A Familiar Stride
October 18, 2010
I click on the “play” triangle and watch the video. My friend had filmed his walk from the Indian Consulate in Manhattan, scanning the three-block-long line to where his wife waited. Read the rest of this entry »
A Family Portrait
September 2, 2010
Lost in the project, head down, a green crayon in my hand, I didn’t know where I was. Above each of the five children in the photograph I drew a balloon on a string. I had drawn them each a lollipop too, which they held in their right hands. All except for the baby. She was too little for hard candy. Read the rest of this entry »
Singing
August 18, 2010
When my mother died, I wasn’t there. I was eight hundred miles away with my family in New Hampshire. Mom had been ailing, and I debated making the trip to see her; but she rallied, and I decided to stay put. Read the rest of this entry »
Homemade Pasta
August 10, 2010
A couple of nights ago, I cranked semolina dough through the rollers of the pasta machine, as I pressed the phone receiver between my ear and shoulder and talked with my eldest son. I heard noise in the background. My son called back to a guy nearby who was harassing him for talking on the phone too long. Read the rest of this entry »
Empty Nest, Part 2
July 15, 2010
Dog gone it…
I woke up crying at two in the morning. Little memory loops from my children’s lives played over and over in my head. I tossed and saw one alone in a big city. I turned and saw me losing patience with another. I rolled over on my back and saw the house full of them. I sat up and opened my eyes with my maternal failings bearing down on me, and I then gave up on sleep. Read the rest of this entry »
An Indelible Memory
May 6, 2010
I have this memory from my childhood. The kind of indelible, informative memory that is part of the toolbox we aren’t even aware we are filling when we are young. I see myself, barefoot and play-worn on the front porch. Below me, over the side brick lattice wall, facing the neighbor’s house, is my brother. Read the rest of this entry »
A Brown Dog
April 14, 2010
On a recent visit with my sister, her little dog, Roxy, sat on the arm of the chair where I was sitting. A little brown thing with big brown eyes. I haven’t had a dog, nor any other sort of furry pet, since I was a teenager. Read the rest of this entry »
A nice thing... 