Shaky Foundation (Common Sense) A well-built house with a poor foundation won’t stand tall for long. The soil wears away and the whole beautiful thing tumbles down. What Underpins Your Communications? From personal exchanges with far-flung family members to my professional communications, even to the design of my new company: social …
I’m Doing It, Grandma! (Memory) Behind him, a bluegrass band plays foot-stomping, singable songs. Loudly. The assembled townsfolk sing along, eat, laugh, politick and enjoy family time. He doesn’t notice. He dips the giant wand into the tray of bubble mixture, and waves the wand frantically. Nothing happens. Repeats. Nothing …
Razzmatazz (Imagination) Independence Day? I singled out this flower from the border to highlight its wild shape and color, but in the larger landscape one flower, even one as wild as this, gets lost. Bolstered by dozens of its mates and set off by a variety of textures, colors, and …
Missing (Memory) I wandered this way one miserable day. Well, the day wasn’t miserable. I was. Agitated, dispirited I stomped more than wandered toward the river. Frazzled by taking the expected path in every quarter of my life, I splintered off the easy, cleared woodland path and into hay-scented ferns, …
Inner World of Trees I (Fantasy) Something was trapped in that tree, trying to reach out. Was this an unfinished man partially fashioned from an ash tree as in Algonquian legend? Was this a wayward being, turned into a tree by an angry God? Are its groanings and creakings the …
Cargo (Common Sense) My job calls me to document changes to the building, but I’m more interested in the changes to the workers. Some are the third generation in a family dedicated to skilled, hard, dirty work: slate roofing in one-hundred degree heat comes first to mind. Some bring their …
Look the Other Way (Estimation) The sunset radiated over-saturated magenta and DayGlo orange. Seeking relief for my battered retinas, I looked to my right and found black and blue peace. But the boats and one seagull found no respite here, and faced away into the wind, into unruffled stillness, dark …
Essex Salt Marsh (Imagination) A sea breeze buffs out what remains of the fragile early summer heat. Overtones of lobster, melted butter, and freshly mown grass mingle in the salt marsh musk. Hot coffee served on the porch in earthenware mugs warms our hands. The water reflects the sky. The sky reflects our friendship.
Camouflage (estimation) I learned my camouflage tricks from frogs hiding at the edge of the pond, waiting for a movement, a sign, a hint of malice or… what, exactly? What makes one jump into the water while another sits with patient courage and sings his unique song loudly into danger’s face. …
Eye Rock (Fantasy) I can see her grinding, rhythmic, stone on stone. Making medicine from herbs. Making food. Making memories: first, for those she served, memories of good meals, surrounded by good friends, celebrating a good harvest; second, for those she never met, memories of a time when baking bread …