tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31050950637760354422024-02-20T00:33:52.907-05:00CAN I DO IT?Mamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04702758010419552137noreply@blogger.comBlogger617125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3105095063776035442.post-80605169790685947512016-12-09T16:13:00.000-05:002016-12-16T21:35:22.977-05:00My Biggest Loss and Best Books of 2016
I'm breaking my blog silence
because something rocked my world this year. My dear, dear friend, Nancy Olson,
died. She was the friend we all want: she loved me unconditionally, but she
didn't let me get away with a darned thing. She could talk about anything from
books to music to low-down gossip. We laughed a whole lot. Our husbands love each other too. She took me to see a little piece Mamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04702758010419552137noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3105095063776035442.post-32217668894539405282014-08-24T09:58:00.002-04:002014-08-24T09:58:55.276-04:00Sundays Are the Worst Day
"Sundays are the worst day," my father told me one day, talking about his occasional
loneliness.
There is something about Sundays. I feel it myself sometimes, a melancholy that I can't quite figure out.
Make it a habit on Sundays to reach out to those you love, those who live alone or on the edge. Those living with physical or mental illness, caretakers, the grief-stricken. Those who Mamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04702758010419552137noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3105095063776035442.post-46436683048545907782014-06-14T11:20:00.001-04:002014-06-14T11:20:34.355-04:00Beginning, Middle, End, Part 3: The Middle
In between the beginning and the end, there was a week at Wildacres in the North Carolina mountains.
This was my third time staying there, and I'm a fan for life. I wrote stories and letters, meditated, napped, ate three meals a day prepared by others, walked in the woods, read, laughed, met new people, heard beautiful music and words. Sometimes I sat on the Mamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04702758010419552137noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3105095063776035442.post-29824989728871624812014-06-06T16:55:00.000-04:002014-06-06T18:14:49.288-04:00Beginning, Middle, End, Part 2: The Beginning
Two weeks before the End, there was a beginning: my daughter's marriage.
It was a poignant occasion with all of our family there. One niece came from Australia! It was the first time we'd all been together since, well, since I don't know when.We got to know the groom's family too and they are the most wonderful people.
We Potters, as my brother said one time, "always have to do Mamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04702758010419552137noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3105095063776035442.post-88964011654499849942014-06-01T22:15:00.001-04:002014-06-01T22:18:54.185-04:00Beginning, Middle, End, Part I: The End
(This is the first of three related posts.)
Try imagining a place where it's always safe and warm.
"Come in," she said, "I'll give you shelter from the storm."
-- Bob Dylan
Back in 2000, we had had a particularly lucrative year. We decided to Mamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04702758010419552137noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3105095063776035442.post-15565277781283900302014-02-07T17:28:00.000-05:002014-02-07T17:28:18.380-05:00Another's Story
A few weeks ago I gathered up a batch of negatives that I had brought home when we cleaned out my father's house. I took them over to Southeastern Camera on Atlantic Avenue and had Angela scan them for me and put them on a disk. I've spent hours looking at them.
Among the photos was this one of my brother and some neighborhood friends. First of all I was struck by the fact that all the Mamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04702758010419552137noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3105095063776035442.post-14282406853065508042014-01-12T13:54:00.001-05:002014-01-12T13:54:59.857-05:00A Post About the Holiday
For only the second time in sixty-one years, I spent the holidays away from North Carolina.The first time was when our kids were young and my dad took us all to Disney World for Christmas. It was strange being in the eighty degree weather in December, but we had a blast.
This year we spent the week of Christmas in New England. When we got there, there was a good bit of snow on the ground. By Mamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04702758010419552137noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3105095063776035442.post-50400403389757872832013-12-14T14:12:00.000-05:002013-12-14T14:27:49.633-05:00Can We Do It? Part 2On the last day of 2012, I made a commitment in this post to do what I could about the violence in our country. I ended the blog with a wish list for the year.
Number one on the list was "a sense of safety for everyone."
