I was twenty-five, dressed in a tiered hippie skirt and sky-blue Capezio leotard when I snuck backstage to meet Joni Mitchell. It was two hours before her Buffalo concert, and Joni’s dressing room was awash in lilies. When she walked in shimmering and golden, I was speechless. […]
I’m thinking of cupcakes and friendship and wanting a friend who is no longer a friend to give me cupcakes I won’t eat because cancer and sugar don’t mix and the truth is we were friends but not close friends because I was never truly myself with her although when I heard this friend was giving cupcakes to people it made me feel left out and […]
Sunflowers. Today, I realized how easy is to forget. I woke up today feeling queasy. A little sore throat-ish, tired, not wanting to do much of anything. And being the catastrophizer that I am, I thought, oh no, it’s Covid-19. And although, since we have been sheltering in place for four months except for brief […]
last weekend. And, I have to say, it surpassed any expectations I had for the kind of intimacy and connection that was there, for all to have, screen to screen. Although I know that we got what we got and Zoom is what we got, the retreat penetrated the layers of what keeps us running […]
I’ve been thinking about the difference between a diet and a food plan. Now I realize that most people conflate the two and that this is a longer discussion, but for the moment, I want to offer this: a diet, the way we usually think of it, is a prescribed way of eating that is […]
my roommate in college, I disliked her instantly. (And the feeling was mutual). She was everything I wasn’t: calm, measured, curious, from a happy family, uninterested in makeup and image). Then, during the first month we roomed together in Butler Dorm on Mc Alister Drive in New Orleans, I fell in love with her. Or […]
A friend sent me this picture yesterday, and I was reminded of the days during which the photo was taken. When I first met Matt, he had a group of friends who would go away together twice a year to a place in Sonoma called Rainbow Ranch. I never thought those days would end. Long-haired, […]
I do no matter what is taking in the good, which means looking and actually seeing what I’m looking at. Taking a few breaths—at least three—and allowing what I am seeing (or hearing or touching) to sink in. Otherwise, I go through life rushing from here to there and being nowhere as I do. (And, […]
that I don’t want to do much these days. I keep reading and hearing about all the projects that people are undertaking during their sheltering in place. Cleaning out their closets! Cleaning out their kitchen drawers! Writing that long-forgotten book! Shredding all the papers that piled up for months! I think I am going to […]
One of Matt’s closest friends, a man he met in high school, died yesterday of the coronavirus. He’d been sick at home for two weeks, his wife and son leaving food outside his closed door, and suddenly, on Sunday night, he couldn’t breathe and within a very short time, and before they could get him […]
and the vast amount of time most of us are spending at home in close proximity to the refrigerator, the question about how to manage our emotions and thoughts and therefore, our relationship with food keeps coming up. Here’s what I want to say: Treat yourself with utmost kindness. It’s really not any different than […]
about the coronavirus and hearing people panicking about almost everything, I decided to stand under the flowering plum tree and gaze at the color, the blooms, the beauty. I took three deep breaths, reminded myself that so many things are right, are neutral, are good. For instance, the flowers themselves. The color pink. The softness […]
I found this card in a friend’s office. Yesterday, when I was clearing out a cabinet, I found it again and realized I needed to change it slightly. Because here’s the truth: I am afraid. I am afraid of this crazy morphing coronavirus. I am afraid of the thousands of ripples of a global pandemic: […]
(well maybe not the very last thing), I think: yippee! It’s almost time for breakfast! And then it’s morning and almost time and then it is time and then it’s luxuriating and exclaiming and tasting and then… It’s over. Darn. Winnie the Pooh says that the moment before he sticks his hand in the honey […]
(it lasts for eight days), we gather together and do a seder that is touching and relevant and funny and sacred (and really, who could ask for anything more?). What I love about this particular seder is the questions that are asked … […]
this week about the genetics of satiety — what makes people feel full and that they’ve had enough food. It isn’t about willpower, writes the reporter. After writing about one particular gene that was studied, … […]
on Saturday to her beloved Neal Allen. What a beautiful ceremony. Her bridesmaids were grandmothers, her grandson Jax carried the rings, her son Sam read an ee cummings poem. Songs were sung. But mostly it was a reminder that love wins the day. Even when the two people getting married are in their 60’s. It’s […]
and just diagnosed with COPD. You never know when everything changes. I keep reminding myself that. He’s had a long life, a beautiful life, and still, when you reach the end, there’s a sense of “But how could the world go on without me?” Yesterday, when I talked to him, he said, “Your mother is […]
putting digital devices down many times in a day because I see what the constant attention to this insane stream of information is doing to us: fragmenting our attention, diminishing the quality of our relationships and distracting us from what really matters. What began as a convenience has hijacked the best of our attention and […]
learning, community. People from 15 countries joined the livestream, which was of course, one of the wonders of this technological age. But the best thing was to be together. The best thing was to see that it’s possible to shift the paradigm of food, weight and bodies from shame and deprivation to joy and power.
