Before 2016, much of my car-time involved taking a girl or two to an activity. For me relaxing in the car means talking about whatever’s on my mind. Or her mind, or whomever else’s mind. My nest is empty; no one’s in my car. But my musing doesn’t quit just because of that. So now you’re the one “Driving With Daughters!”
Princessy, is what it feels like. Walking aimlessly across the house, thinking: what shall I pick up to do? What if “book” or Real Simple is what I pick up to do, and not “blog post” or “shoe repair”? That would be pleasant. That would fit with another morning of thumbs-on-sinuses, though I feel squirrely […]
Come to think on it, it’s odd that I’ve never worked for hire as a teacher. (Except for those two and a half months, which isn’t really long enough to count.) I enjoy sharing what I know, and watching others deepen their knowledge, as much as I enjoy learning new things myself. Which is a […]
Big, soft thumbs are pressing on my cheekbones by my nose. They push my eyes closed, even when I try to pull the lids back open. The band of forehead just above my eyebrows feels the same way: heavy without being weighty, buzzy. There must be a weather front moving in. Just when I was […]
When the rhythm of the heart becomes hectic, Time takes on the strain until it breaks; Then all the unattended stress falls in On the mind like an endless, increasing weight. The light in the mind becomes dim. Things you could take in your stride before Now become laborsome events of will. Weariness invades your […]
Charlottesville, VA Driving alone down Old Lynchburg Road in the lilac haze of dusk it is so beautiful that for a moment you forget that the root word in this road you drive down every day is lynch that the origin of lynch as you know it comes from the name of men also named […]
It is 2:45pm on a grey, un-climate-ably* cold day. I folded an undershirt, another undershirt, and inexplicably walked out of the laundry room. I walked into and across the living room, noticing the yoga mat abandoned there an hour and a half before. I paused there, started to roll it up, idly wondering why I […]
Sadly, it’s not that I’m stumped for material. It’s more that I’m not grabbing the keyboard in the morning…or the early afternoon… and by the time the day’s momentum has wound down, so have I. *** I was humming Oingo Boingo’s “Just Another Day” while I cleaned up the kitchen. I like it a lot, […]
Today the Dungeons & Dragons group met and adventured through a festival. After first eating a dent in My Sweetie’s leftovers, no mean feat, and exchanging holiday gifts. In theory, I had nothing to do with any of this. In practice, I couldn’t focus quite enough to find my own thoughts. I did fine with […]
We aren’t handed a map about how to do complex, uncertain creative work. —Todd Henry, Accidental Creative Podcast, episode “Listen to Lie About Success That’s Holding You Back“ Now that I am empty-nested, I am ever more confident that my intuition—my frustrated, irritated, annoyed gut feeling—was correct: rearing a child can be a profound creative […]
Today it was about 60°F and intermittently sunny. Tomorrow it’s supposed to get into the 20s, yay central Texas weather. But today turned out to be a solid day for tackling some of the yardwork that’s been lurking. There’s plenty of cold-season work to do, now that it’s more-frequently cold. Several of our plantings need […]
