Mothers, teach your daughters how to be safe

May 23, 2010

I know my last post was disturbing. It was difficult to write. But you have to disturb the earth in order to plant new seeds.
My life is blessed and beautiful. It’s also privileged. I’m a white, middle-class, 62-year-old female citizen of the United States in the early 21st century. Ugliness seldom appears in my everyday [...]

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Mothers, don’t let your daughters grow up to be date-raped

May 14, 2010

In the 1966/67 school year at the University of Michigan I watched a young woman disintegrate. She started in September as a healthy nursing student . . . cheerful, bright, laughing with us. Then suddenly she was a grey skeleton.
She didn’t finish the school year. Her decline was fast and horrifying to watch. I still remember [...]

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Happy Mother’s Peace Day

May 9, 2010

This is a copy of the email I sent to my family and friends on Mothers Day,  May 13, 2006. Thought I’d share it here today.
December, 2005, son and mother (He must be standing on a stump. How else could he be so much taller than I? He’s only 23 and I’m 58.)
Dear All,
I’ve [...]

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What has become of our national conscience?

May 6, 2010

I really get it . . . how fortunate I am to have been born a female in this country when I was, and I am grateful for that. But I’m nauseated (literally) by too many of our national, unconscionable policies.
“My first husband was in the military” is my shortcut phrase to explain why [...]

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Knitting and Splitting

May 5, 2010

Today , for the first time ever, I knitted part of a to-be-felted piece from a pattern. It’s only a small purse and this is the first time in 55 years that I’ve knit something that I’ve intended to felt. Yes, I know I’m not “with” current knitting trends but that’s OK with me. This is knitting. [...]

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How to wash the feathers of your nest

May 1, 2010

My current bed is my lifetime favorite. I sleep in a nest . . . all flannel and feathers tucked into an alcove. It is get-out-of-here comfortable, with fresh air head and foot.
Besides my large, regular down comforter I have a mini one, more like a down throw, that floats on top of it all. [...]

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On Retreat

April 26, 2010

I’ve been on retreat . . . not the thing you do when you’re at war, but the thing you do when you take time off to pray, meditate, read and study. It has been delicious.
A few practical things came up during that time . . .
1) To remove greasy stains from clothing [...]

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It wasn’t a meltdown after all . . .

February 21, 2010

It’s more like frustration. I’ve been interested in food forever . . . since I was a child. And I’ve read tons about it and about environmental issues surrounding its production. And, of course, spent lots of time at my Austro-Hungarian grandparents’ small (organic . . . as in we didn’t know there was any [...]

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I’m having a melt-down . . .

February 20, 2010

It’s my second one. The last one was in 1980. They happen every 30 years or so and only when I move away from “Home.”
I’m one of those reliable, helpful, stoic types. Always available for support . . . calm, thoughtful . . .  unusual for a woman who has five planets in Leo. (Maybe [...]

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The larder . . . don’t make a home without it . . .

February 18, 2010

So what’s a larder, you ask? A place where you store foodstuffs. A foodstuff? An ingredient that you eat alone or combine with other things to create a “dish”  or a meal:  ”any material, substance, etc., that can be used as food.”
Another word for larder is pantry. It’s the place where you store the things [...]

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