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 [...]

Sunday, a blustery day, finds me in the city, destination: the Rubin Museum of Art. Since discovering this sanctuary a few years ago, I’ve been here more times than I’d been to its former incarnation, Barney’s New York, legendary for its own transformation from name-brand men’s wear at discounted prices to high-design fashion at prices [...]

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 [...]

There invariably comes a moment at a Leonard Cohen concert when singer/songwriter gives way to pure poet.  The softer he speaks, the more closely you listen. It’s a marvel to me, hearing echoes of a song I love, words that were their own music before they would become a song. If the achingly gorgeous  ”A [...]

What tools do we use? One only.  It’s called attention.  – Charlotte Joko Beck                                                                     Monday, December 10th. A dreary morning, the sky [...]

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 [...]

Three Fortune cookies, still in their cellophane wrappers, sit in a bowl on the center island of my kitchen, remnants from last night’s take-out. If I wait for the right moment, I figure, one of them will beckon: crack me open, see what I have to offer. It’s not the taste of the cookie that [...]