Giving care, receiving care, taking care
Giving Care to Others Neighbor Care: I rolled the shopping cart up and down the grocery store aisles, placing items in the cart or the tote balanced between the folded-out baby seat and the handle bar. In my hand, two shopping lists: one for us, the other for our...
Finding your purpose, both big and small
What is my purpose? “I don’t know what my purpose is anymore,” said the attractive middle-aged woman. We had struck up a conversation while standing outside Phenix Salon suites on Barracks Road. I was waiting for my hairdresser to come unlock the front door and let...
Pursuing the Perennial Tradition: Participation
“It’s a late birthday gift,” Keith said as he handed me this bright-red shirt, a good gift for someone pursing the Perennial tradition. Cato and I had just returned from our walk down the mountain to retrieve the mail, including the package. Sweet Old Lady? More...
Celebrating Labor Day, first Monday in September
Happy Labor Day! It’s a gorgeous day here at Vanaprastha, clear, warm and breezy, shirt-sleeve weather. Unlike other parts of the country affected by Hurricane Ida, we received a welcome three inches of rain then a cool front last week. But our summer garden is...
Not so terribly strange to be seventy
Over the weekend, I turned seventy. As I pondered the beginning of my eighth decade, Paul Simon’s lyric “How terribly strange to be seventy” played in my head. It's not the first time his songs from the 60s have colored my memories of adolescence. Or that I’ve...
Teach me your way, that I may walk in your truth
Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; -Psalm 86:11a “I’m reading Joanna Weaver’s Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World, thinking about how people teach truth, and remembering my mother,” I said to my friend. We were enjoying our usual Friday...