I know the trip will set me back a couple of weeks in spring-time when I watch the green recede with each mile we travel north. But I am happy to go back to an earlier spring. I know how short lived it is.
An Earlier Spring
Category: Grow
Life keeps rolling, and the kids are out in front, it’s me that has to catch up.
Kids with happy faces on bikes, riding ahead. Mom peddling to catch up. That is what parenting feels like, always a little out in front. Sometimes you need to stop and trust that things will be okay.
Forest Bathing
Friluftsliv “open air living” is the desire to be in nature. The Japanese call it shinrin-yoku “taking in the forest atmosphere” or “forest bathing.” I first heard of this concept in a yoga class. We were asked to gaze out the window and find a tree in the near distance and study it while in [...]
Growth Rings
I want to grow like a tree-stretch my branches to reach higher, and my roots probing deeper with understanding.
Why Travel?
"The life you have led doesn't need to be the only one you have." Anna Quindlen The world clock on my phone has more time zones than one family should have. In the last month I have added Chang Mai, Lisbon, Geneva, Shanghai, Minneapolis and Osaka. Phil and I in Portugal, our youngest daughter connecting [...]
Always There
Labor Day weekend is always a time of goodbyes--to beach swimming, enthusiasm for tending the garden, and white pants. I said goodbye to my son last Saturday as he set off on a four month trip to Asia. My husband's dear Uncle Roy went off to heaven at age 96. And our grandson said [...]
Matriarch, me?
Matriarch. Me? It doesn't seem possible that I am now the oldest generation of our family. The female head, worthy of respect and reverence. Sorry to say this is how you get here. You lose your mother, the former female head of your tribe. And before that your father. And your daily work is done [...]
First Day, Last Day
What it really means for me is that I need to focus on my own life now, when I have used mothering as an excuse, a focus that I couldn't take my eyes off entirely. Now I can. If I am ever going to get to it, it is now. I am sitting on a [...]
Life Begins
For men life begins when the last child leaves home and the dog dies. Well, that is what has happened. It's just us now. Phil and I hold each other in the small exam room in the Vet's office. Phoebe, our 14 year old Lab is with Dr Sven in back. He is starting an [...]
Matriarchy 