I’ve been thinking about houses (reading Tracy Kidder’s “House”) and homes (just finished Roxane Gray’s “An Untamed State”) lately, what they mean to us as physical shelters, emotional cocoons, family gathering places, and remembrances of our roots. I realize more and more how important home is to me: the familiar pictures on the walls, the pots …
The weather continued cold, chilly and foggy, even drizzle from heavy clouds, but Town Lake Trail called to me this weekend. We are in Austin for only a few more weeks before returning to the West Coast. I bundled up, tights under my running pants, Craft wool undershirt beneath my long-sleeved shirt beneath my vest …
A brief review of three plays: “Cabaret,” starring Alan Cumming as the emcee and Michelle Williams as Sally Bowles in the Kit Kat Klub in pre-WWII Berlin, evokes as always with the underlying tension of growing Nazism, and anti-Semitism. The old Studio 54 theatre contained the play well, with the lower level set up with …
I wish I could walk forever through Central Park, capturing and retaining images that assault my five senses. Recording them on film (iPhone) is less than prefect. I prefer the more intense imprints of them on my mind. But my mind falters, assaulted from years of impressions, sights, sounds, and words; the reminders created from …
We’re enjoying a New York City weekend, reminscent of our two years here as newly-weds, but without the long days of work or a five year old boy with whom to spend our time. We love walking through Central Park, along Riverside Drive and the West Side Highway and then over to the Upper East …
Today is Austin Adoption Day. The Gardner Betts Juvenile Center in Austin is festive with the Wizard of Oz theme, “There’s no place like home,” made real for many children today. Upon entering the building (after the ubiquitous security check to which we are too immune), I approached the hallway, transformed into a yellow brick road. …
My current stack of books to read, in the process of being read, or finished within the last month or so, which does not include the ones on my iPad, is daunting. I lack all discipline when it comes to restraining myself from purchasing or borrowing new titles. I devour books, eager to find connections, …
It was this time last November when I received an unexpected mid-afternoon, mid-week call from my older son, Christopher. We’d talked a few days before so seeing his photo on my cell phone was an immediate pleasure. His standard greeting, “Hi, Mom, how’s it going,” was brief before asking, “Do you think Nana can travel …
We were privileged to watch the premiere showing of “A Voice Revealed,” a film about Pilar, a former foster child, and her CASA (court appointed special advocate), Camie. An amazing, heart-breaking but ultimately inspiring story about a young girl who was abused by her biological parents, placed in foster care, almost adopted, then adopted, abused …
The mind/body connection intrigues me as I try to accept physical changes (and abilities) wrought by injuries, external stresses, and life transitions. Some days I am able to stretch physically without thinking of the consequences, the next day’s aches and pains, the temporary stiffness, the flare-up of old injuries. Other days, old injuries rear their ugly …