This stem of Hibiscus mutabilis, a.k.a. Confederate rose, flourishes in a Mason jar on my kitchen counter, ready for repotting. Its mother plant, originally a cutting from my parents’ yard in Alabama, is resprouting too. Last summer I planted a cutting like this in my yard to see whether, as the plant encyclopedia promised, it […]
Read more“No pleasure but meanness.”
Near the end of Flannery O’Connor’s classic short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” an old woman gets drawn into bargaining for her life with a killer. The Misfit, as he’s known, is escaped from prison and rampaging, wounded, through the world. In his own mind, he’s been wounded by God: he can’t […]
Read moreAnimals in heaven: an addition.
If you liked my Annie-the-cat post, you will appreciate this cartoon from a friend’s Facebook wall, by New Yorker cartoonist Charles Barsotti. Of course the dog would recognize his little boy.
Read moreLittle bitty Christmas trees.
“I’ve been a pastor for more than 15 years, and I am still amazed at folks in nursing homes, many unable to remember the majority of their own lives, who will begin to sing and nod and clap when they hear Christmas carols. O the power of music, on them and on me.” – Amy […]
Read moreThe emotional surge of the charity splurge.
Back in September, as I was experiencing my first tentative steps into relative debt-free-ness, I received an email from a friend about a concert her husband was co-producing in Manhattan to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, called “Music After.” Anything you can send, she said, would help. I gave a small amount […]
Read moreA little creature, a big mystery.
This week I lost Annie the Cat. What other name could there be for an orange-haired kitty with a hard-knock life? She came to me about four years ago via my family from the cat shelter and before that from years of street life that had taken one eye and most of her teeth; her […]
Read moreBuon giorno, Signor Bianchi:, or, enchanting the world.
“If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later […]
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