Exploring the Third Season of Life

Notes from Vanaprastha

Reflections on Faith, Nature, and Writing

Recent Posts

A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol

Perhaps you've seen an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ novella A Christmas Carol, a ghost story of Christmas. Last year, my daughter, son, and his partner visited us at Christmastime. As part of our festivities, we attended the American Shakespeare Center’s...

Two Daughters

Two Daughters

Last Friday afternoon, I stopped by our local grocery store to pick up a baguette and tomatoes—grape, slicing, and canned—for a soup-and-salad lunch I planned to make on Sunday after church. The checkout girl excused herself, saying she needed to run to the bank...

Giving Thanks

Giving Thanks

This past weekend, Keith and I visited family in southern Virginia. Indian Summer’s warm sunshine and gentle breezes graced us as we walked the fields behind Keith’s brother and sister-in-law’s property. Heathcliff and Freya frolicked and smiled, their doggie...

Supermoon Night

Supermoon Night

Last night, I lay in bed, thinking worrying about the letter I received in the mail this weekend. Jury duty. Two months of calling the jury call-in line early every morning to check if my service would be required. Although it was unlikely I’d serve more than a few...

Bits of String

Bits of String

One afternoon about ten years ago when I was visiting my mother at her home in Connecticut, we decided to do a little “spring cleaning” in the kitchen. Mother sat at the table and sipped a cup of decaf while I explored. Memories poured from each cabinet and drawer....

Auld Lang Syne

Auld Lang Syne

Our guide Graham Bruce coached us before we got off the tour bus in Edinburgh. “At the end of the evening, when the musicians play ‘Auld Lang Syne,’ stand and join hands, then raise them on cue. The second verse, cross your arms and take hands again.” Apparently,...