All posts filed under: Loving

The Perfect Poem

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When you find the perfect poem at 7am, you just have to share it.  I look at my life, and believe I have done what I could in the best way I knew how.  We were not perfect, but I damn well tried and so did he. We will continue to do what we can in our lives, but have sadly agreed it will no longer be in a life together.   Perfection in love is not possible, but in a poem it sometimes is.  Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.   Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in. Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This …

Happy Days 

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Welcome to the last week of my 555 series! Please read the introduction to this project {here}.  Week 5 Post 3  I remember having chicken pox when I was 10 yrs old and hating that mom had to give me an oatmeal bath because I was so self conscious of my girly parts growing in.  I remember running out to the yard in the afternoon heat with a glass of ice water for daddy as he cut the grass in his weekend trousers and garden gloves.  I remember how my sister pinched my nostrils closed causing me to lose my breath & abruptly wake many a Saturday morning so I’d play Barbies or Strawberry Shortcake with her. I remember before bed time we’d all snuggle under plaid wool blankets in the family room watching ABC’s Happy Days  on Tuesday nights. Now and then scenes from my childhood flash through my mind, and they make me chuckle with teary gratitude.     

That’s Cold! 

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Welcome to my 555 series! Please read the introduction to this project {here}.  Week 5 Post 1  It’s getting cold out here and it’s freaking me out. I am also preparing to go out of the country this weekend where the temps are wet and 10 degrees colder with highs of 45F.  I just bought new sweaters and underlayers & own plenty of wool coats to choose from but am feeling stressed. I called Husband at work to tell him I’m freaking out about packing and whined like a sixteen-year old that, “my life is SO  hard.”  Obviously he hung up.        

Lighting The Wrong Kind of Fire

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Welcome to my 555 series! Please read the introduction to this project {here}.  Week 4 Post 4 When a guy is broken up with after a drawn out relationship, he will always claim he was blindsided. He will never admit to have seen any telltale signs. That’s denial at work. But how does he not see his hand in it? Sometimes a man can be like a little boy who likes playing with matches, responsible for lighting a house fire he didn’t expect to start.      

TV Is My Friend:  I’d Hoped She Could Be Too

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Welcome to my 555 series! Please read the introduction to this project {here}.  Wk 3 Post 4  Me:  “I have a running DVR recording for Will & Grace. It’s my sanity at the end of the day, like a background radio show I play while cooking. What shows do you love?”  Her:  “Oh I don’t watch sitcoms, I’m not into sitcoms.” *cue the sound of a needle dragging across a vinyl record.     

Smells Like A Teenager’s Spirit 

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Welcome to my 5 5 5 series. The objective of this exercise is to write five lines five times a week for five weeks, to get me back into a regular post writing habit.  Read my introduction here. Wk 2 Post 5 He will text things out of the blue saying, “Hello you,” or asking, “What are you doing?” I know how friends check in on each other, and that’s okay, expected even with our friends. But he & I are not ‘friends’, we are  amicable acquaintances. Something about his check-ins seem flirtatious. It was kind of charming when we were sixteen, but now that we’re forty, he’s just a creepy old guy.

You Win Some You Lose Some

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Welcome to my 5 5 5 series. The objective of this exercise is to write five lines five times a week for five weeks, to get me back into a regular post writing habit.  Habits don’t create themselves, after all. The parameters of frequency & amount of sentences/ lines will remain throughout this series, while the topics and format can be varied. Read my introduction here while all of the series entries so far are tagged: Five Five Five.  Wk 2 Post 1 Early this morning after barre class, a gym buddy and I ended up spending an extra hour in the studio having one of those  unexpectedly great conversations that can happen between two semi-strangers. She just went from gym buddy to regular buddy. Late this afternoon I didn’t bother looking in the mirror before leaving for the post office. En route home I saw my reflection in a shop window. I should have bothered.

Captain America To The Rescue 

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Wk 1 Post 4 I was sobbing, just sobbing, on the couch all afternoon. Captain America called me after my hopeless sad gal text and said, “You’re going to freshen up, get dressed, and go outside for a walk while I stay on the phone with you,” which she did, for two hours as I navigated the sidewalks downtown teary eyed but soon laughing with her in my ear. Many years before this, after camping with literally a million people to hear public mass with Pope John Paul ii, I struggled in the following day’s heat to trek towards our return shuttle with my backpack. Captain America grabbed it from me and carried it in addition to all of her gear while leading our group in her encouraging tone, “C’mon, let’s go, you can do it.”  We all need superheroes. Welcome to my 5, 5, 5 series.  The objective of this exercise is to write five lines five times a week for five weeks about anything. Habits don’t create themselves, after all. The frequency & …

Love Where You Live

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At the confluence of the North and South Forks of the Yamhill River in the Willamette Valley, sits the historic town of McMinnville, Oregon.  Fresh off of a full day exploring Portland following The Hello Sessions the night before, at least a dozen of my friends and I headed 40 miles southwest for the ‘Love Where You Live’ wine country dinner. Co-hosted by the gracious Chelsey Nichol of Type A Press and my savvy friend, Maggie Battista, of Eat Boutique, guests were served passed hors devours, cocktails, and a 5-course family style meal prepared by Let Um Eat Collective inspired by Maggie’s new cookbook, Food Gift Love. Chelsey’s fourth generation family-owned printing warehouse, which houses her antique letterpress, and the studios of painter, Zach Hixson and sign painter, Mitch Horning, served as the venue. Until you make it up to Oregon for your next weekend getaway, and I strongly suggest you do, here is a taste of McMinnville for you to enjoy at home. “Newby’s Ransom Punch”, named for the founder of McMinnville, William T. Newby, and the locally produced Ransom Spirits, was …

Today is Her Birthday

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Welcome to my 5, 5, 5 series. The objective of this exercise is to write five lines five times a week for five weeks about anything at all.  Habits don’t create themselves, after all. The frequency & length remains from post to post, but the topics will be varied. Read my introduction here.  Wk 1 Post 2 I was in sheer disbelief when I found out she was gone. When someone you love decides to privately fight an illness for several months & die in absolute secrecy you feel confused. You scramble trying to heal and to piece things together, seeking company to share in the devastation you feel. I remember her dry wit, her Strawberry Shortcake bedspread & our hand written letters when she moved away after college. It’s one thing when your friend is far away, but it’s quite another when she is gone.