It's clear that we still don't have a sense of safety. But I did a few things to enlighten people, through the very well attended Town Meeting on Violence at Mamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04702758010419552137noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3105095063776035442.post-6052345163207072922013-12-03T17:36:00.000-05:002013-12-27T18:10:24.266-05:00My Best Ones...2013 Books
One time my husband, looking at the wall of books in this photo, said, "I can't believe you've read all those books."
"Sweetie, those are the ones I haven't read," I replied.
So my list is long. And with a friend like Nancy Olson, former owner of Quail Ridge Books, calling me weekly with a new list of must-reads, I don't see that I'll be clearing those shelves any time Mamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04702758010419552137noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3105095063776035442.post-12377520588579124062013-11-22T14:01:00.000-05:002013-11-22T14:01:44.413-05:00Falling into Winter
Fall came on rather dully this year. The trees seemed to be changing one at a time and only a few times in early October did I have any wow moments of color.
At the end of October I went to Wildacres and the fall began to come alive.
In early November my sister and I took a trip to my hometown, Greensboro. The purpose of the trip was to go see this amazing Mamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04702758010419552137noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3105095063776035442.post-14613329998934022742013-11-07T19:38:00.000-05:002013-11-07T19:38:17.443-05:00Dying Thoughts
How many of you have thought about what you'd like for your funeral? Beyond cremation and burial, what music do you want? Who do you want to speak and what do you want them to say? Once a group of friends and I wrote our obituaries and it was interesting to consider what I'd like for people to say about me when I die, what I'd like to have accomplished, who might have been born or died in my Mamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04702758010419552137noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3105095063776035442.post-30673539847890594522013-11-03T16:33:00.002-05:002013-11-03T16:49:24.974-05:00Bursting
I just spent a week at Wildacres Retreat Center. You might remember that I was also there back in April of this year. This time I had seven unscheduled days to work on my writing. I took two notebooks of stories--over thirty of them--that needed revision.
I didn't expect this, but it was peak leaf week in that part of the mountains. From every side of theMamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04702758010419552137noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3105095063776035442.post-36618800904774531422013-09-25T10:39:00.002-04:002013-09-25T10:39:59.491-04:00It's All Small Right Now
It seems that every time I open the newspaper or turn on the television there's fodder for my blog. Police shooting citizens, a mall taken over by terrorists, a mass shooting in the Navy Yard. Rachel Maddow shares some statistics about the uptick in mass shootings over the past few years and it's alarming. Really alarming. Starbucks comes out with a watered-down Mamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04702758010419552137noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3105095063776035442.post-75198484424414685402013-09-11T08:21:00.002-04:002013-09-11T08:21:24.497-04:00Thoughts on an Anniversary
The sun has come up on another September 11.
The despair I felt on that day and the months that followed has faded, but I still carry with me the knowledge that we're vulnerable, we Americans who have assigned ourselves the task of ruling the world, taking care of everybody else at the expense of our own children, who put money before everything else, push our dogmatic opinions about how Mamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04702758010419552137noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3105095063776035442.post-40857829582056823792013-08-28T22:24:00.002-04:002013-08-28T22:24:43.721-04:00Letter to Oprah
Dear Oprah,
I have now participated in two of the 21-Day Meditation challenges that you and Deepak Chopra have put together. I loved them, felt at peace at the start of each day, and learned a lot about myself and my relationships with other people. The mantra meditation is perfect for a person like me because inevitably, two or three minutes into the music, the mantra is in the Mamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04702758010419552137noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3105095063776035442.post-61021890265962314012013-08-21T11:06:00.001-04:002013-08-21T11:06:24.591-04:00Attention Diverted
Front page news today:
Lead article: "409 acres preserved for ages"
"Health insurance costs up modestly"
"Afghans take on Pakistan--in a peaceful soccer match"
"Animal rights group sues Raleigh over bus ad"
Second page news:
Aretha cancels yet another concert or two, Dr. Oz rushes to scene of taxi that jumps curb, Presidential pets
Third page news:
A nineteen year old Mamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04702758010419552137noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3105095063776035442.post-65070075067378493062013-08-14T15:46:00.000-04:002013-08-14T15:46:04.981-04:00Press 53 Gathering of Writers
This weekend I went to a writing event put on by Press 53 out of Winston Salem. This wonderful small press is putting out some great poetry and short story collections.
