A pet that hibernates makes winter vacationing a snap. No boarding needed, no guilt, as with a dog, over separation anxiety. Awake or sleeping, bored or engaged, disgruntled or delighted, Mycroft abides. Continue reading
My Tortoise, My Teacher
Tag Archives: Mindfulness
A Retiree in Training
In this season of calendar and life, choices are before me. 1.) I can measure walks in miles and minutes, holding to old standards that now feel like a pinch collar. Or 2.) I can recalibrate myself, forget about increments all together, and laugh at my dog. In short, I can get either frustrated or philosophical. Continue reading
Oniontown Pastoral: The Relevance of Canning Tomatoes
You wonder what there is for you to say or do. Remember that the reality you’re caught up in right now can’t stop the sauce you make from being delicious. Continue reading
Oniontown Pastoral: Where Is Everything?
Smartphones are designed to grab users by the eyeballs and never let go. The teenager you see gazing slack-jawed at a tiny screen must fight an addiction to turn away. Continue reading
Oniontown Pastoral: Anything You Want
The truth about songs of your youth is they raise your heart’s curtain. They do mine, anyway. Time punches the accelerator; neither you nor I can slow it down. My thumping ventricles make me dream of being saxxy, but my veins are in their seventh decade of service and feel each season peeling out into the next. Continue reading
In Gratitude for Gordon Lightfoot
Some folks find idols playing their songs of yesteryear depressing. Not me. I’ll take old performers over their younger versions any day. Continue reading
Oniontown Pastoral: Not One Sparrow Shall Fall to the Ground
Nobody would call house sparrows conspicuous. They wear shades of dormancy, sandy brown and gray like the leafless hedges and trees in my view, charcoal like the sunflowers wife Kathy left in repose by the garage. Continue reading
Oniontown Pastoral: One Morning Before Heading South
A guy who seems always to be at Country Fair didn’t look himself. He had lost a lot of weight and kept hiking up his drooping sweatpants. On this chilly morning, a red fleece blanket tied around his neck in cape fashion and a Pittsburgh Steelers stocking cap were his only warmth. Continue reading
Oniontown Pastoral: Trip to El Salvador, Part One
My drink finished, I notice the cool air on my arms and the silence, which is congested with circumstance, with the way things are, with roundabouts, blossoms and souls getting by on what they’ve got. That’s what we all do, I suppose. Continue reading
Oniontown Pastoral: Going Visiting
Oniontown Pastoral: Going Visiting My career in visitation began over 50 years ago with Mrs. Gillespie, who lived across the backyard. Johnny’s perch was a red metal step stool beside the kitchen counter. His usual was strawberry Nesquik. Who knows, … Continue reading
A Napper's Companion 