I leave in a couple of hours for the trip to Nairobi. It is an edge place to be moving from this continent to that one. It is a physical move, but also I feel the psychological and spiritual movement is enormous also. My heart is stretched. The next time
Today I am reminded of this poem by Juan Ramon Jimenez called “I am not I.”
I am not I.
I am this one
walking beside me whom I do not see,
whom at times I manage to visit,
and whom at other times I forget;
the one who remains silent while I talk,
the one who
I leave for Africa the day after tomorrow. I am exhausted to the core with the intensity of preparations, but maybe also because I sense energy already going out of myself and toward something else. Like the substance a spider pulls out of her body to weave a web with,
For those who read yesterday’s blog about my daughter competing in the USA National Weightlifting Championships today, I’ll follow through. Arlene did really well. She beat her own records, pushed herself into new territory by lifting well beyond what she has achieved before. And she finished 5th in the nation
Zulu Warrior
Today is my daughter Arlene’s 24th birthday. I drove 11 hours non-stop today to watch her compete in the USA Nationals in weightlifting tomorrow. This is a picture she let me take of her back about a month ago. My tiny blond-haired blue-eyed daughter who just loved animals
I am leaving tomorrow morning before dawn to begin the first part of my journey that leads to Africa and back. There are two open suitcases in my bedroom, one from the last trip to Mexico containing things that I didn’t unpack in case they might want to come on this trip, and the
Thirty-three years ago tonight was the first time that my ex-husband and I, who had been friends for 7 years, moved our relationship from friends into something that led to marriage and children. June 9 after that was a date I noticed, and in many of the years since then
Lion and Ranger in South Africa
There is bear scat on my driveway and around my property. It is spring and my apple tree is beginning to fruit. A neighbor who noticed the bear traces suggested today that I might not want to sleep out on my screened-in porch.
is the only power. There is no other that trumps it.
I have been walking my dog along Max Patch Road for all of the years that I have lived here. Recently, just as I was figuring out Coco is deaf and blind and can’t do the same kind of walks we have done before, I finally realized he could not