My friend Antonio makes the best flan, second only to my mom’s flan. And I love flan. So when he brought a flan to the Hanukkah party, I quickly stashed it away in the fridge for me, myself, and I. Then every time I go by the fridge it calls to me – take a spoon and eat a bite, it demands of me. Luckily two friends stopped by last night to light the menorah…
Yesterday, the end of the week, I was finishing up some emails when I saw that two people had been killed at an elementary school in Connecticut, before I could finish reading 27 people were dead, 20 of them children. I just started crying. And kept crying until I went and picked up Tin from school. Today had been a special day, the one earth one voice organization brought their glass globe to the Waldorf…
Hello God, are you out there, are you listening anymore? ~Dolly Parton I hate guns – I loathe guns – I believe that all guns should be destroyed. I do. I do. I do. In China children were harmed by a knife wielding maniac today while in the U.S. of A, 27 are dead from two gunmen. Hello God, how horrible, how tragic, how supremely unfathomable. Suffer the little children. Dear God. I’ve added an…
Two monks were once traveling together down a muddy road. A heavy rain was falling. Coming around the bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unable to cross the intersection. “Come on, girl,” said the first monk. Lifting her in his arms, he carried her over the mud. The second monk did not speak again until that night when they reached a lodging temple. Then he no longer could restrain…
A friend and neighbor makes a holiday CD every year. She spends a month really thinking about it; she’s a musician. Every year they have a theme and this year it is a compilation of Paul Simon songs. I was listening to it on the way to bring Tin to school this morning and was floored by his lyrics – “the nearer the destination the more you’re slip slidin’ away.” As I drove, Late in…
One of the silver linings of throwing a party besides the party itself is getting things cleaned that otherwise wouldn’t be. Having removed the toaster, the coffeemaker and the rest of the daily items that line the marble countertops, it was time for their semi annual cleaning and bulletproofing. So piece by piece I started last night after Tin went to bed. And then as is evident for the change in me these days, I…
Sonnet (With Children) My love is like a deep and placid lake… Not now, sweetie, Daddy’s busy, OK? OK: my love’s a deep and peaceful lake… Here, Daddy can fix it. All better. Now go play. Um, my love, yes—a rose that blooms in spring… You tell her Daddy says she has to share. My love’s… My love’s a lake that blooms—no, that springs… On the wall?! Her what?! No, wait—I’ll be right there. OK—love,…
I was coming back from the doctor listening to WWOZ and an Australian singer songwriter was on and her voice was so beautiful. She said that when she first came here she knew she wanted to come back and write music here because it was so different from Sydney and the music is so real here. The DJ talked about how the music in New Orleans is about truth and it is music that is…
Ahh, the agony and ecstasy of motherhood. Tin loves his presents when they are what he wants, and when they’re not he is an ogre. So we were moving into a downward spiral of him having consequences and losing the trains for a day that he wants and not getting the presents he doesn’t want because of his attitude. One more opportunity to remind myself that he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know and that…
You take any Wednesday and figure out what you are going to do with it. My morning started with going into Tin’s nursery like many Jewish mothers do and presenting Hanukkah to the uninitiated. It’s not about presents, it’s about telling history and remembering. The story of Judah Maccabee and the liberation of Jewish belief. It doesn’t really translate to nursery kids but it is nonetheless the story. I then came home and worked on…