On May 2, 2014, I woke up and took Tin to school then I ran into a dear friend and went for coffee with her. Then I went over to my house and watered the plants and as I was about to walk back to the American Can where I’m staying for the week, a tall, dark, handsome man said to me, “Can I tell you how beautiful you are?” So I asked him for…
Driving down Bienville Street past St. Margaret’s Long-Term Care Facility – a frail and elderly woman in a plastic chair sat out front smoking a cigarette. #remindsmeofmom Driving down Galvez Street right at the gloaming and little kids out in the streets on bikes, jumping rope, playing ball and folks coming home from work. #backintheday Driving down Spain Street looking for St. Roch Community Church, I lower window and ask a guy on his porch,…
My mother told me about different age landmarks – 25 you think you know it all, 35 you realize you didn’t know anything and so you set your sights ahead, 40 your sexuality awakens and then you enter your 50s – young lady, she wrote me, this is when you become a woman. Damn, if my mother wasn’t the smartest woman in the world. What is different about the 50s than the other years –…
I told Tin that when he left for Croatia the first thing I would do is boo hoo and then I would sit and tap my fingers waiting for him to come home. No one tells you this about parenthood. They don’t prepare you anywhere for this love. The love that has you in life with someone who blames you for everything and shows you his absolute worst side whenever there is an opportunity and…
If you listen very closely you will hear the sound of my heart beating. If you are still and listen closer you will hear my joy. If you move in closer you will get a view of the magic that is in me. And so it is that I ended my crush last night right before bed. I fell back in love with my life and all those hearts in my eyes stopped bouncing up…
Flower is here visiting me and we were talking about people we know who are having a relationship stumbling block. As all do. We discussed her side and his side and our side and could only agree on the fact that in a relationship even the participants are hard pressed to know all the details of their own truth. When you try to sit down across from each other and talk about what it is…
LOVE IS A PLACE E. E. Cummings love is a place & through this place of love move (with brightness of peace) all places yes is a world & in this world of yes live (skilfully curled) all worlds
With Tin out of the country visiting family, I’ve seen my downtime go into overdrive. First night, he was gone, I rested and then it’s been Katie bar the door. Thursday night was Vino and Vinyl at a friend’s house with new and old friends. Friday night was an African gal’s night here with a viewing of three episodes of An African City and all of us fabulous women dressed in African garb and eating…
I came across this article written by Roger Angell in The New Yorker about his life in his 90s. If you ever think about aging, about dying, and mostly about loving, read it: Getting old is the second-biggest surprise of my life, but the first, by a mile, is our unceasing need for deep attachment and intimate love. We oldies yearn daily and hourly for conversation and a renewed domesticity, for company at the movies…
A friend of mine was telling me that she has always moved very quickly into relationships and she has made a vow to take her time this next time around. She’s gathering wisdom from African proverbs and sayings, and one woman writes not to act like this is the last love you might ever have and to take time to know him before committing. The woman says that if you cannot take it slow then…