(from the Upajjhatthana Sutra) I am of the nature to grow old. There is no way to escape growing old. I am of the nature to have ill-health. There is no way to escape having ill health. I am of…

I was very tired for a rather wonderful reason, and now today I’m just tired and sad. I had a miscarriage this morning. Can’t process it now…not here, not yet. I’ll be back in a few days or a week.…

I’m sitting in the usual Sunday place, working on revisions, and it’s just not going smoothly today. I’ve got to rewrite a tricky scene, with some rather key passages of dialogue, and I keep starting, getting intimidated, backing away. Rinse.…

Flipping through an old notebook just now, I stumbled across a Buddhist prayer/meditation that I’d copied down ages ago. It’s a contemplation for the close of the day, something we chanted at evening service on meditation retreats. (My…how very long…

(That title should provide some interesting Google hits) Marilyn Monroe is on the cover of the current issue of Poets & Writers, reading Joyce’s Ulysses. (And yes, she really was reading it. This was a candid photo. I know. I…

I just read this terrific essay on DeLillo’s Libra, a book I finished reading yesterday. It’s an enjoyable essay for those who have read or might read the book. I hesitate to say it, but I’m afraid DeLillo might be…

The only real disappointment so far from this first year of gardening (the whole toxoplasmosis scandal, and the day the birds ate my okra seedlings aside) has been about yields. Having no idea how much to expect from the amount…

So I started early on the revisions. But just two days early. I was scheduled to start on Tuesday, but now Tuesday I have a doctor’s appointment. And I needed the first day to be a long one, because the…

If you’ve been around here for a while, you know that before Thumper was born, I worked in book publishing, in several major trade houses. (Okay. I never said anything bad about them, so I’ll just tell you. I worked…