Posts Tagged ‘family’
Eastward Ho!
Last week, I received many responses to my last newsletter essay, the one about losing the ones we love. Many people agreed that we all need to pay more attention to the way we try and help those we care about as they grieve. This week, I find myself dealing with a strong sort of…
Read MoreGive The Boy A Dog This Summer
When I was a child, my parents held out to me the example of an excellent and dedicated writer, my great-grandfather, Arthur Gray Staples. My mother, a Pulitzer-Prize winning poet herself, told me many stories of his life in Maine, in the early 1900’s, as the editor-in-chief of the Lewiston Evening Journal, which was considered…
Read MorePack Rat? Or Purger?…sorting out the trash from the treasure.
I am standing in my attic, looking at the precarious piles of banker’s boxes stacked toward the roof, the five chests of Christmas ornaments, the over-sized carton of old wrapping paper and bows. The yellowed art prints, the discarded lamps, and the spotted mirrors. All the stuff of years past. So many things I should…
Read MoreCooking It Forward
How do you express your love? Some people rely on a Valentine’s dinner, or reveal their feelings with a supportive word and a tender embrace. Others show their affection by cooking a meal for those they care about. I am, unabashedly, one of the latter. During my childhood, love was often overshadowed by my mother’s…
Read MoreBig Presents In Little Packages
Does every important present come in a big package? The answer just might be “no.” At this season, most of us are looking for the ultimate gift, ready to give whatever we can dream up and afford, hoping to please the ones we love. Or, at least, I am. This morning, my son answered an…
Read MoreOur Spin On Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is only a week away, and I have a lot to be grateful for. Perhaps first and foremost is my good fortune in having an exceptional family, one that was originally torn apart when my husband left me, but which has been reunited over the years that followed our split. I am very lucky…
Read MoreGet Naked With Yourself
A singular idea occurred to me last week, coming hard on the heels of the Jewish holiday of repentance and new resolutions: what would happen if I made a list of all I’d like to change in my life during the coming year? Many of us create resolutions for the start of a fresh year–whether…
Read MoreStripping Down
It’s October 11th and Yom Kippur is almost here. I’m writing this just about one week before you will be reading it. I’m at my kitchen table, typing, thinking, wondering–maybe making a little prayer. It’s three o’clock, and in a few hours, at sundown, millions of Jewish men, women and children all around the world will…
Read MoreWaking Up To Suicide
Did you know that September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month? This recognition of suicide in our society is now highlighted every year at this time. Many federal departments, national foundations, and small support groups are attempting to increase public awareness about our country’s plague of self-inflicted death–its precursors, warning signs, and possible interventions. This…
Read MoreDad, I’m Singing Your Song
It’s Father’s Day this coming Sunday, and considering that I spent Mother’s Day writing about Mom, it seems only fair that I give Daddy equal attention. Now that he is gone, closing his eyes for that final time on May 11, 2012, I have all sorts of memories engraved in my mind and on my…
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