A Love Story

LOVE AFTER LOVE   The time will come when, with elation, you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror, and each will smile at the other’s welcome, and say, sit here. Eat. You will love again the stranger who was your self. Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you all your life, whom you ignored for another, who knows you by heart. Take down the love letters from the bookshelf, the photographs, the desperate notes, peel your own image from the mirror. Sit. Feast on … Continue reading

Getting Into It

I was a cat person, until I married Bill, who came with two dogs. Now I am a dog person. Soon after Lydia was born, and both Bill’s dogs had died (and my cat companion, Targhee), we decided to get another dog. (What child doesn’t want a dog?) Still not a full blown dog person, I had several rules: Dogs stay in the kennel or outside.  (I soon relinquished that rule and our dog Zafu lived in the house.) Dogs stay off the furniture.  (Well, our now blind dog Cookie has a favorite chair.) Dogs never, ever, ever sleep on the … Continue reading

Writing To Remember

This old tale was handed down to Clarissa Pinkola Estés. She shares this in her little book: The Gift of Story. For me, this tale is about writing to remember and the power of passing on our legacies through story so others can remember too . . . The beloved Bal Shem Tov was dying and sent for his disciples. “I have acted as intermediary for you, and now when I am gone you must do this for yourselves. You know the place in the forest where I call to God? Stand there in that place and do the same. You know … Continue reading