Category Archives: Uncategorized

Christmas is coming. (future tense)Christmas is upon us. (present tense)Christmas joy spreads throughout the land.There is no Christmas like snow Christmas. Santa Claus is coming to town. (hopeful tense)He sees us when we’re sleeping;he knows when we’re awakehe knows when … Continue reading →

Searching for the app on my computer,I stumble across a photo of you that Itook seven years and eleven days ago at Burr’s, you having polished offa turkey sandwich, you in town fora visit, you upright, on your feet, the … Continue reading →

In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing. We lived at the junction of great trout rivers in western Montana, and our father was a Presbyterian minister and a fly fisherman who tied his own … Continue reading →

for the Together We Heal writing groupon the winter solstice, 2023 ••• Heads bowed, bodies stilled,it looks as if we’re doing nothing,when, actually, so much coursesthrough us like snowmelt overrocks, making its way down,down, down. Not wanting to go there, … Continue reading →

I am one who sits with youunder the mystery of stars, whether by day or night,always present, visible or in-, long fascinated by the universethat both creates and holds us. You, too, comprise part ofthe greater One, the Is, and … Continue reading →

(In memory of Julia Ellen Cook) Her voice still ricochets around in my headwhen I’m chewing on a problem or in grief— Honey… in Julie’s nasally twang—though I haveno idea where she picked that up, not having grown up in … Continue reading →

Singin’ and swingin’ and gettin’ merry like Christmas.—Maya Angelou They are makin’ merry, those ladies harmonizingin the California statehouse, singin’ and swingin’, jingle bell rockin’, winter wonderlanding andhearing the angels sing for twenty-five years in the rotunda to let their … Continue reading →

For Deborah Meltvedt On a Friday walk-and-talkby the river, Deb spots himfirst—the dog-like head periscoping out of royal blue.We’ve seen him before here,this sea lion who’s apparently vacationing far from the sea—or perhaps he’s decided to relocate,given the ample supply … Continue reading →

All those years agoI stood facing him, my smallhands in his large onesas we promised each otherour forever love. Though I left him, and, later,he left me, we kept that promise,my companion spirit and I. And today, on the 40th … Continue reading →

Is there any other kind?The kind I offer too often?But I have such good suggestions. Like: Nibble a little. You might like it,I tell the cats when they turn uptheir noses at food they practically inhaled a few weeks earlier,laser … Continue reading →