The Mail

“If it takes the entire army and navy to deliver a postal card in Chicago, that card will be delivered.”
~ Grover Cleveland

I’m feeling nostalgic today. Oh for so many things but in particular? The postal service. One of those forever foundations of our lives that we could always depend on. Up until this very moment, no matter what, we always knew that, yes in rain, sleet or snow, our mail would magically arrive—slipped into the door slot, or the front yard mailbox, or wherever our address happened to be. The postal person (who oftentimes became part of our families and remembered always during the holidays with little gifts from us!) could be seen walking in every kind of weather carrying a huge backpack of letters and packages to be delivered throughout the neighborhoods. It was predictable. Comforting. Undeniable. It didn’t matter how small the postcard, or passionate the love letter, or mysterious the fat package, or longed-for correspondence, and yes, even the dreaded bills—they would each be hand-delivered almost always on time. Whether you mailed something yourself or eagerly awaited its arrival, this was all part of the come-and-go easy flow of America that used to be.

US Mail carrier

Like the sun in the morning and the moon at night, the mail simply just was. You never even thought that one day it wasn’t to be—that it would be stopped, removed, used as a political ploy to block a national election from happening.

Continue reading “The Mail”

How Soup and so Much More Made Me What I am Today!

“Sometimes I need
only to stand
wherever I am
to be blessed.”
~ Mary Oliver

Happy International Women’s Day!

I love this Mary Oliver quote, (well, I love just about ALL Mary Oliver quotes) but this is a reminder that wherever I am there I am in a place of feeling blessed. Just to be alive.

I know you like I have some key highlights in your lives that celebrate this day—either for you personally, or remembering other women that you’re honoring.

Continue reading “How Soup and so Much More Made Me What I am Today!”

“The House Remains Inside Me like a Child…” -Don Nigro

ChairI was one of the lucky ones. When I lost my home, my boys were alive, off to school and thriving. And though I was shell shocked at nearly age fifty, I was healthy. I sat on the floor of a teensy studio apartment the size of a postage stamp, surrounded by my six animals, light years away from my beautiful old home in the Hollywood Hills, I knew this was a Cosmic Test that I wanted to learn and pass—though I thought seriously of tossing it all in. But I couldn’t. I had to feed six animals that depended on me.

Unlike so many Californians now suffering horrible losses, I didn’t lose my home of 25 years due to a blazing fire, but more of the incendiary ravages of divorce, bankruptcy, material losses that could have and almost devastated me forever.

Continue reading ““The House Remains Inside Me like a Child…” -Don Nigro

The Cabin People

“Each friend represents a world in us, a world not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.”
~ Anais Nin

There it is tucked deep within the forest. A big, rough-hewn cabin. The air heady with the clean smell of aged wood intermingling with the spike of smoky pine and the savory contents of a brimming pot of thick, spicy soup. A fireplace fills the room with crackling layers of kindling. Shadowy sparks and flames cast a dance of light and dark images on the walls, high-beamed ceilings, and upon the faces of those gathered within the snug confines.

Cabin woods winter snow pictures, backgrounds and images

Panning from floor to the comforter-filled loft high above, one can see clusters of people everywhere. They are sitting on large woven rugs, the colors of muted hues hidden by those huddled together. There are people in every corner, in room-after-room, upstairs and down. Scrunched into pillow-packed rocking chairs and stuffed couches and generous colorful beanbags. The sounds of laughter and whispers weave in and out, peaking from high guffaws to inaudible murmurs – like lovers in the night.

“This is my latest painting…” “Let me read you a poem…” “I have a song I want you to hear…”

Continue reading “The Cabin People”