So a very special friend of mine has offered me insight into who this man is that has been popping up in my dreams as of late – it’s very possibly my first love. Ken McElroy passed a few years ago and yet my memories of him remain as clear as a bell. I found this photo of us taken in my early 20s – as you can see he fits the dream description of…
I had that dream again – the second time this month – where a man with a beard is in my bed. This time, I heard the heavy footsteps walking through the house as he came into the bedroom and climbed into bed and wrapped himself around me. I could feel his beard grazing my neck. Only, unlike last time, when I woke to find him and asked, “What are you doing here?” and he…
For the Papas (A Shout Out Poem) This is for the pot bellied papas. This is for those men who may not run around the block but will chase ghosts from little girls’ closets. This is for the closet lullaby singers. This is for the dead ringers for Bill Cosby whenever a turntable is spinning. This is for the hat wearing brothers with vanishing vanity, but they rock it side tipped and 60’s hip. This…
Friday the 13th, full moon, and a memorial service, or at least that is how this day started. In the pouring rain, black clouds, low visibility, getting lost with GPS and finding the park where my friend’s service was being held in an open air pavilion with a slide show. Photos of her marrying her husband, having her kids, smiling, grooving, living. Why is it that death takes so much from us? Why, when death…
I told my friend who hosts our Nantucket trip that I liken these annual trips to therapy only it is not available on demand. I just returned late Monday night from what has become my annual gal’s trip to paradise and like all trips before this one, there is a tendency to want to tie up the themes in a nice little bow afterwards. Only this year’s themes were plentiful and ranged from cancer to…
A dear friend of mine who used to be my neighbor and was almost a second mother to Tin is transitioning. She was diagnosed with Stage IV ovarian cancer a little over a year ago. Three months of chemo and the cancer returned and she opted not to do chemo again. In the midst of all this, they decided to sell their house on the bayou and move across the lake. A move they as…
I inherited a love of gardening from my grandmother, who passed it down to her daughter, my Aunt Sue, and to me and so wherever I have lived, I’ve planted a garden. It is also a response to my mother who dreamed about planting a garden but often was overwhelmed by the task. The last two days have given us a fair amount of rain that was badly needed in New Orleans. It’s been unusually…
From Pre-K to Kindergarten. From Waldorf School to Morris Jeff. From toddler to little boy. The metamorphosis continues …
Today, my big boy graduated from Pre-K and spent his last day at Waldorf. Oh Lordy – I couldn’t even talk to Ms. Heidi, his teacher, who I thought he would be with for two more years of kindergarten. I just got in the truck and balled my eyes out. So many emotions – one that my precious child was entrusted with these people for three years of his life and now we’re leaving them.…
A friend of mine just changed her job status to seasonal at Whole Foods so that she can be home with her daughter during the summer. She said her coworkers kept offering her other options instead of just out and out not working, but she said, “They don’t understand, I’m a wife and a mother first.” I understand perfectly. See, I have a five-year-old child who is growing up fast, and who needs a mother.…