Her words rang true then, as they do now — n.b. The following is a brief piece I wrote more than two years ago, very early in the world’s battle with Covid. The late Queen’s word spoke to me of courage and hope then, as they do to me now. Today Elizabeth II, Queen of England since 1952 and the longest ruling monarch in British history, had a moment. In a rare televised speech to Great Britain and the…

Two powerful words for better sleep — I learned something important last week. I was telling my therapist that I often have trouble falling (or staying asleep) because my mind is so caught up with worries or problems I need to solve. While she acknowledged how difficult it is to stop thinking about problems at bedtime, she…

Shares a glow, not a glare — The golden light of September pleases me more than any other light. I want to slide a bit of it on my butter knife spread it thinly on a slice of warm bread, lick my fingers afterwards in delight. The light of September shares a glow, not a glare. …

Are our lives governed by the tides? — Not too far removed from the hiss and slap of waves a small industrious world exists ancient as the ocean, a tidal pool. Here are mysteries easy to ignore unselfconscious, scuttling lives shells sticky with algae and buzzing flies, barnacles, starfish, and crabs waiting for the incoming tide to find them…

When a mantis meets the answer to her “prayers” — The praying mantis devours her lovelorn mate. Death makes room for life. I have always been intrigued by the fact that sometimes the female praying mantis devours her male partner after mating. This seems a rather extreme form of birth control to me! …