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Solo
Scarcity vs. Plenitude A while ago my mother told me that I would never make it through a real crisis, because I didn’t store enough food. She may have been thinking of her own experience as a young girl on a family farm during the depression. She did have food, but lacked other necessities. I am urban. She would be happy to know that I have extended my days of food stocking to 12 days, but I have not been able to reach 2 weeks. Having enough is what I believe I have always enjoyed and this is the first time I have doubted that belief. The cupboard is almost…
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Hello in There: a Reflection
Here’s where we were a year ago: As I write this the “USNS Comfort” is making its way up the Hudson River to dock in New York City. This is a time when our swords have been beaten into pruning hooks– instruments for trimming back, nurturing and growth. For this one moment, we are fighting a war not against others, but against ourselves. This is a time when we get together by being alone, when we sing in isolation with hundreds of people — virtually. There is some happiness in here. We continue to sing, because we are in a sort of captivity and it is all we can do.…
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Isolation and Contact
Slowly we are finding new ways to communicate while remaining isolated in our homes. I am reminded of a movie I saw many years ago — it might have been a Truffaut — in which a small girl is left alone in her family’s apartment. She’s pretty upset by this, but never in danger. She gets a megaphone and begins to tell her neighbors what her family has done to her. They rig ropes and soon fruit, fresh bread and desserts arrive at her window. In a way she has the last laugh as now everyone is suspecting that her parents have been negligent. We, too, are feeling sorry for…
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One Big Time-Out
Recently I spoke to a friend about what we’re going through right now. She said that the world and now the United States is in “one big time-out.” I was surprised to think of it in this way, but the isolation we are experiencing is different from anything I have ever known. Time-out is usually a temporary break from an activity that has become somehow problematic. We have been given this opportunity to make something out of the unknown. Time-out as social distancing: In child rearing, a “time-out” is a technique for giving a child a break from a pattern of behavior that is unacceptable. But all of us are…
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Kinship with all things
I am returning to a blog written over three years ago, knowing that my aging cat Tabitha has passed on and the people of Syria continue to suffer. It is a difficult time for many around the world and in this country. There is so much that fills me: plants, animals, clouds, day and night, and the eternal in man. The more uncertain I have felt about myself, the more there has grown up in me a feeling of kinship with all things. ~Carl Jung; Memories Dreams, pg.359 I have found in prayer a kinship with humanity and with animals. I love the liturgical prayers, but I also find myself…
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Dust to Dust
Today we begin Lent with Ash Wednesday. I will use my blog to post some of my past blogs and revisit our thinking during this solemn time of reflection. Though this is an explicitly Christian season there are also important Jewish holidays. The Body: The first time I understood that the body is only a carcass was when I buried my cat, Katya. She had been a wonderful cat, and we had no idea she had an enlarged heart. Eventually she died of heart failure. We buried her under the birch tree in our yard at Blue Jay Court and even prayed an abbreviated version of the Burial Service in…
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I Like you just the way you are
Last week I was in the middle of a misunderstanding which grew and loomed over my week. It was brought on by someone taking over what I thought I was doing. I’ve been working on ridding myself of these bad feelings without writing unnecessary e-mails about how angry I was and without hurting more people. Here are a few things I learned as I journeyed through this. Try to go to the places in your life that give you strength and encouragement and help you let go what you are hanging onto. Walking is good and riding a bike by the sea on an unexpected warm day can heal the…
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My Last Road Trip
Two years ago in August, my best friend and I decided to take a road trip to Maine. Our first stop was Buffalo, where Expedia had found us a charming boutique hotel called “The Henry.” To reach the hotel from the interstate, Siri led us on a winding industrial route far from the center of town. Suddenly we faced a sprawling, red brick institution. It turned out that The Henry was fashioned out of an abandoned insane asylum. Once inside, it was fresh, bright and cozy, with dazzling art on the walls and charming architectural details. Sadly, the desk attendant found no reservation for us and the hotel was full.…
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People In Love with Themselves
What is forgiveness and what is a gift? I have been watching the Democratic debates. In the most recent one, the candidates reached new lows in attacking one other. The last question came from Judy Woodruff and it was meant to embrace the Holiday season: “Name a candidate from whom you would ask forgiveness for something—maybe that was said tonight—or a candidate to whom you’d like to give a gift.” This question was first directed to Andrew Yang. It caught him off-guard. He stared into space, befuddled, not knowing what to say. Finally he said, “I don’t think I have much to ask forgiveness for—you all can correct me on this.”…
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A Sustainable Christmas Tree
I just finished reading an article about the most “sustainable” way to have a Christmas tree. I’m certainly not here to judge anyone’s tree or how organic or sustainable it should be. However, I do remember my favorite trees as a child and I believe they came pretty close to the Sierra Club’s definition of “sustainable.” Today those trees surround the house where I grew up. The last time I drove by they seemed to be healthy, stately and still very beautiful. When my parents were in the middle of their lives, the family would gather after Thanksgiving to pick out a live Christmas tree. I can remember Blue spruce,…
