Beginner's Heart

All week I’ve been on a journey. Well, you  might call it ‘preparing.’ But to me, it’s a journey towards Saturday. Begun (thank you, flu) a full week later than it should have started. Saturday is my niece’s shower, which I’m giving. 24 family members & friends, all here. For tea. Classic, traditional, afternoon tea.…

Lately, with the Charlie Hebdo murders, and the massive French protests of extremist Muslims, there’s been a great deal of discussion of religious extremism. No single religion has a monopoly: there are many white Christians who advocate the genocide of other Christians, who happen to be black. As there are Christians & Muslims who call…

When I saw this FaceBook meme, it resonated for me like a crystal goblet in an opera. Darn near shattered, in fact. 🙂 Seriously? This has been a very rough week. Dear friends battling unknown medical conditions, family with crises, and always the deluge of bad news around the country. Around the world. ‘Happy’ seemed…

Last weekend was family central. There are times when family seems a chore (we all have those moments!), but this weekend could not have been smoother, or more fun. Everyone in town made it, to celebrate my 3rd sister, who lives just outside of Dallas. She and her beloved came up, stayed with us, and…

It hasn’t been a hectic day, but it’s had its moments. Lots of email catch-up, including depressing stuff like querying publishers who should  have LOVED my work, and snapped it up months ago! Sigh. There’s also the ongoing sloggery of homemaking (such a much nicer, more accurate word than housekeeping!). Laundry, dishes, straightening, changing beds,…

I grew up overseas, which I’ve probably mentioned somewhere. The important thing to know about growing up overseas is that it marks you. The places you love aren’t (usually) places you can return to. And long years may go by between visits, if you ARE able to return. Given that I spent my childhood in…

My knees hurt. They join my poor arthritic hands (which look more like I remember my grandmother’s than my mother’s…). I’m cleaning up for family visiting this weekend, and I overdid. I do that a lot. And I suspect you do, as well. Here’s the deal: it’s counterproductive. Really. We think: I can just finish this…

Lately my grandmothers — well, all my old ladies — have been whispering platitudes to me as I sleep. Yesterday’s was practice makes perfect. Today’s is if at first you don’t succeed… You know the rest! And yet… There’s a great deal of truth in those old sayings. Certainly this one. I confess: I HATE HATE HATE…

Recently I read a piece on integration of skills. (And yep, I read that kind of stuff…) It was taking the Malcolm Gladwell approach — that you need a heckuvva long time doing something before you master it. Gladwell’s assertion is that it’s a minimum of 10,000 hours. Again, a lotta practice… One of my favourite…

I’m a native Okie. Most of the time, I’m very proud of my 2nd generation roots — not common for many Okies, many of whom have moved here during various oil booms, or for school, or whatever. My grandparents weren’t in the Rush, and I’m proud of that, too, as it was a rip. Where…

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