Month: May 2014

  • forgotten funds

    My husband had carefully laid on the table my share of the day’s mail: a statement from the insurance company and a plain, white envelope. It didn’t look very interesting, but I slit it open anyway and pulled out a single page with three or four paragraphs of greeting and explanation. At some time in…

  • chocolate increases iron, sometimes

    I just wanted to donate a pint of blood and the technicians at the blood donor center would not let me do it. They said my blood iron count fell below acceptable levels – an old story for me. I went home, took another iron pill, washed it down with orange juice (the vitamin C…

  • Educational blessing

    The political cartoon summarized the situation precisely… “That which is most terrifying to a militant Islamic fundamentalist … a girl with a school book.” Compelled by fear of change, militant fundamentalists have closed schools and punished adults who secretly taught girls. The women who went to school before the imposition of harsh laws could not…

  • Mom’s influence

    It’s all my mother’s fault. If she had just gone along with the flow and said and done things like so many others have done, I would see and do things differently. Mom did not wear us out with lengthy, guilt-imposing stories of the amount of time she spent in the labor and delivery room.…

  • Ballerina birthday

    The ballet began with a short scene last fall. I had just received many yards of fabric from the stash of a retiring seamstress. As I admired my new found wealth of colors and patterns, my daughter spied 10-15 yards of vintage fabric with ballerinas in pink and blue tutus. “This would look so cute…