Children and Meditation: A Follow-Up

I’d been thinking for months about what I wanted to do with my grandchildren during this summer’s visit to our cabin in the Smokey Mountains. One thought was to introduce them to meditation, so in a blog post last March I asked readers for suggestions.

A Grand Adventure

It’s been over five weeks since I decided to step back from my twice-weekly blog posting to just let life happen without an agenda. I’ve been surprised to find that with only one exception (my post about Grandmother Spider) I haven’t missed writing. Until today. Why now?

Why I Find Easter Difficult to Write About

Easter is difficult for me to write about. Partly because I can’t think of anything to say I haven’t already said. I’d love to tell you a story about my favorite Easter as a child, but I don’t have one! We were Christians but we didn’t celebrate Easter in our house when I was growing up. Except for one year when my uncle dropped by and surprised Jimmy and me with Easter baskets. They probably had chocolate bunnies wrapped in foil, and yellow marshmallow peeps, and jelly beans, and green plastic grass. Until then I had no idea such things existed. Maybe that was my favorite Easter….

The 52nd Week

I love the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. For me it stands out from the other 51 weeks in a year like a peaceful Zen garden amidst chaos, a special oasis where I attend to soul needs that require annual closure.

Religion From the Head: A Good Christian

In my youth, many of my family’s elders still held strict religious views which forbade work, movies, dancing, or playing cards on Sundays, and they disapproved of people who did these things. Sundays were for church, home, family, praying, Bible study and resting. Although my parents loosened up a bit in their religious views, they, too, were good, responsible, well-meaning, church-going people. Right beliefs, good deeds, and behavior beyond reproach were what counted.

A Good Christian

Well, somehow I messed up and published two copies of the same post at two different stages of writing and with two different titles!  “A Good Christian” was the earlier title, then I changed it to “Religion From the Head.” That was meant to be the only post. So I’ve erased the text of this version but am leaving the title here as […]

For the Crones

Throughout history mothers and grandmothers have dedicated most of their energy, and often their lives, to nurturing and preserving life. Of course, many fathers and grandfathers have done the same. But women’s contributions have been educationally, financially, politically and spiritually limited, vastly underrated, and largely taken for granted except for occasional lip service.

Obsessing About Stressing

The other night I dreamed an entire blog post. I woke up a few times thinking, “Yay! This will be a good one!” but dozed off again before writing anything down. When the alarm rang we jumped up and raced off to watch our grandchildren ‘s soccer, baseball and volleyball games. By the time I thought about my dream it had submerged into that place where unremembered dreams live. I sure wish I could find that place. I hate losing a good idea for a post. But I’m trying not to stress over it.

Re-Stocking and Moving On

The property on which our family’s summer home sits in North Carolina was purchased over 40 years ago by my husband’s 101 year-old father and his second wife! Yes, he’s alive and living comfortably with Winn, his third wife! This amazing man is the son of a poor Italian immigrant who arrived at Ellis Island in the first decade of the 20th century.

Alice, the Anima, and Anorexia

I was pondering two questions this morning as we drove to the airport after a long family weekend away: What should I write about for this post? and How should I answer a recent e-mail from an Iranian student? She’s writing a thesis about the anima and animus archetypes in two of Virginia Woolfe’s books and wonders how to approach her task. Should she just look for images represented by the writer or should she study the characters or events as a Jungian analyst would?