January Is Not Our Friend

January is such a bitch. I have personal reasons to feel this and so do most of the people I talk to: bad things are happening or anniversaries of bad things have come around again. People are losing their jobs; they’re having non-trivial surgical procedures; kids are having urgent psychiatric problems; relatives are seriously sick; […]

Happy 10th Birthday Finkbeiner Test!

Yesterday I was interviewed about the Finkbeiner Test for the Change Artist Podcast (episode will go live at a later date). While gathering up some links to share, I realized that it was exactly ten years ago — January 17, 2013 — that Ann wrote the LWON post that would become the world-renowned Finkbeiner Test.  […]

Walking Into the New Year

I wrote this on January 1, 2018. A lot had happened already, and more has happened since. At the time, I wasn’t sure what I was writing about but I see now more clearly that it’s about living with the memories of what’s happened. So I’ll repeat my wish of walking, memories and all, into […]

In Praise of the Bean Man

One Saturday the bean man wasn’t at the farmers’ market, he was always there every week, and I asked the woman who works with him, “Where is he?” “He just died,” she said. “This morning early. We were getting ready to come to the market and we found him. We called the ambulance. But the […]

Short, and on the Battle of Maldon

We’re thinking about Queen Elizabeth these days, or at least I am. She just soldiered on, didn’t she — did her duty. That word, duty, isn’t as popular as it used to be and maybe that’s good, maybe not. The Queen certainly never stopped doing it, I’ll bet she died thinking about her duty. Anyway, […]

Baltimore in August

I have nothing good to say about Baltimore in August. Ok, the farmers’ market is moving into high season, peaches & tomatoes, also okra — that’s good. Digression: I spent childhood on a small farm in the midwest making internal proclamations and declarations about freezing beans and canning applesauce in a hot kitchen, like, if […]

Oh Spring!

This first ran May 17, 2013. The running kids are grown and going to college or have graduated from it. So they’re not running any more, not in that way that looks like they’re powered by lighter-than-air energy sources.  That’s fine, because another generation of littles just ran across the yard, running for no good […]