Author Archives: Musings

My heart is swollen. As if a gland,not a muscle, writes Kimiko Hahn in her poem “Utica Station”. A few words into Hahn’s poem, and I’m hooked, right there, remembering times past and feeling—as well—a swollen heart. Hahn’s poem invites us to look deep within. At what and whom we have loved. And lost. AndContinue reading “Flashing through the Storm”

This year Passover begins the evening of Friday, April 15. While traditional Passover dishes are not to my liking (I’m not a fan of matzo!), it is the holidays that most resonates with me. Because Passover is about freedom. I’ve spent most of my conscious life trying to be free. Of my past.  Of pain.Continue reading “Freedom to Choose”

My daughter and I were talking recently about the usefulness of writing. Journaling. Of artistic expression in general. I mean, how can you compare a poem with heart surgery? Or law? Or politics? When I read Meditations in an Emergency by Frank O’Hara I find my answer. In this prose poem, New York School poetContinue reading “Meditations in an Emergency”

I was doing yoga this morning when the doorbell rang. Well, I wasn’t sure it was the doorbell, because I’d only been in this rural Pennsylvania AirBnb for about 12 hours. After the second ring, I went to the door. The landlady Rosie and her son Micah were at the door. She had forgotten somethingContinue reading “Contagious”

The images coming out of Ukraine are horrific. Barbaric. Stories of looting and rape and torture. And Russian soldiers breaking into the homes of the elderly, to steal microwaves and meat grinders. And mass graves. Last night at the Grammys, a pre-recorded video with President Zelensky was played. Tell the truth about the war…support usContinue reading “Not in Silence”

This is a short entry today…just got back to the States, and I think my brain is in a different time zone! In a recent interview with Glennon Doyle, Brene Brown says, we cannot feel another person’s feelings. Yet all too often, we convince ourselves that we know what another is feeling and we knowContinue reading “What Love Looks Like Today…”

This morning, on our last day in Tel Aviv, I was walking down Ibn Gavirol to meet a friend for coffee, and I passed a class of what looked like ten- or eleven-year-olds on some sort of field trip. Running a bit late, I quickly passed them, until I heard a few of the girlsContinue reading “Crafting the Messy”

When asked why we are here, the late Irish poet John O’Donohue would answer, to love and to learn to receive love. Unconditional love. Love that sees all and beholds all. Love that is grounding. Love that takes flight. Love that is everchanging. And that love is our birthright. Our truest nature. Yet, we oftenContinue reading “Whisper Awake”

I’ve been in Tel Aviv almost three weeks now. It is a world city with all a world city has. It is also smaller than other world cities. In a little over an hour, you could walk through the entire length of the city—from the Arab neighborhoods in Jaffa, through street art-filled Florentin, up-scale NeveContinue reading “And then the Singing…”

Writer Anne Lamott likened grief to a lazy susan; the sadness comes and goes, around and around, fluctuating between deep pain and the conviction that the sun will never rise again, and moments of forgetting, and moments of being ok, and then back again. I think life is like this. Because—it simply isn’t sustainable toContinue reading “Heart Map”