love his parents for this.
—
“strong moms raise strong children who can change the world.”
– Malala Yousafzai, Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech (2014)
Apr25
Tag Archives: family
Mar23
we are made from stories.
a lovely break
spent with my sister, my aunt, and her 20 spiritual sisters
each incredibly accomplished
making the world better
in her own way
going from place to place
person to person
greeted warmly
welcomed in
with each interaction
we learned more about my aunt, the sister
her own stories, her own accomplishments
how she began on this path, became one of them, learned from them, grew to lead them,
now traveling with them into the next stage of their lives
putting together the people and places in her life
that have meant, and continue to mean
so much to her
she has been happy and much loved
on our last night they all sang to us
after a shared meal
gifting us with a blessing and best wishes.
—
“listen, and you will realize that we are made not from cells or from atoms. we are made from stories.”
*-mia couto
*António Emílio Leite Couto, better known as Mia Couto, is a Mozambican writer. He won the Camões Prize in 2013, the most important literary award in the Portuguese language, and the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2014.
—
image credit: from crayon
Mar19
off to the nunnery.
so off i go today
to the convent
where i’ll stay and meet up with
my sister and my aunt who is a sister
relax, talk, walk, meditate, share meals, laugh, cry, remember, tell stories
see her sacred and important places
shared spaces
if i was a nun
i imagine myself
singing and running through the hills
like sister maria in the alps
but i think this spring break
slow and easy
may be exactly perfect
a time of rest and renewal.
—
“get thee to a nunnery, go.”
– hamlet to ophelia (written by william shakespeare)
—
photo credit: 20th century-fox studios, the sound of music, 1965
Mar11
‘is there no privacy in this family?′ everyone at the table answers, ‘no.’- ashley elston
ah, those wonderful memories
of that wall mounted phone
usually yellow in most houses
began with a 3-foot cord
eventually a 30-foot cord
so important
for one’s privacy
if the phone rang
and the call was for one of us
we’d travel with that cord
way beyond any expected limits
into a corner or another room
with closed door
where we could
listen, gossip, tell jokes, share news, talk about nothing, cry about breakups, listen to music together, compare who got invited to what, predict who was going to ask who out, muse about crushes, complain about our parents and sibs, find out what the homework was because we weren’t listening in class, discuss what you were going to wear tomorrow, make plans…
and then
after what seemed to be about 5-7 minutes
one of your sibs
would start whining, complaining, knocking on the door, telling on you
for being on the phone ‘for hours’
they were waiting for an important call
or had to make an important call
and they were just going to die
if they didn’t get to use the phone right away
the battle for the phone began
if someone had to walk
through the room that cord was stretched across
a taut tightrope about to snap
they had to lift it and walk under
like playing phone limbo
the curly cord
would get all twisted up
because you had been twirling it around your finger
while you were on your call
you had to wait as the whole thing unspooled
sometimes standing on a chair to do so
when you finally got off of the call
your sibling began the whole process all over again
with her friend
until
another sibling jumped into the ring
to go through the whole ritual again
with her friend
until
your parents
or the friend’s parents
put the hammer down
and said
they were waiting for or had to make an important call
it was time for dinner
not to stretch out the phone cord
one sib even figured out how to disconnect the cord
right where it connected to the phone
it was an ongoing struggle
for privacy, phone access, and control
it was the best, like being in a phone derby
and sometimes i won.
‘the shared phone was a space of spontaneous connection for the entire household.’
— Julia Cho; The Atlantic—How the Loss of the Landline Is Changing Family Life
Mar3
tangerine dreams.
wh0 wouldn’t love to have a tangerine cat?
—
“our holiday food splurge was a small crate of tangerines, which we found ridiculously thrilling after an eight-month abstinence from citrus. lily hugged each one to her chest before undressing it as gently as a doll. watching her do that as she sat cross-legged on the floor one morning in pink pajamas, with bliss lighting her cheeks, i thought; lucky is the world, to receive this grateful child. value is not made of money, but a tender balance of expectation and longing.”
-Barbara Kingsolver
Barbara is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, essayist, and poet. Her widely known works include The Poisonwood Bible, the tale of a missionary family in the Congo, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, a nonfiction account of her family’s attempts to eat locally. Lily, mentioned above, is her daughter, now also an author and an environmental scientist.
—
image credit: pinterest
Jan5
time runs out.
“It is easy to mourn the lives we aren’t living. Easy to wish we’d developed other talents, said yes to different offers. Easy to wish we’d worked harder, loved better, handled our finances more astutely, been more popular, stayed in the band, gone to Australia, said yes to the coffee or done more bloody yoga.
It takes no effort to miss the friends we didn’t make and the work we didn’t do the people we didn’t do and the people we didn’t marry and the children we didn’t have. It is not difficult to see yourself through the lens of other people, and to wish you were all the different kaleidoscopic versions of you they wanted you to be. It is easy to regret, and keep regretting, ad infinitum, until our time runs out.
But it is not lives we regret not living that are the real problem. It is the regret itself. It’s the regret that makes us shrivel and wither and feel like our own and other people’s worst enemy.
We can’t tell if any of those other versions would have been better or worse. Those lives are happening, it is true, but you are happening as well, and that is the happening we have to focus on.”
—
in memoriam of r.s. – you will be greatly missed and thanks for the music
—
credits:
text: Matt Haig – The Midnight Library, 2020.
art: Grant Haffner – Into the night, 1978
Dec28
my grandson has a few words to say about being a good neighbor in this world.
Dec27
two hearts.
yesterday
my sister let us know
she lost her husband
of so many years
on christmas day
in this
the same year
he lost his father
before too long
we’ll fly to her
to be together
for a remembrance and celebration of his life.
—
“sympathy is two hearts tugging at one load.”
-charles henry parkhurst
Dec25
life of the party.
coco the dog
fully enjoyed the family and friends christmas eve party
and on this fine day would like to wish you all a merry christmas
and
to all a good nap.
—
“christmas is the day that holds all time together.”
-alexander smith
Nov26
downtown.
downtown detroit
on a very chilly and beautiful november evening
sparkling christmas tree
ice
music
family from near and far
laughter
winter market
lots and lots of food
warm drinks
lights
comfort.
—
“downtown. lights on buildings and everything that makes you wonder.
and in that moment, i swear we were infinite.”
stephen chbosky
I didn't have my glasses on.... 