Category Archives: Family

Family Series, part 1: The Den

Posted
Filed under Family

Our den was a beehive. Us coming in and rushing out. The blue glow from the nightly news. The red embers in the fireplace. Orange splashed here and there to offset the stark Danish furnishing. A bronze JFK. An iron eagle. A plaster Madonna in the corner. Us, a crew I thought typical back then. Six kids in stages of colorful rebellion.

Dance night. Once that new stereo got hooked up, 60’s rock entered the den. The front of the fireplace transformed into our stage. The reading dancinglamp twisted to shine upwards on our lip-synching. Fire pokers and longish twigs meant for kindling converted into microphones. Bursts of energy of movement of sound. Us riding the crest of pandemonium. Dogs too, jumping along like they couldn’t get enough of what we felt.

Images pop into my head even now, forty plus years afterwards. We snaked through early life with no one looking too far ahead. Nothing rocked us out of the moment. We were cemented into that time and place. Body and soul. We were a force.

Continue reading →

Recycled Words

Posted
Filed under Family

My life as a blogger revolves around chasing ideas until I can find time to wrestle them into cohesively arranged words. There is a slight manic quality to my self-imposed deadline, and a rushing, always a rushing. Yet once posts are published they quickly fall aside for the next one to manifest. IMG_8214Rarely do I look back on my words. But a few posts stay vivid in my memory and I recall them like old friends with lingering fondness. This week I remembered one post in particular, and it made me laugh and then smile. Originally called “Care Package” it was written in February of 2011 after I recovered from a bad bout of the flu. I wonder how many of you read this post before? Well, perhaps even if you have, you will find it worth a second read– a recycling of something valuable. If so, do let me know!

Continue reading →

Earth Bound

Posted
Filed under Family

liasHere on the Northeast coast the humidity level is dropping as fast as the overnight temperature. But before the memory of summer fades away, I will savor those vacation days of August, when nothing stopped our early morning swims or twilight strolls around the lake.

Perhaps even more importantly than those delicious moments was the gathering of extended family, from our Grand Matriarch calling for peace in the world to our sweet teen on the edge of high school, and all the rest of us in-between with Big Birthdays looming, careers starting or retirement celebrated, all of us facing change. But here, with the backdrop of a grand hotel, we stopped for a brief interlude, and took the time to laugh at ourselves and with each other.

Continue reading →