I like to spend a lot of time on my feet and when traveling pack as light as possible. My clothes have to be multi-purpose. Footwear is the biggest deal, and I think a pair of boots in really any location is a good choice. I wear them on the plane and pull them out when the weather is cold or inclement or simply when I need to feel grounded.
A black V-neck sweater (first choice cashmere for softness and comfort) is a must have, I’ve been on the go for five days and this one has seen probably ten wears, maybe more, as sometimes it’s off and on all day long.
Black silk camisole takes up no space at all and can go it alone or be a layering piece.
writing and reading, in the abandoned garden, by the pond
Writing, as much as I can, has helped me navigate life and all of its intricacies. Blog posts here have been a creative outlet for several years and recently, as in the last four months, I’ve been taking pen to paper and writing things down in long-hand, three pages a day, having read Julia Cameron’sThe Artist’s Way.
In fact, my daughter Sarah and I have been working this program together, she is being steadfastly consistent, me fitting it in here and there. She has found the page to be a safe place, a place for her to explore her life-threatening experience with anxiety and depression.
We talk about writing together, and often share with each other some of our more intimate work. Writing has been therapeutic for us both, and for the next four nights we are sharing a room in the countryside of Spain practicing our craft.
Below is a short piece I wrote yesterday, after a long walk, one of my favorite things to do settle the mind, soothe the body.
The children were all playing in the garden while I prepared lunch. The boys digging holes, the oldest daughter doing whatever she does and the babe poking things with a stick, at the side of the small pond.
‘Lunch is ready’ I would call. Maybe I would bring it on a tray, and we would have a picnic. ‘Lunch is ready’ I would call again.
Everyone all immersed in the outside world while enclosed in a garden with a fish pond. Isn’t that how life should be?
Outside, enclosed, immersed. Years went by and the garden was abandoned, we all got busy.
And then she fell and fell hard. Not in the garden but outside in the world. She immobilized our family, our hearts stood still.
Doctors and pills and pills and doctors. Journals and writing and writing and journals.
guest cottage, in the meadow, while walking the hill
Time travel and a writing retreat and a walk up a hill in silence. She finds a spot at the corner of the pool, the only corner with sunshine, and then pokes things, and gradually stirs…
I’ve been educated entirely in the USA, most specifically New York state, and more specifically then that a public high school, and then State University of New York at Buffalo with three young babes in attendance at commencement. Now, at the almost age of 54, I have the opportunity for the very first time to […]
We’re prepping to leave town for a month, heading to a writing camp in Spain and then three weeks in France. I’ve known this trip was on the horizon, of course doing all kinds of stuff severely last minute and will for certain leave some things undone, whatever. Not much hotel action happening, my second […]
Monday’s can be tough, although I used to love Monday’s when the kids were little, and they all had to go back to school. It was a formula then, and a formula now to make the day a little easier. Jeans and a tee, and chicken for dinner. Kids are grown, youngest two in college, […]
One of my go-to style tricks is to start the day with a black bodysuit and black skinny jeans and runaround everywhere and get stuff done. When it’s time to leave the house, office, or studio and face the world outside simply layer over top: a jacket, a knit, or even a dress, add some […]
I’ve been having anxious thoughts about this coming Sunday, and how to rightly celebrate. For years I’ve been planning one meal or another to mark the day, and these past few weeks have made me feel a little like opting out. That’s a sad thought, so I took myself for a long long walk outdoors […]
Family, and a few close friends, know I can throw down a four-letter word or two with the best of them, unfortunately. Profanity has been a recent addition to my lexicon, as has wine-drinking, if you count the last five or eight years as recent. While raising kids using four letter words or having a […]
Yeah, every time I travel, I buy a new pair of jeans. Always searching for the next best pair thinking they will somehow make life better. This time it was Mother, a high rise and an extra wide leg because you know about those extra wide legs. These are a little tight, probably could have […]
Picked up two blue dresses while traveling: one from (shocker) Brooks Brothers, $118, and one from more of my go-to label Zimmerman. Sure, I shop around. Posting from my iPhone on last beach day, tomorrow back up north and back on brand and back working trunk. Every day dress, two blues. xoxo
