Category Archives: Uncategorized

I stand at the marimba, snuggledbeneath three fleecy layers to protectits sweet old rosewood keys, and confront the marching glockenspielon top, the closest thing I have at hometo orchestra bells, rubber mallets dinging away,practicing. I find that I have about15 … Continue reading →

Everything we do, each small act, leaves an impression.Make it one of kindness, empathy, reason and peace.—Janine Vangool, Uppercase magazine ••• She asks in her weekly online newsletterin big block print letters: ARE YOU OK? In another photo, she adds, … Continue reading →

When did I turn it into an altar of sorts?Did I gather the items one by one,or did I collect them for a timebefore installing themin the mirrored chamber? It wasn’t that I’d been avoidinghis bathroom or the medicine cabinet—they’d … Continue reading →

Because when kindness stands firm, the world softens—and hope quietly grows.—the Venerable Buddhist monks from the Huong Dao Buddhist Temple in Fort Worth, Texas ••• The day after a nurse is murdered in Minneapolis,eighteen days after a poet is murdered … Continue reading →

And there in the first momentthat Shelley sings on her birthday, her adoring fans and friendsremember (as if we’ve forgotten) one reason of many why we love herher voice plucking our heartstrings: It only takes a momentto be loved a … Continue reading →

What body memory kicked inthe first night back in bandthat had me automatically flipthe hard mallets to their nearlysilent plastic ends to practicethe bells part? I peered at the music on the standbefore me and gently tapped the silverglockenspiel keys … Continue reading →

I step out the back door a bit beforemidnight, walking into the darkcarrying the small basket of cardboardand paper bits bound for the recycling binoutside the gate when it hits me: the sweet, musky scent of paperwhitesblooming their tiny heads … Continue reading →

Whatever may be the tensions and the stresses of a particular day, there is always lurking close at hand the trailing beauty of forgotten joy or unremembered peace. —Howard Thurmanphilosopher, theologian, Civil Rights leader1899–1981 ••• How quickly we forget the … Continue reading →

Leave a messagefor whoever is coming next.Even if nobody is coming next. —Elizabeth Gilbert ••• Like the imprisoned man whoimpressed mugshots printedin newspapers onto small barsof soap, then hid them betweenplaying cards. Or internees during World War II,imprisoned for their … Continue reading →

I stand at the kitchen counter holding a pair of slender hickory drumsticks I haven’t used in four-plus decades. My 35-year-old nephew, a middle school band director, has told me that no one holds drumsticks the way I was taught—the … Continue reading →