Month: May 2020

Life

Observation

Mary C

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As a writer, wouldn’t it seem that observation is an important tool in one’s work? I thought about this yesterday morning as I was walking around the neighborhood, looking at plants I’d never seen before, the rabbits pausing on a dewy lawn for a quick snack, the tree with a seemingly perfect canopy of branches and leaves. But as I wandered and meanered and took in the scent of the day, waved at the other walkers passing on the other side of the street, and took snapshots of cool things, I never once looked up at the sky. When I left the house I returned to quickly grab my forgotten sunglasses because as you walk to the east the sun is bound to get in your eyes eventually and I hadn’t noticed that the glasses hadn’t left their perch at the top of my head for the duration of the walk.

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poetry

Tuesday

Mary C

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We landed on Tuesday, again.
How do we keep the days new and fresh
in a changed world?

Seeking outside ourselves the answer
to what lies within,
we close our eyes to memory and dreams.

Imagine if things were different. Where would
we be and doing?
Going slowly toward sanity or madness.

Generations before have seen better and worse
and yet we survive another day.
We landed on Tuesday, again.

Life

The house I didn’t want

Mary C

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In late 2015, at the beginning of my journey into recovery, I decided I wanted to move. Fresh starts and all. We live in a house that is a main thoroughfare and heavily trafficked and without sidewalks. Our son was eight and in need of neighborhood friends and how is that possible without a neighborhood? We quickly found one that seemed perfect. A neighborhood near one of Liam’s school friends, it was bigger with an open plan, a fireplace!, a large master bedroom/bath and walk-in closet, less yard to care for.  I was already imagining us taking over the space, making it home. We didn’t get the house and I began a period of mourning.

But looking at the house kicked in a new quest for my husband. He turned our disappointment into a new idea and started visiting retirement property while visiting his mom in Florida a couple months later. It was a furtive move on his part and he didn’t share this idea until he was home and booking flights for us to visit in late February. Hold up. Retirement?! Florida?! Never! I tried to talk him down but the idea had already taken root. Strong root.

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Life

Revisiting Bliss Through Meditation

Mary C

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A few weeks into the quarantine, we decamped to our Florida home to ride out the remainder of the school year away from upstate New York. The weather was about to get the best of us with snow into late April and the feeling of being shuttered in our home, unable to get out to breath in some fresh air, was making our son drift into depression. Why not go where sunshine and warm temperatures would allow us to be outdoors while still maintaining our social distance? We are lucky and blessed to have this option.

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