Waking Up With the Knee-pain Fairy
People I have known who have complained of knee pain seem to me to have had it for years, a kind of annoyance, nagging them and getting progressively worse over time. Even though I have been overweight for years, I knew I was fortunate to not be plagued by knee pain. Until this year.
I think it started with Wii Fit.(rft*##!gr@) I had been using it for yoga and step ... << MORE >>
Minneapolis Vacation Diary
The Keys to Enjoying Mulberries
The keys to ENJOYING mulberries from your back yard tree are as follows.
DON'T get hung up on -
- Inspecting every berry before you put it in your mouth.
This is counter-productive. It slows down the thrill of gobbling. And you are bound to find some * teeny weeny tiny * bugs on one at some point and that will make you think twice, and ruin the whole thing. The ...
Good Enough
“…now that he had entered into the final active stages of his life, he was beginning to understand that, barring accidents, life did not change.
... << MORE >>Where I Am From
I am from one of the great wonders of the world.
... << MORE >>
The Elusive Joy of Clean
But the rest of the Christmas kitsch remained – garlands of evergreen and poinsettia on the mantles and stairways, antique and new figurines, crèches, more wreaths, mistletoe, candles, bows and ornaments that adorned doorways, shelves and walls. During the Christmas season the kitsch is festive and warm; afterward, it’s just clutter. I wilted at the level of lugging and packing and organizing it would take to find the ... << MORE >>
Today's the Day
Gratitude
Today, I am exceedingly grateful for –
...<< MORE >>
Happy Thanksgiving Day
Here it is Monday of Thanksgiving week already, and I have not sent out any cards via the US Mail to you, which means that it is pretty much too late to send them now, so I will send you my words electronically. Is it any wonder the ... << MORE >>
Cricketsong and the End of a Season
I drove up the driveway and shut off the car engine
That's when I heard it.
My ears snapped to attention. Oh my God, I thought....
<< MORE >>Book Reviews
NOT TRUE! I thought.
Here's why it's not true - I post to my Books I Read in 2009 more frequently than to the regular pages. The "book reviews" are not just "I liked / disliked this book." Usually, I write about what the book meant to me and what I valued, so I am hoping that these "reviews" are an interesting read too.
Recent ones over the summer pretty much reflect the discernment process I've been going through - all good stuff:
New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton
Womenomics by Claire Shipman and Katy Kay
Do What You Are
and
Difficult Conversations
Sleeping in Today
When a very hot, muggy August day gives way to a very cool night, moisture from the steamy earth rises into that cool air and makes ground fog. It’s a pretty effect of “clouds on the ground” that I enjoy. I observed this effect one morning this month as I drove past fields and mountains on the way to work in the early morning, and this is what I thought:
<< MORE >>To Portland and Back Diary
2009, Sunday August 2nd,
Once through, I wanted one of Annie’s pretzels so I bought one and a strawberry lemonade. We found the Red Carpet Club and went in. The lady behind the desk said, “Oh, no, you can’t bring food from outside in here. Please go out and finish it before you come in.” WHAT?? I said (I had brought food in before many times.) “That’s the number 1 rule ...<< MORE >>
Let's Continue
Homage to the Leaves
to the Shenandoah hollow of Orkney Springs,
the gentle greens of new leaves evoke in me
tenderness.
I feel drawn into the greens, << MORE >>
Cake Tribulations
We only had one can of whipped cream cheese frosting. The girls chose a red velvet cake from among several mixes we had on hand. Good combination. They started to work while I messed around on my computer in another room.
When I emerged to see how they were doing, I saw they had out one heart-shaped 8-inch pan and a cake pan for a dozen mini-muffins. They were spooning insanely red batter into ...<< MORE >>
Books I Read in 2009
Virginia Winter
Books I Read in 2008
This is the list of books I read in 2008, from most recent. So, I finished The Wide Open Door in late December, and I read Infidel in January 2008.
I'm going to track the 2009 books too, but I didn't want to lose "the list" from 2008 so I'm putting it here on a blog page.
This was fun. I often wished, as I was reading, that I would stop and do a little book review at the end of each. Or, at least pull out one quote I loved from each one. I didn't do that (mostly because the ...<< MORE >>
What have we become?
view link
What the hell???
Who are these people? Where is our respect for our fellow human beings? Where is our respect for ourselves? What consumer product could possibly be worth waiting in line for hours in the dark and the cold ...<< MORE >>
Yes We Can
I had thought that the lush, idealistic season in which I grew up - a season wherein it was not cool and not acceptable to hate, to categorize and despise, to disrespect people who were different from me - I thought that was a season past, and relegated to at best a footnote in some history book, if ...<< MORE >>
Good-bye Dear Friend
We had just moved into our new Purcellville, Virginia home, the one with the 5+ acres of yard that was finally big enough to accommodate a dog. That’s what we had told the girls all along anyway, when they begged us for a dog when we lived in a townhouse with no yard of which to speak. We had traveled to New York State and were staying with my sister when a blizzard dropped 2 feet of snow on the Washington, DC area. New York was fine, but we ...<< MORE >>
Girls Just Wanna Have Fu-un
Sardine Commute
I went to work early and I stayed late. Too late. Last one in line for the last-bus-of-the-day late. That means that on a bus designed to hold 56 commuters, I was number 58, and I would have to stand.
Okay. “It’s a’right. It’s all good.” After all, I felt okay. I had a happy song stuck in my head (These are a few of my fa-vo-rite things…) courtesy of the salt-n-pepper dred-locked geezer saxophone player on the street corner. I thanked God that I caught a bus. I was grateful I had my bad-ass, orthopedic-insert, open mesh weave super sneakers on. ...
