I gave a reading of my poetry two nights ago, here at the Virginia Center for the Arts, and it was incredibly well-received; there couldn’t have been a better audience. I felt great, the poems I chose made a good arc, and the discussion afterwards was excellent.
Read moreTHE REPAIR SHOP
Even my fifteen-year-old Saab is in better shape than I seem to be these days. It only needs a visit to the repair shop once a year, when lately I seem to be constantly in need of one.
Read moreTHE HOLIDAYS
Here they are again.
I don’t know about you, but for me, the time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s is fraught. It arrives with not only our aspirations for joy and celebration, but also multiple layers of stress, memory, hope, and grief--to say nothing of the work of decorating, tree trimming, present buying, candle lighting, card writing and sending, shopping and feast preparations.
Read moreRADICAL EMPATHY
This week one of my oldest and dearest friends has embarked on an incredibly courageous journey, called VSED (voluntarily stopping eating and drinking) as she has rapidly increasing Alzheimer’s disease, saw what it did to her father and her as she cared for him, and did not want that for her family or herself.
Read moreTHE NEXT PLACE
When we were in Switzerland having a lovely ski-mountain lunch with our son and his wife right before the pandemic, I overheard one of their friends refer to “Matthew’s elderly parents” who were here for a visit.
I was 76.
Elderly? Me?
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