sets of solar powered seasonal lights. Clearly they are meant for outdoors, which is a new experience for me; I’ve […]