If you were forced to wear one outfit over and over again, what would it be?
I bought a reversible skirt at a boutique last summer and I wear it a lot. I love that one garment gives you two different looks. Also, the waist is completely adjustable (from size 2-12), so no need to toss it, if I lose or gain weight. It goes with all different color T-shirts and is made of a very comfortable cotton.
Here I am in the blue/green side at my son’s graduation.The pink side is fun too.
The skirt is 100% cotton, made in India. The boutique owner, Sally, is delightful. She named her boutique Apsara after the supernatural female beings in Hindu mythology. She was inspired by a visit to the Angkor Wat Hindu-Buddhist temple complex in Cambodia.
An apsara image from Pexels
So anyway, I’d want my one and only outfit to be reversible!
If you’re ever in downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire, check out Apsara at 130 Congress Street.
My piano is turning 50 this year and I still use it—maybe not daily, but weekly during the church year. I use it mostly to learn and practice my choir music.
Thanks to this prompt, I looked in my piano bench and discovered paperwork documenting that my parents purchased the piano on September 10, 1974. I was nine. They bought it so that my sister and I could take lessons. I took lessons for about six years with a couple of different teachers. I really liked playing the piano. I think I enjoyed it more after I stopped taking lessons. Then I could play what I wanted and nobody was nagging me to practice. I liked playing pop songs and singing along.
When my husband and I bought our first house, my parents gave me the piano because I was the only one who played it. They paid real piano movers to bring it to my house. My daughter took lessons on it.
When we moved to our second house, I had regular movers take the piano with the rest of our stuff and it got slightly damaged, but nothing major. My daughter took several more years of lessons on it after the move.
So here’s to you old friend. I promise to get you tuned for your birthday.
A well-used book of sheet music – nearly as old as the piano. I’m not sure who the “Do Not Remove” was directed at, but I guess it worked.
We were lucky to have close friends with a beautiful beach house while my kids were growing up. It’s near the loveliest beach. The water gets really warm in August. One year, my daughter had a waterproof/underwater camera. Photos from that visit always make me happy.
Do you remember your favorite book from childhood?
I remember having “Pat the Bunny” as a very young child.
This favorite book for babies was first published in 1940.
Books by Dr. Seuss and his protégé P.D. Eastman (“Go Dog Go”) were good for both learning to read and being read to. Horton was particularly fascinating, perched on that nest while lazy Mayzie flew off to Palm Beach!
As I got older, nothing beat Judy Blume for real talk about real things that I actually cared about. “Deenie” was a favorite and of course, “Are you there God? It’s me, Margaret?”
Book banners like to target Judy Blume books, which is all the more reason to keep buying them, reading them, and giving them to your kids and grandkids.
As I’ve mentioned many times (including yesterday), I was raised Catholic, but left that church as a young adult.
I found my way to a Unitarian Universalist (UU) church for my wedding, and years later joined a different UU church, due primarily to a wonderful young minister who gave fantastic sermons. He left, but I joined the choir and that kept me involved. I found it to be a warm and welcoming community for me and my daughter. My husband, also an ex-Catholic, wasn’t interested in going to church on Sundays, so we went without him.
Later, when we moved to a different town, I checked out several UU churches in my new area. I ended up joining the one with the best choir and the most beautiful sanctuary. I’ve been a member of that church for nearly 20 years now. I’m still singing in the choir and will be joining the Standing Committee (leadership team) for the coming year.
One of the things I like about my church is the large handmade quilt that hangs in the front, behind the pulpit.
Italicized text excerpted from Reverend Fred Small’s dedication sermon, October 22, 2006:
As a non-creedal faith, Unitarian Universalism honors and draws upon all of the world’s wisdom traditions. The FCU Sanctuary Quilt, “Many Paths, One Congregation,” includes symbols of world religions and philosophies – and one blank.Unitarian Universalism descends from protestant Christianity, but today is multi-faith.Unitarian Universalists believe that we can learn something from every religion. As individuals, we may favor Buddhism or Christianity or Paganism or Humanism, but as a religious movement we draw upon all of these and more.
The Quilt Squares
First Row
In the upper left, representing Humanism, is the symbol of the American Humanist Association: a stylized human figure in the form of a capital H. According to the Humanist Manifesto III: “Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without supernaturalism, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity.”
In the top center is a symbol of the Unitarian Universalist Association: a flaming chalice within two overlapping circles, which represent the consolidated movements of Unitarianism and Universalism.
Last but by no means least: an empty space. It acknowledges the quilt’s incompleteness and our own, affirms humility in the face of mystery, and celebrates our continuing journey toward understanding.
Second Row
Next are three religions rooted in Asia: Taoism, Hinduism, and Buddhism.
The yin and yang symbol shows opposites intertwined, in eternal Equilibrium, representing Taoism.
The Hindu symbol is the word “Om” in Sanskrit, evoking the infinite Brahman and the entire Universe. Revered as the primal sound, “Om” is the first word of most Hindu mantras.
The Buddhist symbol is the wheel of dharma. “Dharma” means law or teaching. The wheel’s turning represents spiritual progress through the Buddha’s Eightfold Path, symbolized by the eight spokes of the wheel.
Third Row
In the next row are the familiar symbols of the three Abrahamic faiths in chronological order left to right: the Jewish Star of David, the Cross of Christianity, and Islam’s Crescent and Star.
Muslims call all three religions “people of the book” because all deem holy the Hebrew Scriptures, with Christians adding their New Testament and Muslims the Qur’an as well.
Fourth Row
The bottom row bears the symbols of Native American, Earth-centered, and Goddess-centered religions. These ancient and indigenous traditions undergird and inform the scriptural religions that followed them and absorbed many of their images, stories, and practices.
