Autumn
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October memories
“So I like best of all autumn, because its leaves are a little yellow, its tone mellower, its colours richer, and it is tinged a little with sorrow and a premonition of death. Its golden richness speaks not of the innocence of spring, nor of the power of summer, but of the mellowness and kindly wisdom of approaching age.” – Lin Yutang The following short essay began as a journal entry after my father died. Later, it was published in the October 1998 issue of Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion. It’s also included in my essay collection, Writing Home. Lately I’ve been thinking of these lines from Anne Mary Lawler’s poem…
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My Halloween story in Bella Grace
“Anyone could see that the wind was a special wind this night, and the darkness took on a special feel because it was All Hallows’ Eve.” ~Ray Bradbury Bella Grace is the first magazine I reach for when I want to calm down, escape the hard news, and tune out the white noise around me. I often refer to it as a grown-up picture book, with dreamy images that never fail to transport me to another place and time. So, you can imagine how thrilled I was to get my work published in the Autumn 2021 issue (Issue 29). My essay, “I’ve Never Outgrown the Magic of Halloween,” is featured in…
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Gratitude
“Of all the practices, I believe that learning to feel and express gratitude may be the most important in achieving and maintaining a happy life.” ~Andrew Weil, M.D. Are you counting your gifts, advantages, and blessings? Numerous studies show that keeping a gratitude journal on a daily basis will improve our life satisfaction within three weeks. You need only list a few items — and they don’t have to be major. Small pleasures add up to a big increase in contentment. Consider the taste of your morning brew, the fall colors on your morning walk, or the lovely handwritten note you received in yesterday’s mail. Record your gratitude list at…
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Nature’s magic show
“Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.” ~Mary Oliver I rarely carry or use my cell phone when I’m walking a nature trail. So I’m continually baffled by all the people I see (and hear) who are focused on their phones instead of the beauty all around them. Some are gabbing so loudly that their voices drown out the music of the birds. American poet Mary Oliver is known for her sense of wonder and reverence for the natural world. Her reflective poems illuminate the everyday miracles we might overlook when we’re jogging through the woods or our suburban neighborhoods. As Oliver reminds us, there’s magic in nature…
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Homecoming
“But when fall comes, kicking summer out on its treacherous ass as it always does one day sometime after the midpoint of September, it stays a while like an old friend you have missed. It settles in the way an old friend will settle into your favorite chair and take out his pipe and light it, and then fill the afternoon with stories of places he has been and things he has done since he last saw you.” ~Stephen King, Salem’s Lot Autumn was made for nostalgia. Last weekend, Doug and I hosted a party for several of our closest high school friends. The gathering was a homecoming of sorts,…
