If you’ve read my memoir, Under The Birch Tree, you’ll learn that as a young girl, I was a walker, circumnavigating the yards that surrounded my home as if to plot memories with every footprint. And to this day, I walk, traversing the woods along curvy earth trails marked by bumps and dips, or meander through the neighborhood, pivoting on [...]
This morning I ripped the month’s page away from the year. March, defined by thirty-one small white boxes, was filled with ink, a few arrows, and many cross outs. The month was a busy one for me as scheduling dominated my weeks. From an electrician called to my home to replace a switch, but needed to reschedule for a day [...]
I would be remiss if I didn’t write about my reflections during this time of isolation because of the corona virus, when connecting is at odds with social distancing. I know we’ll look back on this when future conversations will begin “remember when” stories that will never end. I think of memories being made now for those “remember when’s” later. [...]
Memoir writer Alice Tallmadge said it best in an essay, “Your First Book, When the Cheering Stops,” - “But your writing mind is as empty as a flat pocket. You can’t imagine writing another paragraph, ever. You say you are taking a break. And you do. (https://bit.ly/2JzmG7U) And I did. Taking a break from writing seemed to be an excuse, [...]
Recently, a best friend lost her beloved four-legged companion of thirteen years. I thought of how she must have felt: alone, lost, and sad. Eight-week-old Sydney had become family after my friend secured a job and then a new home, both of which she loved. Sydney was her connection to memories of being in a good place, of happiness and [...]
The warm foundation walls contract with a bang and a clatter and then a snap from cooling after the furnace kicks off. The sound effects, intermittent with varying degrees of volume and consistency, interrupt an otherwise silence that is characteristic of most days. The stillness and quiet seemingly overpower any audible interruption making me feel as if I am suspended [...]
As a Catholic grade-schooler, the nuns taught me a conversation with God was as important to my education as was getting good grades. The nuns chimed in ritualistic reminders, “Pray to God, evoke him in daily prayer, and you’ll be closer to him.” The idea is to develop a relationship with him and you won’t need to fear anything. I [...]
As a youngster, my DNA was evident through my green eyes, light brown hair with a cowlicked plume of honey-streaked hair just above my right eye. Could these physical traits have been carried down the DNA ladder? I recently did one of those DNA tests to find out about my ancestry. With a Polish mother and an English father, I [...]
There’s a tinge of change in the air. Maybe it’s the air’s cooling in the evening or the lack of sunlight awakening chirpy birds in pre-dawn. Perhaps the change is marked by kids returning to school. Though a season’s transition is knocking on the calendar’s door, I remain driven to the outdoors. Late summer into early fall delivers a changing [...]
Writing my memoir was like driving down Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. Upon my return from being away from the city for a few years, the order of exits was fuzzy in my memory, creating a challenge to my navigation. I had once depended on knowing each exit like a marker signaling when to turn or to keep going. My [...]