Autumn Forest Symphony
I haven’t been on this trail all summer and didn’t plan to walk so far from home today. The trail marks the border between my land and the National Forest and occasionally there are hunters here, but not this early in the season. Today I don’t hear one human sound except my own footsteps and […]
Brilliant and beautiful, Elaine Mansfield’s essay, “Wild Nights: Grief Dreams, Mythology, and the Inner Marriage,” delves into the depths of sorrow through the lens of dreams, mythology and poetry. Her work, which won first place in the C.G. Jung in the Heartland writing competition, explores the powerful emotions and spiritual journey that accompany the loss […]
Good morning, my beautiful migrator. I see your orange wings through your black chrysalis shell. Are you ready to fly today? In the nursery in a mesh butterfly crate, your friends are eclosing from their chrysalises and getting ready to fly. They were the last to join the nursery and they’ll be the last to […]
They disagreed about most everything. The right food to feed a baby. The best card game. How much a woman ought to weigh and whether or not she should wear a whalebone corset and stockings even in August heat. Whether she should sit by the pool at the country club or work in the garden […]
Will I always remember your laughter? Will I remember the dancing? Will you visit in dreams? We met in a motorcycle shop. I was in love, but you were afraid. We grilled sandwiches, Drank wine, and smoked Mexican pot. Your resistance vanished like smoke in the wind. I was 22 and you […]
“I want to hear Anthony play music, too,” I say to my son David who is visiting from North Carolina. Anthony is his younger brother who used to dj in CA but now lives a few miles from me. We sit outside at Atwater Winery enjoying the view and eating Mexican food from La Monarka’s […]
“It’s July 19. Where have you been? Just a few years ago, I saw your ancestors by the beginning of June.” Don’t scold me, he says, hiding his hind black and orange wings behind a milkweed leaf. I’m doing my best. There was drought in Mexico all winter and few flowers survived. Without pollen, many […]