I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you” when someone sneezes, a leftover from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying. And sometimes, when you spill lemons from your grocery bag, someone else will help you pick…
Tag: inspiration
In Praise of Imperfection
‘Forget your perfect offering. There’s a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.’ – Leonard Cohen
Thinking of You
What if thinking about someone lovingly is enough to reach out and touch their heart? No matter the distance between you, what if your thoughts are like tendrils that can strengthen the bond between you? And what if the reverse is also true? What if by thinking negative, angry or judgemental thoughts, we reach out and…
Soul Whispers
‘Our eternal identity never leaves us alone in the bodies we choose…In reflection, meditation, or prayer, the memories of who we really are do filter down to us in selective thought each day. In small, intuitive ways – through the cloud of amnesia – we are given clues for the justification of our being.’ –…
Worry Wort
A few years ago I gave up worrying. I realized I never worried about the right things. It was those things that I hadn’t foreseen that blind-sided me. Things like getting MS, mum having a stroke and Laura dying. Also worrying takes up a huge amount of mental space and a lot of energy. And as…
Touching Joy
What if the highest form of communication isn’t words, but touch? No, silly. Not that, or rather, not JUST that kind of touch. I’ve often said to people I love – ‘I read you through your skin’. Because I feel a deep non verbal connection just by holding hands or snuggling. Laura spoke wordlessly to…
Strange Magic
When I came back from England last week, I walked into my apartment and noticed immediately Laura’s photograph had moved. It was folded up flat and lying neatly on the bookcase. It looked so odd. So deliberate. My first thought was someone has broken in. But that’s nuts. Who would break in to rearrange the decor?…
A Word from Emerson
Tis curious that we only believe as deep as we live – Emerson, ‘Beauty’
James Turrell
One of my all time favorite interviewees was artist James Turrell. I interviewed him for the New York Times Magazine about one of his sky spaces (little enclosures that frame the sky in magical ways). He referred to his work as. ‘a luminous emptiness..a meditation..abstract music.. a celebration of the senses..’ and jokingly added: ‘I sell…
On Kindness
‘When I was young I admired clever people. Now that I am old I admire kind people’ – Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
Larkspur for Laura
Whenever I leave my building with my little folding chair under my arm, I joke with the doormen that I am off to visit my office. I often work under the trees in Carl Schurz park where Laura and I used to sit. The great thing about writing is you can do it anywhere. Carl…
Grandmothers
Here are our beloved maternal grandmothers. Laura’s grandma lived in the apartment below her parents in Forest Hills Queens and lavished her with the love and attention she felt she was missing at home. Laura wrote: ‘I took after my grandmother and liked art. She bought me my first camera a Minolta SLR101 that…
Soul Love Forever 