Category Archives: Uncategorized

(for the original BFF, Dr. Susan Lester, upon her retirement as a veterinarian, Nevada City, California) 1. At age 9, sit in a circle on the floor with yourbest friend next door and her younger sisteralong with a cardboard box … Continue reading →

Rising early, for me, to seelamby clouds frolicking acrossa field of soft blue overhead,barely 70 degrees, and, steppingoutside to retrieve and refill waterand food bowls for those who stop byfor drinks and nibbles. I am stunned to see this pleasantnesspost-solstice, … Continue reading →

Watching Juliet, the tomato plant,grow tall and feathery of leaf,I’ve also been charting the emergenceof her offspring, consulting Farmer Google—“How do you know when homegrowntomatoes are ripe?”—feeling a bit ditsybecause, duh, when they’re red, right? Which is true, apparently, but … Continue reading →

do rainbow flags hang over the bar.They’re year-round décor, part ofthe furniture with the pool table and the barstools with concavecenters that have held untoldnumbers of butts over the decades. What stories those stools—and backsides—could tell, even ifthey weren’t there … Continue reading →

She walked in the nail salonas I sat on my throne,a kind young man at my feet, and he and I both looked upat the one so pregnantwho’d come for the same kind of pampering my old feet weregratefully receiving, … Continue reading →

(an homage to acupuncture) Been a minute, but please get in therewith those cat-whisker-thin needlesand loosen up that stuck qi, unblock that energy, shine up thosemeridians and let it flow, baby.And while you’re at it, can you jumpstart those pain-quellingendorphins … Continue reading →

Not just because the monthly feeis automatically snatched from mychecking account, and not simply because a clean car runs better,as my father used to say, and notbecause it’s easy to drive through, the driver’s front tire grabbedby the conveyer, the … Continue reading →

(for Catherine O’Brien) And there we sat on her sofa,our dead husbands prowlingthe room like phantom cats, though she never knew mine,and I never knew hers, driftingin, as they do, as we chatted, my photographer and her artist,some of his … Continue reading →

You thought you were done,didn’t you? That after the mostdifficult human in your life— the one who made you, bore you,raised you, challenged youendlessly—had, as they say, left the building, you’d passedthe final exam. Maybe not with an A,though you … Continue reading →

next door sit on the front stepseach morning and, as I watermy flourishing garden, I hear them giggling, cackling, snortingover their daily brew.They always make me smile. The head witch, aka the GardenGoddess Next Door, who oftendresses as a witch … Continue reading →