By Celia Coates I had been wondering how to begin this new year in WINN, a year that everyone is hoping will be better than the dark and troubled year just past. Then, within days of each other, two gifts arrived – first, a photograph that my sister, Judith Sellers, had taken in her garden…
Category: Creativity
The Raven’s Gift
By Gilah Yelin Hirsch Having read the last post by Judy and Jack, I found myself remembering well the process and emotion of leaving one’s personal forest. It took weeks for me to say thank you and goodbye to all the flora and fauna I had come to know intimately in Tonto National Forest, just…
Finding Quiet
First the story, then some comments: It was late at night. All little children were in their beds, fast asleep. All except one. The night wind brushed against a window. “Shh-h-h,” whispered the wind. “Go to sleep.” But the child could not fall asleep. Outside, on the branch of a tree, Mockingbird was singing. “Mockingbird,”…
The Guru: A Story by S. Gustavo Levy
Robert was devastated after his divorce. “At least,” he thought, “there are no children.” He tried devoting more time to his job as an accountant, but he was not deriving any pleasure from dealing with numbers and accounting entries. He loved history, scientific matters and classical music, but it wasn’t enough. Life appeared devoid of…
“All These Atoms” by Greg Tamblyn
Are you in a place right now where you can listen to Greg Tamblyn sing “All These Atoms?” If the answer is yes, it’s the first song in the list and can be found at: https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/gregtamblyn5 Next – Here’s the brief introduction that usually appears at the end of posts: Greg Tamblyn, N.C.W.(No Credentials Whatsoever), has…
Meeting the Lizard
By Frank DiPerna Driving from Zacatecas to San Louis Potosi I did more daydreaming than photographing as miles of cactus fields drifted past. It was about mid-day, the sky slightly overcast, the light bright. The air was a little chilly and the wind light. I was thinking of photographing something I had seen a couple…
From Wordsworth
This week I came across some poetry I had not read since I was in college – a long time ago. I did remember that Wordsworth’s Ode: Intimations of Immortality was beautiful, but I had not remembered how significant these lines were: The soul that rises with us, our life’s star, Hath had elsewhere its setting…
Red and Green
By Celia Coates Years ago I heard a simple story that I’d never heard before. Once upon a time there were two creatures, one red and one green, who lived in a forest near the top of a mountain. They had lived there for centuries and even though Green was easy-going and liked peace and…
Fourth Grade Hero
By Richard Howland When Mrs. Parmelee sat up there behind that gigantic desk, tapping the point of her red pencil and looking out over the tops of those gold-rimmed glasses like that, we knew somebody was going to die. And the way Bobby Livingstone was staring down at his hands, lying there on top of…
Two Kinds of Peace
These are days when I have especially appreciated two reflections on peace. The first is from a book about flowers, “Wars and roses have a long relationship. The English civil wars, waged from 1455-1485, over possession of the crown, were called the Wars of the Roses. The name came from the badges of the house…
We’ll See What Happens
By Celia Coates We are living in a time filled with many uncertainties and the phrase – “We’ll see what happens,” – is one we hear often. This week’s post is a reprise of one published after the 2016 Presidential election when I wrote, “This week half the country is cheering and the other half…
How To Choose Your Prince – Or Princess
Some of the best advice about how to make a good marital choice is in a children’s book published in 1967: PICKLE-CHIFFON PIE. It’s not like the usual sources of wisdom, but wise it is. Jolly Roger Bradfield is both the author of this book’s clever words and the artist who created its goofy, lively, charming,…