SIMPLY WAIT

dad's watch , originally uploaded by patryfrancis . My mother never wanted to sell the house, though it sat unoccupied for nearly three years. Mold etched yellow flower-like splotches on the ...

http://simplywait.blogspot.com/2011/05/what-we-inherit.html

The other day my weekly newsletter from the always luminous and thought-provoking Fiona Robyn arrived in my in-box. A Confession , Fiona called this week’s message. After sharing some partic...

http://simplywait.blogspot.com/2011/02/malice-dark-valentine.html

When I was growing up, I went to bed every night clutching the pink, child-sized rosary I’d been given for First Communion, and prayed for a sibling. I secretly hoped for a girl like my cous...

http://simplywait.blogspot.com/2011/01/did-you-think-i-was-your-mother.html

The other day over lunch, a friend recalled an old Irish priest who often gave the above advice to troubled parishioners. That would put their problems in perspective, he said. Everyone at the...

http://simplywait.blogspot.com/2010/12/take-folding-chair-and-go-to-cemetery.html

DSCN1915 , originally uploaded by patryfrancis . This is something I've experimented with for a while. For it to work, you have to do all nine in the first hour after you wake up. If that sou...

http://simplywait.blogspot.com/2010/11/rise-up-singing-10-ways-to-set-your-day.html

any kind of day , originally uploaded by patryfrancis . I was walking on a quiet road yesterday when a van barreled out of nowhere and came within inches of hitting me. The driver tossed me ...

http://simplywait.blogspot.com/2010/10/two-teachers.html

73504902.JPG , originally uploaded by patryfrancis . Imagine you had the power to name a holiday, one that celebrated rising, tenacity, the resilience and generosity of the human spirit. Wh...

http://simplywait.blogspot.com/2010/09/up-from-blue-day_21.html

6th annual literary blues pie , originally uploaded by patryfrancis . Take a good look at this pie. This is what procrastination looks like. My friend Susan Messer and I planned to bake our a...

http://simplywait.blogspot.com/2010/09/does-muse-exist-and-if-so-what-her.html

Gulf Oil Spill , originally uploaded by Trog1 . Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. Martin Luther King, Jr. Outraged. Frustrated. Saddened beyond meas...

http://simplywait.blogspot.com/2010/05/saying-words.html

JADE, guarding the house on the last day of her life 8/24/09 , originally uploaded by patryfrancis . With all my responsibilities here, I don't get very far from home these days, but that doe...

http://simplywait.blogspot.com/2010/03/jade-guarding-house-on-last-day-of-her.html

doorway , originally uploaded by patryfrancis . If you're a writer and you haven't read the 10 Rules for Writing Fiction series on the Guardian, then get yourself over there and suck up a p...

http://simplywait.blogspot.com/2010/03/doorway-or-10-rules-for-life.html

beach chairs in winter , originally uploaded by patryfrancis . It all started when a tooth was broken nearly to the root by an anesthesia tube during surgery. Since I'd been avoiding my dent...

http://simplywait.blogspot.com/2010/03/my-dentist-diagnoses-problems-with-my.html

welcome , originally uploaded by patryfrancis . Most of the resolutions I've made in the past haven't mattered much. While it's good to work out or eat well, to write a certain amount of wor...

http://simplywait.blogspot.com/2010/01/just-one-resolution.html

(The view from my daughter's rented condo) For years, my mother has been telling us about a movie that had a great impact on her in high school. Her older sister saw it first; and when she got...

http://simplywait.blogspot.com/2009/12/waterloo-bridge.html

berlin presiding over laura's flowers , originally uploaded by patryfrancis . This is how huge home is: it's deep enough to contain cats with shimmering eyes, a wild array of colors, invisib...

http://simplywait.blogspot.com/2009/09/my-longing-meets-your-longing.html

the gift , originally uploaded by patryfrancis . The other night we watched DOUBT, a movie that was far too ambiguous for my taste. Not that ambiguity doesn't have an important place in serio...

http://simplywait.blogspot.com/2009/08/in-wind-in-sun.html

erased , originally uploaded by patryfrancis . This weekend Ted and started Andrew Weil's EIGHT WEEKS TO OPTIMUM HEALTH . We've been interested in the program for a long time, but weren't in...

http://simplywait.blogspot.com/2009/06/walking-through-grave-yards-and-singing.html

cotuit , originally uploaded by patryfrancis . “The world belongs to the energetic.” For several years, I had this quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson taped inside a cabinet door. It didn’t...

http://simplywait.blogspot.com/2009/03/firing-on-all-twelve-cylinders.html

Great Depression Image 15 , originally uploaded by Don Iannone . A few years ago, my son Gabe gave me a book about the Great Depression by Robert Mcelvaine. I enjoy history, but there was so...

http://simplywait.blogspot.com/2009/02/two-ounces-of-bliss-in-economic-hard.html

sardine bento(u) , originally uploaded by chotda . What happened to my blog? I wanted to write...I thought about writing. Almost every day I thought about writing. But instead I lurked on oth...

http://simplywait.blogspot.com/2009/02/judgmentsardinesand-health-update.html

I’m not a person who remembers a lot of movie quotes, but Woody Allen’s famous one from Annie Hall struck a chord with me, maybe because I shared his neurotic fear of the various abominations...

http://simplywait.blogspot.com/2008/08/horrible-and-miserable.html

Happy! , originally uploaded by patryfrancis . No one particularly likes a sponge bath, but at the hospital where I underwent my first five surgeries, they made it as pleasant as possible. T...

http://simplywait.blogspot.com/2008/08/when-do-you-complain.html

the right way to make a pie crust , originally uploaded by patryfrancis . By now, most of you know the story. You know how my friend, Susan Messer, and I bonded over a pie one August. But fo...

http://simplywait.blogspot.com/2008/08/can-pies-create-miracles.html

Pollyanna - The Glad Game , originally uploaded by Mamluke . You probably know why some of my friends call me Pollyanna--and not always in admiration. I understand; I really do. Sometimes op...

http://simplywait.blogspot.com/2008/08/pollyanna-loses-glad-game-well-almost.html

The Fashionistas with their grandfather I'm not much of a footwear person, but about a month ago, I got an irresistible urge for a new pair of shoes. Not just any shoes either. I wanted some t...

http://simplywait.blogspot.com/2008/08/red-shoesand-other-news.html