Garden of Long Island “Flowers take many forms. Each takes a story,  each entirely precious and unique. Each is the best,  each will teach us to love, nurture, and let go. Not every garden blooms. Tears take place of rain.  They surface on the air.” …

who sets the standard for normal as a child your parents it is not normal: to hate peas to wear your hair like that to  like be alone to like girls instead of boys   in college your peers determine it is normal to be…

Moving through the sea On a teakettle of foam. We danced and sang, embracing our plight. I love you I love me I love us   Even as we whittle away the time left With the marks of our heels And the strikes of our…

In the National Puzzlers’ League, Merriam-Webster is the publisher of two of our standard references. They have a lot to say online about the many shades of meaning of “normal.” Here are a few that caught my eye: The normal spelling rule is “i before…

Living in other people’s minds comparing shaming shifting blame competing we were never accepted to be ourselves we manuevered through bad energy in rooms of aunts and uncles that possibly cringed at the length of our hair outside of our own cublicle each unit was…

We and the world are changing daily so that the notion of stability or the usual seems an absurd construct of a needy, anxious species. Our cells are constantly coming and going at different rates, and at different ages defying a simple equation to describe…

new normal weather heat waves, intense storms, floods, droughts not normal at all

Mediate, they say. Let me go. See only the moment And the mantra in your mind.   So I put on headphones, I close all the doors. I sit in the bath, And let all else go.   But sitting there in space, It’s not…

Just another day in paradise they said Until shouting started and headlines read Pandemic, Emergency Measures, Many Dead Oh! How did this happen? What do we do? A Global tragedy, nothing but dread! The wise old man looked around at his kin and One by…

New Planet – Same Earthlings (Hour 7 – Half Marathon 2021) Thanks to those with a ton of money We have learned how to escape to space To settle on planets never before Exposed to human life We take with us Not only our possessions…