“If thoughts can corrupt language, language can also corrupt thoughts.” George Orwell — Did you really believe the “thought police” and the “word police” were mere concepts in Orwell’s dystopian fiction, or that Huxley’s Brave New World was distant? I have read history and taught nearly every banned book. However, when Salman Rushdie referred to the censorship of Dahl’s books as “absurd,” I…

I Never Saw Her Old; She’s in my Mirror Daily — This is the room which stood empty, as you debated the price of the house. Bleak white walls waiting to be owned again. I wondered why buy a house, now? This is the room whose windows looked out into the tiny manicured backyard which held your sandbox, to “keep in touch…

Time stopped — She turned. I looked. Anonymous three-year-old in a red coat. That's all and everything. Blond blur; a watercolor. Her dad takes her hand. And I remember so much all at once. A tiny hand (bird-like bones) reaching up for mine. It’s Natalie. No, it’s my Meghan. A granddaughter: Emmy? It’s universal. Time passing like a cloud shifting shape. Past. I can’t swallow, a hard lump, like a rock, in my throat. Tears form. This fleeting sweet life. Thank you God. Brevity. Green light.

“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.” — Will Rogers It sounded worse than it was, when Penny fell down the tile stairs today. Like a plastic laundry basket bump bumping, step-by-step all the way to the bottom. She recovered her dignity in seconds… her head held high, walking on wobbly legs. My three-year-old granddaughter said: “Penny is a really…

Graduate: (intransitive verb) to pass from one stage of experience, proficiency, or prestige to a usually higher one — Today is that day. What day? The day my mother died (nearly forty years ago). Always heavyhearted, until today. Here I am in the same hotel I stayed when she was born. Who’s she? Caitlyn, my firstborn granddaughter. Today she graduates; a new memory made. I needed this. Not the dreaded old one. Who am I? Older, happier, and…

Why my dog should be declared a saint — “One day we will again see our animals in the eternity of Christ,” Pope Paul VI said to a boy grieving the loss of his pet. I didn’t need the pope to tell me we’d see our pets again in heaven, I already knew that. …

Stop Apologizing Before You Diminish Yourself Into Oblivion — I confess. I AM one. That is a host of (mostly) women, who over-apologize A LOT. Here’s a list of the most dumb-ass things for which I apologized today: To my husband, for not having time to walk the dog. He wasn’t doing anything of supreme importance, I promise. Asking…

Who Knows Where the Time Goes ~ Sandy Denny ~ — My baby is turning fifteen. Sullen and sulky, glaring up at me Because I stare at him too much. How I wish I could make you understand Your growth, this emerging independent self Has taken me like a storm. I’m off guard: new territory. I’ve had daughters, a sister… I know girls. But never a son Turn into…

“Weren’t You Bored?” “Ga-goo, I mean Grandma,” saying word grandma was still a little forced and stilted in her mouth. Claire didn’t want to use her baby name for me anymore. “Can we go somewhere fun before we go home? Please?” Those eyes! “Where? There’s no place to go.” Strip malls lined each…