Author Archives: janishaag

This time last year, I found myselfcaring for two aging femalesboth literally on their last legs,one with four furry ones,the other a two-legged onewho hadn’t had to shaveher smooth legs for years. This year as the sun sets earlier andearlier, … Continue reading →

They make you special art and leave itwhere you’ll find it, fully expecting youto use it for the purpose for whichit was originally intended. As if you’d ruin such heartfelt sentiment.As if you don’t go looking for another roll.As if … Continue reading →

We might’a thought: Look at the cute old peopletaking their own photonext to a trough of fire. It must be winter—they’reall bundled, though the manis wearing an aloha shirtunder his jacket. Do yousuppose he likes Hawaii? And the lady is … Continue reading →

Sure, easy go, too,but after all these yearsof having words flutter by and, when possible,pinning them down—or at least borrowing them to affix temporarilyto a page—I have cometo see them for the gift they are, not to thinkof it as … Continue reading →

A day like this one—afterdayafterdayafterdayof gray skies, low-hangingtule fog, stupid fog, notpretty, wispy, mystical,moody San Francisco fog— when the sun makes ata da! appearance, though,of course, it’s been makingits daily march across the skywhile we hunkered downunder the stupid cold … Continue reading →

While you hold it you can’t get lost. … Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.You don’t ever let go of the thread. —William Stafford, from “The Way It Is” ••• I am the thread, one who keeps you connected … Continue reading →

Your heart’s no good as a heart until it’s been broken at least ten times.—Actor/screenwriter Emma Thompson quoting her grandmother ••• 1. Being born. If that’s not a heartbreaker, what is? Coming into air, for starters, cold air that prompts … Continue reading →

Just look at them flaunting their true colorsthat have lain hidden under their modest greenrobes since spring. Some leafy one must flip a switch, and the treesthat participate go all-out like the drag queensthey secretly are for the rest of … Continue reading →

(on World AIDS Day 2025) Because of those men who lived, dying,in the houses of friends like mysister-in-law—and so many others— men looking like victims of famine,skin stretched tight over skulls, men whosehands we held in the early 1980s when … Continue reading →

Behold this day, for it is yours to make.—Black Elk And given that the average humanon the globe has approximately26,280 days (or 72 years), you don’t have time to waste.I often think of my late husbandwho didn’t even achieve 18,000 … Continue reading →