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I shall not cease from exploration
7 years ago I began this blog. I first started writing pieces while living in Brooklyn. I worked with a web designer who taught me how to put everything together. During this time, Gregory, my son, moved to his own apartment in Brooklyn. Soon both Sally and I retired. She moved to Cincinnati. I moved to Asbury Park. It was both exciting and sad. But once Sally and I moved, we talked everyday. It was our way of keeping the connection and the friendship. My intention for writing was to find a story with emotional resonance for me and write about it. Then I would marry this short piece with…
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A Season for Everything…
Thinking back to last winter, I remember chasing two great blue herons everyday. They waded in the water, and skated on thin ice. Each day I was happy to go outside at the warmest part of the day to discover what new trick they had created. This year is different. There is only one heron and when I do get out between the cold and the rain, I can’t find him. What has changed? If we begin to follow birds and animals carefully, we will see that they have a vital life of their own. They are not the same every day. Jane Goodall said this and she has lived…
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Hibernate in Body and Mind
Many of my friends who are retiring, talk of moving west or south to be warmer in winter. What about hibernation in winter? Would hibernation help people get through long winters or would it make it worse? Hibernation works very well for certain animals – bears, squirrels, bats and other mammals. I can see a very large and comfy squirrel nest in my pine tree. Animals hibernate in the winter to conserve energy and because there isn’t enough food readily available. Frogs hibernate in the water they live in. They have a fluid in their bodies that acts like antifreeze. Ice crystals form in such places as the body cavity…
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RIP Dapper Dan
I got home the other day from grocery shopping — you know the kind we are used to doing now, mask on and six feet apart. Things went well until I got a call from my neighbor Amanda. “I’ve got very bad news,” she said. My heart froze. I said, “Nothing has happened to Dapper Dan, I hope?” But our beloved neighborhood cat that I gave lodging to had been hit by a car. He was gone. Shock to the psyche: Whatever adrenaline courses through ones’s life system, for me, it was shock rather than grief. I couldn’t fully imagine why and how it had happened. For me, he continued…
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In the Midst of a Pandemic – Change
Jane Goodall tells us that four changes would help the world’s climate. We must eliminate poverty. Unsustainable lifestyles must change. Abolish corruption. Reverse our growing human population. And now here we are in the midst of this devastating pandemic which is actually changing our behavior. Here are a few observations: The sighting of the snow leopard and a new baby bison has been magical. 10,000 flamingos landed in Mumbai, India for the first time. Reserve gas and oil storage are full beyond capacity because airplanes are practically grounded, and cars are driving less. Countries with rampant air pollution look cleaner and healthier. China’s emissions fell by 25% and their fossil…
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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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Not one Sparrow is forgotten in your Sight
Have you ever found yourself mourning the death of an animal? This week I was helping my former husband with his 20 year-old cat named Proshka. Proshka was a determined and willful girl. She liked being inside, but she liked equally to be outside. She would throw her body against the door to come in even in the middle of the night. James said, ” she ruled me from the day she came into my life, but I loved her.” James compiled a brief “blessing” from prayers from the Russian Orthodox Church. It began: “O God of all spirits and of every flesh, everything that has breath praises you both…
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Notes from the Field
One of the benefits of moving to a new region of the country are the new species that you will encounter. The black skimmer is one example. Black skimmers arrive in April and May, and lay their “clutch” throughout the summer. They are endangered where I live in part due to human disturbance as beach goers trample their nests. They do live in colonies from Sandy Hook – north of here – and Cape May -south of here- where there are more dunes. In Asbury Park we have lots of turtles and particularly the female Northern Diamond Back terrapin is in some cases still looking for warm high ground to…
