The crocuses have faded, and the branches of the forsythia are still bare, but the hellebore is blooming in its shy, unobtrusive way. We’re in what New Englanders call “mud season.” The poet e. e. cummings more happily called it “Just-spring,” when the world is “mud-luscious” and “puddle-wonderful.” On Tuesday afternoon, I sat outside at … Read More
One of my husband’s favorite Little Golden Book from his childhood was The Little House in the Big Forest, in which a family builds a house in the forest and then settles into its cozy shelter. His mother wrote his name and the year—1949, when he was three—on the title page. The book reminded him of … Read More
Hallelujah! The new CDC guidelines suggest that fully vaccinated people can, after two weeks, have dinner with a few other fully vaccinated people—without wearing masks. A Facebook friend calls it Liberation Day. We’ve got a date for one child to visit, I’m already contemplating small dinner parties, and I can’t wait. It’s been a long, … Read More
If you could live your life over again, would you change anything? Would you make any decisions differently? And if you’d chosen those other paths, would your life have been happier? Or more successful? Or more fulfilled? I’ve been thinking about these questions because I just finished reading Matt Haig’s Midnight Library. In the novel, … Read More