Yesterday, I witnessed the unprecedented – the price of oil dropped to negative $40. While oil price gyrations send shock waves throughout too many industries to name, let’s talk about what it means to me. At the end of 2011, I was laid off from a company I helped build where I covered Global Media along with a wide array of other industries. When I left, two long-term clients came with me. Within a year,…
This often seems like the most difficult question to answer – whether it’s what do you want this day to be or what you do want your life to be. World peace rolls off my tongue, but as to what Rachel wants, I’m often stumped. Maybe I wanted this messy life, filled with love and beauty, trials and error, poetry and trash memes, friends who stay, friends who come and go, friends who leave, indelible…
Yesterday was the last night of Passover and I’m still eating matzo. This morning, I made my Earl Grey Lavender tea, broke a piece of egg matzo, and put some blackberry jam my friend Kim gave me for Easter. Yes, it’s all a mash up. I had something old – the bread of our affliction, I had something new – Kim’s blackberry jam, I ate it sitting by a pillow that was not necessarily borrowed…
Yesterday, early evening I did not go on my bike ride so I could join my friend’s Zoom life coaching call. Veronica’s a warm and wonderful friend, and I’ve been the beneficiary of her coaching largesse on multiple occasions. My take away from last night’s forum was “use everything” – Veronica’s mantra that all of it – the relationship crap, the coronavirus pandemic, the under-earning, the life struggle whatever it is is there for our…
Tin’s Wednesday homeschool assignment was figurative language. Here’s my homework. Simile COVID-19 is like a staycation you didn’t want. Metaphor Social distancing was a spigot of cold water dripping daily onto my soul. Personification The pandemic tiptoed into our lives sometimes appearing as the Angel of Death but most times as a wake up call to stop living like the dead.
I went to Costco yesterday. I had my N95 mask and rubber gloves. I wanted to get power greens for my smoothies. I got a list of needs from a neighbor and also wanted to get power greens for another friend. On the drive over to New Orleans, I felt a touch of apprehension about going to Costco but last week when I was there it was virtually empty. I let it go and felt…
My friend Alicein shut down our beloved Mockingbird Cafe yesterday and oh what a difference to us. This morning, she brought over some of the kitchen produce and I was cooking my mom’s cabbage dish and needed tomatoes and Wala! Thank you, Alicein, for giving during tough times. Yesterday, my friend Kat left books for me and Tin on her porch steps along with two containers of homemade chicken soup. On top of the box…
I went to sleep so peacefully. “Thanks,” was the last word on my lips. I woke a few hours later with a vice grip closing around my throat. It’s all not alright. None of it. The project that has dogged me since last year is howling at the moon right outside my window – loose ends that have frayed my last nerve. There is no money coming in but there is money is going out.…
FOUND: There is a dirty little secret about the COVID-19 pandemic – more time for everything. Long walks. Bike rides. Books. Movies. Time to chat and check in with friends – albeit at a (social) distance. LOSS: The momentum of my business here at the 100 Men Hall. I was building an audience, a reputation, a community, sponsors, grants, a vision and now the rug has been pulled out from under me. FOUND: A community.…
My dear, We need to make books cool again. If you go home with somebody and they don’t have books, don’t fuck them. Don’t let them explore you until they’ve explored the secret universes of books. Don’t let them connect with you until they’ve walked between the lines on the pages. Books are cool, if you have to withhold yourself from someone for a bit in order for them to realize this then do so.…