The changing of the year is a time for both looking back and looking forward. One of the ways I like to look back is by remembering some of the best books I’ve read during the past year. For me, this has been a year with a lot of poetry—and poetry by writers I’ve never before encountered. Continue reading
What I remember: I awoke to my mother’s presence in my room, telling me: “Daddy had another heart attack; this time he’s not coming home.”
Most of the rest is a blur. Continue reading
A young father walked into the physical therapy office with his toddler son, and I wondered how he would keep the boy amused throughout a therapy session. Had be brought crayons, perhaps? Would he hand the boy a mobile phone for play?
Minutes later, as I started my own therapy, I heard the little guy giggling and burbling. I turned and saw him walking a treadmill, his dad behind, holding his hands.
A few more minutes, and they were walking back and forth through the open room, a therapist keeping pace and repeating, “heel, toe; heel, toe; heel, toe.”
This tiny, beautiful boy. Undergoing physical therapy. So sweet. So heartbreaking. Continue reading
I’ve just finished taking a New Year’s Eve walk with Lillian Boxfish.
I know it’s not yet New Year’s Eve. Ms. Boxfish is the title character in Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk, by Chicago author Kathleen Rooney. Ms. Boxfish loves walking through Manhattan, where she has lived for nearly 60 years, and she unexpectedly spends her New Year’s Eve (1984 into 1985) tromping through the city she loves, instead of curled up in bed falling asleep with a book as she had planned. Continue reading
The Full Cold Moon chaperoned the winter solstice, rare but unseen, veiled by clouds. Three nights later, waning and shy, it donned a lacy veil to peek through branches in the Christmas Eve sky. Tonight, for Christmas, it presents itself proudly on a clear black backdrop, a glowing prophet in the night. Continue reading
Last night, as I lay in bed, glitter sparkles danced across the black stage of my closed eyelids. I watched in wonder.
For a few seconds, their multicolored display made my wakefulness a blessing.
