Red's Wrap
Happiness. It's relative.
Tag: reflection
Thanksgiving Hat
Thanksgiving makes me miss everything. My parents, my kids when they were young, my old hometown, my grandmother’s house, my dead dogs and cats, accomplishment, potential, myself. It is hard to explain this without sounding depressed. I am not depressed, not really. What I… Continue Reading “Thanksgiving Hat”
Window Looking
I don’t sleep all that well, I wake up in the night thinking about what to wear to an important meeting, wondering if I dress all in black whether that will date me as if my face wasn’t already enough to date me, and… Continue Reading “Window Looking”
Meditation on My Basement’s Life
The cobwebs in the basement are thick and clammy. They hang like wet strings from water pipes and electrical wires running along the papered ceiling where, along the edges, you can see the 100-year-old 2 x 4s that are the bones of our house.… Continue Reading “Meditation on My Basement’s Life”
10 Things I Quit Doing in 2018
Working for money. This is a bigger deal than it sounds because what it means is that I disentangled my ego from how much money I make. Now the U.S. Government has set my value with its incredibly generous Social Security benefits. Waiting for… Continue Reading “10 Things I Quit Doing in 2018”
Monday’s Dog
We sat on the floor together, holding our big sick dog, the beloved Davey, the dog we had owned as long as we had been married who just that morning had pulled on the leash as we took her for a last walk, and… Continue Reading “Monday’s Dog”
Do the Bold Thing
I’m no stranger to bold things. Two marriages that kind of happened out of the blue. Children we had to go get from a foreign country. Jobs taken and quit. Brinksmanship of varying types. Once, after having been driven to complete madness by a… Continue Reading “Do the Bold Thing”
Walking with the Sun on My Face
Here are my ten thoughts about the world today. 1. Sometimes I miss carrying people but it’s nice to swing my arms when I walk and have no worries. 2. I had lost touch with how intensely self-conscious my Nicaraguan children sometimes were in… Continue Reading “Walking with the Sun on My Face”
We Get Better with Time
This much is clear to me about being a mother. Age makes us better. Death makes us extraordinary. My mother, gone now twelve years, has reached near sainthood. When the local paper solicited photos of mothers ‘no longer with us’ along with a short… Continue Reading “We Get Better with Time”
Snow Door | wisconsinacademy.org
Listen to Jan read her essay “Billy” presented on WUWM’s Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “At the Breakfast Bar” on WUWM Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “The Parish Hall,” on WUWM Lake Effect
“Fury Cannot Touch Me,” Modern Love, NYT, 9/29/11
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