Nestled among small purses lined up on a shelf in my closet is a green wallet I use from time to time, my mother’s, one of the things I kept after she died.  A pattern of tiny diamonds gives texture to the leather, a cross between emerald and evergreen.  Tiered slots for credit cards and [...]

The month of April is playing tricks on me. No sooner do I shed the fleece jacket for a morning walk one day, a sweatshirt all I need, than I find myself putting it on again the next day. Expectation really resists being defied. Okay, so the groundhog screwed up, promising an early spring; instead [...]

My husband is about to sink his teeth into a thick pastrami sandwich, a favorite of his. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, and not the first time I’ve witnessed the joy he takes in foods not high on my list of culinary delights. Only today – Day #1 of my [...]

A recent night smack in the middle of the week finds me sitting at a table in a party/reception room at a yeshiva in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, NY. A cousin’s daughter, brought to new levels of devoutness during her college years and immersion in the Chabad way of life, has become engaged to a young [...]

Behind a very beautiful corrugated wall of perforated aluminum in my downstairs family/entertainment room are shelves and shelves of ‘stuff.’  Blankets and books.  Assorted theatrical lighting accumulated from my husband’s days as an interior designer. Suitcases and a toolbox or two.  A classic (nonworking) IBM Selectric typewriter, a vintage electric Smith-Corona, and possibly the nearest [...]

Last year for my birthday my daughter bought me a scarf.  Pretty as it was, this gift came with a little zing, a point to be made. The scarf (a Missoni design) was a Target ‘original’, part of its upscale designer collections. I admit it, there’s something in me that resists the commodification of high [...]

The opening sequence of Nicole Holofcener’s “Please Give” is a laugh-out-loud montage that rings poignantly true to any woman (and that’s most of us over fifty) who dutifully does the annual torturing of the breast otherwise known as a mammogram. To a backdrop of the Roches singing “No Shoes,” breasts in all sizes, all shapes [...]

A favorite quote of mine – Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away – has me somehow thinking about the ways in which we measure success. Yesterday marked Labor Day, a licensed refrain from what we do day in/day out. Labor, with [...]

Today I’m thinking about a red dress.  A perfect red, somewhere between fire engine and wine. Fitted button-down bodice edged in a ruffle made from the same soft cotton as the dress.  The skirt was full, a little flounce to it, above the knee. I was twelve (give or take a year) and my best [...]

.  .  . Fireworks. Say what you will about the calendar (with its celestial reminder that there is an order to our days), something more spirited is at play when one season slips into the next.  By the time the summer solstice arrives, Memorial Day has already jumpstarted the season.  Then comes  the build-up to [...]