"Let it go. Let it go." Elsa Sometimes life sends you subtle signals that a season is changing. Other times, it's more like a karate chop. One of the latter hit me over Christmas and involved an unusually long school holiday, a desire to not be mugged and seven hours of interstate driving. Pretty, yes.… Continue reading Time on my hands, weight off my back
Category: family life
Respecting the dress
“Recognizing the need is the primary condition for design.” Charles Eames, industrial designer In its first life, the dress went to a summer dance on the shores of Lake Michigan in 1963. Not long after, it traveled with the teen girl who delighted in it to Appalachia -- to a small city hugged by low,… Continue reading Respecting the dress
The ever-changing table
"There is always, always something to be thankful for." poster wisdom The era that set all that Thanksgiving should be in my mind was actually rather brief. It began the year my immediate family returned to our Chicago-area home base and ended about 10 years later, when the cousins began to move away. And away… Continue reading The ever-changing table
Enough light to keep from falling
“There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in.” Leonard Cohen, Selected Poems, 1956-68 It was because of No. 2 pencils. We needed them. For one of those testing milestones that punctuate the teen years. My feet -- safe from falling -- even in the dark. "Let's walk to the store," my… Continue reading Enough light to keep from falling
2 books that cozy up to fall
"He packs wool sheared in April, honey in combs, linen, leather tanned from deerhide, and vinegar in a barrel hooped by hand at the forge’s fire." American poet Donald Hall, Ox-Cart Man This book has a permanent place in our collection. There are a handful of books that have a permanent presence in my life.… Continue reading 2 books that cozy up to fall