You might enjoy hearing some of the wisdom I got from the four sessions I participated in.
From Mary Akers on what is haunting:
Violence, vulnerability, horror, yearning, things that are shocking Mamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04702758010419552137noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3105095063776035442.post-68703539768302293392013-08-07T09:19:00.000-04:002013-08-07T09:19:39.353-04:00Family Celebration
This weekend eighteen of us got together to celebrate. "Let's get the next generation started!" one of my nieces said when she received the invitation to the baby shower for my middle daughter.
It's such an exciting time! May I apologize now to all my friends with grandchildren? I had no idea how amazing it is!
My oldest and youngest daughters planned the party,Mamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04702758010419552137noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3105095063776035442.post-15230538412153002382013-07-16T12:04:00.000-04:002013-07-16T12:04:11.207-04:00What I Remember
(Warning: The word "remember" is used a lot in this post!)
I started thinking about this several months ago: I can't remember a single birthday party from my childhood.
I quizzed my siblings about it and they had a few memories, but most of them were things like I remember when my eyelashes caught on fire from the candles, I remember that Mr. Pennisi was missing one year (a friend who Mamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04702758010419552137noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3105095063776035442.post-90280288403482434182013-07-01T10:09:00.000-04:002013-07-01T10:14:15.821-04:00Remembering My Father
Three years ago today my father died. Last year this piece was published in Prime Decimal, an online journal.
Stairs
One: The doorbell rings. Your feet hurt a little as you walk from your bedroom to the stairwell and down the top stair. It’s Friday, it has been a busy week, and though the weekends are lonely, on Saturday you will put on your favorite gray corduroy pants andMamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04702758010419552137noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3105095063776035442.post-69762434422611876022013-06-25T11:58:00.001-04:002013-06-25T12:29:13.385-04:00Communion Part III
All this thinking about communion has my head in a spin and as you hopefully noticed, I didn't write Part III last week as I had promised. I'm no Biblical scholar by any means but here's the best I could come up with.
The Christian act of communion is based on the Last Supper where Jesus clearly said (or as clearly as we can determine by the witness accounts which have undergone countless Mamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04702758010419552137noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3105095063776035442.post-27084303271494160362013-06-12T08:34:00.000-04:002013-06-12T08:35:33.112-04:00Communion Part II
(This is a photo of the way sunlight transformed the shadow of a glass.)
Before I go on with my thoughts about communion, I want to point out that all of us believers in a Truth pick and choose. Even the most Bible-adherent people I know ignore parts of the Old Testament. I am no different; I have chosen the parts of the Story that work for me, that make me feel I'm on the Mamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04702758010419552137noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3105095063776035442.post-75753072266872971862013-06-05T13:44:00.002-04:002013-06-05T13:44:30.432-04:00Communion Part I
Over the years I've been writing this blog, I've talked a little about my evolutionary spiritual life. But for those who are relative newcomers, here's my church affiliation in a capsule: Methodist for fifty-three years, member of the Unity Church for six years, not much going on for two years (although technically still a Unity member).
If I were to break down my spirituality Mamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04702758010419552137noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3105095063776035442.post-5042879027954677302013-05-28T08:38:00.001-04:002013-05-28T08:38:15.734-04:00My Hope for Today
Tonight is our Town Meeting on gun violence at Quail Ridge Books and Music. The above picture is what I'm trying to get my mind to look like: Peaceful.
As I said at the end of last year, I want to make a difference with respect to violence in society. One of the things I wanted to do was organize this gathering for tonight.
"You stirred it up," my Mamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04702758010419552137noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3105095063776035442.post-19920982486977796772013-05-22T09:30:00.004-04:002013-05-22T09:30:52.722-04:00A Sense of Safety
I remember calling my dad one day and in the middle of the conversation he got quiet. I heard him take in a breath and realized he was crying.
"What is it?" I asked.
"It's that child, Jessica. The thought of her buried alive," he said between sobs.
Since the December shootings at Sandy Hook, I've shed a few tears for children I didn't know too. The tornado this week, which Mamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04702758010419552137noreply@blogger.com0