Last evening I wrote in the quiet. I watched a movie on cable. I read, then wrote some more. And settled slowly into a rhythm of 24 hours of silence. Strangely peaceful silence. Everything in me unwinds, finally, after a week of being on my own, in this observation of an hour of silence, and […]
“I can’t change. I am who I am.” Say what??
Do you believe you can change? Do you want to change – if not in a major way, then subtly – for instant gratification or something more enduring? Let’s see. There’s my messy kitchen. My disastrous closets. Oh yes, I can think of a few things I’d like to change. May I borrow from the classics […]
Home Alone
It is a long weekend in the States. A holiday. Memorial Day. For some, it is a day spent in realization of this occasion. But for most, this weekend announces the arrival of summer vacations, of travel, of family time. Carefree or carefully constructed schedules. A break in routine. A break, of any sort. And […]
Going the distance
Ground to cover Yesterday blurs over in my mind already; so much ground was covered. From one part of the city to another, like a yo-yo, to and from the house. Eventually, to the airport at some distance away. The hours marched along as they had to, simultaneously swift and sluggish: laundry, errands, packing, more […]
Would you dare to quit your job?
A particular news item caught my eye early today: As the job market begins to loosen up, human resource managers might increasingly be surprised by an announcement from employees they haven’t heard in a while: “I quit.” Catchy quote, isn’t it? And hopeful. It appeared in The Wall Street Journal, as reported on Yahoo Finance. […]
Monday Morning Moaning. Complaint Department is Open.
Monday, Monday The staff of the Complaint Department has been on sabbatical for a few weeks. But – it is Monday. And who likes Monday morning? Who doesn’t have a complaint or two or three? Who doesn’t want – or need – a place to bitch? What better time than when we’re all dragging – […]
Why I’m Fond of Isopropyl Alcohol
Oddities I woke early, heart racing, dark dreams prickling – my own version of a global thriller, complete with missing mid-century masterpieces, a chase scene through a foreign airport, running for my life across an unknown border, and the face of the enemy in pursuit. Frankly, I kept waiting for action hero Jason Bourne to pop […]
Can you be bought?
Everything has its price I’ve spent days, weeks really, maneuvering through objects and obstacles. In my little den. The jammed office. My bedroom, the living room, a wretched corner in the kitchen. I am looking. Taking silent inventory. Running numbers in my head. I toss aside the memories as best I can. Memories of marriage […]
Rescuing dreams
There is something I am not seeing. There must be. I am unable to fight back the waves. I erect a barrier, and it holds, briefly. Then it crumbles, and I am knocked down and submerged. I pull myself up and rebuild, as another wall of water rises beneath a deceptive sky. And I am […]
Mini-Mom moves mountain! (Splendid son smiles.)
Screw Sisyphus. What’s the best way to push a boulder up a mountain? Just say no. Mountain? What mountain? More than one way to skin a cat I’m in a mixing metaphors mood, a never-say-die frame of mind. Sweetly satisfied and smiling, though the hours ahead are not without significant challenges. (As have been the […]