The neighbor’s daughter is a big fan of Tin’s and Tin has always been a big fan of her. But when he met her friend, he liked the friend even more. So now we are trying to instill in Tin the need to be good to his steady friend (the neighbor) and not to hold the new friend over the old one as if she were better. Hard to do. Also, although his oldest friend…
Last night was meatball and spaghetti night – my absolute favorite meal in the world but only more so as they were not just mere meatballs, my friend made special Southern Italian meatballs that were so tender they melted in your mouth before you could get them off the fork. We had an entire night of eating come to think of it, from the gazpacho I made trying to recreate the Andalusian experience, to the…
When we were in Spain and I was standing there on the sand watching all our friends and Tin playing I was smiling so hard my face hurt. Today I had a similar occurrence. Tatjana saw in the paper that there was a brass band for youth in Louis Armstrong Park and so Tin and I went there and watched the kids playing and Tin with his drumstick as a clarinet for one moment and…
Tin got in the Waldorf School – yay! With the Waldorf method of instruction, the class teacher involves the children in the subject through presentation, story telling, writing, reading, recitation, dramatic acting, painting, drawing, and movement. The teacher follows a rhythm, day to day, which begins with a review of the previous day’s material, further development of the subject matter and then introduction of new material. Day by day throughout the block, the teacher builds…
is out on a limb. This was advice I cut out of a magazine many years ago. Yesterday, I spoke to a good friend in California, the same age as me, who after 19 years left her career and is taking the summer off to re-evaluate her life. We had a great heart to heart on aging, on work, on money, and relationships. Some of the best quotes from her were these and are very…
I was listening to Ram Das yesterday as I was walking and he was speaking about all of the ways one might meditate and one suggestion he had was to open a book to any page and take a passage and try to live that day from within the framework of that passage. So today I took Walt Whitman and opened to this passage and will try to adhere to the tenets that dying is…
I was sitting in the apartment in Zahara de los Atunes and Tatjana had grabbed Ana’s El Pais to read about the tragedy in Oslo. I refused to read about because it was just too horrible, but then my eyes riveted down the front page to something that left me infinitely sadder than sad: La cantante Amy Winehouse, de 27 años, ha sido encontrada muerta esta tarde en su casa de Camden Town, al norte…
I was trying to get my meditation practice in order and decided that I’m going back to my hula hoop for serenity. If you are a person of action, then stillness isn’t satisfying. But the graceful twirl of the hula hoop and a wonderful mantra or song playing is a good way for me to center myself in the now. I left off my hula habit when Tin came along, opting for time with him…
It seems as if I have spent an inordinate amount of time putting other people’s agenda before my own. I have come to the realization that no one is going to stand up for my agenda except me, so stand tall. I’m going to cultivate a life and work that serves me instead of vice versa. After all I am not the cart, I am the bull.
When we returned from Spain and got a phone call from the now head mistress of New Orleans Montessori, I used my gut to guide me and this is what my gut said, 1) Ms. Albers isn’t there? (she retired July 31st) – why was no transition plan outlined to parents? 2) lead paint on the building next door is causing a crisis that requires moving asap (this sounds like an over reaction – head…