Linda Gray Sexton
It’s a hard world out there right now. Every day the news, be it local or national, seems darker and darker–even though in certain places COVID has quieted quite a lot. Riots and looting, however, churn on at high intensity. On last night’s news, I saw a reporter standing in front of a burned out…
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Summer has settled in around us, and most of us are not on the beach with our books this year. However, a book can certainly be a welcome respite from these stultifying weeks of COVID shutdown. Nothing can take you further out of your own world than a book—or more deeply into an unexplored part…
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Two years ago, my youngest Dalmatian, Mac, broke his leg in three places while colliding with his older brother as they jumped high to compete for a ball. He had a twelve inch metal plate and twenty screws implanted to save it from amputation. You can still see the bumps under his skin and it…
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What has this month brought for you this year? Last May and June here in Maryland, we had temperatures that were warm but not hot, sunny days and little rain, breezes rather than wind. Not so in 2020, however, as it has rained an inordinate amount, (particularly over the weekends), and the temperatures have sometimes…
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By now, all of you must know how much I enjoy writing these little billet doux to you. As I work on bigger projects—like the memoir that now consumes 90% of my attention—creating them is like flexing a word conscious muscle. It helps me to grow as a writer as it simultaneously keeps me in…
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Last time I wrote, I mentioned that I thought the most we could do in the midst of this COVID crisis was to be patient and to shelter-in-place. While I still believe that to be true, I am–like many others–beginning to feel claustrophobic, confined, and helpless. On the news, I hear of the many protests…
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On March 30th, joy arrived in my house with a phone call: my second grandson had just been born in New York City. The photos my son then sent showed me what a beauty he is, only six and a half pounds, with a full head of dark hair. I am greatly relieved, as well,…
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I call out Cody’s name but he does not respond. He does not wag his tail, or even look to me for reassurance. His body is stiff, his mouth foaming, his legs paddle in the air, his eyes have rolled back and have no visible iris. He is in the middle of a grand mal…
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How often do we return to a place where we once lived, or loved, during a different period in our lives, only to find it changed? Last week, Brad and I went back to San Francisco’s Bay Area, the wealthy suburbs just south of the city. He and I had lived and worked there for…
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I am in my writing room, procrastinating, having deserted my computer. It is three o’clock on a Tuesday afternoon and I am supposed to be working on my new memoir. Then a thought occurs to me and I break away, freed from distraction. What was I doing there, cozied up on the couch? Reading. Being Mortal:…
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