Study in Concrete
I didn't get to see the pouring of these foundation walls (sadly, I don't make it out to the construction site way as often as I would like). So when I came by a few days after the first two pictures in this sequence were taken, the basement had been poured and its framing plates were already off. Here we're [...]
Happy Pumpkin Time!
Isn't this the cutest potholder ever? A knitted pumpkin? I fell in love with this pattern in the KnitPicks newsletter. Fall is my favorite season, and I love pumpkins (two things I'm sure you're aware of if you've been reading my blog for a while), so what better way to celebrate fall than to try my hand at this [...]
A Place to Write
My preferred cubicle at the Writers Workspace "So what do you do now that you don't have the Hemingway House?" I get that question a lot since my writer-in-residence gig wrapped up, usually from someone I run into at my local supermarket or my kids' school. "Don't worry," I want to say, "I'm not a homeless writer. I can [...]
Building Begin
After more than two years of planning, we have finally broken ground on a barn with living quarters on our country property in Indiana. This is one of the reasons it's been so quiet on this blog--in addition to having one set of house guests after another and the usual Jewish fall holiday busy-ness, my husband and I have been [...]
Kol Nidre
Women praying at the Wailing WallJerusalem, August 2015 Yom Kippur begins tonight with the Kol Nidre service. My essay on Kol Nidre was published two years ago, and it still captures, probably always will, my reverance and appreciation for this incantation. By now it is already a tradition for me to share this essay again in tribute to another holiest day in [...]
A Memoir of the Pain of Suicide and the Gift of Siblings
Kelley reading at her book launch party at the Book Cellar in June September is Suicide Awareness Month, and on this occasion I want to present you with the beautiful work of one of my students, Kelley Clink, author of A Different Kind of Same. She is the second of my longtime students to have her memoir published. (Gillian Marchenko's Sun Shine [...]