It was a summer sun and autumn wind. He felt both awkward and snug in the sweater as the heat bore through and the air blew in tidal breaths about him. He couldn’t help look up as he made his way down the gully using his spade for a walking stick. The sky, a wash… Read More Burial
I was chopping vegetables for dinner, silent tears running down my face. I had just gotten off the phone with my sister. It was cancer. She was terrified and feeling alone, despite the love I tried to pour through the phone. All I could do was listen and witness her pain. Be a witness to… Read More Witness
Yana’s hard to miss. She was born with achondroplasia. In her late twenties, she’s four foot six inches tall, and she’s undergone ten operations to lengthen her arm and leg bones. “Everybody always looks at me,” she mused. “But never for the reasons I want.” “Everybody I know,” I said, “especially the performers, has such… Read More Why Are You Looking At Me?
“Mimi, what do you wish for the most?” I couldn’t speak. The question distilled my deepest desires down to sudden tears that stung. Only later did I realize the knee-jerk response hadn’t been to play with The Royal Philharmonic. I swallowed the truth that would sadden my niece. To deflect her attention, I whispered, “What… Read More Wishing Well
As fun as it was to shake it, I buried my dance clothes in the treasury of happy memories deciding that I barely got away with it at my age. Mr. Wayfarer disagrees. Forty-two is hardly a time for him to start hanging hats. Yoko Ono seems to have proved him right. She shows what… Read More Never Too Old To Dance
My husband knew I was The One when he first saw me. I (with a roll of the eyes) chalked up what he called love at first sight to the way the clothes happened to flatter me that evening. He stopped me in my tracks, though, when he admitted for the first time after 10… Read More I Think I Love My Body
Once again I have trouble believing how fast it’s gone, the holidays all the more disarming in California for the arrant summer that asserts herself into months reserved for the cold. The year draws to a close, swift like winter night. Beneath the din, the festivities heighten the loneliness for many. It’s the dissonance between… Read More We Survive the Night by Candlelight
Elmhurst was really a town back then, not too fond of change though the quiet was punctuated by noise you’d expect of a New York city. Depending on who your neighbors were, you got the occasional Mariachi outside your window or the Mexican bass throbbing under your feet. Elmhurst housed people in boxes, brick apartment… Read More The Floor I Couldn’t Reach
Does money buy happiness? I’m not sure, but I do know it bought the $200 dollar suit, $40 leather shoes, and $20 dollar hair cut I absolutely needed to get hired. Money bought the civilized means that erased condescension, the social capital to tell my wealthy coworker he was an idiot. To be poor and… Read More But Money CAN Buy Happiness
We had recently moved to a better part of London to ensure that my brother and I could attend a decent school. Dad was a London cabbie, the kind that drove one of those large black London taxis in the era before the Uber invasion. He would usually drive off early in the morning and… Read More Paper Bag Treasure
A Holistic Journey 