Tag: short personal essay
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Cookin’ with Gas
I did not realize I missed baking until I made a loaf of soda bread. Been years. Hunkered down in the rental, I munch the hot nutty staff of life (pecans, walnuts, sunflower seeds) with raspberry jam. Earlier, I biked for flour, easily missing the deluge the followed. “Isn’t it great?” I smiled at neighbors…
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Ambling
I’m not in Tallahassee, carefully angling the travel trailer behind Trader Joe’s for comfort food, after yet another attempt to reconcile with a relative. I’m not in County Cork, dismayed as my grandfather yells at my brother for blowing bubbles in his soda. I’m not in a Budapest bath, standing in a cool pool while…
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Cabooses
My mother sewed us little muu-muus to sleep in, which we called cabooses for some reason. After Johnny transitioned, I opened our drawer and looked at them that first night. We shared a bedroom. We shared everything. That first night was strange. I was alone. It was my turn to open the drawer with the…
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Devoted
“Attention is the beginning of devotion.” —Mary Oliver I am devoted to the Ocean, but there was a time, not long ago, that my attention to her (and me) waned. Eventually I became ill. Eventually Death inched closer. Then closer. I didn’t want to die inland, so, barely breathing, heart stuck on Rapid, I drove…
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Flight/Fight
Beware the miserable: they will try to cut you down. It ain’t personal, but it can be painful. Jealousy has been a problem most of my life, both ways. Fortunately, I’m still standing, so I can still learn. Why is that relative hating on me? Oh yeah: envy. Why is that boatyard bozo targeting me?…
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Yes-ness
A feeling of Yes-ness means you are on the right Path. It doesn’t mean there will be no obstacles. Several times this week I found myself in a river of tiny fish. Millions of inch-long swimmers surrounded me, flicks of iridescent beige, rose, cobalt, gold, and silver in the emerald Sea. Sometimes I could not…
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Sand & Sea
“Attention is the beginning of devotion.” —Mary Oliver, Upstream: Selected Essays Inching out the back through the impact zone this week, I recognized that I have been in this zone countless times throughout my life, and always—ALWAYS—get through it. Life was never meant to be a straight line, no matter what anybody says. Only always…
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Divine Mystery
“Love all God’s creation, the whole and every grain of sand in it. Love every leaf, every ray of God’s light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And…
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Translations
I looked up a phrase in Spanish recently: Si me toca, se mato. Translation: If you touch me, I kill you. No more sweet and nice with these people who assume they have the right to my time and presence. It’s never worth the stress and irritation. A boatyard guard slides around a corner toward…
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The Cure
“You suppose you are the trouble, but you are the cure.” —Rumi Transitions are tricky. Plate glass tabletops shatter into millions of pieces. The clothesline is dirty, so the sheet is washed again. Canines loudly wonder what you are doing in their ‘hood. The apartment owners may need boundary lessons. On the scarier side, a…
