On frigid winter mornings, I am a devotee of Hestia, Greek Goddess of the Hearth. I descend the wooden steps from my bedroom, shoulders shrugged against the cold, put my dog Willow outside in the shivering dawn,
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We faced off in the upstairs bedroom, sitting on a mattress on the floor in our rented house on Cayuga Lake. We’d been married less than a year. The afternoon light was low and the bedroom window
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In February, prednisone gave Vic a prolonged energy surge. He longed to be alone and taste independence, and I wanted to think about something besides the timing of medicine and doctor’s appointments. Barbara Nowogrodzki, an artist, teacher,
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In 1994, my husband Vic received another rejection letter for his book Synchronicity, Science, and Soulmaking. He added the latest rebuff to a small stack of rejections sitting under the feet of a jade elephant statue on
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Peter’s red pick-up is parked in the road when I get home just before dark. Peter often brings his dog Simo to my land for a run, but Peter’s long dark silhouette stands alone against the snow.
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The house is quiet this Christmas morning. A coat of fresh snow decorates the hushed earth. Yesterday, my son David, his fiancé Liz, and their three dogs left for their home in North Carolina. This morning, my
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On the shortest day of 2009 when my sons were home for the holidays, I took a clipper and cloth bag on my morning forest walk and gathered evergreen boughs and pinecones. I picked up small chunks
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Willow looks over the world from an upstairs attic window. “What are we doing inside, Mom?” she whines with soft little moans. “The sun is shining. Let’s go.” Willow is my walking buddy now that I’m on
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By late October, words were whispers, mumblings in the dark, puzzles to be solved. I tiptoed between them, guessing at consonants, clinging to vowels like life preservers. Weeks earlier, my hearing loss was manageable with a small
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My mom gives me $100 to cover my wedding expenses. I make a lacy yellow mini-dress and pull my straight hair back with a yellow ribbon. We choose a silver wedding ring that says in Hebrew, “He
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