The “What Was I Thinking” Shoes
Notwithstanding the modest income that kept our family afloat, Mother insisted that we wear good school shoes. They had to fit well; perhaps allow for a bit of growth through the school year; offer arch…
Connie – The Friend Who Believed in the Power of Sunsets
For the last three years, my day has ended with an email to Connie Waterman. Nothing long or complicated. A word or two about my day. A question about hers. Some weather observations. And always,…
The Kitchen
I dream it into three dimensions so many nights— my growing up home. 830 North Ash in McPherson. The very last time I stepped inside for real—the rooms echoingly empty, I recorded the metallic rasp…
Safely Gathered In
Two posts ago, I jumped the gun with my essay on fighting to accept winter. Since then, the universe has served up an uncommonly lovely fall. We have had flickers of frost some mornings. We…
Voir Dire
I spent the lion’s share of my 76th birthday in Helena’s Justice Court. No, I was not the scofflaw. I was on jury duty—for which I managed to be selected out of something like 30…
Acceptance
This is an old song—for a new but disappearing summer. The berries, on Mary’s mountain ash, have begun their transubstantiation. From green to gold to orange. The mystery, the sacrament will end in scarlet. The…
Kittens
Hard to know whether the outrageous sum I paid Lowe’s for three pots of fake Boston ferns anchored in concrete was money well spent. On the one hand, I managed to save the heirloom begonias…
An App for This Age
Awhile back, I downloaded the phone app “We Croak.” It’s based on a Bhutanese belief that to live fully we must contemplate death often. Become its friend. Five times daily at random moments the app…
A Tribute Especially for Tony
Never underestimate the universe’s brilliant, complex, and astonishing perversity. Salish Elder Tony Incashola and long-ago friend and historian Bob Utley both died on June 7. Their deaths–and their lives– shadowed June. I knew each in…
One Slim Device Away From Hoarding
Books are miracles. Their gradual, persistent emergence in our world changed every other element of society, over and over again. Their long, successful slog toward affordability and maneuverability bends my mind. Books have always been…