It’s been just one week since Trump won the Presidential election, catapulting many into despair, terrified of his campaign pledges...
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Practicing Kindness to Lift the Darkness
Each new racist tweet from the Orange Monster, each new horrifying account of migrant children in detention, each new dire climate change warning plunges me deeper into despair. To survive I go about my days pushing my despair underground. Last week a stranger’s simple act of kindness pulled me into the light, shifting my perspective. My [...]
Pat Taub
When You Long For an Apology . . .
Eve Ensler’s groundbreaking new book, The Apology opens with these words: I am done waiting. My father is long dead. He will never say the words to me. He will not make the apology. So it must be imagined. For it is in our imagination that we can dream across boundaries, deepen the narrative, and design alternative outcomes. Ensler [...]
Pat Taub
This Isn’t Exactly What We Had Planned*
* Carly Simon, “Legend in Your Own Time” GUEST POST by ANNE PENWAY This was not supposed to happen. Not when it did. I expected my midlife would include caregiving for my parents. And it did. I was the first responder to gradually escalating parental health crises for sixteen years. I expected to outlive my husband. Most women do. The [...]
Pat Taub
Portland has a Good Week, “A Handmaid’s Tale,” Pride Parade & More!
Maine Initiatives Last night I attended the annual cocktail party/award gathering of Maine Initiatives, founded in 1993 to fund grassroots and community-based organizations working for peace and justice. It was wonderful to see a huge crowd that was both multi-racial and multi-ages. It gave me hope to see such an outpouring of Mainers [...]
Pat Taub
Family, “Frankenstein,” Ava DuVernay & Summer Arrives
Family News Last weekend I traveled to Chicago for my grandson’s 8thgrade graduation. Max lives with his older sister, Jane, 15 and parents in Oak Park, a Chicago suburb. As the saying goes, time flies by. I have vivid memories of Max’s birth 14 years ago this August. It was bittersweet because it was the same month Hurricane Katrina [...]
Pat Taub
Coming into My Own at 60
GUEST POST by TONI KIEF The day I turned sixty I collided with a shocking revelation. I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up! I was single again, living alone and on my way to meet my women friends for vodka and cake. The thought wouldn’t stop; it kept repeating. I drove to the party, and took inventory. At eleven I wanted [...]
Pat Taub
Boos for Kay Ivey & Susan Collins, Remembering a Cousin & More!
Alabama’s Draconian Abortion Law I’m old enough to remember when abortion was illegal and when college friends traveled out of state for an abortion. In 1973 when abortions became legal, we all breathed a sigh of relief. Now decades later anti-abortion fever is in ascendency. This week Alabama’s governor, Kay Ivey signed the cruelest [...]
Pat Taub
When Your Adult Child Makes Your Life a Living Hell
“Out of the blue I received an email from my daughter saying she never wants to see me again.” “My son is frequently verbally abusive. I feel like I’m walking on egg shells around him, bracing myself for the next hurtful comment.” “My daughter and I always had a very loving connection until she married. Now she makes excuses [...]
Pat Taub
Older, Wiser, Shorter… and Still Writing Poetry
GUEST POST by JANE SESKIN For more than forty years I’ve made poems. They’ve seen me through illness, fear, anger and grief-work. They’ve filled me with delight, happiness, joy and laughter. Poetry has been a way to observe and take pictures without a camera. Making poems helps me witness and notate the days. The poems have been comfort [...]
Pat Taub
A Street Poet, Cohen, A Great Documentary & More!
Palm Springs Street Poet I love it when my walks land upon a bit of whimsy and creative fun. A week or so ago while wandering in downtown Palm Springs I spotted the “typewriter troubadour,” offering to type an original poem for $10. I was intrigued but not willing to spend that much money. The poet told me that this is his only job. [...]
Pat Taub