November 2025 Red Sky Warning

Early in the morning, I walk to start my heart and then to assure its rhythm is in sync with the day. This week, the "red skies in the morning" have been notable, so I snapped this photo to remember. The ages old adage of "red sky in the morning, sailors take warning," echoes in my head as I walk without a coat on November mornings! 

Perhaps, this is a reminder to think of others?

Traveling in parts where the weather is not so wonderful?
Suffering from pain and anguish this holiday season?

Alone and or lonely as they work through life?

Hungry, unemployed, facing deportation?

Scared, worried, afraid?

Even as the big balloons still fill the NYC skies.

Even as the turkeys still fly off the shelf.

Even if we are envisioning different paths to a future.

I give thanks for the "warning," and slow down to notice others.

SOL 25 November 25 Passion for Life

I am thankful all year through for the TWT and their reminder to stop and reflect about the slices that make this gift of life interesting and memorable!  I wish you all a peaceful and safe holiday weekend.

Last weekend, I headed to the Putnam County Symphony where a group of dedicated musicians somehow find time to practice their violins, cellos, and oboes, without parental reminders and without pay amidst their busy lives. In spite of laundry and emails calling them, they work together to create beautiful music. It was amazing and a testament to the kind of enthusiasm that inspires humans to reach outside their comfort zones.  

Perhaps it is a similar fervor that

Propels runners to head into the darkness

In search of sunrises, serotonins and endorphins?

Drives painters and writers to risk hunger, comforts,

While they create masterpieces from their hearts and heads?

Moves gardeners into the heat of the day or into the driving rain,

To seize the moment when their plants and flowers might flourish?

Empowers athletes to forgo sleep, overlook pain, accept discomforts,

With a destination of a personal best in show for that moment in time?

Endows humans with unimaginable power to reach for a cure, accept risks,

Torture their bodies and minds in search of more days, more experiences, more life?

Grants the vigor needed to head to work when we are exhausted, overwhelmed?

Empowers the exhausted to be caregivers, providers for those who need support?

Yields the energy for cooking, baking, and transporting crowds this week!

November 2025 Landfill Santa

I started a post earlier about how we need to be careful about what we say; then, I drove past this, a blow up that served one or two seasons but will forever be relegated to garbage. In light of increased energy costs, increased holiday decoration costs, and increased landfill, let's rethink blow ups. Our world is too precarious for wasting hot air on a puffed up balloon that will self destruct.

Hundreds of dollars, spent,

Big, box, blow up sits lifeless,

Image of Santa once,

Nylon remnants in landfill

Forever, and ever.

November 20, 2025 Fat or No Fat

When my pediatrician urged low fat milk, I bought it even though my children, who consumed the "real stuff" at my parents' home asked for whole milk. I will admit that sometimes, when I poured the 1% milk into the cereal bowl, it did look like water. I served eggs and beef infrequently and fried food very, very rarely. We switched to olive oil when that was urged as a healthier choice and avoided processed foods almost entirely. Yet, these days, my cholesterol is "borderline" even with my even more careful diet that has made cheese and meat products a rare treat!  

These days, my children choose whole, organic milk for their children.  It looks better on cereal and I sure hope we have things right this time. So when I read headlines like yesterday's NYTimes asking about if full fat is healthier I cringe. I am a failure as a mother for sure in this department even though I shopped the outside ring of the store (fresh produce, meats, dairy) and never brought Little Debbie or her friends home. 

To My Children:

Sorry,

I tried,

I really tried

To put healthy options

In fridge, on the table, 

To use fresh produce,

Fruits, to limit 

Fats, sweets, 

Sorry

SOL 25: November 18: Imagine What Might Be

One of the "perks" of writing slices about life is that you savor those moments that are just too special for forget. The other night, I went to the Westchester County Center, a nearly century old Art Deco, multiuse facility that hosts art shows, dog shows, ballets, Dancing with the Stars and a whole lot more!

Went to celebrate

Up close and personal with

Knick want-to-be basket-ballers

Snagging 3-pointers,

Longing for the ball

To land in the net

To be noticed

Where you can

Munch on hotdogs,

Cuddle with grands,

Get your ball signed

Imagine what might be

Dream big,

If you are turning double digits for the first time.