The turtle represents the Nipmuc people, who lived in this region before the coming of Europeans. The Nipmuc call our world Turtle Island because it sits on the turtle’s back. The thirteen shells represent the lunar months.
The tree of life, branches reaching into the sky, roots sunk deep in the earth, linking the three worlds: heaven, earth, and underworld. Skeletal and deathlike in winter, green and lush in summer, the tree represents immortality, rebirth, and wisdom in many cultures.
The triple moon, symbolizing the goddess, the feminine face of the divine. The three lunar phases—waxing, full, and waning—represent the three stages of women’s power: Maiden, Mother, and Crone.
Wait a sec! I just noticed that last bit about the three phases of women’s power. I’m not so sure I like being called a “crone.” I’ll have to give that some thought and report back.
That’s one thing about being UU, there’s always room for discussion.
As a kid, I had numerous collections—shells, rocks, stamps, glass animals, and dolls…lots of dolls.
I’ve purged the attic of all my old collections (I think), including my vinyl record albums. (That one was sad, but they were warped and I don’t own a turntable anymore.)
The last collection to go was the dolls. I had a few specialty dolls, along with a large collection of Madame Alexander dolls, which were very popular gifts for girls in the 70s. I loved their pretty costumes representing the nations of the world. These weren’t dolls you played with (like Barbie), they were meant to be displayed and admired. They lived on a shelf in my room. Of course, I did play with them sometimes, but I felt badly for doing so. Thinking back, I already felt enough pressure to be perfect and not commit “sins” (as defined by the Catholic Church), so I really didn’t need those dolls tempting me too!
In the end, they were basically worthless. Even though they were in good shape (with their original boxes), a doll dealer gave me less than $50 for the whole lot. I should have played with them all along.
They sat on the dining room table for about a week, creeping out my husband, before I sold them.
The child bride doll (talk about creepy!) was the one I played with the most.
I’m pretty sure some of these costumes would be considered stereotypical or even racist now. You can’t see them in the photo, but the Dutch girl had real wooden clogs. And the Scottish girl had bright green eyes like emeralds. Spain was cool with her black veil. The Indian doll had a red dot on her forehead.
The question of legacy always reminds me of the song “Everything Possible” by Fred Small. I knew Fred when he was my minister in the early 2000s. I heard him perform this lullaby on several occasions and each time it made me cry.
It was especially meaningful during the battle for marriage equality in Massachusetts. We were the very first state to legalize same-sex marriage in 2004 (20 years ago), but it was a protracted legal and legislative fight. Though it had been written in 1983, “Everything Possible” struck a chord during that time. In our church, Fred took a stand and stopped performing all marriages, until marriage was legal for same-sex couples too. The song became a highly emotional signature anthem for the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus.
Recently, Fred tweaked the lyrics to be more inclusive of non-binary people and created a children’s book to accompany the song and further spread the message of love and acceptance.
The chorus is the most beautiful part.
You can be anybody you want to be, You can love whomever you will You can travel any country where your heart leads And know that I will love you still You can live by yourself, you can gather friends around, You can choose one special one And the only measure of your words and your deeds Will be the love you leave behind when you’re done.
Here’s a beautiful live performance of the song by the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus.
And here’s Fred himself singing the new version of “Everything Possible.”
I’ll definitely be buying this book for my granddaughter, when she’s old enough.
I’d like to be remembered for the love I leave behind when I’m done.
Rev. Fred Small having a chat with a group of children in my church around 2004—the year when marriage equality became law in Massachusetts
I broke a toe once, really badly. I don’t even like to think about it. It hurt SO much. (I stubbed it on a futon leg while barefoot.) It was wildly out of alignment. My husband had to pop it back into place. OUCH! Doctors can’t really do anything about toes. They just taped it to the one next to it and I limped around until it healed.
Fortunately no bones were broken during our Friday night “bucket list” excursion in Ithaca. The take-off was much wilder than I thought it would be. I was holding on to the basket for dear life. But once we were floating, it was quite magical. I’ve been in a helicopter before, but this was different. It’s as close as you can imagine to being a bird. So very many shades of green. The bottom of the basket occasionally scraped on some tree tops. “No problem,” said our pilot Dar. “Basket cleaners,” he called them. And then handed us some leaves. 🍃
My husband and son got put to work on both takeoff and landing. I took pictures and videos.
Three people were already pre-loaded in the basket at this point. The rest of us scrambled in over the sides, once “Captain America” was upright. Up we go, with Dar’s hand on the “flame throwers” (which were a bit loud, when in use)We floated over some waterfalls in Ithaca’s Robert H. Treman State Park
The magic of floating in the air and Dar thanking his ground crew.I really did not want to drop my phone, but eventually I relaxed enough to hand it to a fellow passenger from Pennsylvania. He took this nice pic. Group selfie with DarFarms and fields and Lake Cayuga in the distance
I think we were all a bit nervous about the landing. Once he found a good spot, Dar had the heavier people, including my very strong husband, move to one side of the basket. We all crouched down with all body parts inside the basket. We dragged on the ground for a bit. My husband got out and helped hold us down, which he said was hard. (He got a rather large bruise as we attempted to “jump” the basket up and over a small ditch. Inside the basket, we actually jumped up and down.)
When instructed, I did not waste any time grabbing the bars and vaulting myself out of the basket in a move that my son described as “wildly athletic.”
My son was instructed to run out into the field and help the ground crew pull down Captain America.
The landingMy son and the ground crew pulling Captain America back to earth Everyone helped put Captain America back in his bag.
We celebrated with a roadside champagne toast and then the ground crew drove us back to our car!
I’ve checked-out the only four audiobooks from the library that were available and short enough to finish during the 6-hour car ride. If anyone has read or listened to any of these books and has thoughts, please let me know.
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