For three days last week, my neighborhood was transformed into a ghost’s playground that the fog brought in, along with the spring that. The fog settled in, but everything else became unsettled. The distant train whistle that is so comforting to me at night began sounding more like a steam engine’s whistle from days gone by. Visitors began arriving on horse and buggy. Clip-clop, clip-clop, … Continue reading Spring Thaw

Same stream, different day. That’s the way it goes in a January Ohio.     I took another walk in the woods this week, on a morning when my thermostat read 3. I wore the wrong coat so I had to curtail my walk. I have a coat reserved for wood splitting and cutting and although it’s very warm, it doesn’t have a hood and … Continue reading Same Stream, Different Day

I’ve been reading about people making new year’s resolutions to meditate on three things they are thankful for daily. Some people are writing the words on slips of paper and filling up their “gratitude jar” or using some type of system to track all the things they are grateful for so they can stay positive. I’m planning on doing something similar and hoping to post some of the … Continue reading Magick

Jerkwater [jurk-waw-ter, -wot-er] 1. a branch-line train, so called because its small boiler had to be refilled often, requiring train crews to “jerk” or draw water from streams. 2. of or associated with small, remote, and insignificant rural settlements: She’s from some jerkwater town. Unlike most rivers, the flow of the Cuyahoga River is neither north nor south – it is both. The switch to … Continue reading A Jerkwater Town

It was 1985 and I was too young to realize that the lead singer of Queen was gay. I guess at some level, I knew his energy was different than other lead singers I had crushed on, but the possibility that a gay man would front a loud and bawdy rock n’ roll band had not entered my realm of reality yet, and as time … Continue reading Coming of Age in the Plague Years

Germaphobia gripped my mother like an iron glove when I was in pre-school. I was born in the era when companies like Nestlé began aggressively marketing to mothers that it’s baby formula was more nutritional than mother’s breast milk, so when I began to frequently get sick with different viruses and colds as an infant and when I first entered public school, I was sick … Continue reading Of Germs and Worms

Almost every day this week, my Accu weather app tells me “This is a poor day for Outdoor Fitness”. Yes indeedy, it is. This is a week of seeking warmth, any way it comes, especially through your stomach. To accompany the traditional sauerkraut and pork dish for New Year’s this past week, I used my mother’s white KitchenAid mixer pictured here in all its vintage … Continue reading Speaking in Squirrels

There’s an ancient visceral memory that surfaces and calls to me every year shortly after the winter solstice. This memory runs deeper than any conscious memory, deeper than anything I can pinpoint in my lifetime. It starts with the first night I wake up to the flickering of flames after dozing off while reading or writing. Once that happens, I’m hooked. For the remaining nights … Continue reading Hibernation and Epigenetics

Hopeful Discourse. Two guys walk into a bar on a Friday night in August. What do they debate? The upcoming Bucks’ season? Nope. The summer concert line-up? Nope. The best tasting summer ale? Nope, nope, and nope. It turns out they talk about whether charity is necessary in a society that is truly equitable. At least this was the topic being debated between the two … Continue reading Hopeful Discourse

  A few months ago, the building services coordinator at my church informed me that one of the three lilac bushes planted in memory of a friend’s mother the previous spring, was dying. This particular Sunday in September was a Sunday that swept in the first snap of winter on its gusty wings. Its grayness was the kind of gray that tugs on your step, … Continue reading Circles