To my surprise

The Pacemakers 

Whose ages are inspirational

Provided half-time

Entertainment, dancing, 

Moving, shaking

To Tay-Tay, Queen,

Proudly sharing birth years with

Smiling crowds,

Reminders to

Imagine what might be

Dream big, even

If you have turned double digits many times!

 

Ethical ELA: Growing Miracles

Today’s Ethical ELA poem is a chance to reflect with gratitude us to spend time practicing gratitude.  This month's host, Mo, encouraged us to try a format called a Kenning which comes from Norse myths or legends. A Kenning uses two-word phrases as metaphors to describe something. 

I drafted a single poem that sums up my half-dozen grands who range from 3 to 10 years old. I am very grateful to be able watch them grow and change. 

Full-body huggers,

Chip munchers,

Marker magicians,

Videogame addicts,

Ice-cream consumers,

Jacket avoiders,

Pup huggers,

Gingerbread aficionados,

Avid swimmers,

Intense ball-handlers,

Unconditional loving

Growing miracles.

Ethical ELA: The Cortica Cup

This morning, Ethical ELA asks us to write a tanka or series of tankas telling us all about a favorite, or maybe least favorite, fall tradition. A tanka is a traditional Japanese poetic form of 31 syllables over 5 lines. The syllable count is 5/7/5/7/7. Usually there is a turn in the third line. I am sharing a tanka about the "Biggest Little Football Game," an annual tradition in upstate NY between Ithica College and Cortland State where the winner takes home a giant trophy, The Cortica Cup. I am not really a football person and to be honest, I held my breath with every tackle and clenched my teeth when every helmet hit the ground, but I embraced the excitement because my son was out on that field giving his all.

Freezing fingers, toes,

Swirling wind, picking up steam,

As the sun settles

Huddled under blankets, we

Embraced the Cortica Cup.

Our boy, dressed in red

Did his part to bring it home

I held my breath with

Every crashing helmet, 

Praying for a safe ending.

November 2025: Ethical ELA Hold Onto the Memories

This morning, Ethical ELA's prompt asks us to write a poem about cleaning! I have been doing a lot of "deep" cleaning getting rid of clothing and things I no longer need. Yet this prompt somehow makes me reflect on my cousins who lost all their "things" in the California fires last fall. This poem is dedicated to them and their experience, a reminder that it's the memories we make that matter, the rest is just "things."

At their magnificent home, high on a hill,

The old Victrola

Sat ready to host one of the old records that

Sat in my grandparents garage long before

The even older baby buggy sat, 

A reminder of when we were little, it

Sat sadly for months in Grandma's attic until we

Sat baby dolls, stuffed animals in it.

The old books, magazines, notecards,

Hand made and special, not ever to be seen again

Sat in boxes and bins

Sat on shelves waiting, not sure what for.

While near their enormous garden, 

Hosted lovingly grown fruits and flowers, we

Sat savoring the company, the memories we 

Sat, savoring each other, not the things.

Which were all gone in a flash of light, rolling

Down that hill last November,

But not the memories.

November 2025 Veterans, Too

Yesterday, one of my Two Writing Teacher blogging friends challenged me (and others) to write a 6-7 inspired poem.  So, here is a new poetry format, alternating lines of 6 and 7 syllables, inspired by Kim Johnson and fueled by kids who advocate for 6-7. Yesterday was also Veteran's Day and so I was thinking about my aunt who we now think was an Army Code Breaker in WWII. Her story is a reminder of all the support staff and family members who serve America alongside those on the front lines. 

Recruited from small schools,

Strong in math and languages ,

Promised uniforms, pay,

Solving code to find peace, hope,

They served, yet never shared,

No war stories at all,

Only evidence of

Secrets taken to the grave.

Silent veterans, lost.

One of many sad stories

Women, securing  peace

Thank you all for your service. 

