Another bird feeder, that is. We live on the edges of a state park. So once the weather warms up, we remind ourselves every day to bring in the bird feeder at twilight. Inevitably, there comes an evening when we forget. We hear something clanking in the yard, and look outside, and guess what—there’s a … Read More
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
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
It’s all anyone can think about. On walks or on email chats, we try to talk about other things, but the conversation inevitably drifts back to vaccination appointments: the When, the Where, and the How. In Massachusetts last Thursday, the over-65 crowd was suddenly allowed to sign up. So guess what? With a million new … Read More
Yes, I do know how lucky I am (husband, house, reasonable and reliable income). Some days the ordinary round pleases me, some days I know intellectually that I’m grateful, and some days I actually feel my gratitude. But I’m a restless person, too. Novelty, change, and travel – they sharpen my mind, make me feel … Read More
February in New England is cold. One winter many years ago, when I lived halfway up Vermont and had to get to the office early in the morning, the outdoor temperature gauge read thirty below zero. At first, I suspected the gauge was broken. Because sleet had iced up the lock, it took some time … Read More
Last year left us jittery and suspicious. So when my husband saw the New Year’s cards I’d bought—with Rilke’s “And now let us welcome the new year, full of thing that have never been” on the front—he pointed at the final words and said, “Really? ‘Things that have never been’? How about ‘things we had … Read More
Going to an exciting, late-night New Year’s Eve party? Me neither. And this year, those of us who prefer a quiet, reflective evening at home don’t even have to feel so profoundly uncool. It’s what everyone—everyone with any sense—is doing this weekend. Still, I’m looking forward to sweeping out all the bad luck of 2020 … Read More
What do contemporary Americans regard as a satisfactory resolution for a young man’s spiritual quest? What do we want our heroes to learn and to become? That’s the question I began to ask over the past few weeks, as I (like a lot of other Americans) watched the second season of The Mandalorian. I … Read More