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Arizona Humane Society, Chihuahuas, Dog Rescue, Dogs, Door into the Dark, Greyhound, Loss, Love, Mary Oliver, Memoir, Rites of passage, Seamus Heaney, Starting over, The Midnight Anvil
for national puppy day – an emotional rescue
A dog can never tell you what she knows from the smells of the world, but you know, watching her, that you know almost nothing. ~ Mary Oliver, Dog Songs First there was Molly, a retired racer who loved me. We had rescued her in the Christmas of 2008, on the heels of a spectacular crisis in my professional life, and…
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Dispatch from the Diaspora, falling in love, Holidays, John Steinbeck, Love, magic and loss, Marriage, Memoir, Milestones, Themes of childhood, Valentine's Day, Wedding Anniversary
a little love medicine – “nothing good gets away”
Happy Valentine’s Day. I have conducted many of the most significant relationships in my life almost entirely by telephone. With so many miles of ocean or freeway stretching between our houses, it is easier to continue our conversations from the comfort of our own homes. Always, there is something to talk about even when there is nothing to talk about. Before Skype and…
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After death of a spouse, Aging, Being a Widow, Death and dying, Dispatch from the Diaspora, Dying, Grieving, Joan Didion, Meghan ORourke, Love, Marriage, Mastectomy, sickness, Starting over
in sickness & in health
I think I said that grief is passive. It creeps over you in those famous waves, you know, whereas mourning is an active process of remembering, reliving the good and the bad, and defanging it in a way. Until you have examined all those memories, they don’t lose their power to undo you. ~ Joan Didion It is a beautiful…
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Act Two, Being a Widow, Death and dying, Dispatch from the Diaspora, Dispatches from the Diaspora, Friendship, Happy New Year, James Gandolfini, Love, magic and loss, Maurice Sendak, Milestones, saying goodbye, Seamus Heaney, Starting over, Ted Kooser, Time
We’ll Take A Cup of Kindness Yet . . .
Life isn’t some vertical or horizontal line — you have your own interior world, and it’s not neat. ~ Patti Smith Beginnings and endings are rarely tidy as this New Year’s Eve reminds me. Again, I ponder how best to pack up the stuff of the past twelve months before stepping into the new year. Just begin. Pluck out a memory, wrap…