A book about the Code Girls

https://www.amazon.com/Code-Girls-Untold-American-Breakers/dp/0316439894

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  www.britannica.comBombe | Code Breaking, History, Design, &…
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  www.wpr.orgWomen's Codebreaking Contributions To…
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SOL 2025: Standing Out and Fitting In

• If you are around kids for ANY length of time, you hear it randomly used as an interjection, an honor, and even a complaint. Teachers find it annoying and try to ban it, discourage it, or beg for meaning. (It has no meaning)
• I thought it was just local phenomena until I read that Dictionary.com made it their word of the year! Now I realize it has spread faster than Covid.
• I really do not think we should be surprised about the propagation of 6-7 and its cousin number-phrase, 41, or the sing-song way they are said!  These young folks are the grandchildren of those who crashed at someone's pad and listened to hip music.  These are the children of those who added phat and bling into their lexicon with as smile.
• The ONLY thing different about the 5-6 and 41 trend is that there is no real meaning! 
• Yet, there is something universal and timeless in the desire of people to both stand out from the old folks and fit in with their peers. This is at cheaper than Stanley cups and Ugg boots and without the hunt of Cabbage Patch Kids! Plus, it too will pass!
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November 8 2025 10 Years

It's been ten years which is long enough to have forgotten the sound of her voice and also the way she challenged most every thing I said. 

It's been long enough that I miss her confidence way more than the frustration when she took to her bed or slashed out at others.

These days I try to maintain a few of her traditions, like her Pilgrim candles, rather than focus on her perspectives.

After a decade, I focus on the good she did and the love she gave rather than on the anger when I forgot to acknowledge a for-her-important-date.

These days, I am glad I learned about the strength in a family, the grace of giving to others, and the power of forgiveness.  

November 2025 A Quiet, Deluxe Typewriter

 

"It's the very best day ever," the little one screamed as the new-to-them find came into view.  "Listen to this," they added banging ever so confidently on the aged keys with a gusto that I remembered even if my own typing memories are seared into the case of my baby blue electric version that wrote many a paper and earned degrees after valiantly preserving a few theses for posterity.

I found myself quickly doing a search this Royal could not have imagined, and found is a community savoring these dinosaurs. You can even get new ink ribbons in one day from Amazon!  There are also old manuals entirely online as well as You Tube videos detailing repairs of these relics. I found the Royal Quiet Deluxe was made from 1930 to 1959 and it was the first with a "magic margin!" Its cost of $80 seventy-five years ago (nearly $1000 today). Earnest Hemingway and Ian Fleming used these typewriters to do their magic.

There was a familiar ding at the end of each and every row from this thrift-store-find even after many decades of sitting in a basement!  I know Ken (whose name is emblazoned on the case) would be thrilled to know that his once very special typewriter has found a retirement job on the desk of someone weaned on laptops.

November 2025 The Last Farmer's Almanac

The news was almost lost, to me, amidst so many enormous problems aggravated by ongoing funding decisions that impact food, housing, flights, health and international peace. 

The reality is that most Americans are no longer managing farms even as the need for fresh, safe and healthy choices is more clear than ever before. 

The news hit me hard and made me think of those yellowed booklets that were always hanging around the bathroom or on the end table.

The reality is that I have never bought one, nor have I ever worried about the best day to plant my peas or prepare for the first frost! 

The news that after more than two centuries, the Farmer's Almanac, with its long range weather forecasts as well as wit and wisdom will disappear after the 2026 edition. 

The reality is that science and the internet will help most of us stay in touch with the weather, but I might just order one from the mega internet shopping site to 1) honor my grandfather who was a farmer or 2) acknowledge my loved ones who ARE farmers bringing fresh fruits and vegetables and the real magic of growing life to a suburban community,

November 2025 Light Amidst Darkness

The first week in November is shaped by Halloween hangovers and abbreviated days exacerbated by election stress. 

The leaves start falling faster and faster while the birds are migrating as if their lives depended on it. 

Winter coats come out of hiding while toes reluctantly go into hiding.

You can no longer deny that Thanksgiving is 21 days away, Hanukkah is 30 days away, and Christmas is 49 days away. 

Government as well as private employer shut downs have intensified financial, nutritional, and health care insecurities, while food costs are rising faster than the moon.  

I guess this is why tonight's light show as the sun was setting before it was even 5 pm was breathtakingly magnificent. Our eyes were directed to the heavens for light and hope.