<< MORE >>Of Mulch and "Weeds"
<< MORE >>
Obsess Much?
Guilty as charged. My kids have said I obsess about my garden. Well, I’ve been worse. But here is the latest example. This past week it finally occurred to me that the pain I was feeling all last week was not, in fact, back strain from digging in the garden. It was, uh… kidney problems. Yeah, the throbbing pain was in an internal organ, not a back muscle. Well, dang. That means the inconvenience of doctors and tests and meds….
What’s kidney pain when you can be out in the garden getting it ready for Spring? “I’m saving lives here!” ...
<< MORE >>Oh, the Sweet Pain!
But, it's not just the beauty that tells me I love my garden. It's the devotion, the excitement, the thrill I get when I work in it. ... << MORE >>
Orlando Vacation Diary
Some People Change
Don't give up hope: some people change.
Against all odds, against the grain,
Love finds a way: some people change. "
Those are lyrics to a Montgomery Gentry song. Isn't "Montgomery Gentry" a great cowboy name?
...<< MORE >>
Winter's Ragged Edges
GI Jane
One Day You Finally Knew
The epiphany of finally "knowing what you have to do" - I think it comes to each of us, if we are lucky, and if we pay attention. ...
<< MORE >>Poor in Spirit, and Just Plain Poor
We go there most Saturday or Sunday mornings and get a home-cooked breakfast for about $6.00 ...<< MORE >>
On the Bus Ride Home
This is what I saw on my bus ride out of DC yesterday:
The Potomac River in a cloudy dusk looking like silver cellophane stretched over black water. The river was lined with orange and yellow trees. The Gothic spires of Georgetown in the distance.
I look up and there's a fat passenger plane muscling its way through a downward path over the bridge to the airport.
At the end of the bridge I look down — two dark raggedy forms have spread out blankets on the ...
Buttermilk Almond Chess Pie
Have you ever had chess pie? Have you ever had buttermilk almond chess pie warm? It tastes like Christmas feels. Life is good.
On a Saturday morning of a long weekend (Monday is a holiday), it doesn't matter where I look; I come to the same conclusion, that "life is good." Sometimes this experience comes out as "I am the luckiest woman in the world." I thought that a couple days ago when I was walking with Mary down our country road and I was just so grateful to: have a road, and one that is beautiful, solid, ...
Georgia Vacation Diary
The family encouraged me to record the events of our Georgia Vacation 2007, so we collaborated on this diary. I typed it on a laptop over two days’ drive from Helen, Georgia to Purcellville, Virginia.
Thursday, Aug 9
Weather: HOT, 98 degrees – “sweat your jeans off hot”
Mary drove 7 hours from Purcellville, VA to Statesville, NC.
On ...
You had me at hello
Last night when it was my turn playing the Ungame, I got the question, "What is prayer to you?"
I thought for a moment and said, "Breathing out and breathing in the presence and the mind of God."
...<< MORE >>
Lucky for Me
It's all the pushing, pulling, bending, digging, hauling and stretching, I'm sure, plus the vitamin D factor from the sun. I am a Lithuanian peasant after all, so this kind of exercise appeals to me. I am fat, but surprisingly healthy (if you look at all those blood chemistry measurements like cholesterol and glucose, or at things like blood pressure and heart rate).
I ...<< MORE >>
But Wait. There's More!
The Surprise
...<< MORE >>
Good-bye to Winter, Hello to Spring
This is What S L O W Looks Like
Let me tell you what SLOW looks like.
I bought my $300 treadmill back in October or November. Great decision, because I can take my good intentions to move my body more and follow through on them even when the weather or my schedule doesn't cooperate.
But, oh my goodness, when one is out of shape, you can't just get on ...<< MORE >>
Humanity Inside-out
Love and Lent
Too Cold
Size Matters - NOT
"Super-size Me" meals; Hummers and Monster SUVs; Porno-spam ads for "Huge Hammers" - Americans seem to have a romance with BIGGER. And that includes our egos, which seem to put our convictions at the center of Righteousness and our selves at the center of the Universe. This is descriptive more than judgmental. It's just how we are.
However. Bigger does not equal more powerful.
Consider the deer tick or the mosquito, and their power to fell a human many times their size. Or cancer cells. Or the last snowflake that falls, or melts, to cause ...<< MORE >>
I'm a Lover, Not a Fighter
"I'm a lover, not a fighter." So said Danny Zuko. Me too.
But, I'm beginning to think that may be part of the problem.
There's this phenomenon I'm going to call "trance eating." This is when I eat stuff I'm not supposed to eat (because it is either ridiculously non-nutritious or it is adding to an already very full stomach). I can even hear every good piece of advice in my head and ignore it, like Ray Barone, when he pretends to be asleep when his mom walks in the room, so he doesn't ...<< MORE >>
Countdown to Fifty
86 Days.
'Used to be, age was "just a number." I didn't get too excited or worried about it. Not at 30, or 40 or even 49. Now I approach the big five-oh, and I'm... uh... thinking about it. Damn.
I know what it is. It's all the annoying little things (well, some are not so little) that have come along with aging that now, I notice. For instance ...<< MORE >>
Nests
I can learn from birds' nest-making. They gather the lightest wisps of grasses and twigs and pull the strands around them, weaving and engineering a ...<< MORE >>
Jesus, Mary and Marion
Except that, my limited human reasoning will often end up thinking, Well, if the goal is to transcend, what do I need this body for, and why am I ...<< MORE >>