Reaching for a Helping Hand
“No more heroics,” my son Anthony says. His brother David would say the same. “No. More. Heroics.” I hear him. I’ve never been sick like this. I’ve never felt so helpless. Anthony lives three miles from me and drove me to the ER when I couldn’t breathe. Then I spent a few nights at home […]
“Elaine, would you mind if I used this photo as an inspiration for a new watercolor? If I’m happy with the result I’ll send you a print. I’m in love with the stones and the dog. It’s magic!” Last year about this time, the artist Tobias Inigo sent this message after I shared a forest […]
A foot of heavy snow fell in mid December. The world grew quiet and, for one night, there were no cars on my road. I stayed close to the woodstove hearth, the domain of the Greek Goddess Hestia. In this pandemic winter, the hearth has kept me warm and comforted during endless stay-at-home nights. Longing […]
“Do something that matters. Help transform the world, change the political situation, weave a tapestry or create a useful tool, write a book that teaches people how to be civilized and lawful. You can do it. Your mother raised you for this,” says Athena for the thousandth time with an impatient roll of her sky […]
Where do I find joy during a plague of covid and pestilence of politicians without mercy for humans or the Earth? How can I survive this isolation and a long winter ahead? Holding back helpless tears, I remember the seeds. “My milkweed flowers dried up this summer,” I said to my friend Steve when we […]
I go to bed early election night without checking the news. I’m already exhausted by this election. I read a while but my body is a coiled spring. Inhale: 1, 2. Exhale: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Repeat with long sighing exhalations. I finally fall asleep with my dog Disco’s head on my belly. […]
Little David pulled open the door and held up his arms for a hug. Snot dripped from his nose onto his red plaid shirt. He wasn’t sick when I’d left two days ago to give birth in the local hospital that supported natural childbirth and had 8 beds in the maternity ward, but he had […]