I’m taking a six-week online class called Way of the Monk, Path of the Artist. What fun!
Last week we made wisdom cards; one directed at our “inner monk,” one at our “inner artist,” the third directed to both of them together. We wrote questions on the back of each paper, directed at each one, then […]

I recently finished reading The Happiness Project, which I heartily recommend to people who like that sort of thing. (And you know if you do, right?) I’m pretty good about reading self-help books and then never getting around to doing anything they recommend. Am I lazy, or are most self-help books utter crap? You decide.
But […]

So I read a guy’s blog, and he posted some stuff this morning, and I thought it was interesting, so I marked it in Google Reader and decided to go back later to see what the ensuing comments were like.
When I went back it was gone! Maybe he decided it was just too edgy. […]

Had excellent Mommy mojo today. It’s rare enough that I thought I’d mention it.
Explanation: We had a nice picnic this morning with a friend and her kids, and despite us all being screamin’ demons this morning, we had fun and behaved ourselves. The picnic was kid-approved and perfect, aside from lack of napkins.
Then we drove […]

Free to Be comes on Mondays to spend some time with the kiddoes and shared this little tidbit:
You have probably discovered already something which I forgot to confess yesterday. The nice blue water container you gave me to use when we went the playground is now defective! I was trying to open it by pulling […]

A trip down memory lane—a poem that I need to add to as other words occur to me…

She sings a song she learned at school with charming grace and ease.
Her teacher is from Portugal, the song’s in Pork-ah-geez.
The insect with the pretty wings that swoops and flutter-flies?
Oh no, it’s not a butterfly, it’s called a […]

a haiku
today, love sounds like
him plunging hair from the drain
while I lounge in bed.
———
We had a very nice weekend. Saturday was busy with stuff around the house and some time outside. At one point we had three neighbor kids over at the same time! I have this dream of our house being the one that […]

by Marie Howe
Two of the fingers on his right hand
had been broken
So when he poured back into that hand it surprised
him—it hurt him at first.
And the whole body was too small. Imagine
the sky trying to fit into a tunnel carved into a hill.
He came into it two ways:
From the outside, as we step into a […]

by Todd Davis
Coltsfoot gives way to dandelion,
plum to apple blossom. Cherry fills
our woods, white petals melting
like the last late snow. Dogwood’s
stigmata shine with the blood
of this season. How holy
forsythia and redbud are
as they consume their own
flowers, green leaves running
down their crowns. Here is
the shapeliness of bodies
newly formed, the rich cloth
that covers frail bones and hides
roots […]

I’ve been working in the blue room this morning, piddling around with the Easter bulletin, sending e-mails and whatnot. The blue room faces the back of the house, and today I have the window open. It’s a little chilly but I can’t resist. The birds have been singing nonstop all morning.
The best part of the […]

It’s National Poetry Month, and every year I say I’m going to write a poem a day, and I usually don’t even make it to tax day. Oh well, hope springs eternal.
it’s the geometry of parenting:
one child coughing upstairs
the other in the doorway with ponytail and backpack,
not budging. she will not walk to the bus […]