• a field of red and yellow tulips
    Musings

    Flahoolick

    April 9, 2026

    Leave it to the fun-loving Irish to coin a term – flahoolick – for ordinary things that bring extraordinary joy; to notice flahoolick is to live a fulsome life, mindfully capturing details, deeply experiencing moments, allowing for wonder and revelation. Color radiates flahoolick when vividly displayed in dancing tulips, sparking seas, vibrant sunsets, a bowl of fruit, a cozy home, a baby’s eyes. I am awed by flahoolick in impressionist art – Renoir’s dappled sunshine, Monet’s shimmering waterways. I can spend many a flahoolick hour pouring over home photo essays, daydreaming about life in those cottages and farmhouses. Music, too,…

  • Musings

    There is no try

    February 16, 2026

    For me, when it comes to sports, there is no try. The inclination to try ended one cold day in 1982 on the bunny slope of a Connecticut ski resort. I have never been particularly good at physical pursuits. I can ride a bike, but not fast. I played tennis in high school gym, but had little eye-hand coordination. I suppose I could run, but not gracefully, and not up to running club standards. I might – just for fun – bowl, or skate, or play frisbee. But real sports, no. I had always thought it was lack of interest,…

  • Google drive-by of old house from 2023
    Musings

    What a Google drive-by doesn’t see

    September 3, 2025

    I drove by my old house recently… the new owners have put their own stamp on the place. Sadly, they’ve cut down the magnolia tree I had planted, just as it was reaching a size where it might have done its duty blocking the street view into the sun porch. The house is beginning to show their homey touches – a summer wreath on the front door, lacey curtains in the windows, inviting lights along the sidewalk. If you bring up the address in street view on Google maps, you’ll see MY house in all its summer glory – the…

  • Musings - Young adultood

    An angel gets his wings

    December 24, 2009

    True story… On the night my Daddy died, my doorbell rang for no apparent reason.   I had spent the entire day in the hospital and had come home to get some rest and take care of a bit of Christmas business. I thought I’d head back to the hospital again early in the morning. But while I was getting ready for bed, the doorbell rang. I have a funky doorbell that doesn’t ring very well or very strongly. It’s one of those chimes that is supposed to have 5 or 6 notes in it. But I only get one or two anemic chimes…

  • Musings

    Soundtrack for the big day

    December 6, 2009

    Happy birthday to me!  Fifty years young.  Half a lifetime lived.  Please God, half a lifetime yet to go! Here’s my soundtrack for the day… Here’s to Life by Barbra Streisand… “No complaints and no regrets. I still believe in chasing dreams and placing bets.  And I have learned that all you give is all you get, so give it all you’ve got.”  Absolutely. Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Eva Cassidy… “Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high, there’s a land that I heard of once in a lullaby.  Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue; and the dreams that you…

  • From my childhood - Musings

    Old-fashioned gamer

    December 4, 2009

    I know, these days, the term “gamer” usually refers to a fan of electronic games, which I am not (just ask Ethan).  But I’m a HUGE fan of games that require little more than a friendly face across a table and a favorite game board, or card deck, or dice set in between.  Call me an old-fashioned gamer. Playing games is a highly companionable way to pass the time.  An engaging game, nice table conversation, a few laughs, some tasty snacks… what more is needed for a good time?  Figuring out strategy, deciding a best move, and arguing for a point is somehow both relaxing…

  • Musings

    One life to live

    November 22, 2009

    Turning 50 is a good time to pause and contemplate where your life has been and where it’s going.  I’ve decided that there are three important things to do in life… live, love, and leave a mark. Live… I’m pretty sure life is supposed to be fun.  We should enjoy every day.  We should relish breathing in the aromas of the season (salt air and varied flowers, crisp apples and drying leaves, fresh evergreen branches and baking cookies, newly turned earth and cut grass…).  We should laugh together and play games. We should go to the movies, listen to music, follow our…

  • Musings

    And they called it Puppy Love

    November 21, 2009

    I admit it straight-out.  I love the Osmonds.  I sometimes feel I can trace my life alongside theirs…   Puppy Love… And they called it Puppy Love.  Every teen-age girl finds a popular singer or actor to pine after, and Donny Osmond was certainly mine for a number of years.  Gorgeous, funny, talented – perfect dreamboat material.  Yeah, I had his posters on my wall, and I bought most of his albums (even Disco Train!).  I read Tiger Beat and watched all his TV appearances.  I thought he was so much like me – big family, kind-of straight-laced, looking for love.  At some point…

  • From my childhood - Musings

    Among the saints

    November 1, 2009

    Today is All Saint’s Day, which to me has become a feast day for my parents.  I was thinking a lot about them today.  They say that a parent’s job is to give children roots and wings… and I think Mom and Dad did an admirable job with that charge.  For roots, they gave me family, and love, and faith.  For wings, I always felt they just wanted me to be happy. Roots… All of us will tell you we grew up knowing what family meant, and sticking by my siblings continues to be very important to me.  Unconditional love…

  • From my childhood - Musings

    Make new friends, but keep the old

    October 17, 2009

    Friendship is what makes life happy.  Friends love one another by choice, spend time together because they want to, talk, share, commiserate, laugh.  In this hectic day and age, people come and go quickly, and holding on to real friends is hard.  But if you’re lucky enough to find a friend, and keep that friendship going and going, that’s a gift beyond measure.  Who else remembers the same events, laughs and cries at the same things, knows what you’re thinking before you do? “The greatest sweetener of human life is friendship.” – Joseph Addison My oldest and dearest friend is…