Fail, Fall and Fly

In The Active Life, Parker Palmer wrote, “Much human action is laced with the problem of pride…. Prideful action is often followed by a fall. But we make a mistake when we try to avoid that fall…” In my twenties and thirties, along with my teaching career,...

Selfies

Mother and I took a selfie during my visit last week. First, I updated her laptop’s operating system while we went to the dining room for lunch. Then I installed her printer software, held my iphone at arm’s length, took a picture of the two of us, emailed it to...

Vanaprastha

It occurred to me the other day that I hadn’t explained why my husband and I chose the name Vanaprastha for our mountain house. Traditional Hindus divide life into four stages called Ashrama. The Student (brahmacari): one is chaste and obedient to teachers The...

Ole Tom

This past holiday season, Keith and I tried some new recipes – herbed lamb roast with yogurt and cucumber, pot roast with creamy mushroom grits and a root vegetable medley – and trotted out the old favorites – turkey with bread stuffing, mince pie and Christmas...

Keeping up

“’I didn’t know what twerking was, so I had to research it.’ –mom” (Twerking: a combination of the words ‘twist’ and ‘jerk’ – widely associated with hip hop in the U.S.) During my visit to Dallas this past fall, my son David and I stopped for coffee....